Part 5 - Nature of bhakti

The author of the Ṣaṭ-sandarbha discusses in the Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha the then favourite theme of the Vaiṣṇavas that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the manifestation of the entire Godhood. The details of such a discussion cannot pertinently be described in a work like the present one, and must therefore be omitted.

In the Bhakti-sandarbha the author of the Ṣaṭ-sandarbha deals with the nature of bhakti. He says that, though the jīvas are parts of God’s power, yet through beginningless absence of true knowledge of the ultimate reality their mind is turned away from it, and through this weakness their self-knowledge is obscured by māyā; they are habituated to looking upon the pradhāna (the product of sattva, rajas and tamas) as being identical with themselves, and thereby suffer the sorrows associated with the cycles of birth and re-birth. Those jīvas, however, who by their religious practices have inherited from their last birth an inclination towards God, or those who through a special mercy of God have their spiritual eyes opened, naturally feel inclined towards God and have a realization of His nature whenever they listen to religious instruction. It is through the worship of God that there arise the knowledge of God and the realization of God, by which all sorrows are destroyed. In the Upaniṣads it is said that one should listen to the Upaniṣadic texts propounding the unity of Brahma and meditate upon them. Such a course brings one nearer God, because through it the realization of Brahma is said to be possible. The processes of aṣṭāṅga-yoga may also be regarded as leading one near to God’s realization. Even the performance of karma helps one to attain the proximity of God; by performing one’s duties one obeys the commands of God, and in the case of obligatory duties the performer derives no benefit, as the fruits of those actions are naturally dedicated to God. Knowledge associated with bhakti is also negatively helpful by detaching one’s mind from objects other than God; yet bhakti alone, exhibited in chanting God’s name and in being intoxicated with emotion for God, is considered to be of supreme importance. The two forms of bhakti have but one objective, namely, to afford pleasure to God; they are therefore regarded as ahetukī. The true devotee finds a natural pleasure in chanting the name of God and absorbing himself in meditation upon God’s merciful actions for the sake of humanity. Though the paths of duty and of knowledge are prescribed for certain classes of persons, yet the path of bhakti is regarded as superior; those who are in it need not follow the path of knowledge and the path of disinclination from worldly things^[1]. All the various duties prescribed in the śāstras are fruitful only if they are performed through the inspiration of bhakti, and, even if they are not performed, one may attain his highest only through the process of bhakti.

Bhakti is also described as being itself the emancipation (mukti)^[2]. True philosophic knowledge (tattva-jñāna) is the secondary effect of bhakti. True tattva-jñāna consists in the realization of God in His three-fold form, as Brahman, Paramātman and Bhagavān in relation to His threefold powers, with which He is both identical and different. This reality of God can only be properly realized and apperceived through bhakti ^[3]. Knowledge is more remote than realization. Bhakti brings not only knowledge, but also realization (jñāna-mātrasya kā vārttā sākṣād api kurvanti); it is therefore held that bhakti is much higher than philosophic knowledge, which is regarded as the secondary effect of it. The true devotee can realize the nature of God either in association with His Powers or as divested of them, in His threefold form or in any one of His forms, according as it pleases him. The effect of one’s good deeds is not the attainment of Heaven, but success in the satisfaction of God through the production of bhakti. The nididhyāsana of the Upaniṣads means the worship of God (upāsanā) by reciting the name and glory of God; when one does so with full attachment to God, all the bonds of his karma are torn asunder. The real difficulty however lies in the generation in one’s mind of a natural inclination for turning to God and finding supreme satisfaction in reciting His name and glories. By association with true devotees one’s mind gradually becomes inclined to God, and this is further intensified by the study of religious literature like the Bhāgavata-purāṇa. As an immediate result of this, the mind becomes dissociated from rajas and tamas (desires and afflictions), and by a further extension of the attachment to God there dawns the wisdom of the nature of God and His realization; as a result, egoism is destroyed, all doubts are dissolved, and all bondage of karma is also destroyed. Through reciting God’s name and listening to religious texts describing His nature one removes objective ignorance regarding the nature of God, by deep thought and meditation one dispels one’s own subjective ignorance through the destruction of one’s illusory views regarding God, and by the realization and direct apprehension of God the personal imperfection which was an obstacle to the comprehension of the nature of God is destroyed. The following of the path of bhakti is different from the following of the path of duties in this, that, unlike the latter, the former yields happiness both at the time of following and also when the ultimate fulfilment is attained^[4].

Thus one should give up all efforts towards the path of obligatory or other kinds of duties (karma), or towards the path of knowledge or of disinclination (vairāgya)^[5]. These are fruitless without bhakti; for, unless the works are dedicated to God, they are bound to afflict one with the bondage of karma, and mere knowledge without bhakti is only external and can produce neither realization nor bliss; thus neither the obligatory (nitya) nor the occasional (naimittika) duties should be performed, but the path of bhakti should alone be followed. If the ultimate success of bhakti is achieved, there is nothing to be said about it; but, even if the path of bhakti cannot be successfully followed in the present life, there is no punishment in store for the devotee; for the follower of the path of bhakti has no right to follow the path of knowledge or of duties (bhakti-rasikasya karmā-nādhikārat)^[6]. God manifests Himself directly in the conscious processes of all men, and He is the world-soul^[7]; and He alone is to be worshipped. Since bhakti is in itself identical with emancipation, our ultimate object of attainment is bhakti (bhaktir evā-bhidheyaṃ vastu). A man who is on the path of bhakti has no need to undergo troublous efforts for self-concentration; for the very devotion would by itself produce self-concentration in a natural and easy manner through the force of the devotional emotion. The place of bhakti is so high that even those who have attained saintliness or the stage oi jīvan-mukti and whose sins have been burnt away may have their fall, and their sins may re-grow through the will of God, if they are disrespectful to God^[8]. Even when through bhakti the bondage of karma has been destroyed, there is scope for a still higher extension of bhakti, through which one attains a still purer form of his nature. Thus bhakti is a state of eternal realizations which may subsist even when the impurities of bondage are entirely removed. God is the supreme dispenser of all things; through His will even the lowest of men may be transformed into a god, and the gods also may be transformed into the lowest of men. The existence of bhakti is regarded as the universal dispeller of all evils; thus bhakti not only removes all kinds of defects, but even the impending evils of karmas which are on the point of fructification (prārabdha-karma) are destroyed through its power^[9]. A true devotee therefore wants neither ordinary emancipation nor anything else, but is anxious only to pursue the path of bhakti.

To a devotee there is nothing so desired as God. This devotion to God may be absolutely qualityless (nirguṇa). The true knowledge of God must be the knowledge of the qualityless (nirguṇa), and therefore true devotion to Him must also be qualityless (nirguṇa); for, in w hatever way bhakti may manifest itself, its sole object is the qualityless God. The meaning of the word “qualityless” (or nirguṇa) is that in itself it is beyond the guṇas. It has been explained before that bhakti is nothing but a manifestation of God’s essential power, and as such it has God only as its constituent, and it must therefore be regarded as beyond the guṇas ; but in its expression bhakti may appear both as within or without the guṇas. Knowledge of Brahman may also be regarded as occurring in a twofold form; as identity between the self and God, as in the case of the so-called Brahma-vādins; and with a certain kind of duality, as in the case of devotees. For this reason, though bhakti consists of knowledge and action, it is to be regarded as nirguṇa, because it refers to God alone, who is beyond all guṇas. Bhakti is thus obviously a transcendental process. It is no doubt true that sometimes it is described as being associated with guṇas (saguṇa); but in all such cases such a characterization of bhakti can only be on account of its association with intellectual, volitional or emotional qualities of the mind^[10]. Bhakti really means “to live with God”; since God Himself is beyond the guṇas, residence with or in God must necessarily mean a state beyond the guṇas. There are others, however, who distinguish bhakti as worshipful action and as God-realizing knowledge, and according to them it is only the latter that is regarded as being beyond the guṇas (nirguṇa). But, though the actual worshipping action is manifested in and through the guṇas, the spiritual action determining it must be regarded as outside the material influences^[11].

A question may here naturally arise, that if God is always of the nature of pure bliss, how is it possible for the devotee to please Him by his bhakti ? This has already been explained, and it may further be added that bhakti is a mode of the self-realization of God’s own blissful nature; its mode of operation is such that here the hlādinī power of God works itself by taking in the devotee as its constituent and its nature is such that it is blissful not only to God, but also to the devotee^[12]. The appearance of bhakti in a devotee is due to God’s will manifesting His self-realizing power in him, and such a manifestation of His will is to be interpreted as His mercy. So God is the real cause of the appearance of bhakti in any individual. It is to be remembered that not only the rise of bhakti but even the functioning of the sense-powers is due to the influence of God;-thus God realizes Himself through men in all their conduct, though in bhakti alone His highest and most blissful nature expresses itself for the highest satisfaction of the devotee, and this must therefore be regarded as an act of His special grace. It is said in the scriptures that even a short recitation of God’s name is sufficient to satisfy God, and those who consider these texts as exaggeration (arthavāda) are punished by God. But the true devotee does not cease from reciting the name of God because a single recital has been sufficient to please Him; for the very recital of God’s name fills him with thrills of great joy. But still there are cases in which a single recital is not sufficient to produce the realization of God; in such cases it is to be presumed that the devotee is a great sinner. To those who are great sinners God is not easily inclined to extend His mercy; such persons should continually recite the name of God until their sins are thereby washed away and the desired end is attained. The recital of God’s name is by itself sufficient to destroy even the worst of sins; but insincerity of mind (kauṭilya), irreligiosity (aśraddhā), and attachment to those things which impede our attachment to God are the worst vices; for through their presence the revelation of the process of bhakti in the mind is obstructed, and such persons cannot attach themselves to God^[13]. Thus much learning and consequent crookedness of heart may prove to be a much stronger impediment to the rise of bhakti than even the commission of the deadliest of sins or submersion in deep ignorance; for God is merciful to the latter but not to the former; such attitudes of mind can only be due to the existence of very grave long-standing sins. A single recital is sufficient for success only when there are no previous sins and when no serious offences are committed after the recital of the name^[14]; but, if at the time of death one recites the name of God, then a single recital is sufficient to dispel all sins and bring about intimate association with God^[15].

Without religious faith (śraddhā) it is not possible for a man to follow the path either of knowledge or of duties; but still religious faith is an indispensable condition for those who wish to follow the path of bhakti. Once the religious bhakti is roused one should give up the path of knowledge and of duties. Bhakti does not require for its fulfilment the following of any ritual process. Just as fire naturally by itself burns the straw, so the recital of God’s name and His glories would by itself, without the delay of any intermediary process, destroy all sins. Religious faith is not in itself a part of bhakti, but it is a pre-condition which makes the rise of bhakti^[16] possible. In following the path of bhakti one should not try to follow also the path of knowledge or of duties; such a course will be a strong impediment to the acceleration of bhakti.

If bhakti produces proximity to God, then, since God has three powers—Brahman, Paramātman, and Bhagavān—it is possible to have three kinds of proximity; of these the third is better than the second, and the second is better than the first. The realization of God as endowed with forms is superior to His realization without any forms. The true devotee prefers his position as the servant of God to any other so-called higher position of power and glory^[17]; he therefore wishes for pure bhakti, unassociated with any other so-called beneficial results. It is these devotees, who want God and God alone, that are called the ekāntins, who are superior to all other types of devotees; this kind of bhakti is called akiñcana-bhakti. It may be argued, that since all individuals are parts of God, and since they are naturally attached to Him as parts to wholes, the dkiñcana-bhakti should be natural to them all; but to this the reply is that man is not a part of God so far as He is in His own essential nature, but he is a part of Him so far as He is endowed with His diverse powers, including His neutral powers (taṭastha-śakti). Man is a part of God in the sense that both externally and internally he is in direct connection with God ; but still he has his own instincts, tendencies, habits and the like, and it is these that separate him from God. For this reason, though man shares in the life of God and has the same life as He, yet, being hidden in his own sheath of ideas and tendencies, he cannot indulge in his natural truth-right of devotion to God except through the grace of God^[18]. When a man is not under the sway of great obstructive sins such as crookedness and the like, association with other devotees gives an occasion to God for extending His grace in rousing devotion in his mind. It cannot be said that all beings must necessarily attain salvation; the number of souls is infinite, and only those will attain salvation who may happen to awaken His grace. Man from beginningless time is ignorant of God and is disinclined from Him; and this natural impediment can only be removed by association with true devotees (sat-saṅga); God descends into men through the grace of good devotees who have at some time or other suffered like other ordinary people and are therefore naturally sympathetic to them^[19]. God Himself cannot have sympathy with men, for sympathy presupposes suffering; God is of the nature of pure bliss and could not have experienced the suffering of ordinary beings.

The best devotee is he who perceives God in all beings, and also perceives all beings as parts of himself and of God as He reveals Himself in him^[20]. The second type of devotee is he who has love for God, friendship for His devotees, mercy for the ignorant and indifference with reference to his enemies^[21]. The lower type of devotee is he who worships the image of God with faith and devotion, but has no special feeling for the devotees of God or other persons^[22]. There are other descriptions also of the nature of the best devotee: thus it is said in the Gītā that he whose heart is pure and unafflicted by the tendencies of desire and deeds, and whose mind is always attached to God, is to be regarded as the best devotee^[23]; it is further said that the best devotee is he who makes no distinction between himself and others, or between his own things and those of others, and is the friend of all persons and at absolute peace with himself^[24]; and, further, that the best devotee is he whose heart is held directly by God and holds within it in bonds of love the lotus-feet of God^[25].

From another point of view bhakti is defined as service (sevā) or as that by which everything can be attained; the former is called svarūpa-lakṣaṇa and the latter taṭastha-lakṣaṇa. Bhakti is again regarded as being of a threefold nature: as merely external (āropa-siddha), as due to association with other devotees (saṅga-siddha), and as due to a sincere spirit of natural affection for God (svarūpa-siddha). In the first two cases the bhakti is called fictitious (kitava), and in the last it is called real (akitava)^[26]. The most direct action to be performed in the path of bhakti is to listen to and recite the names and glories of God, but indirectly associated with it there is also the dedication of all actions to God. In doing this one includes even his bad deeds; a devotee not only dedicates the fruits of his religious duties, ordinary duties of life, but also those which are done through the prompting of passions. He confesses to God all the imperfections of his nature and all the bad deeds that he has performed, and prays to Him for His grace by which all his sins are washed away. The devotee prays to God that he may be intoxicated by love for Him in the same manner that a young woman is smitten with love for a young man or vice versa^[27]. When a man performs an action through motives of self-interest, he may suffer through failures or through deficient results; but, when one dedicates his actions to God, he no longer suffers any pains through such failures. All actions and their fruits really belong to God; it is only through ignorance or false notions that we appropriate them to ourselves and are bound by their ties. But, if those very actions are performed in the true perspective, we cannot in any way be bound down by their effects; thus those actions which are responsible for our births and rebirths can destroy that cycle and free us from their bondage, when it is realized they belong not to us, but to God^[28]. If it is argued that the performance of mandatory actions produces a new and unknown potency (apūrva) in the performer, then also it may be argued that the real performer in the man is his inner controller (antar-yāmin), which impels him to do the action, and so the action belongs to this inner controller—God; and it is wrong to suppose that the performer of the action is the real agent^[29]. Thus all the Vedic duties can be performed only by God as the supreme agent, and so the fruits of all actions can belong only to Him.

The dedication of our actions to God may again be of a twofold nature: one may perform an action with the express object of pleasing God thereby, or he may perform the action without any desire to reap their fruits, and may dedicate them to God—one is karma-sannyāsa and the other phala-sannyāsa. Actions may be motivated either through desires or for the sake of God, i.e., leaving the effects to God or for pleasing God, and this last is said to be due to pure bhakti. These three types of actions are classified as kāmanā-nimitta, naiṣkarmya-nimitta and bhakti-nimitta. True devotees perform all their actions for the sake of pleasing God and for nothing else^[30]. Bhakti again may be regarded as associated with karma, and as such it may be regarded as sakāma, kaivalya-kāma and bhakti-mātra-kāma. When one becomes devoted to God for the fulfilment of ordinary desires, this is regarded as sakāma-bhakti. Kaivalya-kāma-bhakti may be regarded as associated with karma or with karma and knowledge (jñāna) ; this is to be found in the case of one who concentrates upon God and enters into the path of yoga; practises detachment, and tries to conceive of his unity with God, and through such processes frees himself from the bondage of prakṛti ; through knowledge and action he tries to unify the jīvātman with the paramātman. The third type may be associated either with karma or with karma znā jñāna.'Oi these the first class expresses their devotion by reciting God’s name and glories, by continually worshipping Him, and by dedicating all their actions to God. The second class of devotees add to their duties of worship to God the continual pursuit of an enlightened view of all things; they think of all people as manifestations of God; they are patient under all exciting circumstances and detach themselves from all passions; they are respectful to the great and merciful to the humble and the poor, and friendly to their equals; they practise the virtues included within yama and niyama, destroy all their egotism, and continue to think of the glory of God and to recite His name. He who, however, has the highest type of bhakti —the akiñcana-bhakti —in him it is such that simply on hearing the name of God his mind flows to Him just as the waters of the Ganges flow into the ocean. Such a one does not accept anything that may be given to him; his only pleasure exists in being continuously immersed in God.

From another point of view bhakti can be divided into two classes, vaidhī and rāgānuga. The vaidhī-bhakti is of two kinds, leading him to devote himself to God, and to worship without any ulterior motive. It is vaidhī because here the prompting to the course of bhakti comes from scriptural sources (otherwise called vidhi, or scriptural injunctions). The vaidhī-bhakti is of various kinds, such as seeking of protection (śaraṇāpatti), association with good teachers and devotees, to listen to God’s name and to recite His name and glories^[31]. Of these śaraṇāgati is the most important; it means seeking protection of God upon being driven to despair by all the dangers and sufferings of life. Thus in śaraṇāgati there must be a driving cause which impels one to seek the protection of God as the sole preserver. Those who turn to God merely out of deep attachment for Him are also impelled by their abhorrence of their previous state, when their minds were turned away from God. It also implies a belief either that there is no other protector, or a renunciation of any other person or being to whom one had clung for support. One should leave all hope in the Vedic or smrti injunctions, and turn to God as the only support.

Śaraṇāpatti may be defined as consisting of the following elements:

1. to work and think always in a manner agreeable to God,
2. to desist from anything that may in any way displease God,
3. strong faith that He will protect,
4. clinging to Him for protection,
5. to throw oneself entirely into God’s hands and to consider oneself entirely dependent on Him,
6. and to consider oneself a very humble being waiting for the grace of God to descend on him^[32].

Of all these the main importance is to be attached to the adoption of God alone as sole protector, with whom the other elements are only intimately associated. But next to the solicitation of the protection of God is the solicitation of help from one’s religious teacher (guru) and devotion to his service, as well as to the service of great men, by whose association one may attain much that would be otherwise unattainable^[33]. One of the chief forms in which the vaidhī-bhakti manifests itself is in regarding oneself as the servant of God, or in considering God as our best friend. The sentiments of service and friendship should be so deep and intense as to lead one to renounce one’s personality entirely to God; this complete renunciation of oneself to God is technically called ātma-nivedana. The rāgānuga, or purely emotional type of bhakti, must be distinguished from vaidhī-bhakti; since the rāgānuga-bhakti follows only the bent of one’s own emotions, it is difficult to define its various stages. In this form of bhakti the devotee may look upon God as if He were a human being, and may turn to Him with all the ardour and intensity of human emotions and passions; thus one of the chief forms in which this type of bhakti manifests itself is to be found in those cases where God is the object of a type of deep love which in human relation would be called sex-love. Sex-love is one of the most intense passions of which our human nature is capable, and, accordingly, God may be loved with the passionate intensity of sex-love. In following this course of love the devotee may for the time being forget the divinity of God, may look upon Him as a fellow-being, and may invest Him with all the possibilities of human relations and turn to Him as if He were his intimate friend or a most beloved husband. He may in such circumstances dispense entirely with the ritualistic formalities of worship, meditation, recital of His names or glories, and simply follow his own emotional bent and treat God just as may befit the tendency of his emotion at the time. There may however be stages where the rāgānuga is mixed up with vaidhī, where the devotee follows some of the courses of the vaidhī-bhakti and is yet passionately attached to God. But those who are simply dragged forward by passion for God are clearly above the range of the duties of vaidhī-bhakti ; not only through such passionate attachment to God, but even when one’s mind is filled with a strong emotion of anger and hatred towards God, so as to make one completely forget oneself and to render oneself entirely pervaded by God’s presence—even as an object of hatred—one may, by such an absorption of one’s nature in God, attain one’s highest. The process by which one attains one’s highest through rāgānuga-bhakti is the absorption of the nature of the devotee by God through an all-pervading intense emotion. For this reason, whenever the mind of a man is completely under the sway of a strong emotion of any description with reference to God, he is absorbed, as it were, in God’s being and thus attains his highest through a complete disruption of his limited personality.

In the sixth section, the Prīti-sandarbha, the author of the Ṣaṭ-sandarbha deals with the nature of bliss (prīti) as the ultimate reality and object of the best of our human efforts. The ultimate object or end of man is the attainment of happiness and the destruction of sorrow; only when God is pleased can one secure the ultimate extinction of sorrow and the attainment of eternal happiness. God, the ultimate reality, is the ultimate and infinite bliss, though He may show Himself in diverse forms. The individual or the jīva, not having any true knowledge of God and being obscured by māyā, fails to know His true nature, becomes associated with many subjective conditions, and undergoes the sorrow of beginningless cycles of births and rebirths. The realization of the highest bliss consists in the realization of the ultimate reality; this can happen only through the cessation of one’s ignorance and the consequent ultimate cessation of one’s sorrows. Of these the former, though expressed in a negative form, is in reality positive, being of the nature of the self-luminosity of the ultimate reality and the selfmanifestation of the same. The latter, being of the nature of a negation through destruction, is eternal and unchangeable—such that, when sorrows are once ultimately uprooted, there cannot be any further accretion of sorrow. The realization of God is thus the only way of attaining the highest happiness or bliss^[34]. Emancipation (mukti) is the realization of God, accompanied as a consequence by that cessation of the bondage of egoism which is the same thing as existence in one’s true nature. This existence in one’s own nature is the same thing as the realization of one’s own nature as the supreme soul (Paramātman). But in this connection it must be noted that the jīva is not identical with the supreme soul; for it is only a part of it; its nature as bliss is thus to be affirmed only because of the fact that its essence is derived from the essence of the supreme soul. The realization of God, the absolute whole, is only through the realization of His part as the supreme soul (aṃśena aṃśi-prāpti). This can be attained in two ways, first, as the attainment of Brahmahood by the revelation of His knowledge as constituting only His essential powers along with the destruction of individual ignorance (which is a state or function of māyā only); secondly, as the realization of God in His personal nature, as associated with Ilis supra-rational powers in a personal manner. Emancipation (mukti) may be achieved both in life and after death; when one realizes the true nature of God, one’s false apprehension of His nature vanishes and this is one’s state of mukti ; at death also there may be a revelation of God’s true nature, and a direct and immediate realization of His nature as God.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

bhajatāṃ jñāna-vairagyābhyāsena prayojanaṃ nāsti.
      Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, p. 481 .

[2]:

niścalā tvayi bhaktir yā saiva muktir janārdana
      (quotation from Skanda-purāṇa, Revākhaṇḍa).
      Ibid. p. 451.

[3]:

Ibid. p. 454.

[4]:

karmānuṣṭhānavan na sādhana-kāle sādhya-kāle vā bhahtyanuṣṭhānaṃ duḥkha-rūpaṃ pratyuta sukha-rūpam eva.
      Ibid. p. 457.

[5]:

Ibid. p. 457.

[6]:

Ibid. p. 460.

[7]:

sarveṣāṃ dhī-vṛttibhiḥ anubhūtam sarvaṃ vena sa eka eva sarvāntarātmā.
      Ibid. p. 460.

[8]:

jivan-muktā api punar bandhanaṃ yānti karmabhiḥ
yady acintya-mahā-śaktau bhagavaty aparādhinaḥ.
      Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, p. 505.

[9]:

Ibid. p. 516.

[10]:

yat tu śrī-kapila-devena bhakter api nirguṇa-saguṇāvasthāḥ kathitās tat punaḥ puruṣāntaḥkaraṇa-guṇā eva tasyām upacaryante iti sthitam.
      Ibid. p. 520.

[11]:

Ibid. p. 522.

[12]:

Ibid. p. 523.

[13]:

Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, pp. 532-4.

[14]:

Ibid. p. 536.

[15]:

Ibid. p. 536.

[16]:

bhakti is said to have nine characteristics, as follows:

śravaṇaṃ kīrtanaṃ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṃ pāda-sevanaṃ
arccanaṃ vandanaṃ dāsyaṃ saukhyam ātma-mvedanam.
      Ibid. p. 541.

But it is not necessary that bhakti should be pursued in all these ninefold forms.

[17]:

ko mūḍho dāsatāṃ prāpya prābhavaṃ padam icchati.
      Ibid. p. 551.

[18]:

Ibid. p. 553.

[19]:

Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, p. 557.

[20]:

sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ paśyed bhagavad-bhāvam ātmanaḥ.
bhūtāni bhagavaty ātmany eṣa bhāgavatottamaḥ.
      Ibid. p. 561.

[21]:

īśvare tad-adhīneṣu bāliśeṣu dviṣatsv api
prema-maitrī-kṛpopekṣā yaḥ karoti sa madhyamaḥ.
      Ibid. p. 562.

[22]:

arccāyām eva haraye pūjāṃ yaḥ śraddhayeate
na tad-bhakteṣu cānyeṣu sa bhaktaḥ prākṛtaḥ smṛtaḥ.
      Ibid. p. 564.

[23]:

na kāma-karma-bījānāṃ yasya cetasi sambhavaḥ
vāsudevaika-nilayaḥ sa vai bhāgavatottamaḥ.
      Ibid. p. 564.

[24]:

na yasya svaḥ para iti vitteṣv ātmani vā bhidā
sarva-bhūta-suhṛc chāntaḥ sa vai bhāgavatottamaḥ.
      Ibid. p. 565.

[25]:

Ibid. p. 565.

[26]:

Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, pp. 581-2.

[27]:

yuvatīnāṃ yathā yūni yūnāñca yuvatau yathā
mano’bhiramate tadvan mano me ramatāṃ tvayi.
      Viṣṇu-purāṇam, ibid. p. 58

[28]:

Ibid. p. 584.

[29]:

Ibid. p. 585.

[30]:

Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, p. 586.

[31]:

atha vaidhī-bhedāḥ śaraṇāpatti-śrī-gurv-ādi-sat-sevā-śravaṇa-kīrtanā-dayaḥ.
      Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, p. 593.

[32]:

śaraṇāpatter lakṣaṇaṃ vaiṣṇava-tantre,
ānukūlyasya saṃkalpaḥ prātikūlya-vivarjanam
rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso goptṛtve varaṇaṃ tathā
ātma-nikṣepa-kārpaṇye ṣaḍvidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ.
      Ibid. p. 593.

[33]:

Ibid. pp. 595-604.

[34]:

nirastātiśayāhlāda-sukha-bhāvaika-lakṣaṇā
bheṣajaṃ bhagavat-prāptir ekāntātyantikā matā.
      Viṣṇu-purāṇa, Ṣaṭ-sandarbha, p. 674.