48
Easy Journey to Other Planets
absorption in  bhāva , or love of God, makes one fit to be transferred to the spiritual sky just after leaving the material tabernacle. The perfection of love of God by a devotee actually situates him on the spiritual platform, even though he may still maintain a gross material body. He becomes like a red-hot iron which, when in contact with fire, actually ceases to be iron and acts like fire. These things are made possible by the Lord's inscrutable and inconceivable energy, which material science has not the scope to calculate. One should, therefore, engage himself in devotional service with absolute faith and strive to make his faith steadfast. One should also seek the association of the standard devotees of the Lord by personal association (if possible) or by thinking of them. This association will help one develop factual devotional service to the Lord, which will cause all material misgivings to disappear like a flash of lightning. All these different stages of spiritual realization will be personally felt by the candidate, and this will create in him a firm belief that he is making positive progress on the way to the spiritual sky. Then he will become sincerely attached to the Lord and His abode. Such is the gradual process of evolving love of God, which is of prime importance for the human form of life.
There are instances in history of great personalities, including sages and kings, who attained perfection by this process. Some of them attained success even by adhering to  one single item  of devotional service with faith and perseverance. Some of these personalities are listed below.
Anti-material Worlds
49
1. Emperor (Mahārāja) Parīkṣit attained the spiritual platform simply by  hearing  from an authority like Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
2. Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī attained the same simply by  recitation , verbatim, of the transcendental message which he received from his great father, Śrī Vyāsadeva.
3. Emperor Prahlāda attained spiritual success by  remembering  the Lord constantly in pursuance of instructions given by Śrī Nārada Muni, the great saint and devotee.
4. Lakṣmījī, the goddess of fortune, attained success simply by sitting and  serving  the lotus feet of the Lord.
5. King Pṛthu attained success simply by  worshiping  the Lord.
6. Akrūra, the charioteer, attained success simply by  chanting prayers  for the Lord.
7. Hanumān (Mahāvīra), the famous nonhuman devotee of Lord Śrī Rāmacandra, attained success simply by  carrying out the orders  of the Lord.
8. Arjuna, the great warrior, attained the same perfection simply by  making friends with the Lord , who delivered the message of  Bhagavad-gītā  to enlighten Arjuna and his followers.
9. Emperor Bali attained success by  surrendering everything  unto the Lord, including his personal body.
These are nine standard modes of devotional service to the Lord, and a candidate can choose to adopt any one, two, three, four or all, however he likes. All the services rendered to the absolute are in