BRS 1.3.35
“
“
Verse Text
yathā śrīmat-prabhupādānāṁ—
na premā śravaṇādi-bhaktir api vā yogo ’thavā vaiṣṇavo
jṣānaṁ vā śubha-karma vā kiyad aho saj-jātir apy asti vā |
hīnārthādhika-sādhake tvayi tathāpy acchedya-mūlā satī
he gopī-jana-vallabha vyathayate hā hā mad-āśaiva mām ||35||
Translation
An example of confidence is the following statement of Sanātana Gosvāmī: I do not have prema or the practices of hearing or chanting in bhakti. I have no practice of meditation of Viṣṇu in the aṣtāṅga-yoga process, nor do I have practices of jṣāna or varṇāśrama duties. I do not even have good birth to execute these actions properly. But since you are most merciful to the least qualified, O dear lover of the gopīs, though I have impure desires, my aspiration for You continues to agitate me.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The yoga is Vaiṣṇava-yoga. The jṣānam is knowledge concerning the Lord. The śubha-karma is services performed by the devotee. Thus the meaning is “I do not perform hearing and chanting with devotion, I do not concentrate my mind on the Lord, I have no knowledge of the Lord, nor do I perform any service for the Lord. I do not have a birth suitable for serving the Lord. I have been born among the lowest people. By seeing or touching them, one must bathe for purification. My unflinching desire for You, who make Yourself readily available to the least qualified, gives me great disturbance.” It should be understood that the desire expressed in this verse is a desire only for attaining service at the level of prema arising from pure bhakti devoid of jṣāna, karma or yoga, because it is supposed to be an example of āśā-bandha, confidence expressed at the stage of bhāva. Other explanations are not mentioned because they are impossible.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Yoga indicates aṣṭāṅga-yoga. When meditation on Viṣṇu is prominent in that yoga, it becomes Vaiṣṇava-yoga. This meditation incorporating Viṣṇu (or other deities in meditation) is called sagarbha in the yoga system. Jṣāna refers to steadiness in brahman. Śubha-karma refers, mainly, to varṇāśrama activities. Good birth is the cause of attaining qualification for the previously mentioned items of yoga, jṣāna and karma. These other processes are shown as causes of attaining the Lord, only because of the accompanying performance of bhakti, which is also mentioned in the list. Concerning yoga, Kapila shows, in the Third Canto of Bhāgavatam [Note: In chapter 28, Kapila describes the process of aṣṭāṅga-yoga, with meditation on the form of the Lord.] how yoga can be combined with bhakti. The position of jṣāna, in relation to bhakti, is shown in the Gītā in the verse brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. [Note: Even to perfect jṣāna or realization of brahman, a person must perform bhakti. ] (BG 18.54) Śubha-karma should also be practiced with bhakti, as illustrated by sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje—the culmination of religion is that varṇāśrama from which bhakti to the Lord arises. (SB 1.2.6)
“I have a thirst (āśā) for attaining the Lord, not motivated by prema for the Lord, but by desire for my own happiness, since I have deeply rooted desires for personal enjoyment, which are difficult to remove (acchedya-mūlā). Then what should I do? I continue to hanker for You, because I think that You can turn that material desire into prema, since You are extra merciful to those who are most deficient (hīnārthādhika-sādhake).”
Vyathayate is in the atmanepada form instead of the parasmaipada because of the rule aṇāv akarmakāc cittavat kartṛtvāt (Pāṇini 1.3.88). Generally causative forms are in the parasmaipada, but if the agent is non-sentient, then the causative verb takes the atmanepada. The author considers himself insentient, and this is indicated by the atmanepada form. The lack of qualification expressed in this verse is only an expression of humility (since he is actually not fallen), and thus the verse is used as an example of a person at the stage of rati.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In this connection, one prayer by Rūpa Gosvāmī is sufficient to exemplify this hopefulness. He says, “I have no love for Kṛṣṇa, nor for the causes of developing love of Kṛṣṇa—namely, hearing and chanting. And the process of bhakti-yoga, by which one is always thinking of Kṛṣṇa and fixing His lotus feet in the heart, is also lacking in me. As far as philosophical knowledge or pious works are concerned, I don’t see any opportunity for me to execute such activities. But above all, I am not even born of a nice family. Therefore I must simply pray to You, Gopījana-vallabha [Kṛṣṇa, maintainer and beloved of the gopīs]. I simply wish and hope that some way or other I may be able to approach Your lotus feet, and this hope is giving me pain, because I think myself quite incompetent to approach that transcendental goal of life.” The purport is that under this heading of āśā-bandha, one should continue to hope against hope that some way or other he will be able to approach the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord.