by Srila B.B. Tirtha Goswami Maharaja
Sree Sree Guru Gauranga Jayatah!
Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur has stated in his book ‘Sri Bhajan-Rahasya’ that there are four drawbacks for the votaries to get success in devotional worship, viz.
(1) Misconception of self
(2) Non-eternal desires
(3) Weakness of heart
(4) Propensity to commit offence
The actual origin of these four hindrances is ‘misconception of self’. Due to misconception of self, we have non-eternal desires, weakness of heart and committal of offence to the Supreme Lord and His devotees. The enslaved jiva has been hurled down into this prison house of the world and is passing through cycles of births and deaths due to his forgetfulness of his relationship with Sri Krishna. God has given the power of discrimination in the human birth so that he can discriminate between bad and good, eternal and non-eternal. Due to previous good impressions of eternal good deeds (knowingly or unknowingly serving the Supreme Lord and His personal associates), they get the aptitude to inquire about Eternal Truth and can come in contact with a realized soul – a pure devotee.
