If you simply take little trouble to understand Krsna… That tapasya required: to read Krsna’s instruction, Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and try to understand Krsna. Because that tapasya, if you take little painful… It is not painful; it is very pleasing. But we avoid it. We think it is painful: “Ah! Who is going to read books? We are meant for selling books, not for reading books.” This is not good. We should read also. That is tapasya. Saddhaya. That is tapasya. Don’t think that simply our books are meant for selling. No. It is meant for reading also. If we read regularly, at least two hours, three hours, that is tapasya. Tapo divyam. To understand
spiritual position, my spiritual position, Krsna’s spiritual… So that is tapasya. These are the tapasya. To rise early in the morning, that is also tapasya. Not that every day we have to ring bell-dung, dung, dung, dung-“Get up! Get up! ” “No, I am sleeping.” No, you have to accept. These are the tapasya. We cannot avoid. If we actually want to avoid this body, working like cats and dogs, like animals, then we have to undergo tapasya, a very simple tapasya.

Srila Prabhupada, Talk on Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.1 – October 23, 1976, Vrndavana