VMA 1.40 :: Only after lifetimes of piety can one live in Vrindavan

Vrindavan only appears to the eyes of a person
of great glory who has many lifetimes
of performing wonderful good deeds to his credit.
The Supreme Lord then makes
all his past karmas completely impotent,
and the gods led by Lord Brahmā
praise him with tremendous devotion.

vṛndāṭavī bahu-bhavīya-supuṇya-puñjān
netrātithir bhavati yasya mahā-mahimnaḥ |
tasyeśvaraḥ sakala-karma mṛṣā karoti
brahmādayas tam atibhakti-yutāḥ stuvanti ||
Commentary

No amount of pious deeds will give one devotion to the Lord, nor residence in Vraj. Normally, when Vaishnavas talk of pious deeds being the cause of some great blessing, they are either referring to actions in devotion, which may be the impetus for the descent of the devotees’ or the Lord’s grace, or they are merely speaking rhetorically, just as a way of glorifying such a person’s good fortune.

kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvita-matiḥ
kriyatāṁ yadi kuto’pi labhyate |
tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ
janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate ||

If it is found that the spirit that is soaked in Krishna bhakti rasa is available for sale anywhere, then its only price is greed and nothing else, for millions of lifetimes of pious works will not purchase it. (Padyāvali 14) .

Of course, the question of whence comes this greed, by which one gets purchasing power for bhakti-soaked consciousness, the only answer that the Vaishnavas come up with is that only one who has received the causeless grace of a great devotee is so fortunate.

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ
spṛśaty anarthāpagamo yad arthaḥ |
mahīyasāṁ pādarajo’bhiṣekaṁ
niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat ||
The consciousness of such materialistic persons never approaches the feet of the glorious Lord, and it is only such consciousness that can drive away all undesirable things from our hearts. That is, unless they are anointed with the dust of the lotus feet of a great soul completely freed from material contamination. (SB 7.5.32).

Or as Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes in Daśa-mūla, 

yadā bhrāmaṁ bhrāmaṁ hari-rasa-galad-vaiṣṇava-janaṁ

kadācit saṁpaśyaṁs tad-anugamane syād ruci-yutaḥ |

tadā kṛṣṇāvṛttyā tyajati śanakair māyika-daśāṁ

svarūpaṁ bibhrāṇo vimala-rasa-bhogaṁ sa kurute ||82||

"After wandering through birth after birth in this material world, when one somehow or other comes into contact with a Vaishnava who has melted into Hari-rasa and develops a desire to follow him, then he rapidly gives up his illusory situation in the material world by constantly repeating the Holy Name and in his eternal spiritual identity relishes the pure taste of prema-bhakti." (Gaurāṅga-smaraṇa-maṅgala-stotram, 82)

Devotion to the Lord is not a material thing that is subject to material merit or sin. It is a pure product of the spiritual energy and descends from the spiritual realm in the way that Krishna himself takes an avatar. Even devotional activities of any sort, such as chanting the Holy Names, are not the result of anything other than divine grace mediated through the Lord’s devotees.

But even more important than the external actions of devotion is the specific mood of devotion, which is also transmitted by association with a pure devotee in that mood. Vrindavan is the abode of the most pure and blissful prema-bhakti in the sweet mood of madhura-rasa, devotion to the Divine Couple, Radha and Krishna. So how great the fortune of the devotees who experience that rasa and who are graced with life in Vrindavan.

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VMA 1.39 : May Vrindavan protect and transform me.
VMA 1.38 : Vrindavan can destroy the seed of sin.
VMA 1.37 : Vrindavan is the Light of the Self
VMA 1.36 : One speck of Braj dust has such glory
VMA 1.35 : The unlimited mine of nectar
VMA 1.34 : The Vrindavan Desire Tree
VMA 1.33 : The most fortunate person residing in Vrindavan
VMA 1.32 : VMA 1.32 : Meditate on that Eros-addled Couple of colors black and gold
VMA 1.31 : Pull up the root of material hopes.
VMA 1.30 : Know Suffering here to be joy