ENDURANCE
When a person is fully satisfied due to attaining knowledge, transcending all distress or achieving his desired goal of life in transcendental devotional service to God, his state of endurance or steady-mindedness is called dhṛti. At this stage one is not perturbed by any amount of loss, nor does anything appear to be unachieved by him.
According to the opinion of Bhartṛhari, a learned scholar, when a person is elevated to this state of endurance, he thinks as follows: “I do not wish to be a highly posted government servant. I shall prefer to remain naked, without proper garments. I shall prefer to lie down on the ground without any mattress. And despite all these disadvantages, I shall refuse to serve anyone, even the government.” In other words, when one is in ecstatic love with the Personality of Godhead, he can endure any kind of disadvantages calculated under the material concept of life.
Nanda Mahārāja, the father of Kṛṣṇa, used to think, “In my pasturing ground the goddess of fortune is personally present, and I possess more than ten hundred thousand cows, which loiter here and there. And above all, I have a son like Kṛṣṇa, who is such a powerful, wonderful worker. Therefore, even though I am a householder, I am feeling so satisfied!” This is an instance of mental endurance resulting from the absence of all distress.
In another instance a devotee says, “I am always swimming in the nectarean ocean of the pastimes of the Personality of Godhead, and as such I have no more attraction for religious rituals, economic development, sense gratification or even the ultimate salvation of merging into the existence of Brahman.” This is an instance of the mind’s endurance due to achieving the best thing in the world. The best thing in the world is absorption in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
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