“Srila Prabhupada advises those who want to get free from material bondage that in order to easily cross over this material world of repeated birth and death, one should accept the TREASURE OF DEVOTIONAL SERVICE when one gets the opportunity. At that time one should leave aside material attachments, which are so-called Treasures of those who are about to die and be reborn again in this material world.

This is very important for persons who are on the path of devotional service. Sometime due to bad association, even a practicing devotee simultaneously wants to maintain material attachments in spiritual life. Trying to possess both material and spiritual attachments is impossible and binds one to conditioned life.

Attachment to spiritual life, specifically to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, should be singular and exclusive to assure one of success in transcendental life.”

“So in the material world people actually are having a hard struggle for existence, but then the devotees they are not having the same kind of struggle. Actually, because of being under the shelter of Krishna, even the so called material things, we have to do in devotional service, everything is blissful! It is like in the river, if you try to swim in the river, if there’s a strong current it sweeps you away, but if you look in the river, you see there are so many fishes in the river, they are swimming.

In spite of the rapids, so many fishes are swimming upstream. So when we see that everything is Krishna’s energy, and when we become one of the Fishes in Krishna’s energy we can swim upstream.

What normal people think to be very austere, very difficult situation, a great difficulty, for the devotee it’s all simply a part of their devotional service. When there is some crisis they take it as Krishna’s mercy; ‘this is forcing me to surrender more intensely to Krishna, to realize there is no other hope other than Krishna ‘. “ 

HH Jayapataka Swami
Lecture
SB 1.3.32

Srila Prabhupada explains that when a tiger deals with it’s own cubs, it picks them up with its mouth just like you see the cat lift up the kitten. But that lifting with the mouth is filled with motherly affection moving them from one place to the other, but when the tiger jumps on the prey whether it’s a deer, zebra or whatever, it might be that it bites them with its mouth. But that is totally a different bite. So the law of Karma is like the tiger on the prey, like the cat on the mouse.

But when you take shelter of Krishna then what appears to be Karma is actually Krishna personally taking charge of the devotee. It is like the cat or the tiger taking the cub, the kid, by the mouth, simply for purification, for our remembrance.

So whether we want to be under the care of Krishna or under the care of the illusory energy and the stringent lat of Karma, that’s up to us to decide. When we are under the care of Krishna and we do devotional service, we feel very blissful. We just have to be a little careful. We have to go on learning and trying to practice responsibly, remaining humble. We have to be aware of what mistakes we are making and try to correct them, because we are responsible for them.