brahman yam anugṛhṇāmi tad viśo vidhunomy aham |
yan madaḥ puruṣaḥ stabdho lokaṁ māṁ cāvamanyate ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 8.22.24; cited in Prīti Sandarbha: 47)
“[Śrī Bhagavān:] O Brahmā, from one whom I favor I remove that wealth by which the person becomes proud, obstinate, and disrespectful towards the world and myself.”
vana-mālini yādṛśāśayo mama tādṛṅ na kapāla-mālini |
asite mudire yathā śikhī mudam abhyeti tathā na pāṇḍure ||
devyas taṭinyas tridaśās taḍāgā viśveśvaro’yaṁ saritām adhīśaḥ |
tṛṣṇāharaḥ ko’pi kṛṣṇa-meghaṁ vihāya cintāmaṇi-cātakasya ||
(Cintāmaṇi Dīkṣita; cited in Bhakti Sandarbha 106)
“My heart does not find delight in he who wears a skull-garland [i.e., Śiva] as it does in he who wears a forest garland [i.e., Kṛṣṇa]; a peacock does not find delight in a white cloud as it does in a dark cloud. The devīs are [like] rivers, the devas are [like] ponds, and this Viśveśvara [i.e., Śiva] is [like] an ocean, but no one is the remover of the cātaka Cintāmaṇi’s thirst except the cloud Kṛṣṇa.”
phullendīvara-kāntim indu-vadanaṁ barhāvataṁsa-priyaṁ
śrīvatsāṅkam udāra-kaustubha-dharaṁ pītāmbaraṁ sundaram |
gopīnāṃ nayanotpalārcita-tanuṁ go-gopa-saṅghāvṛtaṁ
govindaṁ kala-veṇu-vādana-paraṁ divyāṅgabhūṣaṁ bhaje||
(Śāradākāra; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 1.3.114; Padyāvalī: 46; Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha: 106; Gaura-govindārcana-paddhati: 142)
“Blossoming blue-lotus luster,
A moon face,
A dear peacock-feather crest [atop his crown],
Marked with the śrīvatsa,
Wearing the charming Kaustubha,
Clad in yellow garments,
Charming,
His figure worshipped by the water lilies of the gopīs’ eyes,
Surrounded by a drove of cows and cowherds,
Sublime softly playing the flute,
Replete divine body ornaments,
I meditate on Govinda [in this way].”
śuddhiṁ śuddha-bhakti-vāsanā-rūpām |
(Prīti Sandarbha: 36)
“‘Purity’ (śuddhim) [as spoken of in SB 7.13.22] refers to inclination (vāsanā) for pure bhakti [to Bhagavān].”
tad evaṁ śaraṇāpattir vivṛtā |
asyāś cāpūrvatvaṁ tāṁ vinā tadīyatvāsiddheḥ |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 237)
“Thus, in this way, śaraṇāpatti [i.e., śaraṇāgati] has been described. And its incomparability [lit., “unprecedentedness”] is because of the non-establishment of being his own without it [i.e., one does not attain the actual feeling of belonging to Bhagavān, and Bhagavān does not actually consider one his own, that is, as one of his bhaktas, without śaraṇāgati].”
yasyām eva kavaya ātmānam avirataṁ vividha-vṛjina-saṁsāra-paritāpopatapyamānam anusavanaṁ snāpayantas tayaiva parayā nirvṛtyā hy apavargam ātyantikaṁ parama-puruṣārtham api svayam āsāditaṁ no evādriyante bhagavadīyatvenaiva parisamāpta-sarvārthāḥ |
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 5.6.17; cited in Prīti Sandarbha: 19)
“Incessantly immersing the self—which is [otherwise] being continuously afflicted by the sufferings of saṁsāra beset with various types of sin—in which [i.e., in one-pointed bhakti to Vāsudeva as aforementioned], the wise, who have fully attained all [puruṣa-] arthas solely by virtue of [their] belongingness to Bhagavān, with the supreme satisfaction of that [one-pointed bhakti to Vāsudeva] do not show any regard even to [what is conventionally considered] the final, ultimate puruṣārtha, apavarga [i.e., mukti of any of the five types] [even] when obtained of its own accord [i.e., offered by Śrī Bhagavān himself even though it has not been desired].”
asyāvatāreṣu gaṇanā tu svayaṁ bhagavān apy asau svarūpa-stha eva nija-parijana-vṛndānām ānanda-viśeṣa-camatkārāya kim api mādhuryaṁ nija-janmādi-līlayā puṣṇan, kadācit sakala-loka-dṛśyo bhavatīty apekṣayaivety āyātam |
(Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha: 28.3)
“His [i.e., Kṛṣṇa’s] being listed among the avatāras [i.e., the general list of avatāras given in the third chapter of the First Canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam] even though he is Svayaṁ Bhagavān is because he, ever-situated in his svarūpa (intrinsic nature), sometimes becomes visible to all beings [i.e., the world at large] and exhibits some special mādhurya through the līlā of his own birth, etc. so as to bestow an astonishing form of bliss upon his personal associates.”
tat-tad-bhaktānāṁ tat-prīti-manoratha evopādeyaḥ | tad anyas tu sarvo’pi heyaḥ |
(Prīti Sandarbha: 43)
“For all bhaktas [of Bhagavān], only desire (manoratha) for prīti [for Bhagavān] is to be accepted, while everything other than that is verily to be rejected.”
na tatra mūḍhā gacchanti puruṣā viṣayātmakāḥ |
dambha-lobha-bhaya-droha-krodha-mohair abhidrutāḥ ||
nirmamā nirahaṅkārā nirdvandvāḥ saṁyatendriyāḥ |
dhyāna-yoga-ratāś caiva tatra gacchanti sādhavaḥ ||
(Padma Purāṇa: 2.95.16–18; cited in Prīti Sandarbha: 10)
“Foolish persons absorbed in objects of the senses and overpowered by deceit [alt., arrogance], greed, fear, enmity, anger, and delusion, do not reach there [i.e., the supreme abode of Viṣṇu]. Only sādhus free from possessiveness, free from egotism, free from duality, of controlled senses, and engaged in the practice of meditation (dhyāna-yoga) reach there.”
atha muktibhyo bhagavat-prīter ādhikyaṁ vivriyate | tatra yadyapi tat-prītiṁ vinā tā api na santy eva tathāpi keṣāñcit teṣāṁ svasya duḥkha-hānau sāmīpyādi-lakṣaṇa-sampattāv api tātparyaṁ, na tu śrī-bhagavaty eveti teṣu nyūnatā |
(Prīti Sandarbha: 16)
“Now, the superiority of Bhagavat-prīti to the muktis [i.e., to the five aforementioned types of mukti] is to be described. Therein, although even these [i.e., these five aforementioned types of mukti] do not at all occur without prīti for him [i.e., Bhagavān], still the intention (tātparya) of some [i.e., of some muktas] is still on the cessation of their own suffering and the attainment characterized by samīpya and so forth, and not, rather, solely on Śrī Bhagavān. Thus, there is an inferiority in them [i.e., in those whose intention in not solely upon Bhagavān because of impurity in their prīti].”
