Tests of Advancement in Devotional Service

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Here are several ways Srila Prabhupada said that we can tell if we are

improving in devotional service:

 

In his purport to Bhagavad-gita 13.8-12, Srila Prabhupada says that we can

tell we are making progress if we are developing the qualities that Krishna

mentions in these verses:

 

"Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a

bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control;

renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego;

the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment;

freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest;

even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed

devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the

general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and

philosophical search for the Absolute Truth"

 

In his purport to Srimad-Bhagavatam 4.23.29, he stresses detachment from sex

life as an indication: "One who is advanced in devotional service is never

attracted by sex life, and as soon as one becomes detached from sex life and

proportionately attached to the service of the Lord, he actually experiences

living in the Vaikuntha planets."

 

In his purport to Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Adi-lila 7.143, he stresses "a

devotee's only attachment is Krishna; he no longer wants to maintain his

attachments to many other things."

 

In his purport to Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Adi-lila 1.60, Srila Prabhupada

states, "Unless one gets this spiritual encouragement by following the

instructions of the spiritual master, it is not possible to make

advancement. Therefore, one's development of a taste for executing these

instructions is the test of one's devotional service."