ity evam upakāro’dya bhavatākāri me mahān |
tat te’smi parama-prīto nijābhīṣṭān varān vṛṇu ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.131)
[Śrī Bhagavān to Nārada:] “Thus in this way today [i.e., by reminding me of the gopīs] you have greatly favored me. Therefore, I am supremely pleased with you. Please choose your desired benedictions.”
mat-prīty-utpādana-vyagra śrī-nārada suhṛt-tama |
hitam evākṛtātyantaṁ bhavān me rasikottama ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.124)
[Śrī Bhagavān:] “O Nārada, O you who are eager to bring me pleasure, [and are thus] my dearest friend! You have indeed benefitted me to the highest degree, O very best of rasikas!”
pibanti ye bhagavata ātmanaḥ satāṁ
kathāmṛtaṁ śravaṇa-puṭeṣu sambhṛtam |
punanti te viṣaya-vidūṣitāśayaṁ
vrajanti tac-caraṇa-saroruhāntikam ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.2.37; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 10.441; Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā on Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.3.124; Paramātma Sandarbha: 108; Bhakti Sandarbha: 30, 86)
“Those who drink, held in the cups of their ears, the nectar of kathā about Bhagavān, the Ātmā of the sādhus, purify their hearts contaminated by viṣaya and reach the presence of his lotus feet.”
śrīmat-prabhupadāmbhojaiḥ sarvā bhāgavatāmṛte |
vyaktīkṛtāsti gūḍhāpi bhakti-siddhānta-mādhurī ||
(Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.4.20)
“Although confidential, all the sweetness and siddhānta in regard to bhakti is clearly presented in the Bhāgavatāmṛta [i.e., Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta] by my blessed master of lotus feet [i.e., by Śrīmat Sanātana Gosvāmī Prabhupāda].”
itthaṁ vasaṁs tatra cireṇa vāñchitaṁ
vāñchādhikaṁ cāvirataṁ paraṁ phalam |
cittānupūrtyānubhavann api dhruvaṁ
vastu-svabhāvena na tṛptim āpnuyām ||
ato vraja-strī-kuca-kuṅkumācitaṁ
manoramaṁ tat-pada-paṅkaja-dvayam |
kadāpi kenāpi nijendriyādinā
na hātum īśe lava-leśam apy aham ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.368–9)
[Gopa Kumāra:] “Even by residing there [i.e., in Goloka] in this way and indeed continuously experiencing to the complete fulfillment of my heart that supreme result which was both what I had long desired and beyond [even] that desire, I could not attain satiation on account of the nature of that substance [i.e., prema]. Thus, I am not able to give up for even a fraction of a second by any means at any time with my senses or anything else his two charming lotus feet smeared with the kumkum from the breasts of the ladies of Vraja.”
tatratyaṁ yac ca tad duḥkhaṁ tat sarva-sukha-mūrdhasu |
sa narīnarti śokaś ca kṛtsnānanda-bharopari ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.367)
“The sorrow existing there [i.e., in Goloka] dances vigorously atop the heads of all forms of happiness, and the grief [existing there] dances vigorously above the multitude of all forms of bliss.”
tathāpi tṛptiḥ kasyāpi naivodeti kadācana |
prema-tṛṣṇā ca vividhā dainya-mātā vivardhate ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.213)
“Still [i.e., even though every Vraja-vāsīs feels that they alone are the most dear to Kṛṣṇa, acts as such with Kṛṣṇa, and observes Kṛṣṇa genuinely reciprocate with them as such], satiation never arises within even one of them. [Rather,] The thirst produced by [their] prema, which is variegated and the mother of dainya (humility), increases [continuously].”
bhakteḥ phalaṁ paraṁ prema tṛpty-abhāva-svabhāvakam |
avāntara-phaleṣv etad ati-heyaṁ satāṁ matam ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.2.210)
“The supreme result of bhakti is prema, the nature of which is the absence of satiation. Among the secondary results [of bhakti], this [i.e., the state of being an ātmārāma] is considered by sādhus to be shunned completely.”
śrī-kṛṣṇacandra kasyāpi tṛptir astu kadāpi na |
bhavato’nugrahe bhaktau premṇi cānanda-bhājane ||
vidagdha-nikarācārya ko nāmāyaṁ varo mataḥ |
svabhāvo mat-kṛpā-bhakti-premṇāṁ vyakto’yam eva yat ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.135–6)
[Nārada said:] “O Śrī Kṛṣṇacandra, may no one ever feel satiated by your grace, by bhakti [to you], or by prema [for you], all of which are reservoirs of bliss.”
[Bhagavān replies Nārada:] “O ācārya of the clever, what kind of benediction is this? This nature of my grace, bhakti [to me], and prema [for me] is well known.”
tad dhi tat-tad-vraja-krīḍā-dhyāna-gāna-pradhānayā |
bhaktyā sampadyate preṣṭha-nāma-saṅkīrtanojjvalam ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.5.218)
“That [i.e., the prema that leads to attainment of the Beloved, one’s Iṣṭa-deva, in Goloka], bright with saṅkīrtana of the names of the Beloved, is certainly manifested through bhakti in which meditation on and singing of the [Beloved’s] various acts of play in Vraja are primary.”
