Verse 2.16.144-145

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.16.144-145:

যত বিধি-নিষেধ—সকলি ভক্তি-দাস ইহাতে যাহার দুঃখ, সেই যায নাশ ভক্তি—বিধি-মূল, কহিলেন বেদব্যাস সাক্ষাতে গৌরাঙ্গ তাহা করিলা প্রকাশ ॥ ১৪৪-১৪৫ ॥

यत विधि-निषेध—सकलि भक्ति-दास इहाते याहार दुःख, सेइ याय नाश भक्ति—विधि-मूल, कहिलेन वेदव्यास साक्षाते गौराङ्ग ताहा करिला प्रकाश ॥ १४४-१४५ ॥

yata vidhi-niṣedha—sakali bhakti-dāsa ihāte yāhāra duḥkha, sei yāya nāśa bhakti—vidhi-mūla, kahilena vedavyāsa sākṣāte gaurāṅga tāhā karilā prakāśa || 144-145 ||

yata vidhi-nisedha—sakali bhakti-dasa ihate yahara duhkha, sei yaya nasa bhakti—vidhi-mula, kahilena vedavyasa saksate gauranga taha karila prakasa (144-145)

English translation:

(144-145) All rules and regulations are servants of devotional service. One who is distressed because of this is vanquished. Vedavyāsa has stated that devotion is the root of all rules, and Gaurāṅga has directly demonstrated this.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

In the Padma Purāṇa it is stated:

smartavyaḥ satataṃ viṣṇur vismartavyo na jātucit sarve vidhi-niṣedhāḥ syur etayor eva kiṅkarāḥ

“Kṛṣṇa is the origin of Lord Viṣṇu. He should always be remembered and never forgotten at any time. All the rules and prohibitions mentioned in the śāstras should be the servants of these two principles.”

Śrī Gaurasundara’s pastime of accepting Śuklāmbara’s rice out of love without considering whether the rice was parboiled or raw and ignoring the rules for proper offering is the ultimate goal for persons who are on the path of arcana and who follow the path of regulative devotional service based on the Pañcarātras. All Vedic rules and regulations are simply favorable attempts towards devotional service, therefore since the devotees on the path of anurāga (attachment) are situated thousands of miles beyond unfavorable attempts, they never transgress the path of vidhi, or regulative principles. Rather they constantly remain on the path of anurāga while following the regulative principles in the course of their service to Kṛṣṇa. Those foolish materialistic persons who due to material conceptions are unable to understand service on the path of anurāga become averse to the service of Kṛṣṇa. That is why the verse api cet su- durācāro [For a transalation of this verse see the footnote on page 418] has appeared in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s Bhagavad-gītā. This does not mean that sinful life full of selfishness and perversion can be accepted as spontaneous devotional service. But without understanding this, the prākṛta-sahajiyās, who are attached to material enjoyment, revolt against the pure devotees and pure devotional service and thus traverse the path to hell.

The topics of regulative devotional service and its concomitant rules and

regulations that Śrī Vedavyāsa has described in the smṛtis and the Purāṇas are properly illustrated in the character of Śrī Gaurasundara and His matchless servants.