Verse 1.5.18

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Word-for-word and English translation of verse 1.5.18:

हनूमान् जाम्बवान् श्रीमान् सुग्रीवोऽथ विभीषणः ।
गुहो दशरथोऽप्य् एते नूनं कतिपये जनाः ॥ १८ ॥

hanūmān jāmbavān śrīmān sugrīvo'tha vibhīṣaṇaḥ |
guho daśaratho'py ete nūnaṃ katipaye janāḥ || 18 ||

In the avatāra of Śrī Rāma, some personalities such as Śrīman Hanūmān, Jāmbuvān, Sugrīva, Vibhīṣaṇa, Guhaka and King Daśaratha obtained pure devotional service from Him.

Commentary: Dig-darśinī-ṭīkā with Bhāvānuvāda

(By Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī himself including a deep purport of that commentary)

In the avatāra of Śrī Rāmacandrajī, some servants such as Śrī Hanūmān and some living entities obtained śuddha-bhakti, in other words, pure devotional service free from jñāna and karma, from this Śrī Devakī-nandana alone. Śrīman means “the opulence of topmost good fortune,” and all such people are indeed endowed with the topmost good fortune.

Here the word nūnam indicates certainty or inference, in other words, symptoms by which one can infer that one obtained śuddhabhakti; or the word nūnam also relates to Śrī Daśaratha, who due to the curse of a brāhmaṇa experienced the distress of being separat ed from his son and thus left his body, consequently doubt may arise about his śuddha-bhakti. On the other hand, seeing his parental affection towards Śrī Rāmacandrajī, there is the likelihood of his having śuddha-bhakti. This is the opposing argument. There fore, after the word daśaratha, the affix api (also) is used in the original verse.