saṅgama-viraha-vikalpe
varam iha viraho na saṅgamas tasya |
ekaḥ sa eva saṅge
tribhuvanam api tanmayaṁ virahe ||
(Unknown source; cited in Padyāvalī: 239; Ānanda-candrikā-ṭīkā on Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi: 15.3)
“In the instance of [a lover having] an option between union and separation, separation is preferable in this case, and not union with him [i.e., the beloved]. In union, he alone is there, while in separation, indeed the three worlds are filled with him.”
kathañcana smāraṇam eva teṣām
avehi taj-jīvana-dānam eva |
teṣāṁ yato vismaraṇaṁ kadācit
prāṇādhikānāṁ maraṇāc ca nindyam ||
na sambhaved asmaraṇaṁ kadāpi
sva-jīvanānāṁ yad api priyāṇām |
tathāpi kenāpi viśeṣaṇena
smṛtiḥ praharṣāya yathā su-jīvitam ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.129–130)
[Bhagavān to Nārada:] “Understand that somehow producing remembrance of them [i.e., those who are dear] is to give [those endowed with prema] life itself because any sort of forgetfulness of them who are more [dear] than one’s very life is more contemptible than dying [for those endowed with prema]. Although forgetting those who are as dear as one’s very life is never possible, still any sort of special remembrance [of them] is as great a joy as an abundant life.”
icchet punas tādṛśam eva bhāvaṁ
kliṣṭaṁ kathañcit tad-abhāvataḥ syāt |
yeṣāṁ na bhātīti mate’pi teṣāṁ
gāḍhopakārī smṛti-daḥ priyāṇām ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.128)
[Bhagavān to Nārada:] “The heart will want such bhāva [i.e., such apparent sorrow] again, and will become distressed by any sort of absence of it. This bhāva, even in the view of those in whom it does not arise, is the greatest benefactor, since it is a producer of remembrance of those who are dear.”
tac-choka-duḥkhoparamasya paścāc
cittaṁ yataḥ pūrṇatayā prasannam |
samprāpta-sambhoga-mahā-sukhena
sampanna-vat tiṣṭhati sarvadaiva ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.127)
[Bhagavān to Nārada:] “This is so because after the cessation of the sorrow of such grief [i.e., that produced by separation], the heart remains completely satisfied as though it is endowed constantly with the great joy of attained union.”
yathā dūracare preṣṭhe mana āviśya vartate |
strīṇāṁ ca na tathā cetaḥ sannikṛṣṭe’kṣi-gocare ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.47.35; cited in Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha: 162)
“The minds of women do not remain as absorbed in their beloved when he is nearby in the range of the eyes as they do when he is far away.”
yat tv ahaṁ bhavatīnāṁ vai dūre varte priyo dṛśām |
manasaḥ sannikarṣārthaṁ mad-anudhyāna-kāmyayā ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 10.47.34; cited in Kṛṣṇa Sandarbha: 161)
“[Śrī Kṛṣṇa to the gopīs:] I, your beloved, however, remain afar from your eyes for the sake of nearness of mind [i.e., for the sake of drawing your minds near to me] out of desire for [you all to engage in] continuous meditation upon me.”
rādhā’jānād asaṅge danuja-vijayinaḥ saṅgam ārād asaṅgaṁ
saṅge caivaṁ samantād gṛha-samaya-sukha-svapna-śītādikāni |
etasyā vṛttir eṣājani sapadi yadānyad vicitraṁ tadāsīt
kāntā-kānta-svabhāvo’py ahaha yad anayor vaiparītyāya jajñe ||
(Gopāla-campū: Pūrva, 33.6)
“Rādhā experiences union with the Victor over the Dānavas [i.e., Śrī Kṛṣṇa] in separation, and separation in the midst of union, and in this way she also experiences her house, the time, happiness, dreams, cold, and other things all around her [i.e., she experiences her house to be the forest and the forest to be her house, the present time to be another time and another time to be the present time, happiness to be suffering and suffering to be happiness, dreams to be wakefulness and wakefulness to be dreams, cold to be heat and heat to be cold, and so on]. When this condition of hers manifested, then immediately another wonder occurred. Ahaha! Even the dispositions of the female lover and male lover manifested in reverse.”
vanaṁ gṛhaṁ no’bhavad ālayo vanaṁ
dviṣat suhṛd bandhu-gaṇaś ca vairiṇaḥ |
viṣaṁ ca pīyūṣam utāmṛtaṁ viṣaṁ
yad-artham asmāt tvād ṛte mriyāmahe ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 2.6.292)
“[The gopīs to Śrī Kṛṣṇa:] Without you, for the sake of whom the forest has become our home and our abode the forest, our enemies well-wishers, and our friends enemies, poison ambrosia and even nectar poison, we are dying.”
prāg yady api prema-kṛtāṁ priyāṇāṁ
viccheda-dāvānala-vegato’ntaḥ |
santāpa-jātena duranta-śokā-
veśena gāḍhaṁ bhavatīva duḥkham ||
tathāpi sambhoga-sukhād api stutaḥ
sa ko’py anirvācya-tamo mano-ramaḥ |
pramoda-rāśiḥ pariṇāmato dhruvaṁ
tatra sphuret tad-rasikaika-vedyaḥ ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.7.125–126)
[Bhagavān to Nārada:] “Although at first it is as if there occurs intense sorrow, created by prema, arising from absorption in endless grief produced by anguish within as a result of the onslaught of the forest fire of separation from those who are dear, still, this [sorrow] ultimately and certainly manifests some most ineffable heart-satisfying abundance of bliss which is praised more so than the joy of union and knowable only by rasikas.”
