14 / Devotional Qualifications

Some scholars recommend that knowledge and renunciation are
important factors for elevating oneself to devotional service. But
actually that is not a fact. Actually, the cultivation of knowledge or
renunciation, which are favorable for achieving a footing in Krsna
consciousness, may be accepted in the beginning, but ultimately they
may also come to be rejected, for devotional service is dependent on
nothing other than the sentiment or desire for such service. It re-
quires nothing more than sincerity.

It is the opinion of expert devotees that mental speculation and
the artificial austerities of yoga practice may be favorable for be-
coming liberated from material contamination, but they will also
make one’s heart harder and harder. They will not help at all in the
progress of devotional service. These processes are, therefore, not
favorable for entering into the transcendental loving service of the
Lord. Actually Krsna consciousness—devotional service itself—is the
only way of advancing in devotional life. Devotional service is ab-
solute; it is both the cause and the effect. The Supreme Personality
of Godhead is the cause and effect of all that be, and to approach
Him, the absolute, the process of devotional service—which is also
absolute—has to be adopted.

This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gita by the Lord Himself: “‘One
can understand Me only through devotional service.” In beginning
His teaching of the Gita, the Lord said to Arjuna, “‘Because you are
My devotee I shall teach these secrets to you.” Vedic knowledge
means ultimately to understand the Supreme Lord, and the process
of entering into His kingdom is devotional service. That is accepted

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