Devotee: Srila Prabhupada, is it true that our advancement in devotional services is influenced a lot by our past karma, by how many sinful activities we have committed?
Prabhupada: No, no, no. Bhakti is not under karma. Bhakti is under your good will. If you accept to surrender to Krsna, you can do that without being checked by anything else. Simply you have to will, "Yes, Krsna. You are asking me. So long I did not do. From this day I do." That will depend upon you. Whatever you may be, simply surrender and everything is finished. Even if you are sinful, Krsna will give you release, "All right. You have surrendered. That's all right." That is wanted. But if you reserve something and cheat Krsna, "Now I am surrendering," Krsna is very intelligent. He will see you still have reservation.

Devotee: In the mode of goodness it's easier to surrender to Krsna.
Prabhupada: Yes, in sattva-guna one can see, one can understand his position. He is not so much disturbed by the rajo-guna and tamo-guna. And if he increases and goes to the pure sattva-guna, suddha-sattva, then he is no more disturbed. At that time he can understand what is God. The other gunas mean lusty desires and greediness. These things will be finished when you are strongly situated in sattva-guna. Hearing about Krsna and chanting about Krsna means cleansing the dirty things of rajo-guna and tamo-guna.The world is going on in rajo-guna and tamo-guna. A very minute quantity of the population are in sattva-guna.

Devotee: You were saying that when one is in the mode of goodness, that he is on the mental platform?
Prabhupada: Mental platform is mixed sattva-guna and rajo-guna, not pure. But if you keep always Krsna in your mind, then you are purified. The mind has no other opportunity to keep anything else there. If you keep Krsna, then you are in sattva-guna. And when that concentration on Krsna is not disturbed, then it is suddha-sattva. That is the spiritual platform.

Srila Prabhupada's Sikasamrta Volume Two:
"I am so glad that at the present moment you are president of the center; it is great satisfaction to me. When a Krsna conscious person is elevated to a responsible position he never becomes puffed up. Just like a tree when overladen with fruits becomes humble and lower down, similarly, a great soul in Krsna conscious becomes humbler than the grass and bowed down like the fruitful trees, because a Krsna conscious person acts as the agent of Krsna, therefore he discharges his duty with great responsibility." (SPL to Gajendra, 27th January, 1970)

Summary by HH Romapada Swami: We all face disturbances. How to address ourselves to those causes of disturbances without reducing our concentration upon that which is non-material, or Krishna? The process of surrender is necessary! We need not rely simply upon our material faculties; alone they will not provide the needed shelter. We must remain humble before our Master and all his wonderful devotees, and then move forward to serve with all the sincerity.