तदेवं शरणापत्तिर्विवृता । अस्याश्चापूर्वत्वं तां विना तदीयत्वासिद्धेः ।
tad evaṁ śaraṇāpattir vivṛtā |
asyāś cāpūrvatvaṁ tāṁ vinā tadīyatvāsiddheḥ |
(Bhakti Sandarbha: 237)
“Thus, in this way, śaraṇāpatti [i.e., śaraṇāgati] has been described. And its incomparability [lit., “unprecedentedness”] is because of the non-establishment of being his own without it [i.e., one does not attain the actual feeling of belonging to Bhagavān, and Bhagavān does not actually consider one his own, that is, as one of his bhaktas, without śaraṇāgati].”
Commentary
There is a variant reading of cāpūrvatvaṁ as ca pūrvatvaṁ. In this case, the meaning is: “And its precedence [i.e., its being first and foremost, fundamental to all else] is because of the non-establishment of being his own without it.”