Nārada Bhakti Sūtras (Introduction)

INTRODUCTION

The Nārada Bhakti Sūtra is a concise and profound treatise of eighty-four aphorisms (sūtras), in which Devarṣi Nārada defines bhakti as the supreme path to prema, or love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The text is celebrated for its brevity and depth, conveying profound truths in a few words.

In the Vāyu Purāṇa, a sūtra is described as:

alpākṣaram asandigdhaṁ sāra-vat viśvato-mukham
astobham anavadyaṁ ca sūtraṁ sūtra-vido viduḥ

The knowers of sūtras understand a sūtra to be concise, unambiguous, possessing the essence of a point, applicable universally, clear, and flawless.

The word sūtra literally means ‘thread,’ symbolising how each aphorism links together essential truths, weaving them into a coherent and unified whole. In this sense, the eighty-four sūtras of Nārada form a continuous thread, guiding the practitioner from the very definition of bhakti to its highest manifestation as prema.

Nārada establishes para-bhakti, or pure devotion, as both the means (abhidheya) and the ultimate goal (prayojana), describing it as selfless, uninterrupted loving service to the Lord. The text systematically distinguishes pure devotion from devotion mixed with karma, jñāna, or anyābhilāṣa (other material motives), outlines the characteristics of genuine devotees, and explains the obstacles that curb the growth of bhakti. Throughout, Śrī Nārada emphasises that bhakti is independent, universally accessible, and superior to all other spiritual disciplines, culminating in the attainment of prema that fully satisfies both the devotee and the Supreme Lord.

The work is traditionally divided into five sections:

Chapter One: Para-bhakti-svarūpam (The Nature of Pure Devotion) – sūtras 1–24
Chapter Two: Para-bhakti-mahattvam (The Significance of Pure Devotion) – sūtras 25–33
Chapter Three: Bhakti-sādhanāni (Means of Cultivating Devotion) – sūtras 34–50
Chapter Four: Prema-nirvacanam (The Exposition of Divine Love) – sūtras 51–66
Chapter Five: Mukhya-bhakti-mahimā (The Supreme Glories of Devotion) – sūtras 67–84

The author, Nārada, is the great devotee-sage celebrated throughout the Purāṇas and Itihāsas. According to the First Canto of the Śrīmād Bhāgavatam, in his childhood, his mother was a maidservant in a brāhmaṇa household, and Nārada would help her serve the visiting ṛṣis. After his mother tragically died from a snakebite, Nārada began travelling northward. One day, he sat beneath a banyan tree and, recalling the teachings of the ṛṣis he had heard in his youth, entered deep meditation. In this intense contemplation, he caught a glimpse of the Supreme, but could not see Him again. Observing his distress, the Lord spoke to him, instructing that although He would not appear again in that lifetime, Nārada should continue his sādhana and chant the Holy Name. The Lord assured him that in his next life, he would become His eternal associate. Eventually, he gave up his material body and became the divine sage, Nārada Muni.

Nārada had his āśrama on the banks of Nārada-kuṇḍa near Govardhana, and engaged in austerities there. This place is glorified in the Ādī Purāṇa as follows:

yatraiva nārado nityaṁ snāne kṛtvā tapaś-caraṇaṁ
yato nārada-kuṇḍākhyam sarvehi phala-dāyakam

Here, the place where Nārada took his daily bath and performed austerities, is called Nārada-kuṇḍa. It grants all desired results to everyone.

It is mentioned in the Padma Purāṇa that when Nārada heard that Kṛṣṇa had appeared in Vṛndāvana to perform His rāsa pastimes, he went there, but could not find Him. To have darśana of Rasarāja Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he went to Govardhana, made an āśrama on the bank of a lake (which later became known as Nārada-kuṇḍa) and engaged in meditation and austerities there. After many years of devoted practice, Nārada was graced by the presence of Vṛndā Devī, and he humbly requested her blessings so that he might witness the rāsa-līlā of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda. Vṛndā Devī told him that to perceive such a pastime, one must have the transcendental form of a gopī, since Kṛṣṇa Himself is the only puruṣa (male) in the rasa dance. She instructed him to bathe in the nearby Kusuma Sarovara, after which he would attain such a form. Nārada immediately went to Kusuma Sarovara, bathed, and assumed a gopī-svarūpa. This is attested by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his Vraja-rīti Cintāmaṇī:

gopī-svarūpāpti-para-prasūna-praphullatāyai kusumākaro’yam
śrī-nārado yatra babhūva gopī snānaika-mātrād iti mohanoktiḥ

This lake of flowers (Kusuma Sarovara), where Śrī Nārada attained the form of a gopī after a single bath, is famed for its full bloom of supreme flowers – thus is the account told by the enchanting Kṛṣṇa Himself. (Vraja-rīti Cintāmaṇī 3.27)

In the form of a cowherd girl, Nārada was able to enter the rāsa-sthālī and behold the Divine Couple engaged in Their rāsa-līlā. Later, Vṛndā Devī instructed him to bathe again in Nārada-kuṇḍa to resume his original male form as Nārada. It is said that the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras were composed by Nārada at Nārada-kuṇḍa, and the contents themselves strongly suggest that they were composed after he had received darśana of Rādhā-Govinda, by the mercy of Śrīmatī Vṛndā Devī.

Nārada’s attainment of his gopī-svarūpa demonstrates a number of key principles found in the process of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Firstly, spiritual progress does not depend upon external austerities and practices alone. Also, in order to achieve vraja–bhakti, it requires following in the footsteps of a personality endowed with a natural affinity for a particular rasa. In Nārada’s case, this guiding figure was Śrī Vṛndā Devī. In other words, it is only by the mercy of the devotee that we can attain Kṛṣṇa, and not by our own external efforts.

It should also be noted, however, that one should not attempt to imitate Nārada or other exalted personalities, living in a self-induced fantasy that one has attained the highest stages of mādhurya-rasa. Those who try to forcibly assume the form of a gopī or mañjarī without first purifying their hearts through the prerequisite stage of anartha-nivṛtti (the removal of material desires and attachments) risk being barred from the highest quarters. External mimicry of advanced devotees never produces spiritual realisation – it only leads to self-deception and ruination. A true Vaiṣṇava never seeks to gate-crash into Rādhā-Govinda’s intimate pastimes. Instead, a true Vaiṣṇava only aspires for sevā, devotional service, according to the Lord’s will, in whatever form or circumstance the Lord places him.

mārabī rākhabī yo icchā tohārā
nitya-dāsa prati tuyā adhikāra
janmābī mo’e icchā yadi torā
bhakta-gṛhe jani janma hau mora
kīṭa-janma hau yathā tuyā dāsa
bahir-mukha brahmā-janme nāhi āśā

You may take my life or let me live – it is Your will, for You have full authority over Your eternal servants. If You so desire, grant me any birth, but let it be in the house of a devotee. Even if I must be born as an insect, so be it, as befits Your servant. I have no desire to take birth even as a Brahmā, if he is averse to you. (Śaraṇāgati, Song 3)

In today’s world of aspiring Vaiṣṇavas, the topic of mādhurya-rasa has been cheapened by unqualified and overly ambitious practitioners, who have no proper conception of its profundity or the discipline required to approach it. It is extremely disheartening to see so many people delving into texts which they are not even qualified to touch, let alone read. Young men and women, who can barely control their senses, are led astray by charlatans instructing them to engage in ‘mañjarī meditations.’ Gurus with little or no knowledge of siddhānta conduct parikramās and narrate ‘sweet’ stories received from outside our line of ācāryas, many of which are either fictitious or full of apa-siddhānta. With an enjoying spirit, new devotees are drawn into all-night līlā-kīrtanas led by bābājīs of dubious character – and all this under the banner of ‘bhakti.’
Indeed, we are certainly in the midst of Kali-yuga, when it is so easy for us to ignore the repeated warnings of our benevolent ācāryas, who laboured to protect our creeper of devotion. It is precisely for this reason that Śrī Nārada, in his Bhakti Sūtras, repeatedly defines pure bhakti as free from ulterior motives, worldly contamination, and superficial displays.

Ironically, there seems to be more commentaries on the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras written by impersonalists, than by Vaiṣṇavas. This is not because the sūtras favour the conclusions of Advaitavāda, but because the māyāvādīs feel compelled to reinterpret bhakti in order to harmonise it with their monistic ontology. Vaiṣṇavas, on the other hand, have never required such reinterpretation. For them, the essential conclusions of the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras are already fully present in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and the teachings of the Six Gosvāmīs, where bhakti is understood as eternal, independent, and culminating in prema rather than the dissolution of one’s individuality.

One may then ask, “If the conclusions of the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras are already present in the Bhāgavatam and the teachings of the Gosvāmīs, what is the necessity of a commentary?” The answer is that necessity does not always arise from absence, but often from misrepresentation. Where bhakti has been reinterpreted to serve the conclusions of māyāvāda there is a need to reinstate the sūtras, remove confusion, and re-establish bhakti as independent, eternal, and irrefutably personal. It is with this corrective spirit that Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda, in 1967, began writing a commentary on the first thirteen aphorisms of the Nārada Bhakti Sūtra, a work he later discontinued in order to concentrate on his magnum opus, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.

We had previously heard from our beloved Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja, that he would regularly come to Nārada-kuṇḍa in the early 1990s to perform bhajana. At one point, he even planned to purchase land there, though that intention did not ultimately manifest. When we recently visited Nārada-kuṇḍa, memories of our Guru Mahārāja came flooding back and inspired us to compose a short commentary on the Nārada Bhakti Sūtras. For this reason, we have named this commentary the Śrī Bhakti-gaurava-smaraṇa Bhāṣya – ‘a commentary composed in remembrance of Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja.’

We pray that Śrīla Guru Mahārāja and the merciful Vaiṣṇavas will kindly overlook our many shortcomings in presenting this work.

Narasiṅgha-pāda-sevaka –
Swami Bhaktivijñāna Giri

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Puṣya Abhiṣeka
Vṛndāvana Dhāma
January 25th, 2024

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