Verse Text
rucim udvahatas tatra janasya bhajane hareḥ |
viṣayeṣu gariṣṭho ’pi rāgaḥ prāyo vilīyate ||254||
Translation
If a person has a taste for worshipping the Lord, even if he has strong material attractions, those attractions will be for the most part destroyed during sādhana without resorting to vairāgya.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Previously vairāgya was condemned at the beginning of bhakti because it causes the heart to become hard. However, if vairāgya is forbidden, the person practicing bhakti will be filled with material desires, and having such desires is against the scriptures; for it is said:
viṣayāviṣṭa-cittasya kṛṣṇāveśaḥ sudūrataḥ |
vāruṇī-dig-gataṁ vastu vrajan naindrīṁ kim āpnuyāt ||
The person absorbed in material enjoyment is far from being absorbed in Kṛṣṇa. How can a person going east catch an object moving to the west? [Note: According to Bhakti-sandarbha, this is from Viṣṇu Purāṇa.]
To answer this dilemma, the author supplies this verse. Having a taste for bhakti will destroy the attachment to material objects. Thus, the hardness of heart caused by practice of vairāgya will not take place, and still detachment will manifest. At the stage of ruci or taste for bhakti, material attraction will be destroyed for the most part (prāyaḥ). The meaning is that it will be completely destroyed with the maturation of bhakti. It is not mentioned, but understood from this statement that the taste for bhakti not only produces vairāgya but also jṣāna.
vāsudeve bhagavati bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ |
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ jṣānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam ||
By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, one immediately acquires causeless [Note: According to Viśvanātha’s Bhāgavatam commentary, jṣānam ahaitukam means knowledge without material motivation or without a desire for liberation.] knowledge and detachment from the world. SB 1.2.7
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
Actually, a person who is developing Kṛṣṇa consciousness and still has some attachment to material enjoyment will soon be freed from such a tendency by regularly discharging devotional service under the instruction of a bona fide spiritual master.