na caivaṁ vismayaḥ kāryo bhavatā bhagavaty aje |
yogeśvareśvare kṛṣṇe yata etad vimucyate ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.29.16)
“You should also not be so amazed by Bhagavān, the Unborn, the Master of the masters of yoga, Kṛṣṇa, because of whom this [entire world] is liberated.”
brahmacaryaṁ samāpya gṛhī bhavet, gṛhī bhūtvā vanī bhavet, vanī bhūtvā pravrajet, yadi vetarathā brahmacaryād eva pravrajet gṛhād vā vanād vā | atha punar avratī vā vratī snātako vāsnātako votsannāgnir anagniko vā, yad ahar eva virajyet tad ahar eva pravrajet |
(Jābāla Upaniṣad: 4; cited in Govinda-bhāṣya on Vedānta-sūtra 3.4.49)
“After completing brahmacarya, one may become a householder. After having become a householder, one may become a vanaprastha. After having become a vanaprastha, one may roam [i.e., become a sannyāsī], yet after brahmacarya itself one may roam, or after household life, or after vanaprastha. Furthermore, be one a non-student or student [i.e., one who has never gone to school to be trained in brahmacarya or one who is presently in school observing brahmacarya], be one a graduate or a non-graduate [i.e., a graduate of brahmacarya or not], and be one of extinguished fire or no fire [i.e., be one someone who has ceased to maintain the sacred fire sustained in homes by couples after marriage because one’s wife has expired or one has left one’s wife, or be one someone who has never married and thus never maintained the sacred fire], on the very day one may [i.e., should happen to] become detached, on that very day one may roam [i.e., one should leave and take sannyāsa].”
yat kṛtaṁ yat kariṣyāmi tat sarvaṁ na mayā kṛtam |
tvayā kṛtaṁ tu phala-bhuk tvam eva madhusūdana ||
(Attributed to some editions of the Mukunda-mālā-stotram)
“All that I have done and that I shall do is not done by me, but rather done by you, and you alone are the enjoyer of the fruit, O Madhusūdana!”
na cāsya kaścin nipuṇena dhātur
avaiti jantuḥ kumanīṣa ūtīḥ |
nāmāni rūpāṇi mano-vacobhiḥ
santanvato naṭa-caryām ivājñaḥ ||
sa veda dhātuḥ padavīṁ parasya
duranta-vīryasya rathāṅga-pāṇeḥ |
yo’māyayā santatayānuvṛttyā
bhajeta tat-pāda-saroja-gandham ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 1.3.37–38)
“No living being of corrupt intelligence understands with the mind or words through expertise [i.e., skill in argument and like, or skill in adhering to the paths of jñāna or yoga] the sports, names, and forms of the [Supreme] Element, he who extends [his names, forms, and sports when he graciously descends in age after age], just as an ignorant person [does not understand] the performance of a dancer. [Only] One who can non-deceitfully, continuously, and accordingly worship the fragrance of his lotus feet knows the way [alt., position] of the Supreme Element, he of infinite potency and chakra in hand.”
ānanda-līlāmaya-vigrahāya
hemābha-divya-cchavi-sundarāya |
tasmai mahāprema-rasa-pradāya
caitanyacandrāya namo namas te ||
(Caitanya-candrāmṛta: 11)
“Unto the embodiment of blissful līlā,
Unto he of beautiful, radiant golden luster,
Unto the bestower of the rasa of the greatest prema,
Unto him, Caitanyacandra,
Obeisance and obeisance.”
vidagdha-gopāla-vilāsinīnāṁ
sambhoga-cihnāṅkita-sarva-gātram |
pavitram āmnāya-girām agamyaṁ
brahma prapadye navanīta-cauram ||
(Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta: 2.51 (Southern recension); cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 3.25)
“His entire body
Marked with the signs of enjoyment
With artful gopī lovers,
Pure,
And unattainable by the words of Vedas—
I take shelter in Brahman,
The thief of fresh butter.”
mānasādi-pūjāyāṁ bhūta-pūrva-tat-parikara-līlā-saṁvalitatvam api na kalpanā-mayaṁ, kintu yathārtham eva | yatas tasya prākaṭya-samaye līlās tat-parikarāś ca ye prādurbabhūvuḥ, te tādṛśāś cāprakaṭam api nityaṁ tadīye dhāmni saṅkhyātītā eva vartante |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 286)
“In worship [performed] in the mind and elsewhere, although the content of the meditation is possessed of līlās and associates of his [i.e., Bhagavān’s] that were existent in the past, it is not [merely] imaginary but rather real since his associates and the līlās that appeared at the time of his manifestation (prākaṭya) [which one meditates upon] exist eternally beyond enumeration even unmanifestly as such [i.e., in an equally real form] in his abode [as well].”
vaiṣṇave bandhu-sat-kṛtyā |
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.11.44; cited in Bhakti Sandarbha: 295)
“[Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa: Worship me] In a Vaiṣṇava with a proper reception for a kinsmen [alt., friend].”
purāṇy anena sṛṣṭāni nṛ-tiryag-ṛṣi-devatāḥ |
śete jīvena rūpeṇa pureṣu puruṣo hy asau ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 7.14.37; cited in Bhakti Sandarbha: 288)
“The abodes [i.e., bodies] of humans, animals, sages, and devatās were emanated by him. He, the Puruṣa, [then] lies in the [aforementioned] abodes in the form of life [i.e., in the form of he who is the cause of life in those abodes, i.e., the Inner Regulator (Antaryāmī)].”
yad yad iṣṭatamaṁ loke yac cātipriyam ātmanaḥ |
tat tan nivedayen mahyaṁ tad ānantyāya kalpate ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.11.41; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 8.119, 10.513, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu: 1.2.199, Bhakti Sandarbha: 295)
“[Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa:] Whatever is most desired in the world and whatever is most dear to oneself—offer that to me. This leads to the infinite.”
