By Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami
What makes Bg. 2.40 so encouraging is that Krishna recognizes our difficulty. He both prescribes a gradual path and presents us with information about the tremendous benefit that can accrue to us if we simply endeavor to practice devotion. Srila Prabhupada has stated that if someone would just read one page from his books or taste even a morsel of prasadam, he could be liberated. Similarly, even a little devotion can protect you from falling down into a lower species of life. Such devotion never suffers loss or diminution. Srila Prabhupada writes: Any work begun on the material plane has to be completed; otherwise the whole attempt becomes a failure. But any work begun in Krishna consciousness has a permanent effect, even though not finished… . One percent done in Krishna consciousness bears permanent results, so that the next beginning is from the point of two percent… .