Song 8

(Sindhuda rāga)

450. Nārada said: Brahmā, what can I say? You have already spoken what was in my heart.

451-453. Shacked by past karma, for how many kalpas does the conditioned soul wander and wander in this world? If somehow such a person renders a small service to a Vaiṣṇava and if somehow he hears from that Vaiṣṇava the confidential truths of spiritual life, and if then he carefully strivwes to attain spiritual perfection, then the shackles of māyā that bind him will be opened. Then he will become devoted to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Then he will not even lift a finger to grasp any of the four kinds of liberation that begin with sālokya-mukti.

454. Who is qualified to attain the ecstatic love the gopīs felt? Of that I will talk.

455. The Supreme Lord is conquered by that love, which is superficially like the love of a woman for her paramour.

456. Who can describe that love? He so admired their virtues that Uddhava prayed to become a bush or a creeper.

457. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.47.61) he said: āsām aho caraṇa-reṇu-juṣām ahaṃ syāṃ vṛndāvane kim apī gulma-latauṣadhīnām yā dustyajaṃ svajanam ārya pathaṃ ca hitvā bhejur mukunda-padavīṃ śrutibhir vimṛgyam

"The gopīs of Vṛndāvana have given up the association of their husbands, sons, and other family members, who are very difficult to give up, and they have forsaken the path of chastity to take shelter at the ltous feet of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa, which one should search for by Vedic knowledge. Oh, let me be fortunate enough to be one of the bushes, creepers, or herbs in Vṛndāvana, because the gopīs trample them and bless them with the dust of their lotus feet."*

458-461. The same Supreme Personality of Godhead on whose feet Brahmā and Śiva meditate, whom the kings of the yugīs and the kings of the sages seek but cannot find, whose feet the many goddesses of fortune serve, the sweet glory of whose feet words have no power to describe, whose great glories the four Vedas always sing, whose limitless glories have no end, who rests on the bed that is Lord Ananta Śeṣa, that same Lord has become a servant of the gopīs.

462. How many hundreds and hundreds of devotees are like them, are followers of the gopīs and have also conquered Lord Kṛṣṇa and brought Him under their control?

463. Who is Lord Kṛṣṇa? He is the all-pervading Supreme Personality of Godhead. Who are the gopīs? They are girls overcome with deep love for Kṛṣṇa, girls who ran into the forest to meet Kṛṣṇa.

464. I wish to describe these truths of devotional service. The greatest secrets are the secrets of pure devotional service. There are no other great secrets.

465. In Kalī-yuga the Supreme Personality of Godhead will preach these secrets of pure devotional service, secrest even Goddess Lakṣmī and Lord Ananta Śeṣa have never heard.

466. O Brahmā, please tell everyone in your assembly to take birth, by their plenary portions (aṃśa), in the Kali-yuga.

467. Speaking these words, the great sage Nārada, his heart filled with bliss, departed. Locana dāsa speaks these words.