sā bhaktiḥ sādhanaṁ bhāvaḥ
sā bhaktiḥ sādhanaṁ bhāvaḥ premā ceti tridhoditā |
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.1)
“That bhakti [i.e., uttama-bhakti] is said to have three stages: sādhana-bhakti, bhāva-bhakti, and prema-bhakti.”
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yo yo mayi pare dharmaḥ
yo yo mayi pare dharmaḥ kalpyate niṣphalāya cet |
tatrāyāso nirarthaḥ syād bhayāder iva sattama ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.29.21; cited in Bhakti Sandarbha: 148, 333)
“O best of the virtuous, if any sort of dharma [i.e., any sort of practice of bhakti, such as hearing, praising, and so on] related to me, the Supreme, is performed not for the purpose of a result [i.e., not out of desire for worldly attainments, Svarga, mokṣa, and so on, but rather only for the purpose of pleasing me], then exertion regarding it [i.e., for the purpose of accomplishing it] is useless [i.e., such actions can be effortlessly made manifested by bhakti’s inherent potency, and thus exertion to accomplish it is useless], just like exertion out of fear and so forth [i.e., just like fleeing out of fear, crying out of sorrow in a forest where no one can hear, and so on, are useless].”
brahmānando bhaved eṣa
brahmānando bhaved eṣa cet parārddha-guṇīkṛtaḥ |
naiti bhakti-sukhāmbhodheḥ paramāṇu-tulām api ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.1.38)
“If this bliss of Brahman [i.e., the bliss of samādhi in nirviśeṣa Brahman] accumulated for a parārddha [i.e., half of the life of Brahmā, fifty quadrillion years], it would not equal even an atom in the ocean of the joy of bhakti.”
sādhanaughair anāsangair
sādhanaughair anāsangair alabhyā sucirād api |
hariṇā cāśv adeyeti dvidhā sā syāt sudurlabhā ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.1.35)
“Its [i.e., bhakti’s] being very difficult to attain is twofold: (1) [even] through loads of sādhana [performed] devoid of attachment [i.e., āsakti], it is unattainable even after a very long time, and (2) [even when sādhana is performed with attachment] it is not to be given by Hari quickly.”
kleśa-ghnī śubhadā
kleśa-ghnī śubhadā mokṣa-laghutā-kṛt sudurlabhā |
sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.1.17)
“It [i.e., uttamā-bhakti] is (1) a destroyer of affliction and (2) a bestower of good fortune [in the stage of sādhana], (3) a belittler of liberation and (4) very difficult to attain [at the stage of bhāva], and (5) a special form of intense bliss and (6) an attractor of Śrī Kṛṣṇa [at the stage of prema].”
mad-guṇa-śruti-mātreṇa
mad-guṇa-śruti-mātreṇa mayi sarva-guhāśaye |
mano-gatir avicchinnā yathā gaṅgāmbhaso’mbudhau ||
lakṣaṇaṁ bhakti-yogasya nirguṇasya hy udāhṛtam |
ahaituky avyavahitā yā bhaktiḥ puruṣottame ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 3.29.11–12; cited in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.13–15; Bhakti Sandarbha: 234)
“‘[Kapiladeva to Devahūti:] Bhakti which is an uninterrupted, causeless, and unobstructed flow of the mind—solely because of hearing my qualities—towards me, the Supreme Person, who dwells in the hearts [lit., “caves”] of all, like [the flow of] the water of the Gaṅgā towards the ocean, is said to be the characteristic of nirguṇa-bhakti-yoga.”
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam |
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.1.11)
“Continuous action for [alt., related to] Kṛṣṇa possessed of favorability that is free from desirousness of anything else and unobstructed by jñāna, karma, and so forth, is uttamā (exalted) bhakti.”
yad ubhe citta-kāṭhinya
yad ubhe citta-kāṭhinya-hetū prāyaḥ satāṁ mate |
sukumāra-svabhāveyaṁ bhaktis tad-dhetur īritā ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.249)
“Because in the view of sādhus both [i.e., jñāna and vairāgya] are generally causes of hardness of heart, this bhakti, which is of very tender nature, is said to be the cause of that [i.e., of entering into bhakti].”
jñāna-vairāgyayor bhakti
jñāna-vairāgyayor bhakti-praveśāyopayogitā |
īṣat prathamam eveti nāṅgatvam ucitaṁ tayoḥ ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.248)
“Because jñāna and vairāgya are somewhat useful only at first for entrance into bhakti, their being limbs [of bhakti] is not acceptable.”
bhaktir hi svataḥ prabalatvād anya-nirapekṣā
bhaktir hi svataḥ prabalatvād anya-nirapekṣā | na tu jñānādivat samyag vairāgyādi-sāpekṣā |
(Durgama-saṅgamanī-ṭīkā on Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.15)
“Bhakti, because of its own great power, is independent of others [i.e., is not dependent on the paths of jñāna or karma], and not, rather, dependent on complete vairāgya and so forth like jñāna and so forth [i.e., is not like jñāna and karma dependent, respectively, on vairāgya and eligibility for varṇāśrama-dharma].”