śire vajra paḍe yadi putra mari yāya |
tāhā sahi, tomāra viccheda sahana nā yāya ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.7.48)
“If a thunderbolt strikes my head or my son dies, I can tolerate that. Tolerating separation from you [however] is not possible.”
cira-kāla nāhi kari prema-bhakti-dāna |
bhakti vinā jagatera nāhi avasthāna ||14||
sakala jagate more kare vidhi-bhakti |
vidhi-bhaktye vraja-bhāva pāite nāhi śakti ||15||
aiśvarya-jñānete saba jagat miśrita |
aiśvarya-śikhila-preme nāhi mora prīta ||16||
aiśvarya-jñāne vidhi-bhajana kariyā |
vaikuṇṭhete yāya catur-vidha mukti pāyyā ||17||
sārṣṭi, sārūpya, āra sāmīpya, sālokya | …
āpani kariba bhakta-bhāva aṅgīkāre |
āpani ācari bhakti śikhāimu sabhāre ||20||
āpani nā kaile dharma śikhāna nā yāya |
ei ta siddhānta gītā-bhāgavate gāya |21|| …
yuga-dharma-pravartana haya aṁśa haite |
āmā vinā anye nāre vraja-prema dite ||26||
santv avatārā bahavaḥ paṅkaja-nābhasya sarvvato-bhadrāḥ |
kṛṣṇād anyaḥ ko vā latāsv api premado bhavati ||27||
tāhāte āpana bhakta-gaṇa kari saṅge |
pṛthivīte avatari karimu nānā raṅge ||28||
eta bhāvi kali-kāle prathama sandhyāya |
avatīrṇa hailā kṛṣṇa āpani nadīyāya ||29||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 1.3.14–18, 20–21, 26–29)
“[After his descent (avatāra) at the end of the Dvāpāra-yuga, Śrī Kṛṣṇa mused:] ‘For a long time, I have not bestowed the gift of prema-bhakti [upon the world], and without bhakti the world has no stability. The whole world engages in injunction-based (vidhi) bhakti to me. There is no power in injunction-based bhakti [however] to attain Vraja-bhāva. The whole world is mixed with awareness of [my] aiśvarya (masterdom). My satisfaction does not come about [however] through prema slackened by [awareness of my] aiśvarya. By performing injunction based worship with awareness of [my] aiśvarya, people go to Vaikuṇṭha upon attaining [one or more of] the four types of mukti: sārṣṭi [i.e., possessing opulence akin to mine], sārūpya [i.e., possessing a form akin to mine], sāmīpya [i.e., dwelling in my personal company], and sālokya [i.e., dwelling in my domain]. … [Therefore,] I will personally accept the bhāva of a bhakta, and I will teach everyone bhakti by practicing it personally. Dharma cannot be taught if one does not follow it personally. This is the conclusion sung in the Gītā and Bhāgavatam [see, e.g., BG 4.7–8, 3.24, 3.21]. … Propagation of the dharma for the age can be done by an aṁśa [i.e., a partial manifestation of myself]. No one other than I [however] can bestow Vraja-prema [since it is said], “There may be many all-auspicious avatāras of he of lotus-navel [i.e. Bhagavān], but who other than Kṛṣṇa is the bestower of prema upon even creepers?” Thus, I will personally descend to the earth with my bhaktas and engage in various merriments.’ Musing thus, Kṛṣṇa personally descended in Nadia during the first phase of the Age of Kali.”
mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes
tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam |
mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ praśāntā
vimanyavaḥ suhṛdaḥ sādhavo ye |
ye vā mayīśe kṛta-sauhṛdārthā
janeṣu dehambhara-vārtikeṣu ||
gṛheṣu jāyātmaja-rātimatsu
na prīti-yuktā yāvad-arthāś ca loke ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 5.5.2–3; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 10.17, 69; Bhakti Sandarbha: 186; Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.22.82)
“Service to the mahats is said to be the door to ultimate mukti, and attachment to those who are attached to women [is said to be] the door to darkness. The mahāntas are they who are of equal mind, tranquil, free from anger, friendly, and virtuous, or, they who (1) have made affection [i.e., prema] for me, Īśa, their aim, (2) are unpossessed of affinity for persons fixated upon affairs related to bodily maintenance and houses accompanied by wives, children, and friends, and (3) are possessed of only so much wealth [as is necessary] in this world.”
kṛṣṇa sei satya kare, yei māge bhṛtya |
bhṛtya-vāñchā-pūrti-vinu nāhi anya kṛtya ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.15.168)
“Kṛṣṇa manifests that which [his] servants ask for. He has no task other than fulfilling [his] servants’ desires.”
cintāmaṇir jayati somagirir gurur me
śikṣā-guruś ca bhagavān śikhi-piñcha-mauliḥ |
yat-pāda-kalpa-taru-pallava-śekhareṣu
līlā-svayaṁvara-rasaṁ labhate jayaśrīḥ ||
(Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛtam: 1; cited in Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 1.1.57)
“My guru,
The thought-jewel Somagiri,
Triumphs,
As does my instructing guru,
Bhagavān,
Whose crest is a peacock feather
And at the tips of the shoots of the desire-tree of whose feet
Jayaśrī playfully tastes the rasa of svayaṁvara.”
duḥsaṅga kahi—kaitava ātma-vañcanā |
‘kṛṣṇa’-‘kṛṣṇa-bhakti’ vinu anya-kāmanā ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.2.24.100)
“We call deceit and self-deception, that is, desire for anything other than Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa-bhakti, wrong attachment (duḥsaṅga).”
emana kṛpālu nāhi śuni tribhuvane |
kṛṣṇa-premā haya yāra dūra-daraśane ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.16.121)
“We do not hear of anyone so gracious in the three worlds, by [even] the distant sight of whom prema for Kṛṣṇa manifests.”
adbhuta nigūḍha premera mādhurya-mahimā |
āpani āsvādi’ prabhu dekhāilā sīmā ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 3.17.67)
“The greatness of the sweetness (mādhurya) of prema is astonishing and highly confidential. Personally relishing [this], Prabhu showed the extremity [thereof].”
sneha-leśāpekṣā mātra īśvara-kṛpāra |
sneha-vaśa hañā kare svatantra ācāra ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.10.139)
“Īśvara’s grace depends only on a trace of affection. Controlled by affection, it acts independently.”
nirviṇṇānāṁ jñāna-yogo nyāsinām iha karmasu |
teṣv anirviṇṇa-cittānāṁ karma-yogas tu kāminām ||
yadṛcchayā mat-kathādau jāta-śraddhas tu yaḥ pumān |
na nirviṇṇo nātisakto bhakti-yogo’sya siddhidaḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.20.7–8; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 11.553; Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.15; Bhakti Sandarbha: 171; Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.22.50)
“[Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Śrī Uddhava:] In this regard, the practice (yoga) of jñāna of the disinterested and renounced in regard to karmas, the practice of karma of the desirous whose minds are not disinterested in them [i.e., in karmas], and the practice of bhakti of a person who independently becomes possessed of śraddhā in discussion and so forth of me has manifested independently and who is neither disinterested nor excessively attached, is a granter of success.”
