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].”