Verse Text
ata eva śrī-nārada-paṣcarātre, yathā—
bhāvonmatto hareḥ kiṣcin na veda sukham ātmanaḥ |
dukhaṁ ceti maheśāni paramānanda āplutaḥ ||18||
Translation
Therefore, in Nārada-paṣcarātra it is said: O goddess Pārvatī, the person who is mad with love of the Lord, being absorbed in the highest bliss, does not know at all his own happiness or distress.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
…In 3.15.48 and in statements made by Dhruva, suffering from not attaining the Lord is shown by the Kumāras’ expressing disrespect for liberation since there is no bhakti present for attaining the Lord in that state. In the statement of the Kumāras, happiness on attaining the Lord is expressed by accepting birth even in hell, provided it is possible to perform bhakti there.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
This verse shows the difficulty in understanding a person with prema. (Even he cannot understand what is happening.) Here is the meaning. Those learned in scriptures define the goals of life as the destruction of suffering and attainment of happiness. They try to understand if the prema-bhaktas have achieved these two goals of life by looking at their external appearance. But these prema-bhaktas internally experience happiness and distress only from achieving or not achieving the Lord. (Thus, others cannot understand the prema-bhakta’s behavior.) Thus, it is said:
nātyantikaṁ vigaṇayanty api te prasādaṁ
kimv anyad arpita-bhayaṁ bhruva unnayais te
ye ’ṅga tvad-aṅghri-śaraṇā bhavataḥ kathāyāḥ
kīrtanya-tīrtha-yaśasaḥ kuśalā rasa-jṣāḥ
Persons, who are very expert and most intelligent in understanding things as they are, engage in hearing narrations of the auspicious activities and pastimes of the Lord, which are worth chanting and worth hearing. Such persons do not care even for the highest material benediction, namely liberation, to say nothing of other less important benedictions like the material happiness of the heavenly kingdom. SB 3.15.48
kāmaṁ bhavaḥ sva-vṛjinair nirayeṣu naḥ stāc
ceto ’livad yadi nu te padayo rameta
vācaś ca nas tulasivad yadi te ’ṅghri-śobhāḥ
pūryeta te guṇa-gaṇair yadi karṇa-randhraḥ
O Lord, we pray that You let us be born in any hellish condition of life, just as long as our hearts and minds are always engaged in the service of Your lotus feet, our words are made beautiful [by speaking of Your activities] just as tulasī leaves are beautified when offered unto Your lotus feet, and as long as our ears are always filled with the chanting of Your transcendental qualities. SB 3.15.49
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In the Nārada Paṣcarātra Lord Śiva therefore tells Pārvatī, “My dear supreme goddess, you may know from me that any person who has developed the ecstasy of love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and who is always merged in transcendental bliss on account of this love, cannot even perceive the material distress or happiness coming from the body or mind.”