पूजया हसते भक्तिर्जपतस्त्रस्यति स्फुटम् ।
समाधियोगाच्च बहिः सा भक्तिः केन गृह्यते ? ॥
pūjayā hasate bhaktir japatas trasyati sphuṭam |
samādhi-yogāc ca bahiḥ sā bhaktiḥ kena gṛhyate? ||
(Padma Purāṇa; cited in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa: 11.544)
“Bhakti laughs at pūjā, fears japa, and is beyond samādhi-yoga. [So,] This bhakti is attainable by whom?”
Commentary
Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda explains in his commentary that bhakti is said to laugh at pūjā because pūjā is generally done to achieve trifling worldly ends (prāyas tuccha-phalāvāpteḥ). Bhakti’s fearing japa implies that bhakti avoids those who practice japa from afar (dūram apasarati) because those who do so generally have various selfish desires for such practice (prāyo mantra-jape vividha-kāmānām). Bhakti is beyond the state of samādhi attained through the eightfold path of yoga because that state is void in nature [i.e., contentless and static] and there is no engagement therein in forms of bhakti such as hearing about Śrī Bhagavān (tasya śūnyamayatvena tatra śravaṇādibhakter apravṛtteḥ). “Bhakti is attainable by whom?” (bhaktiḥ kena gṛhyate) implies that without Śrī Bhagavān’s grace, bhakti is not attainable by anyone (Bhagavat-prasādaṁ vinā na kenāpy ātmasāt kartuṁ śakyate), and further that it is a rare and very precious fortune to even hear of the true nature of bhakti, much less understand it, practice it, and attain it.