Character of One in Ecstatic Love 141

the Supreme Personality of Godhead is called in Sanskrit asa-bandha.
A§sa-bandha means to continue to think, “Because I’m trying my best
to follow the routine principles of devotional service, I am sure that I
will go back to Godhead, back to home.”

In this connection, one prayer by Rtipa Gosvam?’ is sufficient to
exemplify this hopefulness. He says, “I have no love for Krsna nor for
the causes of developing love of Krsna—namely, hearing and chanting.
And the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one is always thinking of
Krsna and fixing His lotus feet in the heart, is also lacking in me. As
far as philosophical knowledge or pious words are concerned, I don’t
see any opportunity for me to execute such activities. But above all, I
am not even born of a nice family. Therefore I must simply pray
to You, Gopli-jana-vallabha [Krsna, maintainer and beloved of the
gopis|. I simply wish and hope that some way or other I may be able
to approach Your lotus feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because
I think myself quite incompetant to approach that transcendental
goal of life.” The purport is that under this heading of asa-bandha,
one should continue to hope against hope that some way or other he
will be able to approach the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.

EFagerness for Achieving the Desired Success

When one is sufficiently eager to achieve success in devotional ser-
vice, that is called samutkantha. This means complete eagerness. Ac-
tually this eagerness is the price for achieving success in Krsna con-
sciousness. Everything has some value, and one has to pay the value
before obtaining or possessing it. It is stated in the Vedic literature
that to purchase the most valuable thing, Krsna consciousness, one
has to develop intense eagerness for achieving success. This intense
eagerness is very nicely expressed by Bilvamangala Thakur in his
book Krsna-karnamrta. He says, “I am eagerly waiting to see that boy
of Vrndavana whose bodily beauty is captivating the whole universe,
whose eyes are always bounded by black eyebrows and expanded like
lotus petals, who is always eagerly glancing over His devotees and
therefore moving slightly here and there. His eyes are always moist,
