dhana-śiṣyādibhir dvārair yā bhaktir upapādyate |
vidūratvād uttamatā-hānyā tasyāś ca nāṅgatā ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.259)
“Bhakti that is accomplished through wealth, disciples, and so forth is not a limb [of uttama-bhakti] because it loses the quality of being uttama since it is very far from it.”
sandhyā-vandana bhadram astu bhavato bhoḥ snāna tubhyaṁ namo
bho devāḥ pitaraś ca tarpaṇa-vidhau nāhaṁ kṣamaḥ kṣamyatām |
yatra kvāpi niṣadya yādava-kulottamasya kaṁsa-dviṣaḥ
smāraṁ smāram aghaṁ harāmi tad alaṁ manye kim anyena me ||
(Mādhavendra Purī; cited Padyāvalī: 79)
“Sandhyā-vandana, may there be auspiciousness for you. O Bathing, obeisance unto you. O Devas and Forefathers, I am unable to perform oblations. Please pardon me. Sitting somewhere, I will dispel all sin by continuously remembering the Crown of the Yadu dynasty, the Enemy of Kaṁsa. I consider that sufficient. What is the use of anything else to me?”
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam |
arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam ||
iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā |
kriyeta bhagavaty addhā tan manye’dhītam uttamam ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 7.5.23–24; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 11.619–620, Bhakti Sandarbha: 169, Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.9.259–260)
[Prahlāda Mahārāja to Hiraṇyakaśipu:] “Hearing, praising, remembering, attending the feet, worshipping, offering obeisance, serving, befriending, and offering the self—if bhakti characterized by these nine [activities] is [itself first] directly offered to Bhagavān Viṣṇu and [then] performed by a person, I consider that the greatest learning.”
jāta-śraddho mat-kathāsu nirviṇṇaḥ sarva-karmasu |
veda duḥkhātmakān kāmān parityāge’py anīśvaraḥ ||
tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ |
juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.20.27–28)
“One who has śraddhā in discussions of me, is disinterested in all karmas [i.e., in all activities that are unrelated to me], and knows that desires are full of suffering [i.e., are invariable causes of suffering] yet is still unable to relinquish them, should thereafter worship me, being affectionate, full of śraddhā, and of firm resolve while both acceding to and condemning those objects of desire, the consequences of which are [only ultimately] suffering.”
yāvaj jano bhajati no bhuvi viṣṇu-bhakti-
vārttā-sudhā-rasa-viśeṣa-rasaika-sāram |
tāvaj jarā-maraṇa-janma-śatābhighāta-
duḥkhāni tāni labhate bahu-dehajāni ||
(Padma Purāṇa: Pātāla-khaṇḍa, 85.33; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 11.607; Bhakti Sandarbha: 115)
“As long as a human being on earth does not partake of [i.e., take shelter with bhakti in] the one essence—the rasa of the exceptional nectar of the tidings of Viṣṇu-bhakti—then one undergoes the sufferings of the lashings of hundreds of infirmities, deaths, and births begotten by numerous bodies [i.e., the severe suffering of saṁsāra is extinguished only when one attains Viṣṇu-bhakti, and thus attaining it is imperative].”
yāvat āchaye prāṇa, dehe āche śakti |
tāvat karaha kṛṣṇa-pāda-padme bhakti ||
(Chaitanya-bhāgavat: 2.1.342)
“As long as you live and there is ability in your body, engage in bhakti to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.”
sūryakānter raver yogād vahnis tatra prajāyate |
evaṁ vai sādhu-saṁyogād dharau bhaktiḥ prajāyate ||
(Padma Purāṇa: 6.132.13)
“Fire manifests there from the combination of a sun-crystal [lsy., a magnifying class] and the sun. Similarly, bhakti to Hari verily manifests from association with a sādhu.”
bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhakta-saṅgena parijāyate |
sat-saṅgaḥ prāpyate puṁbhiḥ sukṛtaiḥ pūrva-sañcitaiḥ ||
(Bṛhan Nāradīya Purāṇa; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 10.279)
“Bhakti, however, manifests from association with bhaktas of Bhagavān, and [such] association with sādhus is attained by human beings by previously accumulated sukṛti.”
antaḥ-śuddhir bahiḥ-śuddhis tapaḥ-śānty-adayas tathā |
amī guṇāḥ prapadyante hari-sevābhikāminām ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.263)
“Internal purity, external purity, austerity, peacefulness, and so forth—all these qualities take shelter in those who are desirous of serving Hari.”
vīkṣe divyākṣi-lakṣaiḥ sthira-cara-suṣamāṁ saurabhaṁ ghrāṇa-lakṣair
jighrāmy ākarṇaye ca śravaṇa-vitatibhis tvad-guṇān atyudārān |
pat-koṭyā tvayaṭeyaṁ yadi ca kara-śiraḥ koṭibhis tvāṁ nameyaṁ
no tṛptir me tathāpi priyatama-paramānanda-vṛndāvanādya ||
(Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta: 4.53)
“O dearmost, supremely blissful Vṛndāvana! If today I beheld the exquisite beauty of the mobile and immobile beings within you with hundreds of thousands of divine eyes, I smelled your fragrance with hundreds of thousands of noses, I heard your most exalted virtues with numerous ears, I were to roam about you with tens of millions of feet, and I were to bow to you with tens of millions of hands and feet, still I would feel no satiation.”
