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  • yā nirvṛtis tanu-bhṛtāṁ tava pāda-padma-
    dhyānād bhavaj-jana-kathā-śravaṇena vā syāt |
    sā brahmaṇi sva-mahimany api nātha mā bhūt
    kiṁ tv antakāsi-lulitāt patatāṁ vimānāt ||
    (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 4.9.10; cited in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.29)

    “O Lord, that bliss which can arise for embodied beings from meditation upon your lotus feet or through hearing narratives of persons who are your own does not occur even in [realization of] Brahman, your own [all-pervading] greatness. How then could it occur for [the devas of Svarga,] those who [all eventually] fall from airplanes slashed by the sword of death [i.e., time]?”

    Read on →: yā nirvṛtis tanu-bhṛtāṁ tava pāda-padma

  • tad bhūri-bhāgyam iha janma kim apy aṭavyāṁ
    yad gokule’pi katamāṅghri-rajo-’bhiṣekam |
    yaj-jīvitaṁ tu nikhilaṁ bhagavān mukundas
    tv adyāpi yat-pada-rajaḥ śruti-mṛgyam eva ||
    (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.14.34)

    [A translation based on the commentary of Śrī Śrīdhara Svāmīpāda:] “May I have that great fortune in which a birth of any sort here in the forest in Gokula shall occur wherein I may also receive an ablution in the dust of the feet of anyone [there] whose entire life is Bhagavān, Mukunda, [he] whose footdust is verily an object to be sought by the Śrutis even to this very day.”

    [A translation based on the commentary of Śrī Viśvanātha Carkavartīpāda:] “May I have that great fortune in which a birth of any sort here in the forest or even in Gokula shall occur wherein I may receive an ablution in the dust of the feet of anyone [there] whose entire life is Bhagavān, Mukunda, and whose footdust is verily an object to be sought by the Śrutis even to this very day.”

    Read on →: tad bhūri-bhāgyam iha janma kim apy aṭavyāṁ

  • tāṁ nāradīyām anusṛtya śikṣāṁ
    śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmāni nija-priyāṇi |
    saṅkīrtayan susvaram atra līlās
    tasya pragāyann anucintayaṁś ca ||
    tādīya-līlā-sthala-jātam etad
    vilokayan bhāva-daśe gato ye |
    tayoḥ sva-citte karaṇena lajje
    kathaṁ parasminn kathayāny ahaṁ te ||
    sadā mahārtyā karuṇā-svarai rudan
    nayāmi rātrīr divasāṁś ca kātaraḥ |
    na vedmi yad yat sucirād anuṣṭhitaṁ
    sukhāya vā tat tad utārti-sindhave ||
    (Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.1–3)

    “Following that instruction of Nārada, here [in Vraja] melodiously chanting names of Śrī Kṛṣṇa dear to myself, singing aloud of and meditating upon his līlās, and beholding the sites of his līlās, this bhāva and state which arose [in me]—I feel embarrassed [just] by thinking of them in my own heart. [So,] How can I describe them to someone else? Crying continuously in pitiful tones out of great distress (ārti), I spent nights and days disconcerted. I did not know whether all that I had practiced for so long would lead to joy or an ocean of distress.”

    Read on →: tāṁ nāradīyām anusṛtya śikṣāṁ

  • kathā imās te kathitā mahīyasāṁ
    vitāya lokeṣu yaśaḥ pareyuṣām |
    vijñāna-vairāgya-vivakṣayā vibho
    vaco-vibhūtīr na tu pāramārthyam ||
    (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 12.3.14)

    [Translation based on the ṭīkās of Śrīdhara Svāmī and Jīva Gosvāmī:] “[Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Parīkṣit Mahārāja:] O King, these narrations narrated [by me] for the purpose of [teaching] knowledge [i.e., knowledge of the insubstantiality of sense objects (viṣayāsāra-jñānam)] and [subsequent] non-attachment (vairāgyam), which extend the fame of departed great personages [i.e., prominent kings and so forth other than avatāras of Bhagavān] throughout the worlds, are splendors of speech and not, rather, ultimate truth.”

    [Translation based on the ṭīkā of Viśvanātha Cakravartī:] “[Śukadeva Gosvāmī to Parīkṣit Mahārāja:] O King, these narrations narrated [by me] for the purpose of [teaching] knowledge [i.e., experience of Bhagavān] and [subsequent] non-attachment, which extend the fame of great personages who attained the Supreme throughout the worlds, are not splendors of speech, but rather, ultimate truth.”

    Read on →: kathā imās te kathitā mahīyasāṁ

  • kṛṣṇāṅghri-padma-makaranda-nipāna-lubdho
    jānāti tad-rasa-lihāṁ paramaṁ mahattvam |
    brahmaiva gokula-bhuvām ayam uddhavo’pi
    gopī-gaṇasya yad imau lasataḥ sma tat tat ||
    yeṣāṁ hi yad vastuni bhāti lobhas
    te tadvatāṁ bhāgya-balaṁ vidanti |
    gopyo mukundādhara-pāna-lubdhā
    gāyanti saubhāgya-bharaṁ muralyāḥ ||
    (Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.5.157)

    “One intensely desirous of drinking the nectar of the lotus of Kṛṣṇa’s feet knows the paramount greatness of those who taste that rasa; Brahmā certainly [knows that] of those born in Gokula and he, Uddhava, [knows that] of the gopīs, since they both long for those two [i.e., since Brahmā longs for the rasa relished by those born in Gokula and Uddhava longs for the rasa relished by the gopīs]. Those who have intense desire for an object speak of the strength of the fortune of those possessed of that [object]. Intensely desirous of drinking from the lips of Mukunda, the gopīs sing of the abundance of good fortune of the flute.”

    Read on →: kṛṣṇāṅghri-padma-makaranda-nipāna-lubdho

  • bahir-antaḥkaraṇayor vyāpārāntara-rodhakam |
    sva-kāraṇādi-saṁśleṣi camatkāri sukhaṁ rasaḥ ||
    (Alaṅkāra-kaustubha: 5.11)

    “The wondrous joy embracing of its own causes and so forth [i.e., vibhāvas, anubhāvas, etc.] and obstructing of the other functions of the external and internal faculties [i.e., of the functions of the senses, the psyche] is [called] rasa.”

    Read on →: bahir-antaḥkaraṇayor vyāpārāntara-rodhakam

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