Study a Verse

• Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in his thesis Bhakti-sandarbha (202), has stated that uncontaminated devotional service is the objective of pure Vaiṣṇavas and that one has to execute such service in the association of other devotees.
• By associating with devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa, one develops a sense of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and thus becomes inclined toward the loving service of the Lord.
• If one desires unalloyed devotional service, one must associate with devotees of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, for by such association only can a conditioned soul achieve a taste for transcendental love and thus revive his eternal relationship with Godhead in a specific manifestation and in terms of the specific transcendental mellow (rasa) that one has eternally inherent in him.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Reverence and gratitude. The narrator takes shelter of the guru-paramparā; receptivity begins with humility.

The mood of Ādi 1 as a whole, an editorial reading, not the text itself. See the emotional atlas

Ādi 1: The Spiritual Masters

From Śrīla Prabhupāda's chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

The first manifestation described is the spiritual master, who appears in two plenary parts called the initiating spiritual master and instructing spiritual master. They are identical because both of them are phenomenal manifestations of the Supreme Truth.