Devotional Ambition - an essential subject

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The devotees of the Lord are not ambitious to dominate a false and temporary phenomenon. On the contrary, a devotee wants to be dominated by the supreme predominator, the Lord. An ambition to serve the Lord, the supreme predominator, is spiritual or transcendental, and one has to attain this purification of the mind and the senses to get admission into the spiritual kingdom. It does not matter where the service is demanded. It is exactly like soldiers who are asked to come forward to fight. They do not consider the place or circumstances.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Devotional Ambition category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 8 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		A person who always desires to serve Kṛṣṇa is interested in ways to convince people that there is a Supreme Personality of Godhead and that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Kṛṣṇa. That is his ambition. It doesn't matter whether he is in heaven or in hell. This is called uttamaśloka-lālasa. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.14.44)



vanipedia.org 		A devotee is always eager to return home, back to Godhead, and remain there as the Lord's associate. This ambition becomes increasingly fervent in his heart, and therefore he does not care about material changes in his life. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.17.17)



vanipedia.org 		A pure devotee does not even want to stop the repetition of birth and death. To a pure devotee, it does not matter whether he has to take birth again in the various species of life. His only ambition is that he not forget the lotus feet of the Lord. (Kṛṣṇa Book, Chapter 69)



vanipedia.org 		A pure devotee is never very anxious to go back to the kingdom of God. He entirely depends on the good will of the Lord. He is equally satisfied even if the Lord desires him to go to hell. The only desire that a pure devotee entertains is that he may always be in rapt attention with thinking of the lotus feet of the Lord, regardless. Bhīṣmadeva wanted this much only: that his mind be absorbed in thinking of the Lord and that he pass away thus. That is the highest ambition of a pure devotee. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.9.24)



vanipedia.org 		One cannot attain perfection without smearing the dust from the lotus feet of an exalted devotee on his head. If one always follows the orders of the spiritual master, there is no question of falling down. As soon as a foolish disciple tries to overtake his spiritual master and becomes ambitious to occupy his post, he immediately falls down. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 5.12.14)



vanipedia.org 		Because all his desires and ambitions were thus engaged in the devotional service of the Lord, Maharaja Ambarisa is considered the leader in discharging devotional service in all kinds of ways. (Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 12)



vanipedia.org 		The living entity must be living, always existing with desires, ambitions and so on. These should be purified, however, so that one can desire spiritually and be spiritually ambitious, without material contamination. In every living entity these propensities exist because he is a living entity. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.10.8)



vanipedia.org 		The karmīs who desire sense gratification, the jñānīs who aspire for the liberation of merging into the existence of the Supreme, and the yogīs who seek material success in mystic power are all restless, and ultimately they are baffled. But the devotee, who does not expect any personal benefit and whose only ambition is to spread the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is blessed with all the auspicious results of bhakti-yoga, without hard labor. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 8.9.28)


Devotional Ambition - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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