Chapter 1: The Value of Devotion

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Nārada Bhakti Sūtra

NBS 1: Now, therefore, I will try to explain the process of devotional service.

NBS 2: Devotional service manifests as the most elevated, pure love for God.

NBS 3: This pure love for God is eternal.

NBS 4: Upon achieving that stage of transcendental devotional service in pure love of God, a person becomes perfect, immortal, and peaceful.

NBS 5: A person engaged in such pure devotional service neither desires anything for sense gratification, nor laments for any loss, nor hates anything, nor enjoys anything on his personal account, nor becomes very enthusiastic in material activity.

NBS 6: One who understands perfectly the process of devotional service in love of Godhead becomes intoxicated in its discharge. Sometimes he becomes stunned in ecstasy and thus enjoys his whole self, being engaged in the service of the Supreme Self.

NBS 7: There is no question of lust in the execution of pure devotional service, because in it all material activities are renounced.

NBS 8: Such renunciation in devotional service means to give up all kinds of social customs and religious rituals governed by Vedic injunction.

NBS 9: Renunciation also means being exclusively dedicated to the Lord and indifferent to what stands in the way of His service.

NBS 10: Exclusive dedication to the Lord means giving up all shelters other than Him.

NBS 11: Indifference toward what stands in the way of devotional service means to accept only those activities of social custom and Vedic injunction that are favorable to devotional service.

NBS 12: One must continue to follow scriptural injunctions even after one is fixed up in determined certainty that devotional service is the only means for reaching the perfection of life.

NBS 13: Otherwise there is every possibility of falling down.

NBS 14: For as long as the body lasts, one should engage minimally in social and political activities and in such matters as eating.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Satsvarupa dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari