Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Brahma-saḿhitā 5.55

yaḿ krodha-kāma-sahaja-praṇayādi-bhīti-

vātsalya-moha-guru-gaurava-sevya-bhāvaiḥ

sañcintya tasya sadṛśīḿ tanum āpur ete

govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi

SYNONYMS

yam — upon whom; krodha — wrath; kāma — amorous passion; sahaja-praṇaya — natural friendly love; ādi — and so on; bhīti — fear; vātsalya — parental affection; moha — delusion; guru-gaurava — reverence; sevya-bhāvaiḥ — and with the attitude of willing service; sañcintya — meditating; tasya — of that; sadṛśīm — befitting; tanum — bodily form; āpuḥ — attained; ete — these persons; govindam — Govinda; ādi-puruṣam — the original person; tam — Him; aham — I; bhajāmi — worship.

TRANSLATION

I adore the primeval Lord Govinda, the meditators of whom, by meditating upon Him under the sway of wrath, amorous passion, natural friendly love, fear, parental affection, delusion, reverence and willing service, attain to bodily forms befitting the nature of their contemplation.

PURPORT

Devotion is of two kinds, viz., (1) of the nature of deference to regulation and (2) constituted of natural feeling. Bhakti is roused by following with a tinge of faith in the rule of the śāstras and instruction of the preceptors. Such bhakti is of the nature of loyalty to the scriptural regulations. It continues to be operative as long as the corresponding natural feeling is not roused. If a person loves Kṛṣṇa out of natural tendency. there is the principle of rāga, which is no other than a strong desire to serve, which turns into bhāva or substantive feeling. When the substantive feeling is aroused the devotee becomes an object of mercy of Kṛṣṇa. It takes much time to attain this stage. Devotion which is of the nature of feeling is superior to that connected with scriptural regulation, soon attains to the realized state and is attractive to Kṛṣṇa. Its various aspects are described in this śloka. Śānta-bhāva, full of reverence to superior, dāsya-bhāva, full of service for carrying out the commands of the object of worship, sakhya-bhāva or natural friendly love, vātsalya-bhāva or parental affection and madhura-bhāva or amorous love, are all included in the category of devotion of the nature of instinctive attachment. But anger, fear and delusion, though they are of the nature of instinctive impulse, are not devotion in the strict sense of the term, because they are not friendly but hostile to the object. Anger is found in asuras like Śiśupāla, fear in Kaḿsa, and delusion in the paṇḍitas of the pantheistic school. They have the feelings of anger, fear and instinctive impulse marked by complete self-forgetful identification with the nondifferentiated Brahman. But as there is no friendly feeling towards the object of devotion there is no bhakti. Again among the feelings of śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and madhura — śānta, though indifferent and dormant in rāga, is still reckoned as bhakti on account of its being a little friendly. There is an immense volume of rāga in the other four varieties of emotion. By the promise of Gītā, ye yathā māḿ prapadyante tāḿs tathaiva bhajāmy aham [Bg. 4.11] ("I serve one according to his submission"), those, who allow themselves to be actuated by the sentiments of fear, anger and delusion, attain to sāyujya-mukti (merging in the Absolute). The śāntas obtain bodily forms with aptitude for addiction to Brahman and Paramātmā. The dāsya and sakhya classes of worshipers attain bodily forms characterized by masculine or feminine disposition according to their respective grades of eligibility. The vātsalya class of worshipers get bodily forms befitting fatherly and motherly sentiments. The amorous lovers of Kṛṣṇa attain the pure forms of gopīs (spiritual milkmaids of Vraja).

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness