svasyoddhavasya te’py eṣa kṛtvāhaṁ śapathaṁ bruve |
duḥsādhyaṁ tat-padaṁ hy atra tat-sādhanam api druvam ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.5.208)
“Taking this oath before myself, Uddhava, and yourself, I say that here that domain [i.e., Goloka] is difficult to attain, and the means of attaining (sādhana) that certainly is as well.”
iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ guhyād guhyataraṁ mayā |
vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa yathecchasi tathā kuru ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 18.63)
“Thus [alt., such] knowledge more confidential than the confidential has been spoken by me to you. Reflect on this in full and do as you so wish.”
tam eva śaraṇaṁ gaccha sarva-bhāvena bhārata |
tat-prasādāt parāṁ śāntiṁ sthānaṁ prāpsyasi śāśvatam ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 18.62)
“Take shelter in him alone with the entirety of your being, O Bhārata. By his grace, you shall attain the supreme peace and the eternal abode.”
kṣaṇārdhenāpi tulaye na svargaṁ nāpunar-bhavam |
bhagavat-saṅgi-saṅgasya martyānāṁ kim utāśiṣaḥ ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 4.24.57; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 10.285; Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā on Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.7.14; Bhakti Sandarbha: 189, 247; Prīti Sandarbha: 30)
“[Bhagavān Śiva to the Pracetas:] I equate neither Svarga nor non-repetition of birth, much less the benedictions had by human beings, with even half a moment of association with those who are attached to Bhagavān.”
bhaktānāṁ hṛdayaṁ śāntaṁ saśriyo me priyaṁ gṛham |
vasāmi tatra śobhaiva vaikuṇṭhākhyādi-varṇanā ||
(Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya: 14.57; cited in Paramātma Sandarbha: 102)
“The peaceful heart of [my] bhaktas is the beloved abode of myself along with Śrī. I reside there, and the beauty [therein] is verily that the description of which is known as Vaikuṇṭha and so forth [i.e., the beauty found along with Śrī Bhagavān in the heart of his bhakta is that of his own divine abode of Vaikuṇṭha].”
īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe’rjuna tiṣṭhati |
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 18.61)
“O Arjuna, the Īśvara of all entities dwells in the region of the heart and with his māyā causes all entities to move mounted on an apparatus.”
teṣām evānukampārtham aham ajñānajaṁ tamaḥ |
nāśayāmy ātma-bhāva-stho jñāna-dīpena bhāsvatā ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 10.11)
“For the sake of favoring them specifically, I, situated within the cognition of the mind, cause the destruction of the darkness born of ignorance with the shining lamp of knowledge.”
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam |
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te ||
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 10.10)
“To those ever-intent [upon me] and worshiping [me] lovingly, I give that means of understanding by which they reach me.”
yadyapi śrī-nanda-yaśodādi-sadṛśa-bhāvenāpi śrī-goloko labhyate, tathāpi prāyo gopī-sadṛśa-bhāvenaiva tatra sarvathā manoratha-sampūrtyā phala-viśeṣaḥ sampadyata iti gopīnām utkarṣa-viśeṣo’tra varṇitaḥ |
(Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā on Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.5.203)
“Although Śrī Goloka is attainable also by means of bhāva akin to that of blessed Nanda, Yaśodā, and others, still because of the fulfillment of desires in all respects there [i.e., in Śrī Goloka] only by means of bhāva akin to that of the gopīs, a special result is manifested [by bhāva akin to that of the gopīs specifically]. Thus, a special excellence of the gopīs is described here.”
proktena bhakti-yogena bhajato māsakṛn muneḥ |
kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti sarve mayi hṛdi sthite ||
bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ |
kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi mayi dṛṣṭe’khilātmani ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.20.29–30)
“All desires situated in the heart are destroyed when the heart of a devotee worshiping me continuously by means of the [afore-] stated practice of bhakti becomes fixed upon me. The knot of the heart is rent, all doubts are cut away, and one’s karmas are eliminated when I, the Self of all, am seen.”
