Narada Bhakti Sutra By His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and Disciples Table of contents: Närada-bhakti-sütra! 6 Introduction! 6 Chapter 1 - The Value of Devotion! 10 SÜTRA 1! 10 SÜTRA 2! 12 SÜTRA 3! 16 SÜTRA 4! 18 SÜTRA 5! 20 SÜTRA 6! 23 SÜTRA 7! 25 SÜTRA 8! 27 SÜTRA 9! 30 SÜTRA 10! 33 SÜTRA 11! 34 SÜTRA 12! 36 SÜTRA 13! 40 SÜTRA 14! 42 Chapter 2 - Defining Bhakti! 45 SÜTRA 15! 45 SÜTRA 16! 46 SÜTRA 17! 48 SÜTRA 18! 50 SÜTRA 19! 53 SÜTRA 20! 56 SÜTRA 21! 58 SÜTRA 22! 59 SÜTRA 23! 62 SÜTRA 24! 66 SÜTRA 25! 68 SÜTRA 26! 71 SÜTRA 27! 72 SÜTRA 28! 75 SÜTRA 29! 77 SÜTRA 30! 78 SÜTRAS 31-32! 81 SÜTRA 33! 84 Chapter 3 - The Means of Achievement! 86 SÜTRA 34! 86 SÜTRA 35! 87 SÜTRA 36! 90 SÜTRA 37! 92 SÜTRA 38! 95 SÜTRA 39! 97 SÜTRA 40! 99 SÜTRA 41! 101 SÜTRA 42! 102 SÜTRA 43! 103 SÜTRA 44! 106 SÜTRA 45! 108 SÜTRA 46! 110 SÜTRA 47! 112 SÜTRA 48! 115 SÜTRA 49! 117 SÜTRA 50! 119 Chapter 4 - Pure and Mixed Devotion! 122 SÜTRA 51! 122 SÜTRA 52! 124 SÜTRA 53! 125 SÜTRA 54! 128 SÜTRA 55! 130 SÜTRA 56! 132 SÜTRA 57! 134 SÜTRA 58! 135 SÜTRA 59! 138 SÜTRA 60! 139 SÜTRA 61! 141 SÜTRA 62! 143 SÜTRA 63! 145 SÜTRA 64! 147 SÜTRA 65! 149 SÜTRA 66! 150 SÜTRA 67! 152 SÜTRA 68! 154 SÜTRA 69! 157 SÜTRA 70! 159 SÜTRA 71! 160 SÜTRA 72! 162 SÜTRA 73! 164 Chapter 5 - Attaining Perfection! 167 SÜTRA 74! 167 SÜTRA 75! 168 SÜTRA 76! 170 SÜTRA 77! 172 SÜTRA 78! 174 SÜTRA 79! 176 SÜTRA 80! 179 SÜTRA 81! 180 SÜTRA 82! 183 SÜTRA 83! 185 SÜTRA 84! 189 More Free Downloads at: www.krishnapath.org Närada-bhakti-sütra Introduction In 1967, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda translated and wrote purports for thirteen of the eighty-four aphorisms (Çréla Prabhupäda called them "codes") of the Närada-bhakti-sütra. In 1989, at their annual meeting, the Governing Body Commission of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) suggested that I complete the book. I was pleased to accept the assignment, especially because of my involvement with Çréla Prabhupäda's initial writing of the Närada-bhakti- sütra. I was part of the small group of seekers who joined Çréla Prabhupäda in the latter part of 1966 at his storefront temple at 26 Second Avenue, in New York City. At one point we began passing around a Gita Press edition of Närada's Philosophy of Love— Närada-bhakti-sütra. Some of us were attracted to the nectar and simplicity of the aphorisms. In those days it wasn't unusual for us naive followers to pick up all sorts of translations of Sanskrit Indian books. We tended to think that anything Hindu was salutary and within Kåñëa consciousness. It wasn't long before Çréla Prabhupäda made it clear to us that we had to discriminate. Many books, we learned, were the works of Mäyävädés, a brand of atheists in the guise of svämés, gurus, and scholars. It was hard to break our attachments to some of these books, but we always did so once Çréla Prabhupäda explained that a particular book or guru was not bona fide. But when I showed Çréla Prabhupäda the Närada-bhakti-sütra and told him I liked it, he encouraged me and said he might translate it. In our edition of the Närada-bhakti-sütra was a beautiful color illustration of Çré Çré Rädhä and Kåñëa. They looked young, about eight years old, and stood gracefully by the edge of the Yamunä River with a cow behind Them. I took the illustration to a photography shop and had a dozen color copies made. With Çréla Prabhupäda's approval, I gave a photo to each of his initiated disciples. It became like an ISKCON membership photo and was used by devotees on their personal altars. When Çréla Prabhupäda left our New York home early in 1967 and went to San Francisco, I wrote him to ask if he would translate the Närada-bhakti-sütra. Here is Çréla Prabhupäda's reply, dated February 10, 1967: Yes, please send me immediately one copy of Bhakti Sutra (with original Sanskrit text). I shall immediately begin the commentary. At first Çréla Prabhupäda's translation of the Närada-bhakti-sütra went quickly. He sent tapes of his dictation in the mail, and I transcribed them along with the tapes he sent for his major work, Teachings of Lord Caitanya. From the beginning it was understood that Närada-bhakti-sütra was a kind of "extra" for Çréla Prabhupäda. But it had its own charm, and Prabhupäda approached it in his own inimitable way. I was surprised, on receiving the translation for the first aphorism, to see how Çréla Prabhupäda translated the word bhakti. The edition he was using translated bhakti as "devotion" or "Divine Love." But Çréla Prabhupäda translated bhakti as "devotional service." Even by this one phrase he indicated that bhakti was active and personal. He would not tolerate any hint that bhakti was a state of impersonal "Love." It was significant that Çréla Prabhupäda began his first purport with a reference to Bhagavad-gétä, the foremost scripture for teaching bhakti-yoga. The Närada-bhakti- sütra, or any other treatise on devotion to God, should be supported by Lord Kåñëa's direct teachings in Bhagavad-gétä. By their nature, sütras require explanation. As Lord Caitanya explained while discussing the Vedänta-sütra, the aphorisms have a direct meaning, but their brevity allows devious commentators to distort the meaning through misinterpretation. How safe we were when reading the Bhaktivedanta purports to the Närada-bhakti-sütra, and how dangerous it is to read these aphorisms when interpreted by those who lack pure devotion to the Supreme Person! As with his other works, Çréla Prabhupäda's purports to the Närada-bhakti-sütra were completely in line with the teachings of the param-parä, or disciplic succession, and at the same time full of his own realizations. One particular statement that attracted me was his reference to enthusiasm in bhakti. Commenting on Sütra 5, Çréla Prabhupäda compared enthusiasm to a powerful engine that has to be used properly. He wrote, "If one, however, becomes disappointed in his enthusiasm for serving the Supreme Lord, that disappointment must also be rejected." As a neophyte devotee, I was well aware of the danger of depression, which we sometimes refer to in ISKCON as being "fried." But just as a serious practitioner restrains his tongue and other senses, so one should not indulge in too much depression or disappointment. It was comforting to hear this from Çréla Prabhupäda and to gain conviction that it is within our control—we are not helpless before unlimited waves of depression. One simply has to follow the rules and regulations patiently "so that the day will come when he will achieve, all of a sudden, all the perfection of devotional service." I have to admit that I acquired a personal attachment for Çréla Prabhupäda's Närada- bhakti-sütra as I happily watched its progress. I noticed that some of the same material Çréla Prabhupäda was putting into Teachings of Lord Caitanya also appeared in the Närada-bhakti-sütra, but I didn't think anything was wrong in that. Yet at some point Çréla Prabhupäda began to think that perhaps Närada-bhakti-sütra was a bit redundant, at least while he was also working on Teachings of Lord Caitanya. I might have suspected this when he wrote in his purport to Sütra 12, "There are many authoritative books of spiritual knowledge, but all of them are more or less supplements to the Bhagavad-gétä and Çrémad-Bhägavatam. Even the Närada-bhakti-sütra is a summary of the Bhagavad-gétä and the Çrémad-Bhägavatam. Therefore the beginning of devotional service is to hear these two important transcendental books of knowledge." Then, in March of 1967, while Çréla Prabhupäda was still residing in San Francisco, he wrote me this letter: Please accept my blessings. I have seen the typed copies of Narada Bhakti Sutras as well as Teachings of Lord Caitanya. Both of them are nicely made. I think let us finish first Teachings of Lord Caitanya and then we may take again Narada Bhakti Sutras. The subject matter discussed with Narada Sutras is already there in the Teachings of Lord Caitanya. I have sent you matter for the second part of the Teachings and please go on sending me a copy of your typewritten matter. I shall be glad to hear from you. And so Çréla Prabhupäda's work on the Närada-bhakti-sütra stopped, and it was never resumed. It was a personal choice by the author, who wanted to concentrate on Teachings of Lord Caitanya. But we should not see it as a rejection of the Närada- bhakti-sütra. Çréla Prabhupäda intended to "take again Narada Bhakti Sutras." And so more than twenty years later we are taking up the work again, on the authority of Çréla Prabhupäda. Whatever we have written to complete the work we have done as Çréla Prabhupäda's student, using his commentated translations of the Çrémad-Bhägavatam, the Bhagavad-gétä, and the Caitanya-caritämåta, and his summary studies of the Bhakti- rasämåta-sindhu (The Nectar of Devotion) and the Bhägavatam's Tenth Canto (Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead). There is a particular charm to the Närada-bhakti-sütra in its brevity, universality, and emphasis on total surrender to Lord Kåñëa.