cittam eva hi saṁsāras tat prayatnena śodhayet |
yac cittas tanmayo bhāti guhyam etat sanātanam ||
(Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad: 6.34.3; Śāṭyāyanīya Upaniṣad: 3)
“The citta (mind) itself is saṁsāra [i.e., the condition of one’s citta is the cause of the perpetuation of one’s bondage in saṁsāra]. Purify it with exertion. As is the citta, so one becomes [i.e., one becomes absorbed in, constituted of, and/or identical to the content in one’s citta]. This is the eternal secret.”
prāyeṇa manujā loke loka-tattva-vicakṣaṇāḥ |
samuddharanti hy ātmānam ātmanaivāśubhāśayāt ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.7.19)
“Generally, human beings in the world who are clear-sighted about the nature of the world [i.e., who are adept in discerning causes of benefit and harm in the visible world] deliver themselves from harmful predispositions [i.e., vāsanās related to sense objects] by their own selves [i.e., by exercising their own faculties of discernment].”
jāta-śraddho mat-kathāsu nirviṇṇaḥ sarva-karmasu |
veda duḥkhātmakān kāmān parityāge’py anīśvaraḥ ||
tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ |
juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.20.27–28)
“One who has śraddhā in discussions of me, is disinterested in all karmas [i.e., in all activities that are unrelated to me], and knows that desires are full of suffering [i.e., are invariable causes of suffering] yet is still unable to relinquish them, should thereafter worship me, being affectionate, full of śraddhā, and of firm resolve while both acceding to and condemning those objects of desire, the consequences of which are [only ultimately] suffering.”
saubhares tu garuḍāya kupyato yasmin kṛpā ajaniṣṭha tasya mīnasyaiva saṅgād utthitā durvāsanaivāparādha-phalaṁ yataś ca vilupta-brahmānandaḥ sacira-sañcita-tapas-sṛṣṭa-svayauvanenaiva mūlyena kāminī-vṛndaṁ krītvā tatraiva naraka-tulye viṣayānande nimajjann aparādha-bhogānte śrī-vṛndāvana-yamunāśraya-māhātmyenaiva paścān nistatāreti navame kathā |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭīkā on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.17.11)
“The ill-inclination (durvāsanā) which arose through the association of the very fish upon whom Saubhari, who was angry at Garuḍa, showed grace was a result of [his, i.e., Saubhari’s] aparādha [against Garuḍa], since he became disengaged from the bliss of Brahman [as a result of this aparādha], and he bought a group of desirable woman for the price of his personal youth produced with [the results of] his long accumulated austerities, became absorbed there itself [i.e., in the company of those women] in bliss related to viṣaya, which is comparable to Naraka, and [only] after enduring [the full result of his] aparādha was delivered thereafter only by the greatness of the shelter of Śrī Vṛndāvana and the Yamunā [where he had originally come to engage in sādhana]. This is narrated in the Ninth Canto.”
yathāgninā hema malaṁ jahāti
dhmātaṁ punaḥ svaṁ bhajate ca rūpam |
ātmā ca karmānuśayaṁ vidhūya
mad-bhakti-yogena bhajaty atho mām ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.14.25; cited in Bhakti Sandarbha: 112)
[Śrī Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava:] “As gold smelted with fire sheds dross and regains its own form [i.e., returns to its pure state], so the ātmā through bhakti-yoga to me casts off [the dross of] the residual effects of karma [i.e., the vāsanās produced by karma] and thereafter [i.e., still, even after becoming completely purified] serves me [i.e., attains through a manifestation of great prema the complete path of service to me; alt., attains a pure form resembling my own and serves me directly in my abode].”
