bhaktir dūre’stu tasmin me nāparādhā bhavanti cet |
bahu manye tad ātmānaṁ nāham āgaḥsu rudravat ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.2.66)
“[Brahmādeva to Nārada:] Let alone bhakti, if I do not have any offenses to him [viz., Bhagavān], then I consider myself great [i.e., well]. I am not like Rudra in the case of offenses [i.e., Bhagavān does not forgive my offenses as he does Śiva’s].”
tad-darśanāhlāda-pariplutāntaro
hṛṣyat-tanuḥ prema-bharāśru-locanaḥ |
nanāma pādāmbujam asya viśva-sṛg
yat pāramahaṁsyena pathādhigamyate ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.9.17)
“Completely overwhelmed at heart
By the delight of his [i.e., Śrī Bhagavān’s] sight,
His bodily horripilating,
And his eyes filled with tears of prema,
The emanator of the universe [i.e., Brahmā]
Offered obeisance to his [i.e., Śrī Bhagavān’s] lotus feet,
Which are attained by the path of the paramahaṁsas [i.e., the path of bhakti].”
tad bhūri-bhāgyam iha janma kim apy aṭavyāṁ
yad gokule’pi katamāṅghri-rajo-’bhiṣekam |
yaj-jīvitaṁ tu nikhilaṁ bhagavān mukundas
tv adyāpi yat-pada-rajaḥ śruti-mṛgyam eva ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.14.34)
[A translation based on the commentary of Śrī Śrīdhara Svāmīpāda:] “May I have that great fortune in which a birth of any sort here in the forest in Gokula shall occur wherein I may also receive an ablution in the dust of the feet of anyone [there] whose entire life is Bhagavān, Mukunda, [he] whose footdust is verily an object to be sought by the Śrutis even to this very day.”
[A translation based on the commentary of Śrī Viśvanātha Carkavartīpāda:] “May I have that great fortune in which a birth of any sort here in the forest or even in Gokula shall occur wherein I may receive an ablution in the dust of the feet of anyone [there] whose entire life is Bhagavān, Mukunda, and whose footdust is verily an object to be sought by the Śrutis even to this very day.”
kṛṣṇāṅghri-padma-makaranda-nipāna-lubdho
jānāti tad-rasa-lihāṁ paramaṁ mahattvam |
brahmaiva gokula-bhuvām ayam uddhavo’pi
gopī-gaṇasya yad imau lasataḥ sma tat tat ||
yeṣāṁ hi yad vastuni bhāti lobhas
te tadvatāṁ bhāgya-balaṁ vidanti |
gopyo mukundādhara-pāna-lubdhā
gāyanti saubhāgya-bharaṁ muralyāḥ ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.5.157)
“One intensely desirous of drinking the nectar of the lotus of Kṛṣṇa’s feet knows the paramount greatness of those who taste that rasa; Brahmā certainly [knows that] of those born in Gokula and he, Uddhava, [knows that] of the gopīs, since they both long for those two [i.e., since Brahmā longs for the rasa relished by those born in Gokula and Uddhava longs for the rasa relished by the gopīs]. Those who have intense desire for an object speak of the strength of the fortune of those possessed of that [object]. Intensely desirous of drinking from the lips of Mukunda, the gopīs sing of the abundance of good fortune of the flute.”
vyāmohāya carācarasya jagatas te te purāṇāgamās
tāṁ tām eva hi devatāṁ paramikāṁ jalpantu kalpāvadhi |
siddhānte punar eka eva bhagavān viṣṇuḥ samastāgama-
vyāpāreṣu vivecana-vyatikaraṁ nīteṣu niścīyate ||
(Padma Purāṇa: 5.97.27; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 1.107; Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 2.4.142; Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.2.53; Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.20.142)
“Let the various Purāṇas and Āgamas chatter about the [supposed] supremacy of various devatās for the sake of deluding the world of moving and stationary beings to the end of the kalpa. When, however, the expressions of all the Āgamas are brought into conjoint examination, then, in accord with their siddhānta, one alone, Bhagavān Viṣṇu, is ascertained [to be supreme].”
Uddhava-gītā
Six verses in praise of the Vraja-gopīs expressed by Śrī Uddhava after delivering Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s messages from Mathurā.
Excerpted from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.47.58–63.
śrī-bṛhad-vāmane ca bhṛgv-ādīn prati śrī-brahma-vākyaṁ—
ṣaṣṭhi-varṣa-sahasrāṇi mayā taptaṁ tapaḥ purā |
nanda-gopa-vraja-strīṇāṁ pāda-reṇūpalabdhaye |
tathāpi na mayā prāptās tāsāṁ vai pāda-reṇavaḥ ||
bhṛgv-ādi-vākyaṁ—
vaiṣṇavānāṁ pāda-rajo gṛhyate tvad-vidhair api |
santi te bahavo loke vaiṣṇavā nāradādayaḥ ||
teṣāṁ vihāya gopīnāṁ pāda-reṇus tvayāpi yat |
gṛhyate saṁśayo me’tra ko hetus tad vada prabho ||
śrī-brahma-vākyaṁ—
na striyo vraja-sundaryaḥ putrāḥ śreṣṭhāḥ śriyo’pi tāḥ |
nāhaṁ śivaś ca śeṣaś ca śrīś ca tābhiḥ samāḥ kvacit ||
(Bṛhad-vāmana Purāṇa; cited in Laghu Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.1.31–33)
“A statement of Śrī Brahmā to Bhṛgu and others in Śrī Bṛhad-vāmana Purāṇa: ‘Austerity was practiced by me for 60,000 years to attain the foot-dust of the women of Nanda’s cowherd pasturelands. Still, their foot-dust was not attained by me.’ The reply of Bhṛgu and so forth: ‘[If] The foot-dust of Vaiṣṇavas is honored even by those like yourself, [then] there are many Vaiṣṇavas in the world such as Nārada [whose foot-dust you could honor]. [Still,] Avoiding theirs [i.e., their foot-dust], the foot-dust of the gopīs is honored even by you. I have a doubt about this. Please say, O Prabhu, what is the reason for that?’ The reply of Śrī Brahmā: ‘O sons! The beauties of Vraja are not women. They are superior even to Śrī [i.e., Lakṣmī]. Neither I, nor Śiva, nor Śeṣa, nor Śrī are ever equal to them.”
tad ekam evākhaṇḍānanda-svarūpaṁ tattvaṁ thūtkṛta-pārameṣṭhyādikānanda-samudayānāṁ paramahaṁsānāṁ sādhana-vaśāt tādātmyam āpanne, satyām api tadīya-svarūpa-śakti-vaicitryāṁ tad-grahaṇāsāmarthye cetasi yathā sāmānyato lakṣitaṁ, tathaiva sphurad vā, tadvad evāvivikta-śakti-śaktimattā-bhedatayā pratipādyamānaṁ vā brahmeti śabdyate |
(Bhagavat Sandarbha: 2)
“When transcendentalists (paramahaṁsas) who have spat on the bliss of supremacy and so forth [i.e., all varieties of so-called happiness that exist throughout saṁsāra, including even that of Lord Brahmā, who holds the supreme position within the fourteen worlds] attain as a result of sādhana a state of identity (tādātmya) [i.e., a qualified degree of oneness based on cognitive self-identification] with the one [Absolute] Reality which is undivided and of the nature of bliss, or, when it [i.e., that Absolute Reality] manifests exactly as it is generally regarded [by them] in their minds that are unable to perceive the variegation of its inherent (svarūpa) śakti [i.e., when it manifests without any sort of specificity as non-differentiated consciousness apparently equivalent in nature to the self (ātmā) in response to their being cognitively fixed in a state of self-identification with that Absolute Reality as non-differentiated consciousness], or when it as such is to be defined without discrimination between its possessing the division of being [both] śakti and the possessor of śakti (śaktimat), it is known as Brahman.”
bhagavān brahma kārtsnyena trir anvīkṣya manīṣayā |
tad adhyavasyat kūṭa-stho ratir ātman yato bhavet ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.2.34; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 11.567; Bhakti Sandarbha: 7, 29, 94)
“After thrice one-pointedly deliberating over the entirety of the Veda (Brahma), Bhagavān [i.e., Brahmā] determined with his discernment that because of which rati for the Ātmā [i.e., Śrī Hari] can come about.”
tava dāsya-sukhaika-saṅgināṁ
bhavaneṣv astv api kīṭa-janma me |
itarāvasatheṣu mā sma bhūd
api me janma caturmukhātmanā ||
(Stotra-ratna: 55)
“Let me take birth, even as a worm, in the homes of those whose only attachment is to the happiness of your service. Never let me take birth, even as he of four faces [i.e., Lord Brahmā], in any other situation.”
