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sabe eka sakhī-gaṇera ihā̐ adhikāra |
sakhī haite haya ei līlāra vistāra ||
sakhī vinu ei līlā puṣṭi nāhi haya |
sakhī līlā vistāriyā, sakhī āsvādaya ||
sakhī vinu ei līlāya nāhi anyera gati |
sakhī-bhāve tā̐re yei kare anugati ||
rādhā-kṛṣṇa-kuñja-sevā-sādhya sei pāya |
sei sādhya pāite āra nāhika upāya ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.8.201–204)
“Among all, only the sakhīs have eligibility here [i.e., within Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa’s līlā], and expansion of this līlā occurs [only] through the sakhīs. Without the sakhīs, this līlā is not nourished. The sakhīs expand this līlā, and the sakhīs taste it. Apart from the sakhīs, others have no entrance into this līlā. One who with the bhāva of a sakhī follows them attains the sādhya [i.e., goal] of service in the kuñja to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. There is no other way to attain this sādhya.”
Read on →: sabe eka sakhī-gaṇera ihā̐ adhikāra |
‘bāhya’ ‘abhyantara’ ihāra dui ta sādhana |
bāhya—sādhaka-dehe kare śravaṇa-kīrtana ||
mane—nija siddha-deha kariyā bhāvana |
rātri-dine kare vraje kṛṣṇera sevana ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.22.151–2)
“It [i.e., rāgānugā-bhakti] has two sādhanas: the external and the internal. The external is that in the sādhaka body one engages in hearing and chanting. In the mind [i.e., in the internal form of sādhana], one thinks of one’s own siddha-deha and night and day engages in service to Kṛṣṇa in Vraja.”
Read on →: ‘bāhya’ ‘abhyantara’ ihāra dui ta sādhana
sevā sādhaka-rūpeṇa siddha-rūpeṇa cātra hi |
tad-bhāva-lipsunā kāryā vraja-lokānusārataḥ ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.295)
“With the sādhaka-form and with the siddha-form here itself [i.e., in Vraja], service is to be performed by one desirous of that bhāva [of one’s longing] following the residents of Vraja.”
Read on →: sevā sādhaka-rūpeṇa
nijābhīṣṭa-kṛṣṇa-preṣṭha-pāche ta lāgiyā |
nirantara sevā kare antarmanā hañā ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.22.154)
“Following behind the beloved of Kṛṣṇa of one’s own longing, one continuously engages in service, remaining inwardly minded.”
Read on →: nijābhīṣṭa-kṛṣṇa-preṣṭha-pāche ta lāgiyā
kṛṣṇaṁ smaran janaṁ cāsya preṣṭhaṁ nija-samīhitam |
tat-tat-kathā-rataś cāsau kuryād vāsaṁ vraje sadā ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.294)
“Remembering beloved Kṛṣṇa and his companion of one’s own longing, one absorbed in narrations of them should always dwell in Vraja.”
Read on →: kṛṣṇaṁ smaran janaṁ cāsya
tat-prema-śarmaṇāṁ sarvātiśayi-dharmatāyām aham api marma-vettā, yataḥ—
harir gopa-kṣauṇī-pati-mithunam anye ca vibudhā
na naḥ krūraṁ cittaṁ mṛdulayitum īśā lavam api |
aho teṣāṁ premā vilasati harau yas tu balavān
harer vā yas teṣu drutayati sa eva pratipadam ||
(Gopāla-Campū: Pūrva, 1.81; 64)
“Even I [who have a most hard heart] am able to understand the secret of the super-excellence of the bliss of that prema [found between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and his companions]: Neither Hari, nor the King and Queen of the land of the cowherds [i.e., Nanda and Yaśodā], nor any other wise persons [of Vraja] are able to soften my hard heart even one bit. But aho! The powerful prema they express for Hari and that Hari expresses for them melts my heart at every step.”
Read on →: tat-prema-śarmaṇāṁ