bhavān hi kāraṇaṁ tatra sarva-jño jagad-īśvaraḥ |
anugrahaṁ nigrahaṁ vā manyase tad vidhehi naḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.16.59)
“Because you, the all-knowing Īśvara of the universe, are the cause in this regard [i.e., of one giving up your māyā], please give us mercy or punishment, as you think [fit].”
durūhādbhuta-vīrye’smin śraddhā dūre’stu pañcake |
yatra svalpo’pi sambandhaḥ sad-dhiyāṁ bhāva-janmane ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.238; cited in Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.22.133)
“Let alone having śraddhā in them [i.e., performing them with śraddhā], even slight connection with these five [limbs of bhakti of difficult to comprehend and wonderful power [i.e., even slight performance without śraddhā of sādhu-saṅga, nāma-kīrtana, Bhāgavata-śravaṇa, Mathurā-vāsa, or śrī-mūrti-sevā] gives rise to bhāva in those of pure mind [i.e., those whose minds are free from aparādha].”
saubhares tu garuḍāya kupyato yasmin kṛpā ajaniṣṭha tasya mīnasyaiva saṅgād utthitā durvāsanaivāparādha-phalaṁ yataś ca vilupta-brahmānandaḥ sacira-sañcita-tapas-sṛṣṭa-svayauvanenaiva mūlyena kāminī-vṛndaṁ krītvā tatraiva naraka-tulye viṣayānande nimajjann aparādha-bhogānte śrī-vṛndāvana-yamunāśraya-māhātmyenaiva paścān nistatāreti navame kathā |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭīkā on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.17.11)
“The ill-inclination (durvāsanā) which arose through the association of the very fish upon whom Saubhari, who was angry at Garuḍa, showed grace was a result of [his, i.e., Saubhari’s] aparādha [against Garuḍa], since he became disengaged from the bliss of Brahman [as a result of this aparādha], and he bought a group of desirable woman for the price of his personal youth produced with [the results of] his long accumulated austerities, became absorbed there itself [i.e., in the company of those women] in bliss related to viṣaya, which is comparable to Naraka, and [only] after enduring [the full result of his] aparādha was delivered thereafter only by the greatness of the shelter of Śrī Vṛndāvana and the Yamunā [where he had originally come to engage in sādhana]. This is narrated in the Ninth Canto.”
ātmāparādha-vṛkṣāṇāṁ phalāny etāni dehinām |
roga-śoka-parītāpa-bandhana-vyasanāni ca ||
(Hitopadeśa: Mitra-lābha, 41)
“These are the fruits of the trees of an embodied being’s own offenses: disease, grief, suffering, bondage, and vices [alt., adversities].”
yataḥ kauṭilyam, aśraddhā bhagavan-niṣṭhā-cyāvaka-vastv-antarābhiniveśaḥ, bhakti-śaithilyaṁ, sva-bhakty-ādi-kṛta-mānitvam ity evam-ādīni mahat-saṅgādi-lakṣāṇa-bhaktyāpi nivartayituṁ duṣkarāṇi cet, tarhi tasyāparādhasyaiva kāryāṇi, tāny eva ca prācīnasya tasya liṅgāni | … śrī-bhagavati śrī-gurau tad-bhaktādiṣu cāntarānādarādāv api sati bahis tad-arcanādy-ārambhaḥ kauṭilyam | … athāśraddhā dṛṣṭe śrute’pi tan-mahimādau viparīta-bhāvanādinā viśvāsābhāvaḥ | … atha bhakti-śaithilyaṁ yenādhyātmikādi-sukha-duḥkha-niṣṭhaivollasati | … bhakty-ādi-kṛtābhimānatvaṁ cāparādha-kṛtam eva, vaiṣṇavāvamānādi-laksaṇāparādhāntara-janakatvāt |
(Bhakti-sandarbha: 153, 155, 159)
“If (1) crookedness, (2) aśraddhā, (3) absorption in other objects that erodes fixity upon Bhagavān, (4) slackening in bhakti, (5) pridefulness in one’s acts of bhakti and so forth, and other such [behaviors] are difficult to abstain from even by means of bhakti in the form of association with the great (mahat) and so forth, then they are effects of one’s aparādha [committed in this life] and indicators of that [i.e., aparādha committed] in the past [i.e., in previous lives]. … Externally performing worship and so forth of Śrī Bhagavān, śrī guru, his [i.e., Bhagavān’s] bhaktas, and others even while bearing disrespect and so forth towards them internally is [called] crookedness (kauṭilya). … The absence of conviction (viśvāsa) in his [i.e., Bhagavān’s] greatness and so forth, even when it is seen or heard of, as a result of contrary opinion and so forth [e.g., assumption of deception, assumption of impossibility, etc.] is [called] aśraddhā [“faithlessness”]. … Slackening in bhakti is that by which fixity upon pleasures and pains related to the self and so forth [i.e., (1) related to one’s own body and mind (ādhyātmika), (2) related to other living beings (ādhibhautika), and (3) related to natural phenomena (ādhidaivika)] increases. … Pridefulness in one’s acts of bhakti and so forth is created by aparādha because of [it, i.e., such pridefulness] being a cause of other aparādhas, such as disrespecting Vaiṣṇavas [i.e., because an act that is not an effect of aparādha will not give rise to a further effect that is an aparādha, pridefulness in one’s own acts of bhakti is inferred to be an effect of aparādha since it leads to aparādhas such as disrespecting Vaiṣṇavas].”
astu tāvat śuddha-bhakty-ābhāsasya vārttā | aparādhatvena dṛśyamāno’py asau mahā-prabhāvo dṛśyate | … atha śrī-bhagavad-vaśīkāritāyām api sakṛd alpa-prayāsātmikāyā api bhakteḥ kāraṇatā dṛśyate | tad evaṁ yathārtha eva tan-māhātmye saty api yatra samprati tat-tad-bhajana-phalodayo na dṛśyate, kutracic chāstre ca purātanānām apy anyathā śrūyate tatra nāmārthavāda-kalpanā vaiṣṇavānādarādayo durantā aparādhā eva pratibandha-kāraṇaṁ vaktavyam | … yathā prāyeṇādhunikānām … tādṛśāparādhe bhakti-stambhaś … | ataḥ … āvṛttir asakṛd-upadeśāt ity-ādau ca puruṣāṇāṁ prāyaḥ sāparādhatvābhiprāyeṇaivāvṛtti-vidhānam | … atrāparādhālambanatvenaiva vartamānānāṁ pāpa-vāsanānāṁ sahaivāparādhena nāśa iti tātparyam | etādṛśa-pratibandhāpekṣayaivoktaṁ viṣṇu-dharme—rāgādi-dūṣitaṁ cittaṁ nāspadaṁ madhusūdane | badhnāti na ratiṁ haṁsaḥ kadācit kardamāmbuni || na yogyā keśavaṁ stotuṁ vāg duṣṭā cānṛtādinā | tamaso nāśanāyālaṁ nendor lekhā ghanāvṛtā || iti | siddhānām āvṛttis tu pratipadam eva sukha-viśeṣodayārthā | asiddhānām āvṛtti-niyamaḥ phala-paryāpti-paryantas tad-antarāye’parādhāvasthiti-vitarkāt |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 153)
“Let alone mention of a semblance of pure bhakti [itself], this [i.e., a semblance of pure bhakti] appearing even with the characteristic of being an aparādha is seen to possess great power [e.g., a mouse which performed the act of waving a ghee wick before a deity in the course of trying to remove the wick from its mouth became reborn as a queen with niṣṭhā for the bhakti-sādhana of offering ghee lamps to Bhagavān and then attained Bhagavān’s abode]. … Furthermore, even a single act of bhakti constituted of slight effort being a cause even of bringing Śrī Bhagavān under control is seen [in accounts related in śāstra]. … Therefore, even though its [i.e., bhakti’s] greatness is indeed real, where the manifestation of the result of various types of bhajana is not seen, and in some śāstras where otherwise [i.e., non-attainment of such results] is heard of even in the case of ancient persons, there [i.e., in those cases] it is to be said that the difficult to overcome aparādhas of arthavāda and kalpanā regarding the name, disregard for Vaiṣṇavas, and so forth, are alone the cause of obstruction [of the results of bhakti becoming manifest]. … As for the most part in the case of people of the present-day … because such aparādha is present, there is obstruction of bhakti [i.e., non-manifestation of bhakti’s effects]. … Thus, injunctions [in śāstra] for repetition [of bhakti-sādhana practices], such as (VS 4.1.1), ’Repetition [of sādhana practices] should be done repeatedly because of instructions [to do so in the śāstra]’ (āvṛttir asakṛd upadeśāt), carry the import that people in general are implicated in aparādha. … Here [i.e., in regard to bhakti-sādhana’s purification of aparādha], the intention is that there occurs destruction of [one’s] present inclinations (vāsanās) for sin (pāpa), which are entirely based on [previously committed] aparādhas, along with the aparādhas themselves. Specifically in regard to such obstruction [i.e., the obstruction of bhakti’s effects by aparādha], there is a statement in the Viṣṇu-dharma: ‘A heart polluted by attachment (rāga) and so forth is not a place for Madhusūdana, as a swan is never bound by affection to muddy water. Speech contaminated by untruth and so forth is unfit to praise Keśava, as the rays of the moon blocked by clouds are not able to dispel darkness.’ The repetition [of bhakti-sādhana practices, such as hearing of and praising Bhagavān] of siddhas [i.e., siddha-bhaktas in contrast to non-siddhas, that is, people in general and sādhakas, as discussed above], on the contrary, is a result of the manifestation of special joy at every moment [which they experience as a result of engaging in bhakti]. The regulation [given in śāstra] of repetition for non-siddhas is [applicable] up to attainment of the result [i.e., up to the attainment of siddhi in bhakti] because the existence of aparādha is conjectured when obstruction to it [i.e., to the manifestation of the effect of bhakti] is present.”
vaiṣṇavera ṭhāñi sadā habe sāvadhāna |
kono-rūpa kāro yena nahe apamāna ||
(Unknown Source)
“Always be cautious with Vaiṣṇavas so that no dishonor occurs of anyone [of them] in any way.”
karapatraiś ca phālyante sutīvrair yama-śāsanaiḥ |
nindāṁ kurvanti ye pāpā vaiṣṇavānāṁ mahātmanām ||
pūjito bhagavān viṣṇur janmāntara-śatair api |
prasīdati na viśvātmā vaiṣṇave cāpamānite ||
(Dvārakā Māhātmya; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 10.314–15)
“Sinners who engage in defamation of great Vaiṣṇavas are cleaved with very sharp saws by the envoys of Yama. Even if Bhagavān Viṣṇu, the Ātmā of the universe, is worshipped for hundreds of lifetimes, he does not become pleased with one who has dishonored a Vaiṣṇava.”
vaiṣṇavā viṣṇuvat pūjyā mama mānyā viśeṣataḥ |
teṣāṁ kṛte’pamāne’pi vināśo jāyate dhruvam ||
(Skanda Puṛāṇa; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 10.233)
[Yamarāja:] “Vaiṣṇavas are worshippable like Viṣṇu, and they are honorable to me in particular. If they are even dishonored, destruction certainly ensues.”
janma-prabhṛti yat kiñcit sukṛtaṁ samupārjitam |
nāśam āyāti tat sarvaṁ pīḍayed yadi vaiṣṇavān ||
(Skanda Purāṇa; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa 10.313)
“If one troubles Vaiṣṇavas, then all the sukṛti one has accumulated since birth is destroyed.”
