Shrimad Bhagavatam 3.9.22

Let the Supreme Lord be merciful towards me. He is the one friend and soul of all living entities in the world, and He maintains all, for their ultimate happiness, by His six transcendental opulences.

People in general all engage in foolish acts, not in the really beneficial activities enunciated directly by You for their guidance. As long as their tendency for foolish work remains powerful, all their plans in the struggle for existence will be cut to pieces. I therefore offer my obeisances unto Him who acts as eternal time. (Lord Brahma - SB 3.9.17)

The whole trouble of the living entity in material existence is that he has an independent conception of life. He is always dependent on the rules of the Supreme Lord, in both the conditioned and liberated states, but by the influence of the external energy the conditioned soul thinks himself independent of the supremacy of the Personality of Godhead. His constitutional position is to dovetail himself with the desire of the supreme will, but as long as he does not do so, he is sure to drag on in the shackles of material bondage. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (2.55), prajahäti yadä kämän sarvän pärtha mano-gatän: he has to give up all sorts of plans manufactured by mental concoction. The living entity has to dovetail himself with the supreme will. That will help him to get out of the entanglement of material existence. (Shrila Prabhupada)

Samadhi involves concentrating the mind upon the supreme cause of all, even if one is unaware of whether His actual nature is personal, impersonal or localized. Concentration of the mind on the Supreme is certainly a form of devotional service. To cease from personal sense endeavors and to concentrate on the supreme cause is a sign of self-surrender, and when self-surrender is present, that is a sure sign of devotional service. Each and every living entity needs to engage in devotional service to the Lord if he wishes to understand the ultimate cause of his existence.

The luster of the transcendental body of the Lord mocked the beauty of the coral mountain. The coral mountain is very beautifully dressed by the evening sky, but the yellow dress of the Lord mocked its beauty. There is gold on the summit of the mountain, but the Lord’s helmet, bedecked with jewels, mocked it. The mountain’s waterfalls, herbs, etc., with a panorama of flowers, seem like garlands, but the Lord’s gigantic body, and His hands and legs, decorated with jewels, pearls, tulasi leaves and flower garlands, mocked the scene on the mountain.

The Lord fulfills the desires of everyone just as one desires. Pure devotees are interested in achieving the transcendental service of the Lord, which is nondifferent from Him. Therefore, the Lord is the only desire of the pure devotees, and devotional service is the only spotless process for achieving His favor.

Devotional service to the Lord is very much obliging to Him. There are many transcendentalists in different fields of spiritual activities, but devotional service to the Lord is unique. Devotees do not ask anything from the Lord in exchange for their service. Even the most desirable liberation is refused by devotees, although offered by the Lord. Thus the Lord becomes a kind of debtor to the devotees, and He can only try to repay the devotees, service with His ever-enchanting smile. The devotees are ever satisfied by the smiling face of the Lord, and they become enlivened. And by seeing the devotees so enlivened, the Lord Himself is further satisfied. So there is continuous transcendental competition between the Lord and His devotees by such reciprocation of service and acknowledgement.

Under the spell of material energy, the living entities are entrapped in the bondage of many difficulties simply for the sake of a little bit of material happiness. They engage in fruitive activities, not knowing the implications. Under the false impression that the body is the self, the living entities foolishly relate to so many false attachments. They think that they can engage with materialistic paraphernalia forever. This gross misconception of life is so strong that a person suffers continually, life after life, under the external energy of the Lord. If one comes in contact with the book Bhägavatam as well as with the devotee bhägavata, who knows what the Bhägavatam is, then such a fortunate man gets out of the material entanglement.

The living entities are constitutionally servitors of the Lord

The living entities are constitutionally servitors of the Lord, who can accept all kinds of service from everyone. It is clearly declared (Bg. 5.29) that the Lord is the supreme enjoyer of the benefits of all sacrifices and penances, the proprietor of all that is manifested and the friend of all living entities. That is His real identity. Therefore, when the living entity accepts this supreme proprietorship of the Lord and acts in that attitude, he resumes his real identity. In order to elevate the living entity to this standard of knowledge, there is the necessity of spiritual association. The bona fide spiritual master desires that his disciples know the process of rendering transcendental service to the Lord, and the disciples also know that they have to learn about the eternal relationship between God and the living entity from a self-realized soul. To disseminate transcendental knowledge one must retire from mundane activities on the strength of enlightenment in knowledge in terms of Vedic wisdom.

The highest perfectional work of charity is to give people in general immunity from the anxieties of material existence. This can be done only by performing activities in devotional service to the Lord. Such knowledge is incomparable. Cultivation of the knowledge in the Vedas, performance of sacrifice, and distribution of munificent charities all together cannot form even a part of the immunity from the pangs of material existence that is gained from devotional service.

Make Progress Towards the Transcendence

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura

We should have firm faith in the Divinity. We are absolute infinitesimals, and it is only proper we should associate ourselves with the Absolute. If we show our diffidence to do so, we are likely to be entangled with the ephemeral matters of this world. Our friends are with us for a short while only. They will leave us at any time when they are called away from this world.
Whatever we do should tend towards association with the Divinity. We should not undertake any work for our temporary purposes. We are His dependents. Infinitesimals as we are, we should have our final place in Him. We should carry out all our activities for His purpose only. We should not think that we have any other thing to do. Unlike the ordinary people, we should have only one method of directing everything to Him for His service.
The external gross body is meant for a hundred years and no more. Our mental speculations are bound to be going on in our present human form. But we are obliged to leave this mortal coil and to cease our transactions with the external world at some time however ardent we may be about having associations with the manifestive nature of things. If we wish to associate ourselves with the Absolute, all non-absolute propaganda for our temporary purposes should be abandoned as far as possible, otherwise we will be led to become materialists only. That non-absolute propaganda will instigate us to entangle ourselves with worldly thoughts and ideas. We will be thinking of physical developments instead of associating ourselves with the Absolute. We are all absolutes though infinitesimally small. Because we have shown diffidence we have proved our indolence to associate with Him; so, like shooting stars, we have been simply thrown off from Him. We have rebelled against that Entity. Now to go back to Him, it is essential that all our associations and movements should tend to His service.
First of all He should be designated. What is He? What form does He have? And how are we to go back to him? When we come to know that He keeps Himself aloof from everything in this phenomenal world, we feel the necessity of associating with Him. And this association can be had if we can eliminate the external impediments which are like screens, between the Absolute Infinity and the absolute infinitesimals. Our mental speculations are meant for associating with the phenomenal objects. But some philosophers thought it possible to turn our mental speculations to Him in His abstract form, instead of His manifestive nature. But here we have got His manifestive nature for the purpose of associating ourselves with Him. We cannot have this association by any sort of privations. The phenomenal objects are undesirable things. Although they have some effect on us, they are all transient and will not hold good for us till the end of time. We do not think, like materialists think that everything will stop when we die - that all our troubles will end at death. This miserable idea should be thrown off. We should engage all our activities to associate ourselves with the Absolute, as we are ourselves associate infinitesimals. We are not the body, nor the mind, nor the external atmosphere. We require dissociation from these. These undesirable situations should be eliminated at all costs, otherwise we will be engrossing ourselves entirely in the ordinary purposes of this world.
Lower animals are used as food by many people. In ancient times, when cannibalism was prevalent in the world, people used to eat human flesh. They thought that the human body was meant for their consumption. Later on when civilisation made progress, people gave up cannibalism, but went on taking flesh of lower animals. In India persons belonging to the higher castes do not take animal food. The development of religious thoughts have stopped the practice of cruelty to animals in many ways. Science has now proved that vegetables too have life and can feel pain and pleasure. But it is not mean that we should commit suicide by abstaining from taking any food. This problem is solved when food is meant for the purpose of the Absolute.
Everything has come out of Him and everything will go back to Him and everything is meant for His service. All animate and inanimate objects have come out of him and are meant for His service only. If we purloin these things, it would be deceiving the Absolute. We are absolute infinitesimals and are deluded by the ordinary manifestive character of the phenomena. We have to get rid of this delusion. We should have a peep into the Truth, and that Truth must be reached. If we are sincere, He will expose Himself to our vision. Whatever we do, we should do it for Him, for His eternal purpose, instead of indulging ourselves in transitory transactions. Our only function is not to carry on our work for our own purpose. We should not be the recipients of the fruits of the enterprises we have. It is better for us that whatever we do should be done in His favour and for His service. We are servitors. If we keep dogs, we would be servants for dogs; if we keep horses we would be servants of horses, and if we become altruists, we would be servants of human beings only. But the Absolute should be served at all costs. We should make it a point that all our activities should tend to His service. All animate and inanimate beings have emanated from Him. We should serve the Absolute and not engage ourselves in the non-absolute.
Most people are at a loss to understand what they should do and what they are meant for. They only see the superficial sides of things. The external sides of things are quite deluding. As intelligent men, we should be very careful. We should penetrate into everything properly. Our view should not be obstructed by the morphological representation of things, nor by the ontological side of things.
The methodical arrangement of the phenomena should not be restricted to our ordinary purpose of living only. But since our aim is a peaceful life, we do not wish to be troubled by the undesirable elements of the world. Sometimes we find a little peace by keeping rules and regulations and observing civic principles. But we are again put into trouble by some misunderstanding or other of the people from outside. There is some agency working behind, which is not exposed to our present senses.
Our sensuous nerves are quite ineligible for the purpose of associating with the Truth. The semblance of devotion and truth which people may put on often deceives us.
The external features, the morphological and ontological phases of things, are sometimes found to be detrimental to our cause when our ambition is to come into touch with the Absolute. We have the facility of possessing the experience of the last ten thousand years. We can judge and discern the best method for our adoption, instead of indulging ourselves in the way the ordinary people are transacting their business round about us.
Our senses respond readily to the objects of the phenomena. Supersensuous objects are simply neglected. The eternal representations, the eternal manifestations and the eternal aspects are fully neglected. We aspire to have the fullest advantage of coming in touch with all desirable things. In our present life, we find that we are troubled by many distressful agents. We find that all these are treacherous and only lead us to the satisfaction of our senses only. This non-absolute propaganda should cease. Whatever else we may do, we should make it a point that we should have neither diffidence nor indolence in offering our services to the Absolute.
The word "Absolute" is explained in different ways. We have experience of the non-absolutes and undesirable objects of the phenomena. Our mind is found to be of a non-absolute nature. The mind discerns things for the purpose of the senses only. The Absolute is delineated as One who has reserved the right of not being exposed to human senses. If the Absolute was an object of the phenomena, we would be lording it over Him. But that is not the correct situation. We should dedicate ourselves as His servitors. We should not think that we are enjoyers and He is the predominated object of our enjoyment. He is never so.
We are obliged to pass through undesirable situations. We want to get rid of all these things. Our inner impulse should be to have access to that region where all objects will offer us special opportunity of having association with the Absolute. Our purpose should be to associate with the Fullness, with the Eternity, with the Purity, with the Best of desirables, and not to mix with the temporary things of delusive nature. We should not have a crippled idea of God-head. We should wait for the transcendental message to come to us in full. We would have then an opportunity of associating with Him. We should set apart some time to make progress towards the investigation of the Transcendence.
We are very small. Some overwhelming influence comes upon us and we are troubled. So we should have recourse to the Absolute Infinity. We should not be acting like shooting stars in flying away from Him, but we should go back to our original place. There the manifestive nature is eternally present, whereas here the phenomenal objects are meant for a few days only. So we should have this eternal benefit as our objective. We can ignore all these influences of nature, all influences of scientific discoveries, if we have the determination to associate ourselves only with the Whole Entity.
There are many things concealed and hidden and not revealed to us, and these are to be received through our aural reception. Our auditory nerves should be trained to be susceptible to sound waves from the transcendental messenger so that we can make progress towards the Transcendence.