Take the Bhakti Test!

Mahanidhi Madana Gopala Dasa

Want to know what kind of a devotee you are? Curious to know your level of advancement in bhakti bhajana? Simple, just take the amazing test below. In this exam, you grade your SELF and Krishna is the monitor!

Good luck, for we hope all our readers will pass the bhakti test with flying colors. The following amazing question/answer series will definitely help any devotee.

The Bhakti SELF Test

Q: To what degree is my heart purified?

A: To the degree that I have I stopped seeing faults in others.

Q: How much have I progressed in bhajan?

A: To the extent I have become free of false ego, material desires and thoughts other than Sri Bhagavän.

Q: How much have I gained Bhakti devi’s mercy?

A: I have gained Bhakti devi’s mercy to the extent I consider myself lower than others, unworthy and fallen.

Q: How much fearless have I become?

A: To the extent I have become free of false ego and taken the shelter of Sri Govinda’s lotus feet.

Q: How much of a pure devotee have I become?

A: To the extent I have stopped seeing faults in others and started forgiving them.

Q: How much has my intelligence become clear?

A: To the extent I can seek out my own faults and try with body, speech and mind to improve myself for the better.

Q: How much free have I become of false ego?

A: To the extent I can hear the harsh words of an evil person and yet remain non-agitated.

Q: How much is my heart illuminated with bhakti?

A: To the extent it has become free of false ego, and it is agitated for the darshana of the Divine Couple.

Q: How much liberated am I?

A: As much as I am free of material desires.

Q: How much detached am I?

A: As much as I have become disinterested in worldly matters.

Q: Am I deprived?

A: Yes, if I am still waiting for that auspicious moment to arrive when I will start doing bhajana.

Q: Am I qualified to receive Sri Bhagavän’s mercy quickly?

A: Yes, if I think –“I don’t have one second to lose. Death will come any moment and snatch me.” Thinking like this, I should accept all sorrow, innumerable troubles and tribulations, and continue my endeavors of bhajan with firm determination. In unfavorable circumstances, we can gain Sri Bhagavän’s kripä very quickly, more so then when the situation is favorable. How fast have I received mercy can be tested best by unfavorable circumstances.

Q: Am I foolish?

A: Yes, I am, if I consider this destructible material body to be mine.

14 Q: Am I intelligent?

A: Yes, if by using this material body that is destructible and full of suffering I am able to obtain the transcendental, eternal and blissful Sri Govinda, then that means I am truly very intelligent.

End of test.

Grade your SELF. Then collapse in dandavats before Thakuraji, cry, beg for mercy and stand up again. Now enthusiastically try and try and keep trying until that wonderful day arrives when our nama-bhajana is pure, then mature, and then filled with Krishna prema.

(Obstacles in Bhakti, Shri Vinod Bihari Dasji Maharaja, adapted,)

Shuddha Bhakti ki jai! Jai Jai Sri Radhe!