tasmād vaco manaḥ prāṇān niyacchen mat-parāyaṇaḥ |
mad-bhakti-yuktayā buddhyā tataḥ parisamāpyate ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.16.44)
“Therefore, with the intellect fixed with bhakti [i.e., śraddhā] upon me, one whose ultimate shelter is me should control the speech, mind, and prāṇas. Then, he reaches success.”
yo vai vāṅ-manasī samyag asaṁyacchan dhiyā yatiḥ |
tasya vrataṁ tapo dānaṁ sravaty āma-ghaṭāmbu-vat ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.16.43)
“The rites, austerities, and charity of an ascetic who does not completely control the speech and mind with the intellect seep away like water in a raw [i.e., unfired] clay pot.”
vācaṁ yaccha mano yaccha prāṇān yacchendriyāṇi ca |
ātmānam ātmanā yaccha na bhūyaḥ kalpase’dhvane ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.16.42)
“Control the speech. Control the mind. Control the prāṇas and senses. Control the self [i.e., the buddhi] with the self [i.e., the the sāttvika buddhi]. You will not take to the path [i.e., resume the course of saṁsāra] again.”
sad-guroḥ sakāśād vedāntādy-akhila-śāstrārtha-vicāra-śravaṇa-dvārā yadi sā āvaśyaka-parama-kartavyatvena jñāyate, punaś ca … yadi viparīta-bhāvanā-tyājakau manana-yogyatā-mananābhiniveśau syātāṁ, tataḥ śraddadhānaiś ca sā bhaktir upāsana-dvārā labhyate |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 7)
“If, through hearing deliberation upon the meaning of all the śāstras beginning with Vedānta from a sad-guru, that [i.e., bhakti] is understood to be the supreme necessary duty, and furthermore … if they [i.e., listeners] develop capability for contemplation, and absorption in contemplation, which dispel contradictory notions, then that, bhakti, is attainable through upāsana by those endowed with śraddhā.”
na karma niṣphalaṁ kuryān nāyatyām asukhodayam |
(Manu-smṛti: 4.70; cited in Amṛta-ṭīkā to Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇam: Maṅgalācaraṇa, 1)
“One should perform neither an action that is useless [i.e, has no purpose and will prove fruitless] nor one that gives rise to unhappiness in the future.”
anubandhaṁ ca saṁprekṣya vipākāṁś caiva karmaṇām |
utthānam ātmanaś caiva dhīraḥ kurvīta vā na vā ||
(Mahābhārata: 5.34.9; Vidura-nīti; Mahāsubhāṣita-saṅgraha)
“A wise person should act, or not [act], only after carefully considering the cause and effects [i.e., benefits and harm] of actions, as well as one’s own capacity [i.e., to perform the action].”
anubandhān avekṣeta sānubandheṣu karmasu |
sampradhārya ca kurvīta na vegena samācaret ||
(Mahābhārata: 5.34.8; Vidura-nīti)
“One should act [only] after examining and deliberating upon the causes and effects of actions. One should not act out of impulse.”
śuddha-bhaktimatāṁ svata eva śuddhāntaḥ-karaṇatvāt prāṇi-mātrāvajñā prāyo na sambhavet | karma-miśra-bhaktimatāṁ tu sā sambhaved eva yāvad antaḥ-karaṇasyāśuddhiḥ, tasya śuddhau satyāṁ tu sā na tiṣṭhet … |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭikā on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 3.29.25)
“Because the antaḥkaraṇas of those engaged in pure bhakti are pure of their own accord, disrespecting any living being is generally not possible [for them]. For those engaged in karma-miśra-bhakti, however, this [i.e., disrespecting others] is certainly possible as long as impurity of the antaḥkaraṇa remains. When it becomes pure, however, this [i.e., disrespecting others] does not remain.”
līlānukūleṣu janeṣu citte-
ṣūtpanna-bhāveṣu ca sādhakānām |
evaṁ-vidhaṁ sarvam idaṁ cakāsti
svarūpataḥ prākṛtavat pareṣu ||
(Govinda-līlāmṛta: 7.119)
“[Why do Rādhā Kuṇḍa and Śyāma Kuṇḍa appear to someone just like ordinary ponds and not as described here in Govinda-līlāmṛta?] All of this [i.e., the entire environment of and around Rādhā Kuṇḍa and Śyāma Kuṇḍa] shines as such [i.e., as has just been elaborately described in Govinda-līlāmṛta] in reality to persons favorable to the līlā [i.e., to nitya-siddha parikaras] and to the minds of sādhakas of manifest bhāva [i.e., to sādhakas who have attained bhāva-bhakti] but as though mundane (prākṛta) to others [i.e., to those in whom bhāva has not manifest].”
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.”
