Upadeśa – Song Eight

Text 1

ohe bhāi, mana keno brahma ho’te cāya
ki āścarja ko’bo kā’ke sadopāsya bolo jā’ke
tā’te keno āpane misāya

O my dear brother heart, why do you hanker after the impersonal Brahman? What wonderful thing will you obtain by always worshiping Brahman? Please tell me. Why do you wish to merge with Brahman?

Text 2

bindu nāhi hoya sindhu bāmana nā sparśe indu
reṇu ki bhūdhara-rūpa pāya
lābha mātra aparādha paramārtha hoya bādha
sāyujya-bādhīra hāya hāya

A drop of water cannot become an ocean. A dwarf cannot touch the moon. Can a grain of dust become a mountain? Impersonal liberation is an obstacle. It blocks the true goal of life. It is only an offense.

Text 3

e heno duranta buddhi tyaji’ koro’ sattwa-śuddhi
anweṣaha pritīra upāya
sājujya-nirbāṇa-ādi śāstre śabda dekho jadi
se sabe bhaktira aṅge jāya

Turning away from all these horrible misconceptions, please become pure. Seeṇ the path of spiritual love. If you see them in the scriptures, please know that words like sāyujya or nirvāṇa are meant to describe the stages of devotional service.

Text 4

kṛṣṇa-prīti-phalamoya tat-twam-asi-ādi hoya
sādhaka carame kṛṣṇa pāya
akhaṇda ānandamoya bṛndābana kṛṣṇāloya
para-brahma-swarūpa jānāya

Tat tvam asi and other teachings of the scriptures give love for Kṛṣṇa as their final fruit. In the end they bring the devotee to Kṛṣṇa. They make the devotee see Vṛndāvana, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s eternal, blissful, spiritual abode.

Text 5

tā’ ho’te kiraṇa-jāla brahma-rūpe śobhe bhālo
māyika jagat camatkāra
māyā-baddha jība tāhe nirbṛta hoite cāhe
sūrjābhābe khadyotera prāya

The impersonal Brahman is Lord Kṛṣṇa’s bodily effulgence. It fill’s Māyā’s world with wonder. The souls in Māyā’s prison may sometimes escape into it. As fireflies seem brilliant when the sun does not shine, so the impersonal Brahman is glorious only when Lord Kṛṣṇa’s form remains unseen.

Text 6

jadi kabhu bhāgyodoye sādhu-guru-samāśroye
bṛndābana sammukhete bhāya
kṛṣṇākṛṣṭa ho’ye tabe khudra-rasa-anubhabe
brahma chāri’ para-brahme dhāya

If your good fortune arises, you will take shelter of the spiritual master and the Lord’s devotees. Then the world of Vṛndāvana will be splendidly manifest before you. You will attracted to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Turning from the paltry so-called nectar of the impersonal Brahman, you will run to the supreme personal Brahman.

Text 7

śukādira su-jībana koro’ bhāi ālocana
e dāsa dhoriche taba pāya

This servant grasps your feet and begs: O my brother, please try to understand Lord Kṛṣṇa, the life of Śukadeva and the sages.