Śrī Śrī Rūpānuga-bhajana-darpaṇa – Song Three – ‘yoga jāga saba chāra’

(1)
yoga jāga saba chāra śraddhā sakalera sāra
sei śraddhā hṛdoye jāhāra
udiyāche eka bindhu krame bhakti-rasa-sindhu
lābhe tāra hoya adhikāra

1) Any type of yoga exercise or external religious ceremony is completely useless and is no help at all… for genuine faith is the only real substance. Whoever has such sincere faith in his heart tastes one drop of transcendental nectar, and then he gradually gains the right of admission into the entire ocean of ecstatic devotional mellows (the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu)

(2)
jñāna karma deba debi bahu jatanete sebi’
prāpta-phala hoilo tuccha jñāna
sādhu-jana-saṅgābeśe śrī-kṛṣṇa-kathāra śeṣe
biśwāso to’ hoya balabān

2) By faithfully worshiping the gods and goddesses who bestow knowledge and fruitive results, with great care and attention, one gets only insignificant material knowledge. On the other hand, by hearing the narration of topics concerning Kṛṣṇa with rapt attention in the company of virtuous devotees, one’s transcendental conviction becomes completely fixed-up.

(3)
sei to’ biśwāse bhāi śraddhā boli’ sadā gāi
bhakti-latā bīja boli tāre
karmī jñānī jane jāre śraddhā bole bāre bāre
sei bṛtti śraddhā hoite nāre

3) My friends! I call this type of fixed-up conviction ‘śraddhā’, which I continuously sing about and glorify in various ways. This śraddhā is actually the bhakti-latā-bīja (the seed of the creeper of devotion). The fruitive workers and the mental speculators have their own idea about what is śraddhā, which they advertise and proclaim again and again, but in my opinion, their definition is without a doubt a misconception, and does not constitute the real, transcendental śraddhā.

(4)
nāmera bibada mātra śuniyā to’ jwale gātra
lauhe jadi boloho kañcana
tabu lauha lauha roya kañcana to’ kabhu noya
maṇi sparśa nāhe jata-khaṇa

4) Whenever I hear such foolish disputes and misconceptions over mere names from such unauthorized persons, it burns me up because that is just like mistaking iron to be gold. Iron always remains iron, and can never become gold unless and until it is touched by a transcendental touchstone.

(5)
kṛṣṇa-bhakti cintāmaṇi taṅra sparśe lauha-khani
kārma-jñāna-gata śraddhā-bhāba
haya jaya hema-bhara chāḍiyā to’ ku-bikāra
se kebala maṇira prabhāba

5) The touchstone is actually pure devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. By the mere touch of this transcendental gem, the iron-mine of faith in fruitive action and philosophical wrangling turns into golden ecstatic loving faith in the Lord. The weight of this type of gold certainly outweighs all materialistic delusions. This is the real power of the touchstone of kṛṣṇa-bhakti.