Bhagavān Can Only Be Realized Through Bhakti

Being forced to work on one task to the exclusion of allowing my brain to free range is the kind of painful discipline that has been absent from my life. It is in all likelihood the reason for my relative lack of accomplishments. My entire being seems to fight the thing that _MUST_ be done with more energy than could possibly make any sense at all.

My work should be the grace of angels. Indeed, in the proper setting, without distractions, I can surround myself with books -- different editions of the books, a Krama Sandarbha here, Babaji's Sandarbha translations, a Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhana. I look at each verse, at the commentaries, read ten times before examining Babaji's translation. Then chip and chop away.

But I still allow something else to come into my mind other than this!! The nectar that is promised still eludes me, except in moments of exceptional grace.

Bhakti Sandarbha 145

Bhakti is the exclusive cause for Bhagavān realization, as Kuntīdevi told Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa:

śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanty abhīkṣṇaśaḥ

smaranti nandanti tavehitaṁ janāḥ

ta eva paśyanty acireṇa tāvakaṁ

bhava-pravāhoparamaṁ padāmbujam

Those who continuously hear Your pastimes, sing about them, describe them to others, remember them, or who delight in the recitation of those pastimes by others, soon behold Your lotus feet, which put an end to the flow of material existence. (SB 1.8.36)

Commentary

The indeclinable eva is important in this verse. It is used in the sense of exclusiveness, anya-yoga-vyavaccheda. It implies that only devotees see the lotus feet of Bhagavān, not others.

Vishvanath Chakravarti however says that in order to bring out the beauty of this verse, eva, which we usually translate as "certainly", "only" or "alone," should be applied to the other elements in the second half of the verse, of which there are six. These are then, six things that require emphatic confirmation to the exclusion of all other things. Each direct assertion (anvaya) implies an accompanying emphatic negation, vyatireka. Thus,

• Those people alone [who continuously hear Your pastimes, sing about them, describe them to others, remember them, or who delight in the recitation of those pastimes by others] and no other person,
• certainly soon, and not with any delay,
• certainly behold, and it is not that they will not behold and see,
• Yours alone, and not any of any other of Your infinite partial manifestations,
• lotus feet, meaning Your beautiful personal form only, and not Your attributeless form of Brahman,
• which certainly put an end to the flow of material existence, not that those lotus feet do not grant liberation.

It implies certainty about all of these things, i.e., the devotees will see Bhagavān without delay not that they will have to wait a long time; they will exclusively see the feet of Bhagavān and not of some other partial manifestation of the Lord; and their material existence will certainly come to an end, not that they will still remain bound.

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As a postscript, I thought I would mention that this verse is one of the first Bhagavata verses I ever learned. Anyone who sings this verse will find it a very delightful and melodious composition. .