ity evam upakāro’dya bhavatākāri me mahān |
tat te’smi parama-prīto nijābhīṣṭān varān vṛṇu ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.131)
[Śrī Bhagavān to Nārada:] “Thus in this way today [i.e., by reminding me of the gopīs] you have greatly favored me. Therefore, I am supremely pleased with you. Please choose your desired benedictions.”
mat-prīty-utpādana-vyagra śrī-nārada suhṛt-tama |
hitam evākṛtātyantaṁ bhavān me rasikottama ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.124)
[Śrī Bhagavān:] “O Nārada, O you who are eager to bring me pleasure, [and are thus] my dearest friend! You have indeed benefitted me to the highest degree, O very best of rasikas!”
nārāyaṇa-parāḥ sarve na kutaścana bibhyati |
svargāpavarga-narakeṣv api tulyārtha-darśinaḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 6.17.28; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 10.190; Bhakti-rasāmṛa-sindhu: 1.2.33; Prīti Sandarbha: 21, 47)
[Śiva to Pārvatī:] “All who are devoted to Nārāyaṇa do not become afraid under any circumstances. They are seers of the same object amid Svarga, liberation, and even Naraka.”
pibanti ye bhagavata ātmanaḥ satāṁ
kathāmṛtaṁ śravaṇa-puṭeṣu sambhṛtam |
punanti te viṣaya-vidūṣitāśayaṁ
vrajanti tac-caraṇa-saroruhāntikam ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.2.37; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 10.441; Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā on Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.3.124; Paramātma Sandarbha: 108; Bhakti Sandarbha: 30, 86)
“Those who drink, held in the cups of their ears, the nectar of kathā about Bhagavān, the Ātmā of the sādhus, purify their hearts contaminated by viṣaya and reach the presence of his lotus feet.”
śrīmat-prabhupadāmbhojaiḥ sarvā bhāgavatāmṛte |
vyaktīkṛtāsti gūḍhāpi bhakti-siddhānta-mādhurī ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.4.20)
“Although confidential, all the sweetness and siddhānta in regard to bhakti is clearly presented in the Bhāgavatāmṛta [i.e., Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta] by my blessed master of lotus feet [i.e., by Śrīmat Sanātana Gosvāmī Prabhupāda].”
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].”
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.”
itthaṁ vasaṁs tatra cireṇa vāñchitaṁ
vāñchādhikaṁ cāvirataṁ paraṁ phalam |
cittānupūrtyānubhavann api dhruvaṁ
vastu-svabhāvena na tṛptim āpnuyām ||
ato vraja-strī-kuca-kuṅkumācitaṁ
manoramaṁ tat-pada-paṅkaja-dvayam |
kadāpi kenāpi nijendriyādinā
na hātum īśe lava-leśam apy aham ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.368–9)
[Gopa Kumāra:] “Even by residing there [i.e., in Goloka] in this way and indeed continuously experiencing to the complete fulfillment of my heart that supreme result which was both what I had long desired and beyond [even] that desire, I could not attain satiation on account of the nature of that substance [i.e., prema]. Thus, I am not able to give up for even a fraction of a second by any means at any time with my senses or anything else his two charming lotus feet smeared with the kumkum from the breasts of the ladies of Vraja.”
tatratyaṁ yac ca tad duḥkhaṁ tat sarva-sukha-mūrdhasu |
sa narīnarti śokaś ca kṛtsnānanda-bharopari ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.367)
“The sorrow existing there [i.e., in Goloka] dances vigorously atop the heads of all forms of happiness, and the grief [existing there] dances vigorously above the multitude of all forms of bliss.”
