Verse 2.26.129

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 2.26.129:

আমা’ দেখি’ কোথা পাইবেক বন্ধ-নাশ এক গুণ বদ্ধ ছিল—হৈল কোটি-পাশ ॥ ১২৯ ॥

आमा’ देखि’ कोथा पाइबेक बन्ध-नाश एक गुण बद्ध छिल—हैल कोटि-पाश ॥ १२९ ॥

āmā’ dekhi’ kothā pāibeka bandha-nāśa eka guṇa baddha chila—haila koṭi-pāśa || 129 ||

ama’ dekhi’ kotha paibeka bandha-nasa eka guna baddha chila—haila koti-pasa (129)

English translation:

(129) “They were supposed to be freed from material bondage by seeing Me. But whereas they were previously bound by one rope, they are now bound by millions.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

Śrī Gaurasundara said to Śrī Nityānanda, “I began to glorify Lord Hari and His devotees to benefit the residents of Navadvīpa. But the result was the opposite—they became more and more entangled in offense. They could not understand the practice of pure devotional service, and they

ruined themselves by totally misunderstanding devotional service to Hari. In this way they tightened the knots of their bondage to material existence. Their such degradation resulted from envy of the Supreme Lord and the absence of a service attitude for the devotees of the Supreme Lord.”

When according to the desire of Śrī Gaurasundara the expert devotees of the Viśva-vaiṣṇava-rāja-sabhā engaged in preaching pure devotional service, a group of prākṛta-sahajiyās under the guidance of an arrogant karmi resident of Kālanā created various disturbances. Those prākṛta- sahajiyā, so-called preachers of devotional service to Viṣṇu tried their best to oppose the preaching of pure devotional service by resorting to the use of harsh language in various medias like one fortnightly newspaper.

They plunged into the well of material existence to destroy themselves by accepting sinful activities, deviations from religious principles, nondevotional activities in the form of envying Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, and association with women as the standards of pure devotional service preached by Śrī Gaurasundara. Some of them tried to oppose the system of daiva-varṇāśrama on the pretext of following varṇāśrama-dharma, and some without understanding the process of devotional service tried to preserve their beards and moustaches to keep their enjoying propensity intact. The foolish prākṛta-sahajiyās cannot understand the intentions of the Lord’s devotees. Therefore how will they understand the transcendental behavior and endeavors of Gaurasundara? They did not hesitate to create the new doctrine that even the distribution of kṛṣṇa- prema—the ultimate aim of Gaura’s supremely pure pastimes—is the perverted mentality of immoral people. In every yuga one finds the purport of the statement: kālena naṣṭā pralaye vāṇīyaṃ veda- saṃjñitā—“By the influence of time, the transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge is lost at the time of annihilation.” Yet the Supreme Lord and His devotees always endeavor to check the decline in religious principles. Sinful-minded people, however, are not able to understand undisclosed mysteries.