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.”
karma, tapa, yoga, jñāna, vidhi-bhakti, japa, dhyāna,
ihā haite mādhurya durlabha |
kevala ye rāga-mārge, bhaje kṛṣṇe anurāge,
tāre kṛṣṇa-mādhurya sulabha ||
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta: 2.21.119)
“Karma [i.e., observing the duties of one’s varṇa and āśrama], tapa (austerity), yoga, jñāna [i.e., deliberation on the meaning of the Upaniṣads], vidhi-bhakti [i.e., devotion motivated by śāstric injunctions], japa (repetition of a mantra), dhyāna (meditation)—through these [Kṛṣṇa’s] mādhurya is difficult to attain. Only for one who worships Kṛṣṇa with anurāga (loving attachment) according to the path of rāga is Kṛṣṇa’s mādhurya easy to attain.”
ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate |
teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmyaham ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 9.22)
“I [personally] provide the acquisition and protection [of the bodily necessities] of those one-pointed, meditative, and ever-absorbed persons who worship me in full.”
yad yathā yathopāsate tad eva bhavanti |
(Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa: 10.5.2.20; cited in Prīti Sandarbha 51)
“One indeed becomes that which one meditates upon.”
viṣayān dhyāyataś cittaṁ viṣayeṣu visajjate |
mām anusmarataś cittaṁ mayy eva pravilīyate ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.14.27)
[Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava:] “A mind meditating upon the sense objects becomes greatly attached to the sense objects; a mind continuously remembering me becomes completely absorbed in me specifically.”
viṣayāviṣṭa-cittasya kṛṣṇāveśaḥ sudūrataḥ |
vāruṇī-dig-gataṁ vastu vrajan naindrīṁ kim āpnuyāt ||
(Viṣṇu Purāṇa)
“For one whose mind is absorbed in the sense objects, absorption in Kṛṣṇa is very far off. Can one attain an object situated in the West by going to the East?”
