Passage 4

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In plain words

There, there is danger of every kind. If you are at home, you can put a little something in your stomach. If you reach the goal, you can be happy. If you stop halfway, there will be no one even to give you food. You will not find even a place to shelter your head. You cannot even protect your body. Wherever we set out to reach, we must not stop the journey until we reach it.

This is what they called ekānta-bhakti. This is what they called ananya-bhakti. This is what they called paripūrṇa-bhakti. This is what they called parā-bhakti. Until the resolve you have made is fulfilled, you must give no room at all to second thoughts of any kind. If you give a place to every resolve that comes along in between, you can do nothing. Life itself goes to waste.

Whatever you have taken up, you have taken it up: hold on just so until your hold prevails. Whatever you have longed for, you have longed for it: keep on worshipping until the longing is fulfilled. Whatever you have asked for, you have asked for it: do not let go until what you asked is given. Whatever you have set your mind on, you have set your mind on it: do not move until the thought is fulfilled. Either He, unable to bear the pestering, must save me, or I, forgetting the body, must keep on asking; that and nothing else; but to stop halfway and turn back is not the devotee's vow.

We must hold to that vow.

Long ago Satya Hariścandra gave himself to Satya. At that time many trials pursued him. Viśvāmitra put him to trials of many kinds. He had him lose his kingdom. He sold even his wife. He sent even his son away to the forest. Satya alone he kept as his aim. When you hold to such a vow, hardships of every kind keep coming. 'As the hardship of the destitute man, writhing for want of a meal, grows,' so in this life, at the very time you are suffering in many ways with no support of any kind, still more sufferings keep growing. All these are tests God sets.