Text 23] Answers by Citing the Lord’s Version 493
because only by discharging devotional service in transcendental love can
one approach the Lord. Such penance is the internal potency of the Lord
and is nondifferent from Him. Such acts of internal potency are exhibited
by nonattachment for material enjoyment. The living entities are encaged
in the conditions of material bondage because of their propensity for
overlordship. But by engagement in the devotional service of the Lord one
becomes detached from such enjoying spirit. The devotees automatically
become detached from worldly enjoyment, and this detachment is the
result of perfect knowledge. Therefore the penance of devotional service
includes knowledge and detachment, and that is the manifestation of the
transcendental potency.

One cannot enjoy material illusory prosperity if he desires to return
home, back to Godhead. One who has no information of the transcenden-
tal bliss in the association of the Lord foolishly desires to enjoy this tem-
porary material happiness. In the Cattanya-caritamrta it is said that if
someone sincerely wants to see the Lord and at the same time wants to
enjoy this material world, he is considered to be a fool only. One who
wants to remain here in the material world for material enjoyment has no
business entering into the eternal kingdom of God. Such a foolish devotee
is favored by the Lord by His snatching all that he may possess in the
material world. If such a foolish devotee of the Lord again tries to recoup
his position, then the merciful Lord again snatches away all that he may
have possessed. By such repeated failures in material prosperity he becomes
very unpopular with his family members and friends. In the material world
the family members and the friends honor persons who may be very
successful in accumulating wealth by any means. The foolish devotee of
the Lord is thus put into forcible penance by the grace of the Lord, and at
the end the devotee becomes perfectly happy, being engaged in the service
of the Lord. Therefore penance in devotional service of the Lord, either by
voluntary submission or being forced by the Lord, is necessary for attaining
perfection, and thus such penance is the internal potency of the Lord.

One cannot, however, be engaged in the penance of devotional service
without being completely free from all sins. As is stated in the Bhagavad-
gita, only a person who is completely free from all reactions of sins can
engage himself in the worship of the Lord. Brahmaji was sinless, and
therefore he faithfully discharged the advice of the Lord, “tapa tapa,”’ and
the Lord, being satisfied with him, awarded him the desired result. There-
fore love and penance combined can only please the Lord, and thus one is
able to attain His complete mercy. He directs the sinless, and the sinless
devotee attains the highest perfection of life.
