Have all devotees already practiced yoga, jnana, tapa and all such processes for transcendence?

From Promila Mataji:
It’s said in Srimad Bhagavatam that those who take to bhakti in their current lives have already performed karma, jnana, dhayana etc in their past lives. In this case, our concentration levels should be really high. However, we find ourselves roaming around during japa not only physically but mentally too. We can neither sit at one place for the entire japa cycle, nor can we concentrate on each syllable which Srila Prabhupada has recommended.
Please could you enlighten us to resolve the apparent contradiction between what is said in the scripture and how we are in this “reality”?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you Hare Krishna question from Pramila Mataji it is said in the Srimad Bhagavatam that those who have those who are practicing bhakti now have already practiced yoga dhyana, tapa and other processes in their previous lives and now they come to practice bhakti but now if this is true then we see that when we are practicing bhakti when we try to chant the holy names we struggle to even stay awake same is when we try to hear classes so if we are still struggling if there are many devotees who are still struggling with tamasic tendencies then how can we say that is it that even these devotees have actually practiced all the processes of austerities in the previous life how do we reconcile this spiritual fact this scriptural statement that devotees have already practiced everything else in their previous lives with the large number of conditionings that devotees seem to have in this life answer the process of bhakti is the path of mercy and if we say that nobody can come to bhakti unless that person has practiced all the other processes then bhakti no longer remains the path of mercy because practicing all the other processes becomes the precondition before one can get bhakti so whereas we say bhakti is so merciful krishna lot of bhakti is so merciful krishna can bestow bhakti and bhakti can bestow mercy on anyone even a person who is in tamohana so even a person who is not in tamohana person who is very sinful also so therefore first and foremost is the very merciful inclusiveness of bhakti means that all bhakti practitioners you don’t have to be servants in all other paths to come to bhakti otherwise there would be no meaning to the mercy of bhakti so certainly there are devotees who may have not had any spiritual practice at all in their previous lives who have by the sheer mercy of bhakti as manifested to the bhaktas and through bhagwan have come to krishna’s lotus feet now so that’s the first point to understand with respect to the inclusiveness of bhakti secondly with respect to the specific scriptural statements so when it is said that one who has practiced bhakti one who is practicing bhakti has practiced everything else in the past what does such a statement mean so in the prayers of devahuti in the in the stuti that is offered by devahuti to kapila she says that so there it is said that actually how wonderful it is that even how wonderful it is that even those who are dog eaters that if they chant the holy name those who chant your holy names oh lord and they say that actually they have performed all the rituals of the aryan culture aryan civilization and now they have attained a transcendental state of perfection so now what does this mean there are two this is primarily a statement of wonder about the glory of bhakti there are multiple possibilities by which such a thing can happen that as i said simply the inclusiveness of bhakti that even a person who is a dog eater who has not practiced even the basic vedic ritual that person can also get to the process of chanting the holy name which is the culmination of all the vedic processes this is the inclusiveness of bhakti another possibility is that this person has practiced the other processes but after practice but while practicing the other processes the seeker has become deviated and because of deviation not just deviation into from transcendental path to goodness but if the deviation is led to falling to sin then such a fall to sin can cause a person to fall back and as a consequence take a low birth just as we have Bharat Maharaj from a very high state falling to a deer’s body so similarly a person can fall to a dog eater’s body also and Prabhupada also said that sometimes the hogs in Vrindavan they may be yogis who did sinful activities in their fell to sinful activities in their previous lives so the point here is that that means that person has acquired by the practice of spiritual or spiritually directed processes acquired a very high status but because the person fell to sinful activities so that person has now got a Ishvapacha body has got a low body but the advanced spiritual status is still there now thirdly apart from this also we need to understand that bhakti is the ultimate purpose of all the Vedic processes so the Bhagavad Gita through its analysis describes how yoga culminates in bhakti how jnana culminates in bhakti that so jnana, yoga, tapa all of them culminate in bhakti and if somebody has got bhakti that means that person has got the fruits of everything else so if we consider say the gains from other other parts like say a one lakh lottery somebody gains now the gain from yoga, the gain from jnana the gain from tapa, the gain from jnana it’s all like a one lakh lottery but bhakti is like a hundred crore lottery now if somebody gets a hundred crore lottery that does not mean that that person has to have competed in an earlier lottery competition and have got and have earned the one lakh lotteries or all the one lakh prizes in the lottery earlier no within the one crore the one lakhs are already included so in that sense a devotee need not have in the previous life practiced the practice the other processes of bhakti other processes for transcendence but a devotee can focus only on the process of bhakti and thereby attain transcendence so the key thing for us as seekers to understand is to keep the essence in mind and the essence of such statements is to demonstrate the paramount supremacy of bhakti as compared to all other processes so the essential purpose in making such statements is not that it has to be universally applicable that every devotee has to have gone through all other processes but that that’s not the purpose the purpose is that because the path of devotion is the culmination of all other processes therefore one who is passing and practicing bhakti need not get distracted or disheartened or worried by thinking that maybe by practicing bhakti I am missing out some other benefits of some other paths and therefore maybe I shouldn’t just practice bhakti maybe I need to practice some other paths also no no other paths are required just the path of bhakti is purna it’s completely it’s the highest path and it can take us from the lowest level to the highest level and by practicing bhakti alone we can attain the highest perfection so such statements we should see primarily as glorifications of bhakti for exhorting within us for inspiring us towards single minded practice of bhakti thank you very much