The attitude of the disciple should be to satisfy the bona fide spiritual master.Then it will be very easy for him to understand spiritual knowledge.This is confirmed in the Vedas, and Rūpa Gosvāmī will further explainthat for a person who has unflinching faith in God and the spiritual master,everything becomes revealed very easily. (The Nectar of Devotion).In the Skanda Purāṇa it is advised that a devotee follow the past ācāryas andsaintly persons, because by such following one can achieve the desired results,with no chance of lamenting or being baffled in his progress.In the Nāradīya Purāṇa it is said, "If one is actually very serious aboutdevotional service, then all of his purposes will be served without any delay."In the Padma Purāṇa it is stated, "For one who has given up his materialsense enjoyment and has accepted the principles of devotional service,the opulence of Viṣṇuloka (the kingdom of God) is awaiting."In the Nāradīya Purāṇa it is directed, "One should not accept more thannecessary if he is serious about discharging devotional service."The purport is that one should not neglect following the principles ofdevotional service, nor should one accept the rulings ofdevotional service which are more than what he can easily perform.In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa it is said that one who observes fastingon Ekādaśī day is freed from all kinds of reactions to sinful activities andadvances in pious life. The basic principle is not just to fast,but to increase one's faith and love for Govinda, or Kṛṣṇa.In the Skanda Purāṇa it is directed that a devotee should offer water tothe tulasī plant and āmalaka trees. He should offer respect to the cowsand to the brāhmaṇas and should serve the Vaiṣṇavas by offering themrespectful obeisances and meditating upon them. All of these processeswill help the devotee to diminish the reactions to his past sinful activities.Lord Caitanya was once asked by one of His householder devotees whatthe general behaviour of a Vaiṣṇava should be. In this connection,Lord Caitanya replied that a Vaiṣṇava should always give up the companyof nondevotees. Then He explained that there are two kinds of non-devotees:one class is against the supremacy of Kṛṣṇa, and another class is too materialistic.(The Nectar of Devotion).In the Padma Purāṇa it is stated, "Persons who are engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousnessshould never be disturbed by some material gain or loss. Even if there is somematerial loss, one should not be perturbed, but should always think of Kṛṣṇawithin himself."A devotee should not be subjected to lamentation or illusion.In the Padma Purāṇa it is stated, "Within the heart of a person who is overpoweredby lamentation or anger, there is no possibility of Kṛṣṇa's being manifested."One should not neglect to offer due respect to the demigods. One may not be adevotee of demigods, but that does not mean that he should be disrespectful to them.For example, a Vaiṣṇava is not a devotee of Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā,but he is duty-bound to offer all respects to such highly positioned demigods.In the Padma Purāṇa it is stated that even a person whose life is completely sinfulwill be completely protected by the Lord if he simply surrenders unto Him.So it is accepted that one who surrenders unto the Supreme Personality of Godheadbecomes free from all sinful reactions. And even when a person becomes an offenderunto the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, he can still be delivered simplyby taking shelter of the holy names of the Lord:Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare HareHare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.In other words, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is beneficial for eradicating all sins,but if one becomes an offender to the holy names of the Lord,then he has no chance of being delivered.The offenses against the chanting of the holy name are as follows:(1) To blaspheme the devotees who have dedicated their livesfor propagating the holy name of the Lord.(2) To consider the names of demigods like Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā to be equal to,or independent of, the name of Lord Viṣṇu.(3) To disobey the orders of the spiritual master.(4) To blaspheme the Vedic literature or literature in pursuance of the Vedic version.(5) To consider the glories of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa to be imagination.(6) To give some interpretation on the holy name of the Lord.(7) To commit sinful activities on the strength of the holy name of the Lord.(8) To consider the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa one of the auspicious ritualistic activitiesoffered in the Vedas as fruitive activities (karma-kāṇḍa).(9) To instruct a faithless person about the glories of the holy name.(10) To not have complete faith in the chanting of the holy names and to maintainmaterial attachments, even after understanding so many instructions on this matter.In the Padma Purāṇa there is a statement describing how a Vaiṣṇava should decoratehis body with tilaka and beads: "Persons who put tulasī beads on the neck, who marktwelve places of their bodies as Viṣṇu temples with Viṣṇu's symbolic representations(the four items held in the four hands of Lord Viṣṇu — conch, mace, disc and lotus),and who have viṣṇu-tilaka on their foreheads, are to be understood as the devoteesof Lord Viṣṇu in this world. Their presence makes the world purified,and anywhere they remain, they make that place as good as Vaikuṇṭha."In the Skanda Purāṇa Lord Brahmā tells Nārada, "My dear Nārada, anyonewho puts on his neck the flower garland which was formerly used by Kṛṣṇabecomes relieved from all disease and reactions to sinful activities,and gradually he is liberated from the contamination of matter."In the Dvārakā-māhātmya the importance of dancing before the Deity is statedby Lord Kṛṣṇa as follows: "A person who is in a jubilant spirit, who feels profounddevotional ecstasy while dancing before Me, and who manifests different featuresof bodily expression can burn away all the accumulated sinful reactionshe has stocked up for many, many thousands of years."In the Nāradīya Purāṇa there is a statement about bowing down and offeringrespect to the Deity. It is said there, "A person who has performed a great ritualisticsacrifice and a person who has simply offered his respectful obeisances by bowingdown before the Lord cannot be held as equals." The person who has executed manygreat sacrifices will attain the result of his pious activities, but when such resultsare finished, he has to take birth again on the earthly planet; however,the person who has once offered respects, bowing down before the Deity,will not come back to this world, because he will go directly to the abode of Kṛṣṇa.In the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa it is said,"A person who sees the Lord's Ratha-yātrācar festival and then stands up to receive the Lordcan purge all kinds of sinful results from his body."It is stated in the Purāṇas, "Persons who attempt to visitthe holy places of pilgrimage, like Vṛndāvana, Mathurāor Dvārakā, are actually glorified. By such traveling activities,they can pass over the desert of material existence."It is stated in the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya, "Persons who are impelledby pure devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and who thereforego to see the Deities of Viṣṇu in the temple will surely get relieffrom entering again into the prison house of a mother's womb."It is said in the Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya,"A person who is circumambulatingthe Deity of Viṣṇu can counteract the circumambulationof repeated birth and death in this material world."It is stated in the Viṣṇu-rahasya, "Any person who can arrangefor service to the Lord in the same way that a king is given serviceby his attendants is surely elevated to the abode of Kṛṣṇa after death."When a person loudly chants the glories of the Lord's activities, qualities,form, etc., his chanting is called sańkīrtana.Sańkīrtana also refers to the congregationalchanting of the holy name of the Lord.In the Padma Purāṇa there is a statement: "For any person who is chantingthe holy name either softly or loudly, the paths to liberationand even heavenly happiness are at once open."In the Skanda Purāṇa there is a statement about submission unto thelotus feet of the Lord. It is said there that those who are sober devoteescan offer their submission to Kṛṣṇa in the following three ways:(1) samprārthanātmikā, very feelingly offering prayers;(2) dainyavodhikā, humbly submitting oneself;(3) lālasāmayī, desiring some perfectional stage.
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