परं भगवता साकं साक्षात्क्रीडापरम्पराः ।
सदानुभवितुं तैर्हि वैकुण्ठोऽपेक्ष्यते क्वचित् ॥
paraṁ bhagavatā sākaṁ sākṣāt-krīḍā-paramparāḥ |
sadānubhavituṁ tair hi vaikuṇṭho’pekṣyate kvacit ||
(Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta: 1.3.62)
“Vaikuṇṭha is sometimes desired by them [i.e., bhaktas sometimes desire to enter Vaikuṇṭha] only specifically to continuously and directly experience a succession of play with Bhagavān.”
Commentary
nanu tarhi vaikuṇṭha-lokas tad-vāsinaś ca kim iti pūrvaṁ tathā ślāghitāḥ? tatrāha—param iti dvābhyām | sarvam anyad ihaiva siddhaṁ, kevalaṁ vicitra-vilāsa-śreṇīḥ lakṣmīkāntena samaṁ nirantaraṁ sākṣād anubhavitum eva vaikuṇṭha-loko’pekṣyate, tatraiva tathā tat-tat-sahaja-siddher na tv anyatra kvāpi, evam evāvirata-tat-tad-rasa-paramparā kuṇṭhatā-rāhityena tasya lokasya vaikuṇṭhatvaṁ sidhyatīti bhāvaḥ | kvacit kadācid iti hṛdaye parisphuratā bhagavato’ntardhānādau sati tathā prema-viśeṣāvirbhāvena bhagavat-sākṣād-darśanādi-lobha-utkaṇṭhā-bhare jāte ca satīti dik |
(Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā)
“[A question is raised:] ‘Well, then why previously were Vaikuṇṭha-loka and its residents so praised?’ To this, he speaks with two [verses]: param … [i.e., Śrī Śiva speaks this and the following verse]. Everything else is attained here itself [i.e., a bhakta can attain pure bhakti, experience of Śrī Bhagavān, and so forth within the realm of saṁsāra]. Vaikuṇṭha-loka is desired [by bhaktas] only specifically to continuously and directly experience with the Beloved of Lakṣmī [i.e., Bhagavān] a series of wonderful pastimes, because of natural attainment of those [pastimes] in that way [i.e., continuously and directly] only there [in Vaikuṇṭha] and not, rather, anywhere else [i.e., it is not possible for those dwelling in the realm of saṁsāra to continuously and directly experience a succession of līlās with Śrī Bhagavān]. In this way specifically, the uninterrupted succession of the rasa of those [pastimes, i.e., the existence of continuous and direct experience of those pastimes there in Vaikuṇṭha], by way an absence of [that succession of rasa’s, meaning, that succession of experience’s] bluntness (kuṇṭhatā) [i.e., the non-existence of it ever being checked, limited, etc.], establishes that plane’s (loka’s) being Vaikuṇṭha [i.e., Vaikuṇṭha is such, that is, ‘non-blunted’ (vi-kuṇṭha), meaning, unchecked, infinite, specifically because a bhakta can experience a succession of līlās with Bhagavān there without any end or interruption; it is specifically for this reason that Vaikuṇṭha is called Vaikuṇṭha, ‘Unblunted’]. ‘Sometimes’ (kvacit) refers to when a disappearance or otherwise of Bhagavān occurs after he was shining in the heart [of a bhakta], and to when an abundance of longing (utkaṇṭhā) arising from intense desire (lobha) for direct sight and so forth of Bhagavān arises as a result of a manifestation of a particular form of prema [in the heart of a bhakta, i.e., it is said in the verse under discussion that Vaikuṇṭha is desired by bhakta sometimes (kvacit) because a bhakta dwelling in the realm of saṁsāra feels a desire to enter Vaikuṇṭha at certain times, such as when they lose sight of Bhagavān after perceiving him within their hearts or when a vyabhicārī-bhāva of longing (utkaṇṭha) arises in their hearts as a result of their intense desire for direct perception of Śrī Bhagavān]. This is the direction.”