Compassion for the eternal soul is self-realization.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Bhagavad-gita As It Is 2.1, purport

Living beings entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed at once by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krsna, which is feared by fear personified.

Sages at Naimisaranya
Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.14

Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.

Lord Sri Krsna
Bhagavad-gita 12.2

One achieves bhakti [love of God] by hearing and chanting about the Supreme Lord's special qualities, even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in this world.

Sri Narada Muni
Narada-bhakti-sutra 37

Regardless of time or place, one who chants the holy name, even while eating or sleeping, attains all perfection.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila 20.18

Inexhaustible time, stronger than the strong, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Like a herdsman moving his animals along, He moves mortal creatures as His pastime.

Demigods
Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.51.19

Anyone, even a person in an impure state, who absorbs his mind in Lord Krsna for just a moment at the time of death burns up all traces of sinful reactions and immediately attains the supreme transcendental destination in a pure, spiritual form as effulgent as the sun.

Sri Uddhava
Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.46.33

If brahmananda, the bliss of merging into the Lord's Brahman effulgence were multiplied one hundred trillion times, it would still not equal even an atomic fragment of the ocean of transcendental bliss felt in devotional service to the Lord.

Srila Rupa Gosvami
Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.1.38

Do not stay in illusion; go to the eternal reality. Do not stay in darkness; go to the light. Do not keep taking material bodies; become immortal.

Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad 1.3.28

 

Contributors of Vedic Thoughts for this issue: Kadrudhanayu Devi Dasi (Wroclaw, Poland), Susila Wati (Bali, Indonesia), Sriman Pandita Dasa (Soquel, California, USA), Bharath R. Chennu (Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh, India)