Radha Krishna - Chapter 12: The Confidential Secret Beyond Renunciation and Knowledge

(1-2) The Supreme Lord said: 'Mysticism nor analysis, common piety nor the study of the scriptures; penances, renunciation, desirable and pious works nor charity; respecting vows, ceremonies, vedic hymns, pilgrimage, general discipline nor the basic rules contain Me the way the sat-sanga [see 11.11: 25] contains Me that removes all attachment to sense gratification. (3-6) By means of sat-sanga only many living entities, like the sons of Diti, the malicious ones, the animals, the birds, the singers and dancers of heaven, the excellent and perfected, the venerable and the treasure keepers, the scientific ones among the humans and the merchants, laborers and women, the uncivilized and the ones of passion and slowness, in each and every age achieve My abode. And so did Vritrâsura, the son of Kayâdhû [Prahlâda, see 6.18: 12-13] and others like them, Vrishaparvâ [see 9.18: 26], Bali, Bâna, Maya as also Vibhîshana [brother of Râvana], Sugrîva [leader of the Vânaras] and Hanumân, Jâmbavân, Gajendra, Jatâyu, Tulâdhâra, Dharma-vyâdha, Kubjâ and the gopîs in Vraja, as also the wives of the brahmins [see 10.23] and others. (7) They, not having studied the sacred scriptures, nor having worshiped the great saints, attained, without vows and not having undergone austerities, Me through My association. (8-9) Indeed through love only the gopîs, the cows, the immobile creatures, the animals, the snakes [like Kâliya] and others who were stunted in their intelligence, achieved perfection quite easily because they came to Me, I who cannot even be reached by greatly endeavoring with yoga, analysis, charity, vows, penances, ritualistic sacrifices, exegesis, personal study or taking to the renounced order. (10) When Akrûra took Me and Balarâma to Mathurâ were the inhabitants constantly attached [to Me] with minds steeped in the deepest love. With Me as the only one to make them happy were they most miserable after being separated from Me [see 10: 39]. (11) All the nights they spent in Vrindâvana with Me, their most dearly Beloved, o Uddhava, seemed to take but half a moment to them, but again bereft of Me they appeared to take as long as a kalpa. (12) They with their consciousness bound to Me in intimacy had lost the awareness of their own bodies, just as sages who fully absorbed lose the awareness of matters as close as names and forms, when they like rivers entering the ocean moved far [in the beyond, see also B.G. 2: 70]. (13) The women with Me, a charming lover to their desire, a lover of another man's wife, had no idea of the actual position of Me, the Absolute Truth Supreme, whom they by the hundreds of thousands achieved in association. (14-15) Therefore o Uddhava give up the injunctions, the regulations about them and the ritual culture for its own sake, give up that what you learned and will be learning; go for Me alone, the actual shelter of the soul within all the ones embodied; with that exclusive devotion you should by My mercy have nothing to fear from any side [compare B.G. 18: 66].'