Chapter 2

1. Sri Narada, a crest jewel devotee of Sri Hari, thus being supplicated by Sri Shaunaka muni and others for delivering religious Discourse on the Transcendental Exploits of Sri Hari congratulated them and with a gala heart began to narrate.

2. Sri Narada said: So long as the darkness of the night prevails, there will be no sunshine; on the contrary, when dawn approches the sun shines despensing the entire darkness, so too, it presupposes that you all have become unstinted, totally free from sins and sinful propensities. Therefore you naturally imbibe such a great intensity to quench your spiritual thirst by drinking through the cup of the ears the Nectarine Harikatha. Without having totally destroyed the quagmire of maya how can there be such intensity for listening to Harikatha?

3-4. You all are most fortunate indeed. Today I also feel myself blessed by having your association. Now I feel it my proud privilege to narrate about the Divine Exploits of Sri Hari Which delights the hearts of the exalted devotees. You all may listen to me about the nectar-pouring Transcendental Pastimes of Sri Hari, the Supreme, while I expound HARIBHAKTI-SUDHODAYA.

5. Long long ago I listened to Maharshi Kapila (God incarnate vide Bh.Sk. 11) all about the mystic Lore of the Vedas which later on became to be known as Naradiya Purana. Today 1 shall give you the quintessence of that Treatise.

6. In different literatures, Puranas, Itihasas and Epics many subjects are dealt with, but at the assemblage of the exalted souls the topic relating to the Transcendental Exploits of Sri Hari is only welcomed.

7. So the discourse on the Divine Pastimes of Sri Hari is nectar-pouring to you all on the contrary, how can such Nectarine Hari-Kirtana be relished by those who all are steeped in sinful indulgence and are atheists? Because such polluted souls are ever fond of delighting in gossips only.

8. As rains shower in all places without any discrimination, so too, the devotees may out of compassion shower their blessings in the way of nectar-pouring religious discourses to one and all but those whose hearts are polluted by the quagmire of maya cannot welcome it as they neither can relish the nectartine taste nor do they know its pricelessness, as it were, uncivilized Jaina monks do remain naked even though clothes are provided to them.

9-10. Although rains shower on the rocky and barren lands but never it become useful for habitation, accordingly men steeped in sin although may listen to divinely potentialised Harikatha from the lips of holy ones yet it does not act upon them to create virtue in them whereas the swan-like exalted souls who gather the essence only feel delighted in listening to the discourses on the Exploits of Sri Hari from the holy lips of the single-minded devotees. How can the waters of the well get any high tide at the rise of the full-moon whereas the ocean naturally gets turbulent high-tide on full-moon night, so also are those rivers who are connected with the sea.

11-12. The treatise or tropic that deals with the Transcendental Pastimes of Sri Krishna, the Supreme Par-excellence does not lack in rhetoric as when sun shines does the sky lack in its illumination without the stars? The hymns composed by the mystic devotees extolling the Pastimes of the Exalted Lord Sri Krishna may have some grammatical defects yet it delights the exalted souls and they most honourably welcome it as the shell-fish is laboriously collected because it contains the gem-stone.

13. Such a mystic devotee due to ecstatic rapture may utter incomplete stanzas of hymns, but that is not at all a defect to be counted on the contrary, as he himself is drowned in the Ocean of Bliss, and steals the Hearts of God Himself, nay, thereby he delivers up the people from the worldly ocean, so his such downpour extinguishes the forest-fire of the worldly- ness and sheds the calmness.

14. As the husks of the paddy-plant do not serve the real purpose, likewise the compositions perfect in rhetoric, sweet to listen and enriched in other respects but devoid of glorification of Sri Hari’s Pastimes, to speak the truth, cannot actually serve any real purpose to the human achievement.

15. As the ruby is the most shining gem, rhetoric is the richness of the poetry and the tranqility, contentment and solemnity are the qualities of a learned one, so also the compositions, that extol the Transcendental Pastimes of Sri Hari (Sri Krishna) are worthy expositions of the man of wisdom.

16. Therefore before the commencement of my discourse let me first of all salute Sri Narayana, the Lord of Lakshmi Who alone is the Bestower of all boons. I shall be narrating the glorious stories and characters of exalted souls who are all the bees drinking deep the Nectar of the Lotus Feet of the Supreme Godhead and those anecdotes are conducive to endow oneself (who hears) with the Prema Bhakti.

17. The performance of the Yajnas and other religious rites do not yield its fruits so long as at its conclusion the performer does not take recourse to the chanting of Harinama. It is Sri Hari Who alone is the Bestower of the fruits of the Yajna and none else. May that Supreme Godhead bestow us eloquency in discoursing about His Divine Exellency.

18. The mystic bards, as it were, like bees ever hover round the Lotus Feet of that great God with humming, ‘O unborn, O Wish-yielding-Tree’ May that great God Sri Hari be gracious unto us.

19. The bards in ecstasy flooding their breasts melodiously sing the nectar-pouring songs about that glorious great God nay, those songs when heard, one gets rid of all inauspiciousness and sinful propensities as the Names of God are the source of all Divine Potencies—may that great God be gracious unto us.

20. Nay, even Brahma with offering the sacred water of the Ganges which has streamed from Sri Hari’s Lotus Feet carrying His Grace, and making Vedic panegyrics could not realise His unfathomable Auspiciousness; therefore naturally my mind is tempted to sing His Divine Pastimes. May my chanting of His Divine Glory be solely for His delight.

21. The murmuring resonance of the holy Ganges that flows from the Lotus Feet of the Exalted Lord Sri Hari representing the discourse on the Exploits of Sri Hari that makes a mystic devotee to feel as it were, the beaming moon-light on the blossoming lily-like love-poignant heart swelling ocean of Bliss. Nay when the moon decreases during the period of darkened fortnight, so the beaming light of the phenomenal moon is not the moon that unfolds the lily bringing swelling flood of Bliss in the blossoming heart of youthful Bride to the gratification of Madhu-ripu (Sri Krishna)? As love-in-union and love-in-separation—for both the cases, the Love-poignant lily-like Bosoms of Vraja-Gopis are ever swelling like ocean of Bliss. Therefore let me be drenched in that showers of Bliss.

22. The holy Ganges that flows from the Lotus Feet of Sri Hari when pass through the snowbelt mountain joins she looks like untinted heart enriched with all spiritual wealth but the stream when flows downwards her water becomes black as if polluted due to the wash of sins left by those men steeped in nescience; but a mystic devotee realises that the very water of the holy Ganges characterises the Vaidhi and Raganuga-Bhakti to Godhead. The Vaidhi, conventional devotion appears as pure as snow-white bed of the holy Ganges, but the turbulently poignant love of Vraja Gopis which brings the flood of ocean of Bliss crossing the shore of all conventions of socio-religions it apparently may appear like the dark-water of the downstream of the Ganges. So let us pray that we may not thus misconstrue the rustic love of Vraja-Gopis by anthropomorphising our conventional presuppositions. Let God endow us with the intuitive wisdom so that we may ever be free from hallucination.

23. The very sight of the moon-like Bliss-showering Face of that glorious God inundates the heart of a devotee in the ocean of Bliss; and the Lord Whose Sudarshana Discus like the rising sun makes the devotee’s face beaming with Nectarine Bliss and One Who ever moves like conch-shell and sports like a swan in the lake-like unstinted Love-poignant Bosom of the mystic devotees—I beseech Him, for let He augment me with steadfast devotion to Him.

24. Next, the crest-jewel Paramabhagavata Sri Narada muni paying his obeisance to the Lotus Feet of Sri Hari Who is the Redeemer of the horrible incurable worldly disease began to narrate in an ecstatic rapture all about the Transcendental Glories of Sri Hari that are the very invaluable hidden gems in the bed of the fathomless ocean of Vedic-lore.