There are instances in history of great personalities, including sages and kings, who attained perfection by this process.

Easy Journey to Other Planets Chapter One Antimaterial Worlds

There are instances in history of great personalities, including sages and kings, who attained perfection by this process. Some of them attained success even by adhering to one single item of devotional service with faith and perseverance. Some of these personalities are listed below.
   1. Emperor Pariksit attained the spiritual platform simply by hearing from such an authority as Sri Sukadeva Gosvami.
   2. Sri Sukadeva Gosvami attained the same simply by recitation, verbatim, of the transcendental message which he received from his great father, Sri Vyasadeva.
   3. Emperor Prahlada attained spiritual success by remembering the Lord constantly, in pursuance of instructions given by Sri Narada Muni, the great saint and devotee.
   4. Laksmiji, the goddess of fortune, attained success simply by sitting and serving the lotus feet of the Lord.
   5. King Prthu attained success simply by worshiping the Lord.
   6. Akrura, the charioteer, attained success simply by chanting prayers for the Lord.
   7. Hanuman (Mahavira), the famous nonhuman devotee of Lord Sri Ramacandra, attained success simply by carrying out the orders of the Lord.
   8. Arjuna, the great warrior, attained the same perfection simply by making friends with the Lord, who delivered the message of Bhagavad-gita to enlighten Arjuna and his followers.
   9. Emperor Bali attained success by surrendering everything unto the Lord, including his personal body.
These are nine standard modes of devotional service to the Lord, and a candidate can choose to adopt any one, two, three, four or all, however he likes. All the services rendered to the Absolute are in themselves absolute, with none of the quantitative or qualitative differences found on the material platform. On the spiritual platform everything is identical with everything else, although there is transcendental variegatedness. Emperor Ambarisa adopted all the above nine items, and he attained perfect success. It was he who engaged his mind on the lotus feet of the Lord, his voice in describing the spiritual world, his hands in cleansing the temple of the Lord, his ears in submissively hearing the words of Lord Sri Krsna, his eyes in viewing the Deities of the Lord, his body in touching the bodies of the devotees, his nostrils in smelling the flowers offered to the Lord, his tongue in tasting the food offered to the Lord, his legs in visiting the temple of the Lord, and all the energy of his life in executing the services of the Lord without in the least desiring his own sense gratification. All these activities helped him attain the perfect stage of life which defeats all dexterities of material science.