Verse Text
tathā hi śrī-daśame—
nibhṛta-marun-mano ’kṣa-dṛḍha-yoga-yujo hṛdi yan
munaya upāsate tad-arayo ’pi yayuḥ smaraṇāt |
striya uragendra-bhoga-bhuja-daṇḍa-viṣakta-dhiyo
vayam api te samāḥ sama-dṛśo ’ṅghri-saroja-sudhāḥ ||282||
Translation
Thus, it says in the Tenth Canto: Simply by constantly thinking of Him, the enemies of the Lord attained the same Brahman that sages fixed in yoga worship by controlling their breath, mind and senses. Similarly, we śrutis, adopting a mood similar to the gopīs, and finally attaining similar bodies, will achieve the same nectar from Your lotus feet that Your consorts are able to relish because of their loving attraction to Your mighty, serpentine arms. SB 10.87.23
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
…Nibhṛtaiḥ means “with extreme steadiness,” and thus indicates processes such as dhāraṇa. The brahman (yad), which the sages worship by fixed themselves in yoga by highly controlled prāṇas, mind and senses (akṣa), with only a possibility of attaining it, is attained by the enemies of the Lord by remembering Him with hatred. The gopīs are absorbed in thinking (viṣakta-dhiyaḥ) of the arms of Kṛṣṇa that are like the body of the king of snakes (uragendra-bhoga).
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The author matches the statement of this verse, from the prayers of the personified Vedas in the Tenth Canto, with the attainment of brahman mentioned in the first half of verse 279, and with the attainment of the Lord’s feet by rāga mentioned in verse 281. By the use of api twice, once in each half of the present verse, two separate pairs of persons (with differing destinations) should be understood.
The enemies of the Lord attained that brahman, which the sages contemplate in their hearts, simply by remembrance of the Lord in fear or hatred. Striyaḥ here refers to the gopīs, as they are well known in this context. The gopīs attained the nectar of Your lotus feet — the various types of sweetness filled with prema. We, the Upaniṣads, adopting a mood or emotion similar to that of the gopis (sama-dṛśaḥ), and thus attaining forms like them (samāḥ), also attained the nectar of Your lotus feet. The detailed meaning can be seen in the commentary of Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī on the Tenth Canto called Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī. Furthermore, in the Bṛhad-vāmana Purāṇa, it is stated that the gopīs attained the gopī bodies for which they had prayed.
In the previous verse, the attainment of the Lord’s feet also applies, in general, to persons who act with rāga, though, it directly indicates the gopis. The gopīs mentioned in the Bhāgavatam verse are those kāma-rūpa-rāgātmika devotees, and the personified śrutis, who are speaking, are kāmānuga devotees (those performing rāgānuga-sādhana following after the kāma-rūpa gopīs.) Similarly, the Vṛṣṇis should be understood to be sambandha-rūpa-rāgātmika-bhaktas, and those who follow after them would be sambandhānuga-sādhana-bhaktas.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In the Tenth Canto, Eighty-seventh Chapter, verse 23, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Vedas personified address the Lord in this way: “My dear Lord, yogīs meditate upon Your localized feature, and thus they achieve the spiritual perfection of being merged in the impersonal brahma-jyoti. Persons who treat You as an enemy achieve the same perfection without meditating. The gopīs, who are embraced by Your serpentine arms and who have such lusty attitudes, also achieve the same perfection. And as far as we are concerned, being different demigods in charge of the different parts of Vedic knowledge, we are always following in the footsteps of the gopīs. Thus we hope to attain the same perfection.” By “the same perfection” we must always remember the example of the sun and the sunshine. Those who are impersonalists can merge into the sunshinelike brahma-jyoti, whereas those who are in love with the Supreme Person enter into the supreme abode of the Lord, Goloka Vṛndāvana.