146
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 3]
The life history of many such devotees is almost the same because there is always symmetry between the early lives of all great devotees of the Lord. According to Jīva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit must have heard about the childhood pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa at Vṛndāvana, for he used to imitate the pastimes with his young playmates. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit used to imitate the worship of the family Deity by elderly members. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also confirms the viewpoint of Jīva Gosvāmī. So accepting either of them, Mahārāja Parīkṣit was naturally inclined to Lord Kṛṣṇa from his very childhood, and he might have imitated either of the above-mentioned procedures, and all of them establish his great devotion from his very childhood, a symptom of a  mahābhāgavata . Such  mahābhāgavatas  are called  nitya-siddhas , or souls liberated from birth. But there are also others who may not be liberated from birth but who develop a tendency for devotional service by association, and they are called  sādhana-siddhas . There is no difference between the two in the ultimate issue, and so the conclusion is that everyone can become a  sādhana-siddha , a devotee of the Lord, simply by association with the pure devotees. The concrete example is our great spiritual master Śrī Nārada Muni. In his previous life he was simply a boy of a maidservant, but through association with great devotees he became a devotee of the Lord of his own standard, unique in the history of devotional service.
TEXT 16
वैयासकिश्च भगवान् वामुदेवपरायणः । उरुगायगुणोदाराः सतां स्युहिं समागमे ॥१६॥
vaiyāsakiś ca bhagavān vāsudeva-parāyaṇaḥ urugāya-guṇodārāḥ satām syur hi samāgame
vaiyāsakiḥ—the son of Vyāsadeva; ca—also; bhagavān—full in transcendental knowledge; vāsudeva—Lord Kṛṣṇa; parāyaṇaḥ—attached to; urugāya—of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is glorified by great philosophers; guṇa-udārāḥ—great qualities; satām—of the devotees; syuḥ—must have been; hi—as a matter of fact; samāgame—by the presence of.