Verse Text
yathā –
pūrṇa-paramahaṁsaṁ māṁ mādhava līlā-mahauṣadhir ghrātā |
kṛtvā bata sāraṅgaṁ vyadhita kathaṁ sārase tṛṣitam ||208||
Translation
O Mādhava! Though I am a pure paramahaṁsa without desires, by smelling the fragrance of the great herbs of Your pastimes, I have been transformed into a devotee and am thirsty for the rasa of bhakti.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The word sāraṅga means the cātaka bird and the devotee (who sings sweet songs (sāraṁ gāyati). The usage is found in the following verse:
śriyo nivāso yasyoraḥ pāna-pātraṁ mukhaṁ dṛśām
bāhavo loka-pālānāṁ sāraṅgāṇāṁ padāmbujam
The Lord’s chest is the abode of the goddess of fortune. His moonlike face is the drinking vessel for eyes which hanker after all that is beautiful. His arms are the resting places for the administrative demigods. And His lotus feet are the refuge of pure devotees who never talk or sing of any subject except His Lordship. SB 1.11.27
Sārase can be divided into sā (modifying mahauṣadhīḥ) and rase, or can be kept as one word sārase, meaning lotus. Thus the second meaning of the verse is “Smelling the great powerful herbs of Your pastimes, has turned me, a paramahaṁsa (great swan), into a cātaka bird, and has made me desirous of the lotus. How astonishing this is (katham)!” The astonishment becomes doubled because there are two meanings caused by the pun in the verse.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In this connection the following statement was given by the Kumāras: “How wonderful it is that although we are completely liberated, free from desire and situated at the stage of paramahaṁsa, we are still aspiring to taste the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”