cittaṁ cittād upāgamya munir āsīta saṁyataḥ |
yac cittas tanmayo’vaśyaṁ guhyam etat sanātanam ||
(Mahābhārata: 14.51.27)
“Returning from the mind (citta) to the mind [i.e., focusing one’s awareness], a sage should sit restrained. As is the mind, so one inevitably becomes. This is the eternal secret.”
cittam eva hi saṁsāras tat prayatnena śodhayet |
yac cittas tanmayo bhāti guhyam etat sanātanam ||
(Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad: 6.34.3; Śāṭyāyanīya Upaniṣad: 3)
“The citta (mind) itself is saṁsāra [i.e., the condition of one’s citta is the cause of the perpetuation of one’s bondage in saṁsāra]. Purify it with exertion. As is the citta, so one becomes [i.e., one becomes absorbed in, constituted of, and/or identical to the content in one’s citta]. This is the eternal secret.”
viṣayīra anna khāile malina haya mana |
malina mana haile nahe kṛṣṇera smaraṇa ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 3.6.278)
“When you eat the food of viṣayīs, the mind becomes contaminated, and when the mind is contaminated, there is no remembrance of Kṛṣṇa.”
ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahādāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam |
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ
sarvātma-snapanaṁ paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam ||
(Padyāvalī: 22; cited in Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 3.20.12)
“Cleansing the mirror of the mind,
Extinguishing the raging forest fire of material existence,
Shining moonlight on the evening lotus of good fortune,
The life of the wife of knowledge,
Expanding the ocean of bliss,
The taste of full nectar at every moment,
Bathing the entire self—
Śrī Kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtana is supremely triumphant!”
saṅkīrtanārambha-kṛte’pi gaure
dhāvanti jīva-śravaṇe guṇāni |
aśuddha-cittāḥ kim u śuddha-cittāḥ
śrutvā pramattāḥ khalu te nanartuḥ ||
(Caitanya-śataka: 32)
“Even when Gaura had just begun his saṅkīrtana, the qualities [of the name] purified the ears of the jīvas. Those of impure mind, and all the more those of pure mind, upon hearing [the saṅkīrtana], became indeed maddened and danced.”
anarthi-tarpaṇaṁ vittaṁ cittam adhyāna-darpaṇam |
atīrtha-sarpaṇaṁ dehaṁ paryante śocyatāṁ vrajet ||
(Mahāsubhāṣita-saṅgraha)
“Wealth that does not satisfy the needy, a mind that is not a mirror for meditation, and a body that does not go to the tīrthas shall become lamentable in the end.”
nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema sādhya kabhu naya |
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.22.104)
“Eternally existent Kṛṣṇa-prema is never something to be produced [i.e., created, lit., accomplished]. It [being eternal existent] manifests into a heart purified by śravaṇa and so forth [i.e., by the practices of sādhana-bhakti].”
vidvān apītthaṁ danujāḥ kuṭumbaṁ
puṣṇan sva-lokāya na kalpate vai
yaḥ svīya-pārakya-vibhinna-bhāvas
tamaḥ prapadyeta yathā vimūḍhaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 7.6.16)
[Prahlāda Mahārāja:] “O sons of Danu, although learned [in śāstra], one who bears the disposition of distinction between one’s own and others’, by maintaining his family in this way, is not at all able to look at himself [i.e., to deliberate upon the ātmā] and like a complete fool proceeds into darkness.”
samāsaktaṁ yadā cittaṁ jantor viṣaya-gocare |
yady evaṁ brahmaṇi syāt tat ko na mucyeta bandhanāt ||
(Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad: 6.34.5)
“When a living being’s citta is fully attached to the sphere of the sense objects, if it were to become such [i.e., if it were to become instead fully attached] to Brahman, then who would not become liberated from bondage?”
astu tāvat śuddha-bhakty-ābhāsasya vārttā | aparādhatvena dṛśyamāno’py asau mahā-prabhāvo dṛśyate | … atha śrī-bhagavad-vaśīkāritāyām api sakṛd alpa-prayāsātmikāyā api bhakteḥ kāraṇatā dṛśyate | tad evaṁ yathārtha eva tan-māhātmye saty api yatra samprati tat-tad-bhajana-phalodayo na dṛśyate, kutracic chāstre ca purātanānām apy anyathā śrūyate tatra nāmārthavāda-kalpanā vaiṣṇavānādarādayo durantā aparādhā eva pratibandha-kāraṇaṁ vaktavyam | … yathā prāyeṇādhunikānām … tādṛśāparādhe bhakti-stambhaś … | ataḥ … āvṛttir asakṛd-upadeśāt ity-ādau ca puruṣāṇāṁ prāyaḥ sāparādhatvābhiprāyeṇaivāvṛtti-vidhānam | … atrāparādhālambanatvenaiva vartamānānāṁ pāpa-vāsanānāṁ sahaivāparādhena nāśa iti tātparyam | etādṛśa-pratibandhāpekṣayaivoktaṁ viṣṇu-dharme—rāgādi-dūṣitaṁ cittaṁ nāspadaṁ madhusūdane | badhnāti na ratiṁ haṁsaḥ kadācit kardamāmbuni || na yogyā keśavaṁ stotuṁ vāg duṣṭā cānṛtādinā | tamaso nāśanāyālaṁ nendor lekhā ghanāvṛtā || iti | siddhānām āvṛttis tu pratipadam eva sukha-viśeṣodayārthā | asiddhānām āvṛtti-niyamaḥ phala-paryāpti-paryantas tad-antarāye’parādhāvasthiti-vitarkāt |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 153)
“Let alone mention of a semblance of pure bhakti [itself], this [i.e., a semblance of pure bhakti] appearing even with the characteristic of being an aparādha is seen to possess great power [e.g., a mouse which performed the act of waving a ghee wick before a deity in the course of trying to remove the wick from its mouth became reborn as a queen with niṣṭhā for the bhakti-sādhana of offering ghee lamps to Bhagavān and then attained Bhagavān’s abode]. … Furthermore, even a single act of bhakti constituted of slight effort being a cause even of bringing Śrī Bhagavān under control is seen [in accounts related in śāstra]. … Therefore, even though its [i.e., bhakti’s] greatness is indeed real, where the manifestation of the result of various types of bhajana is not seen, and in some śāstras where otherwise [i.e., non-attainment of such results] is heard of even in the case of ancient persons, there [i.e., in those cases] it is to be said that the difficult to overcome aparādhas of arthavāda and kalpanā regarding the name, disregard for Vaiṣṇavas, and so forth, are alone the cause of obstruction [of the results of bhakti becoming manifest]. … As for the most part in the case of people of the present-day … because such aparādha is present, there is obstruction of bhakti [i.e., non-manifestation of bhakti’s effects]. … Thus, injunctions [in śāstra] for repetition [of bhakti-sādhana practices], such as (VS 4.1.1), ’Repetition [of sādhana practices] should be done repeatedly because of instructions [to do so in the śāstra]’ (āvṛttir asakṛd upadeśāt), carry the import that people in general are implicated in aparādha. … Here [i.e., in regard to bhakti-sādhana’s purification of aparādha], the intention is that there occurs destruction of [one’s] present inclinations (vāsanās) for sin (pāpa), which are entirely based on [previously committed] aparādhas, along with the aparādhas themselves. Specifically in regard to such obstruction [i.e., the obstruction of bhakti’s effects by aparādha], there is a statement in the Viṣṇu-dharma: ‘A heart polluted by attachment (rāga) and so forth is not a place for Madhusūdana, as a swan is never bound by affection to muddy water. Speech contaminated by untruth and so forth is unfit to praise Keśava, as the rays of the moon blocked by clouds are not able to dispel darkness.’ The repetition [of bhakti-sādhana practices, such as hearing of and praising Bhagavān] of siddhas [i.e., siddha-bhaktas in contrast to non-siddhas, that is, people in general and sādhakas, as discussed above], on the contrary, is a result of the manifestation of special joy at every moment [which they experience as a result of engaging in bhakti]. The regulation [given in śāstra] of repetition for non-siddhas is [applicable] up to attainment of the result [i.e., up to the attainment of siddhi in bhakti] because the existence of aparādha is conjectured when obstruction to it [i.e., to the manifestation of the effect of bhakti] is present.”
