সার্থক ভজন-পথ, সাধুসঙ্গে অবিরত,
স্মরণ ভজন কৃষ্ণকথা ।
প্রেমভক্তি হয় যদি, তবে হয় মনঃশুদ্ধি,
তবে যায় হৃদয়ের ব্যথা ॥ ১০৫ ॥
sārthaka bhajana-patha, sādhu-saṅge abirata,
smaraṇa bhajana kṛṣṇa-kathā |
prema-bhakti haya yadi, tabe haya manaḥ-śuddhi,
tabe yāya hṛdayera byathā || 105 ||
A devotee’s bhajana becomes fruitful through the constant association of sādhus. If she attains prema-bhakti through the processes of meditation, worship and hearing stories about Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, then her mind is purified and her heartache goes away.
The Fruitful Path of Bhajana
Sudhā-Kaṇikā-Vyākhyā: In this verse Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya teaches that the path of bhajana will bless the bhakta’s life with prema. He first says, sārthaka bhajana-patha, sādhu-saṅge abirata, smaraṇa bhajana kṛṣṇa-kathā. A devotee’s bhajana becomes fruitful through the constant association of sādhus. Those who bear the message of bhakti come to the doors of worldly jīvas because they feel compassion for such ones who have fallen into a pit of sense enjoyment and are bound by the fetters of māyā. They cool them with a nectar stream of bhagavat-kathā and rescue them from the well of material life with the rope of bhakti. Eager to lead the jīvas to Bhagavān, they are true sādhus and great souls. The association of such high-minded ones is potent like a philosopher’s stone. By the touch of a philosopher’s stone, iron is at once transformed into gold. In the same way, by the association of a great sādhu, a person’s desire-contaminated mind develops a longing for bhakti and becomes bright like gold. Through keeping company with sādhus and receiving their mercy, a person becomes eager for Bhagavān or shelter on the path of bhajana. Similarly, by constant sādhu-saṅga, the sādhaka’s bhajana-wealth increases and quickly produces prema. The reason is that by constant sādhu-saṅga, the sādhaka is blessed with smaraṇa, bhajana and the hearing and speaking of kṛṣṇa-kathā. The bhaktas who are devoted to rāgānugā-bhajana have no taste for anything other than kīrtana and smaraṇa. The following is written at the end of Śrī-Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa (20.382):
evam ekāntināṁ prāyaḥ
kīrtanaṁ smaraṇaṁ prabho |
kurvatāṁ parama-prītyā
kṛtyam anyaṁ na rocate ||
“Exclusively devoted rāgānugā-bhaktas worship with deep love through the kīrtana and smaraṇa limbs of bhakti. They have no taste for anything else.” Therefore, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya said, smaraṇa bhajana kṛṣṇa-kathā. If a person hears, sings and remembers the stories of Śrī Kṛṣṇa with an innocent heart, prema-bhakti will quickly appear. At the appearance of prema-bhakti, the mind becomes pure and all the heart’s distress or misery born of worldly troubles is destroyed: prema-bhakti haya yadi, tabe haya manaḥ-śuddhi, tabe yāya hṛdayera byathā.
We see in the bhakti-śāstras that the sādhaka’s mind becomes pure at the stage of anartha-nivṛtti. In that purified mind, he realizes his svarūpa and the afflictions of his heart are destroyed. Prema appears in the sādhaka’s purified heart and mind after he passes through the stages of niṣṭhā, ruci, āsakti and rati. But here, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya has stated that mental purity comes after the appearance of prema and the afflictions of the heart are destroyed after that. The purport is that if a sādhaka obtains through constant sādhu-saṅga the good fortune of hearing about, singing about and remembering Śrī Kṛṣṇa, then prema appears in the person’s heart so quickly that it seems to first enter the impure mind, then purify it and finally end the misery caused by ignorance. For example, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.33.40, at the end of his discussion of the rāsa-līlā, the crown-jewel of all pastimes, Śrīpāda Śuka Muni described the effect of hearing about the rāsa-līlā.
vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ
śraddhānvito’nuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ |
bhaktiṁ parāṁ bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ
hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ ||
“One who continuously listens with faith to narrations of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa dance and other romantic pastimes with the vraja-gopīs, and who then repeats and meditates upon them, soon obtains the ever-fresh, constant, supreme loving devotion that follows the gopikā’s mood of love for Kṛṣṇa. She then abandons her material desires, which are the disease of the heart, and quickly becomes steadfast.”
In this verse also, he first speaks of attaining parā-bhakti or following the mood of the gopikās and then mentions the destruction of material desires, the disease of the heart. Regarding this, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda wrote the following in his Laghu-Toṣaṇī commentary: atra tu hṛd-rogāpahānāt pūrvam eva parama-bhakti-prāptiḥ; tasmāt parama-balavad evedaṁ sādhanam iti bhāvaḥ. Generally it is understood that prema appears after the heart-disease of material desire is destroyed through bhajana-sādhana. But there are also statements saying that through hearing and reciting the rāsa-līlā, parama-bhakti is attained before the destruction of material desires. Therefore, this should be understood as the best and most powerful sādhana for obtaining prema. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartipāda wrote the following in his Sārārtha-Darśinī: parāṁ prema-lakṣaṇāṁ prāpyeti ktvā pratyayena hṛd-rogavaty apy adhikāriṇi prathamata eva premṇaḥ praveśas tatas tat-prabhāvenaivācirato hṛd-roga-nāśa iti premāyaṁ jñāna-yoga iva na durbalaḥ para-tantraś ceti bhāvaḥ. “By the use of the ktvā suffix, it is understood that prema first enters the hearts of those who still have material desires. Then, by the power of prema, those desires are soon destroyed like darkness is destroyed by the light of a lamp. Therefore, bhakti-sādhana is completely independent. Unlike jñāna-sādhana and so on, it is not weak or dependent on anything else.”
Some people may think that this benediction is for those who have firm faith, not for ordinary people of tender faith. Does the original verse not use the word śraddhānvitaḥ, meaning possessed of faith? But that is not what the Gosvāmīs mean. Śrī Jīva Gosvāmipāda wrote, śraddhayā viśvāsenānvita iti; tad-viparītāvajñārūpāparādha-nivṛtty-arthaṁ ca nairantaryārthaṁ ca. “Here the word śraddhānvitaḥ has been used to indicate the cessation of actions that are offensive and contrary to faith, joined with the uninterrupted practice of hearing, chanting and so on. If, due to material consciousness, someone criticizes Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā and other pastimes as being like the meetings of ordinary lovers, and if he also abstains from hearing and chanting, then he will develop no faith in those līlās. Though having taken shelter of the path of yugala-bhajana, those who, based on the word śraddhānvitaḥ, think themselves unqualified for such a powerful sādhana are unnecessarily deprived of it. Know that the only cause for this is their misfortune. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartipāda wrote, ataeva śraddhānvita iti śāstrāviśvāsinaṁ nāmāparādhinaṁ premāpi nāṅgīkarotīti bhāvaḥ. “A person who has no faith in śāstra or is offensive to the Holy Name will never be accepted by prema.” Therefore, those who practice chanting śrī-nāma and have faith in the words of śāstra regarding the transcendental nature of śrī-nāma and līlā, meaning those who abandon nāmāparādha and accept śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāma, can obtain prema. People who make an unnecessary uproar by saying that we are not qualified to hear rāsa-līlā, and who infuse excessive fear in the minds of the faithful who want to hear, are merely foolish or unfortunate.
Anyway, Śrīla Ṭhākura Mahāśaya first stated that kīrtana and smaraṇa of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes are the most powerful sādhanas for attaining prema-bhakti, and then he discussed the purification of the mind and the destruction of the heart’s afflictions.
