Continuing with the commentary on the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras, in Sūtras 3-6, we explore why bhakti alone grants true immortality, perfection, and lasting fulfilment—and how a genuine devotee rises above desire, fear, hatred, and even the temptation to imitate advanced spiritual states.

Brahmā explains that the Supreme Lord cannot be fully perceived by the material senses, mind, or intellect, and can only be known when He reveals Himself through bhakti. Thus, realisation comes through surrender and purified spiritual perception – not speculation or scholarship. He further teaches that although the Lord cannot be completely fully described by words, He is not impersonal or unknowable.

In this first section of the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras, Śrī Nārada Muni defines bhakti and how pure bhakti leads to prema. The commentary further explains the various stages of bhakti in connection with the three modes of nature, and describes the unfortunate disease of tribalism amongst devotees.

In this first section of the Kena Upaniṣad, Lord Śiva asks Brahmā four specific questions - “Who sets the mind in motion? Who controls the life airs? Who impels us to speak, and which deity directs the senses?"

This week, we begin the serialisation of the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras accompanied by the Śrī Bhakti-gaurava-smaraṇa Commentary by Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri. Here in the introduction, Mahārāja gives a synopsis of this famous text, a brief history of the author, Śrī Nārada Ṛṣi, and shares with the reader the inspiration behind writing this commentary.