Narad Bhakti Sutra

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1. Now, therefore, I will try to explain the process of devotional service.

2. Devotional service manifests as the most elevated, pure love for God.

3. This pure love for God is eternal.

4. Upon achieving that stage of transcendental devotional service in pure love of God, a person becomes perfect, immortal, and peaceful.

5. A person engaged in such pure devotional service neither desires anything for sense gratification, nor laments for any loss, nor hates anything, nor enjoys anything on his personal account, nor becomes very enthusiastic in material activity.

6. One who understands perfectly the process of devotional service in love of Godhead becomes intoxicated in its discharge. Sometimes he becomes stunned in ecstasy and thus enjoys his whole self, being engaged in the service of the Supreme Self.

7. There is no question of lust in the execution of pure devotional service, because in it all material activities are renounced.

8. Such renunciation in devotional service means to give up all kinds of social customs and religious rituals governed by Vedic injunction.

9. Renunciation also means being exclusively dedicated to the Lord and indifferent to what stands in the way of His service.

10. Exclusive dedication to the Lord means giving up all shelters other than Him.

11. Indifference toward what stands in the way of devotional service means to accept only those activities of social custom and Vedic injunction that are favorable to devotional service.

12. One must continue to follow scriptural injunctions even after one is fixed up in determined certainty that devotional service is the only means for reaching the perfection of life.

13. Otherwise there is every possibility of falling down.

14. For as long as the body lasts, one should engage minimally in social and political activities and in such matters as eating.

15. Now the characteristics of devotional service will be described according to various authoritative opinions.

16. Srila Vyasadeva, the son of Parasara Muni, says that bhakti is fond attachment for worshiping the Lord in various ways.

17. Garga Muni says that bhakti is fondness for narrations about the Lord, by the Lord, and so on.

18. Sandilya says that bhakti results from one's removing all obstructions to taking pleasure in the Supreme Self.

19. Narada, however, says that bhakti consists of offering one's every act to the Supreme Lord and feeling extreme distress in forgetting Him.

20. Bhakti is, in fact, correctly described in each of these ways.

21. The cowherd women of Vraja are an example of pure bhakti.

22. Even in the case of the gopis, one cannot criticize them for forgetting the Lord's greatness.

23. On the other hand, displays of devotion without knowledge of God's greatness are no better than the affairs of illicit lovers.

24. In such false devotion one does not find pleasure exclusively in the Lord's pleasure.

25. Pure devotional service, on the other hand, is far superior to fruitive work, philosophical speculation, and mystic meditation.

26. After all, bhakti is the fruit of all endeavor.

27. Furthermore, the Lord dislikes the proud but is pleased with the humble.

28. Some say that knowledge is the means for developing devotion.

29. Others consider bhakti and knowledge interdependent.

30. But the son of Brahma says that bhakti is its own fruit.

31-32. This is illustrated by the examples of a royal palace, a meal, and so on. A king is not really satisfied just by seeing a palace, nor can someone placate his hunger just by looking at a meal.

33. Therefore seekers of liberation should take to devotional service alone.

Chapter 3: The Means of Achievement 34. Standard authorities have described the methods for achieving devotional service.

35. One achieves bhakti by giving up sense gratification and mundane association.

36. One achieves bhakti by worshiping the Lord ceaselessly.

37. One achieves bhakti by hearing and chanting about the Supreme Lord's special qualities, even while engaged in the ordinary activities of life in this world.

38. Primarily, however, one develops bhakti by the mercy of great souls, or by a small drop of the Lord's mercy.

39. The association of great souls is rarely obtained, difficult to understand, and infallible.

40. The association of great souls can be attained-but only by the Lord's mercy.

41. [One can attain bhakti either by the association of the Lord's pure devotees or directly by the Lord's mercy because] the Lord and His pure devotees are nondifferent.

42. Strive, strive only for the association of pure devotees.

43. One should give up all kinds of degrading association.

44. Material association is the cause of lust, anger, confusion, forgetfulness, loss of intelligence, and total calamity.

45. Rising like waves from material association, these bad effects mass into a great ocean of misery.

46. Who can cross beyond illusion? One who abandons material association, serves the sages, and becomes selfless.

47. [Who can cross beyond illusion?] That person who stays in a secluded place, cuts off at the root his attachment to mundane society, becomes free from the influence of the three modes of nature, and gives up hankering for material gain and security.

48. [Who can cross beyond illusion?] That person who renounces material duties and their profits, thus transcending duality.

49. That person who renounces even the Vedas obtains exclusive and uninterrupted attraction for God.

50. Such a person, indeed, is delivered, and he also delivers the rest of the world.

51. The true nature of pure love of God is beyond description.

52. [Trying to describe the experience of pure love of God] is like a mute's effort to describe what he tastes.

53. Nonetheless, from time to time pure love of God is revealed to those who are qualified.

54. Pure love of God manifests as the most subtle consciousness, devoid of material qualities and material desires, increasing at every moment, and never interrupted.

55. Having obtained pure love of God, one looks only at the Lord, hears only about Him, speaks only of Him, and thinks only of Him.

56. Secondary devotional service is of three kinds, according to which of the three material modes predominates, or according to which material motivation-distress and so on-brings one to bhakti.

57. Each earlier stage should be considered better than the one following it.

58. Success is easier to attain by devotional service than by any other process.

59. The reason devotional service is the easiest of all spiritual processes is that it does not depend on any other authority for its validity, being itself the standard of authority.

60. Furthermore, bhakti is the embodiment of peace and supreme ecstasy.

61. After consigning to the Lord all one's mundane and Vedic duties, one no longer need worry about worldly loss.

62. Even after one has achieved devotional service, one should not abandon one's responsibilities in this world but should rather continue surrendering the results of one's work to the Lord. And while still trying to reach the stage of pure devotion, one must certainly continue executing prescribed duties.

63. One should not find entertainment in news of women, money, and atheists.

64. One should put aside false pride, hypocrisy, and other vices.

65. Offering all one's activities to the Lord, one should feel desire, anger, and pride only with regard to Him.

66. After breaking through the aforementioned coverings of the three modes of nature, one should act only in pure love of God, remaining perpetually in the mood of a servant serving his master, or a lover serving her beloved.

67. Among the Lord's devotees, the greatest are those who are dedicated to Him solely as His intimate servants.

68. Conversing among one another with throats choked, hair standing on end, and tears flowing, the Lord's intimate servants purify their own followers and the whole world.

69. Their association makes holy places holy, works auspicious, and the scriptures authoritative.

70. The intimate servants of the Supreme Lord are fully absorbed in loving Him.

71. Thus the pure devotees' forefathers become joyful, the demigods dance, and the world feels protected by good masters.

72. There are no distinctions among such pure devotees in terms of social class, education, bodily beauty, family status, wealth, occupation, and so on.

73. Pure devotees are not distinguished by externals like social class, for they belong to the Lord.

74. One should not indulge in argumentative debate.

75. Such argumentation leads to excessive entanglements and is never decisive.

76. One should respect the revealed scriptures of devotional service and discharge the duties they prescribe.

77. Patiently enduring till the time when one can put aside material happiness, distress, desire, and false gain, one should not waste even a fraction of a second.

78. One should cultivate such good qualities as nonviolence, truthfulness, cleanliness, compassion, and faith.

79. Those who are free of doubts should constantly worship the Supreme Lord with all their hearts.

80. When He is glorified, the Lord swiftly reveals Himself to His devotees and allows them to know Him as He is.

81. Devotional service is the most precious possession of a person who honestly uses his mind, body, and words.

82. Although devotional service is one, it becomes manifested in eleven forms of attachment: attachment to the Lord's glorious qualities, to His beauty, to worshiping Him, to remembering Him, to serving Him, to reciprocating with Him as a friend, to caring for Him as a parent, to dealing with Him as a lover, to surrendering one's whole self to Him, to being absorbed in thought of Him, and to experiencing separation from Him. This last is the supreme attachment.

83. Thus say the founding authorities of devotional service: the Kumaras, Vyasa, Suka, Sandilya, Garga, Visnu, Kaundilya, Sesa, Uddhava, Aruni, Bali, Hanuman, Vibhisana, and others-speaking without fear of worldly gossip and sharing among themselves one and the same opinion.

84. Anyone who trusts these instructions spoken by Narada and is convinced by them will be blessed with devotion and attain the most dear Lord. Yes, he will attain the most dear Lord.

Narad Bhkti Sutra (Download in PDF)