Eligibility of the Candidate for Accepting Devotional Service 33

remain, no one can relish the actual transcendental taste of devo-
tional service.

A pure devotee never cares for liberation. Lord Caitanya Maha-
prabhu prayed to Krsna: “My dear son of Nanda, I do not want any
material happiness in the shape of many followers, nor immense
opulence in wealth, nor any beautiful wife, nor do I want cessation
from material existence. I may take birth many times, one after
another, but what I pray from You is that my devotion unto You
may always remain unflinching.”

The attention of a pure devotee is so much attracted to glorifica-
tion of the pastimes, name, qualities, forms, etc., of the Lord that
the devotee does not care for mukti. Srt Bilvamangala Thakur has
said, “If I am engaged in devotional service unto You, my dear
Lord, then very easily can | perceive Your presence everywhere.
And as far as liberation is concerned, I think liberation stands at my
door with folded hands waiting to serve me.” To pure devotees,
therefore, liberation and spiritual emancipation are not very impor-
tant things.

In this connection, in the Third Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam,
Chapter 25, verse 23, Kapiladeva has advised His mother, Devahiti,
as follows: “My dear Mother, My pure devotees are charmed by
seeing My different forms, the beauty of My face, the structure of
My body so enchanting. My laughing, My pastimes and My glance
appear to them so beautiful that their minds are always absorbed
in thoughts of Me, and their lives are dedicated fully unto Me. Al-
though such people do not desire any kind of liberation or any kind
of material happiness, still I give them a place amongst My associates
in the supreme abode.”

This evidence from Srimad-Bhagavatam gives assurance to the pure
devotee of being elevated to association with the Supreme Personality
of Godhead. Srila Ripa Gosvami remarks in this connection that
one who is actually attracted by the beauty of the lotus feet of
Sri Krsna or His service, and whose heart, by such attraction, is
always full with transcendental bliss, will naturally never aspire after
the liberation which is so valuable to the impersonalists.

A similar passage is also there in the Third Canto, 15th Chapter, of
