na dhanam na janam na sundarim
kavitam va jagadisa kamaye
mama janmani janmanisvare
bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi

O Lord of the universe! I do not want wealth, followers or vain companions,
a beautiful woman or the enjoyment of beautiful poetry!
All I want is causeless devotion unto You, birth after birth!

When the Lord spoke the verse “trinad api sunicena” the ocean of His humility swelled. Because He is the ocean of love He is also the ocean of humility. It is said that there is no difference between humility and love:

dainyas tu paramam premnah paripakena janyate
tasam gokula narinam iva krishna viyogatah
(Brihad Bhagavatamrita)

“When prema ripens, humility appears along with it. When the girls of Gokula were separated from Krishna (after He left Vrindavana for Mathura), they showed the limit of humility.”

The topmost humility dwells in the crownjewel of all the Vraja-gopis, Sri Radharani. In His final twelve years at Puri, Sriman Mahaprabhu relished the humility and the divine madness of Sri Radha. During that time He revealed the Sikshashtakam. There is no limit to the hundreds of waves of humility in the ocean of Radha-prema that the Lord experienced. When the waves of humility came up in His heart, He asked the Lord for pure devotion.
One may ask here: If Mahaprabhu is the ocean of divine love, then why does He still pray for pure devotion? The answer is given here: premera svabhava – yaha premera sambandha, se-i mane krishne mora nahi prema gandha – “It is the nature of prema that the lover thinks: I don’t have even a whiff of love for Krishna!” Real devotion means that one is never satiated. One can measure one’s thirst from one’s relish for the rasa of bhajana. Prema always keeps the heart of the lover (premika) agitated with a deep thirst for prema. The more one tastes, the more one thirsts and the more one thirsts, the more one tastes. In this world hunger and food diminish each other, but in the kingdom of love of God it is exactly the opposite. There the taste of Krishna’s sweetness increases the thirst for prema and vice versa.

kshudha ara khadyavastu ubhaye yemon
ubhaye ubhayera hoy vinasa karana
prema rajye ei riti ati vilakshana
ubhaye ubhayera hoy vardhana karana

In Brihad Bhagavatamrita (1.7.135) Narada Muni prays for this boon from Sri Krishna:

sri krishnacandra kasyapi triptir astu kadapi na
bhavato’nugraho bhaktau premni cananda bhajane

“O Krishnacandra! You are transcendental bliss personified! May no one ever be satiated with love and devotion for You. This is the boon I pray for!”

Hearing this, Sri Krishna said:

vidagdha nikaracarya ko namayam varo matah
svabhavo mat kripa bhakti premnam vyakto’yam eva yat
“O teacher of all clever arts! What kind of a boon is it that you want? Everyone knows that My mercy, devotion and love are inexhaustible!”

The more the devotee advances in his love, the more he laments out of thirst for more. Although Mahaprabhu is the ocean of love, He told Svarupa Damodara and Ramananda Raya:
suno mora pranera bandhava! nahi krishna prema dhana, daridra mora jivana, dehendriya vritha mora sab –
“Listen, O My heart’s friends! I don’t have the treasure of love of Krishna, so My life is poverty-stricken and My body and senses are all useless!”

When someone says: “O Lord! You are the incarnation of love, and Your divine body is full of ecstatic symptoms like goosepimples and tears of love! How can I believe You when You say that You have no prema?” Then the answer is: tabe ye kori krandana, sva saubhagya prakhyapana, kori iha janiho niscoy (Caitanya Caritamrita) –
“Know for sure that I’m just announcing My own good fortune when I cry!” In other words, when I cry, that is not because of My great devotion, but it is only to show how fortunate I am to have so much devotion!”
That is the wonderful nature of sacred devotional thirst, and that is why the ocean of prema is agitated by humility. The Lord humbly prays like an inexperienced neophyte: na dhanam na janam na sundarim kavitam va jagadisa kamaye – “O Lord of the universe! I don’t want wealth, followers or a beautiful wife, nor do I want to be a great poet!”

Since beginningless time the living entities are forgetful of Sri Govinda’s lotus feet. Being deluded by maya, they are wandering from one species of life to the other, attached to selfish activities and desiring wealth, followers and so on. Even those who have attained the rare human body and have even attained the path of devotion to God by the mercy of a saint, may still beg for wealth and followers from the Lord. A person who nourishes such contrary desires will be deprived of prema, even if he is doing bhajana.

bhukti mukti siddhi vancha mone yadi roy
sadhana korle-o prema utpanna na hoy
(Caitanya Caritamrita)

“When there are desires for enjoyment, salvation or mystic perfection in the devotee’s mind, he will not attain prema, even if he practises sadhana.”

The Gopala Tapani Upanishad states: bhaktir asya bhajanam tad iha-mutropadhi nairasyena amusmin manah kalpanam etad eva hi naishkarmyam –
“The path of devotion consists of intense meditation on God and makes the mind free from all personal desires for fruitive activities.” Bhajana has the same object here as naishkarmya (selfless action). In other words, in the mind of the devotee there will be no other desire but the service of the Lord. When the mind is free from the material modes it becomes absorbed in the taste of the Lord’s service. The Narada Pancaratra gives the following definition of pure devotion:

sarvopadhi vinirmuktam tat paratvena nirmalam
hrishikena hrishikesa sevanam bhaktir ucyate

“Devotion means to engage one’s senses in the service of the Lord of the senses. By such surrender one becomes purified and free from all designations and personal motives.”
Based on these statements from sruti and smriti, Srimat Rupa Gosvami has given the following complete definition of pure devotion in his Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu:

anyabhilashita sunyam jnana karmady anavritam
anukulyena krishnanusilanam bhaktir uttama

“The highest form of devotion is devoid of all other desires (but devotion), is not covered by endeavours for fruitive results or empirical knowledge and is favorable to Krishna (or any of the other descents of the Lord).”

In the positive sense, anusilana means serving the deity of Sri Krishna with one’s body, singing His names, His glories and His pastimes with one’s words and always lovingly thinking of Him with one’s mind. In the negative sense it means that one tries to avoid the offenses to His name and His deity-form.
Anukula means that one must be favorably disposed towards Krishna. Others, like the kings Kamsa and Sisupala, were not favorable to Krishna, so their dealings with Him cannot be counted as devotion. One must deal with Krishna with the purpose of giving Him pleasure. The demons gave Krishna a lot of fighting-pleasure by attacking Him with their weapons, but this can still not be counted as devotion because they did not fight with Him for that purpose. They hated Him, and this is not a bhakti-rasa. On the other hand, when mother Yasoda left Krishna, who was sucking her breast, to save the milk from boiling over, it did not make Krishna happy, rather He got angry with her. Still this is counted as devotion because mother Yasoda’s attitude towards Krishna was favorable. This is called anukulyena.
Devotion can be sopadhika, motivated, or nirupadhika, unmotivated. There are again two kinds of motivated devotion: devotion with ulterior motives and devotion mixed with other desires. Ulterior motives means desires for sense enjoyment and liberation, and a mixture with other desires means devotion covered over by endeavours for knowledge and renunciation. Pure devotion means engagement in hearing, chanting, and remembering the Lord’s names, qualities and pastimes without any ulterior motives or a mixture with other desires. This pure devotion also goes under the names of uttama, nirguna, kevala, mukhya, ananya, akincana and svarupa siddha. Pure devotees do not desire anything else but the Lord’s devotional service. When Sri Nrisimhadeva was pleased with Prahlada’s prayers, He offered him a boon, but Prahlada said:

ma mam pralobhayotpatty asaktam kameshu tair varaih
tat sanga bhito nirvinno mumukshus tvam upasritah
bhritya lakshana jijnasur bhaktam kameshv acodayat
bhavan samsara bijeshu hridaya granthishu prabho
nanyatha te’khila guro ghateta karunatmanah
yas tu asisa asas te na sa bhrtyah sa vai vanik
(Srimad Bhagavata, 7.10.2-4)

“O Lord! O Universal teacher! I am very much afraid of attachment to material desires, so I took shelter of You for the sake of renouncing them. My heart is naturally contaminated by material desires, so please don’t make me greedy for any material boons. Are you offering me boons that will cause my bondage to the material world and that are the seed of the knot in the heart simply to show what are the symptoms of a devotee? Otherwise how is it possible that You, who are so merciful, are engaging me in such unwanted efforts? Those who serve You with the desire to gain something worldly are not servants, but merchants!”

The purport of these words of Prahlada Mahasaya is that the merciful Lord can never offer the devotees blessings like wealth, followers and women, which create the knot in the heart that binds one to the material world. If He does so, then it is only to give an example of what is a materialistic devotee. When they see that the pure devotee does not ask for any other blessing than devotional service, the materialistic people of the world can easily understand their greatness. Those who do ask for material blessings in exchange of their service are simply merchants. Merchants try to use a cheap object to make a lot of profit and similarly a materialistic devotee tries to get great opulence from God by offering Him some cheap flowers or food.

Srimat Rupa Gosvami wrote in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu (1.2.22):

bhukti mukti spriha yavat pisaci hridi vartate
tavad bhakti sukhasyatra katham abhyudayo bhavet

“How can the bliss of devotion appear in the heart as long as the witch-like desires for enjoyment and liberation dwell in it?”

Whatever a haunted person eats is consumed by the ghost. Therefore such a person remains always very skinny. In the same way all the endeavours in bhajana of the devotee who desires enjoyment or liberation is consumed by those desires, and in this way his devotional life remains very meagre. Therefore the merciful Lord has given those materialistic devotees the sweetness of His names, forms, and qualities to relish, to chase these witches out of the heart. In this way He personally cleanses their hearts.

krishna kohe – amay bhaje, mage bishoy sukha
amrita chadi bisha mage, ei bodo murkha
ami vijna – ei murkhe vishoy kene dibo ?
sva caranamrita diya bishoy bhulaibo
(Caitanya Caritamrita, Madhya-lila)

Krishna says: “The devotee who worships Me for the sake of sense enjoyment is a big fool! He gives up nectar for the sake of poison! I am wise! Why should I give this fool sense-enjoyment? I will make him forget about it by giving him the nectar of My lotus feet!”

Srimad Bhagavata also says (5.19.26):
svayam vidhatte bhajatam anicchatam icchapidhanam nija pada pallavam.

“The Lord removes the material desires of those who worship Him for the sake of getting wealth and followers and gives them His lotus feet.”

Srimat Jiva Gosvami writes in his commentary on that verse: sa tu parama karunikah tat pada pallava madhurya jnanena tad anicchatam api bhajatam icchapidhanam sarva kama samapakam nija pada pallavam eva vidhatte – tebhyo dadatity arthah. yatha mata carvyamanam mrittikam balaka mukhad apasarya tatra khandam dadati tadvad iti bhavah.
“Those who do not know how sweet the Lord’s lotus feet are do not desire to attain them. When they start to worship Sri Krishna, then the all-merciful Lord will give them His lotus feet which fulfill all desires. It is just as when a child eats clay. The mother will take the harmful clay out of his mouth and put a very sweet piece of rock candy in it.”

In this way the Lord grants transcendental pure devotion to the aspirants, who are known as sakama-bhaktas (devotees who still cherish personal desires), and removes the desires for wealth, followers etc. from their hearts by His grace, blessing them with the attainment of pure transcendental devotion.
Usually the desires for wealth and followers are removed from the neophyte sakama-bhakta’s heart by the grace of a great soul and he thus becomes blessed with pure devotion.

…

Mahaprabhu personally told Sanatana Gosvami in Caitanya Caritamrita:

prabhu kohe – vaishnava deha ‘prakrita’ kabhu noy
aprakrita deha bhaktera cid anandamoy
diksha kale bhakta kore atma samarpana
sei kale krishna tare kore atma sama
sei deha tara kore cid anandamoy
aprakrita dehe tara carana bhajoy

“The body of a Vaishnava is never material. The devotee’s body consists of pure transcendental bliss. At the time of initiation the devotee surrenders himself, and at that time Krishna considers him to be equal to Himself. Krishna then makes his body full of trancendental bliss, and in this spiritual body the devotee serves His lotus feet.”

This automatically means that the devotee is already freed from all karmic reactions which cause ordinary persons to take one birth after the other in the material world. The devotee takes birth in the material world simply according to the Lord’s wish, and not because of his previous birth’s karma. This is the Vaishnava-philosophy. He must take birth until he has attained the perfection of prema (which is beyond liberation) and that perfection cannot be attained without accepting a material body. Even after attaining prema, a devotee may still take birth again in this world, simply to be able to relish the sweetness of sadhana bhakti, devotion in practice. Therefore, the repeated birth and death of the Vaishnava is not a miserable affair, as is the case with the conditioned souls who suffer tremendously while accepting and giving up their material bodies.

In the Uttara khanda of the Padma Purana it is written: na karma bandhanam janma vaishnavanam ca vidyate –
“The Vaishnavas do not take birth because of their bondage to karma.” The secret is that the Lord does not let the devotee know this fact, otherwise his humility could be lost, and when humility is lost, there will surely be loss in devotion. That is why the devotees also think that they have to accept birth and death because of their bondage to karma, and this is why Prahlada prays to Lord Nrisimha-deva: natha! janma sahasreshu yeshu yeshu bhavamy aham teshu teshv acyuta bhakti acyutasti sada tvayi – “O Lord! I may have to take thousands of births according to my karma, but in whatever species I may take birth, O Acyuta, may I have unflinching devotion for You!” (Vishnu Purana) Sri Vidyapati Thakura similarly prays:

kiye manusha pasu, pakhi bhae janamiye,
athava kita patango
karama vipake, gatagati punah punah,
mati rahu tuya parasanga

“According to my karma I may take birth again and again as a human being, an animal, a bird, a worm or an insect, but may my mind always be attached to You!”
Sriman Mahaprabhu said: “O Lord! Let me have causeless devotion for You, birth after birth!” In the beginning of Srimad Bhagavata, Sri Suta Muni gave Saunaka and the sages the definition of the supreme religious principle:

sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokshaje
ahaituky apratihata yayatma suprasidati

“The supreme religion for mankind is devotion unto the Supreme Lord, who is not perceived by the material senses. Such devotion is causeless and unhampered and fully satisfies the self.”

Sridhara Svami explains the word ahaituki as follows: hetuh phalabhisandhanam tad rahitah – “There is no desire for any fruitive result.”

The service of the Lord’s lotus feet is free from desires for any material or spiritual benefit. Sri Jiva Gosvami writes: tasyah bhakteh svarupa gunam aha – svata eva sukha-rupatvad ahaituki phalantaranusandhana rahita – “The word ahaituki stands for the constitutional position of pure devotion. Devotion is blissful in itself, so ahaituki means with no other purpose but to please Lord Hari.” This devotion is the essence of the Lord’s knowledge-potency (samvit-sakti) linked to His bliss-potency (hladini-sakti). “Essence” means here desires that are favorable to God, and there are no other desires but these in the hearts and the minds of the pure devotees. Pure devotees keep other desires far away.

A beautiful example is given in Srimad Bhagavata (6.11.24-26), where the pure devotee Vritrasura prays to the Lord as follows:

aham hare tava padaika mula
dasanudaso bhavitasmi bhuyah
manah smaretasu pater gunanam
grinita vak karma karotu kayah
na nakaprishtham na ca parameshthyam
na sarvabhaumam na rasadhipatyam
na yogasiddhir apunarbhavam va
samanjasa tvavirahayya kankse
ajata paksha iva mataram khagah
stanyam yatha vatsatarah kshudhartah
priyam priyeva vyushitam vishanna
mano’ravindaksha didrikshate tvam

“O Lord Hari! I am the servant of the servant of those devotees who are fully surrendered to Your lotus feet, and I will remain so! O Lord of my life! May my mind remember Your qualities, may my words glorify Your attributes and may my body be engaged in Your devotional service! O Ocean of all good fortune! I don’t desire a place in the heavenly planets, nor Lordship over the world, nor the position of Lord Brahma, nor the Lordship over the subterranean worlds, nor any mystic perfection, nor liberation, if that will separate me from You! O Lotus-eyed One! I desire to see You, just as a small bird that has no wings desires to see its mother, the calf desires the udder of the cow or the wife desires to see her husband who has gone abroad!”

Srila Jiva Gosvami comments on the last verse that the baby-bird has no other shelter but the mother, because it doesn’t have its own wings yet and therefore cannot accompany its mother. It is completely helpless, incapable and dependent, therefore only the mother can be merciful to it. Others cannot possibly feel as much love and compassion for it as the mother-bird. In the same way Vritrasura is completely incapable and dependent and feels pure love for the Lord. The Lord’s extraordinary compassion on him is suggested here. It is also described here that Vritrasura was as eager and anxious to see the Lord as the baby-bird is to see its mother. But there is one difference. The baby-bird is mainly eager to see its mother because of the eatables that she will bring, not so much for the mother herself. Therefore Vritrasura was not fully satisfied with the first example and continued by saying stanyam yatha vatsatarah kshudhartah – “I am eager for You as the calf is eager for its mother’s udders.” The calf is as eager to see its mother as it is for her udders, for it sees no difference between the mother and her udders. Therefore this example is superior to the previous one. This calf is a very young one, so the cowherd boy is not yet able to bind it up and keep it away from the mother by force. Cows are naturally more affectionate to their young ones as are mothers in other species of life, that is also why this example is superior to the previous one. Still, Vritrasura was not fully satisfied with this example either, so he prayed: priyam priyeva vyushitam vishanna – “I desire to see You just as a sad wife desires to see her husband who is abroad.” It is clear that this relationship is the most intense one in love. The faithful wife will die if her husband dies, regardless of whether she is young or old, so if her husband has gone abroad, she has a strong desire to see him and to please him with her causeless and exclusive service, for she has given her life to him. Similarly, Vritrasura has no other desire in his mind but to see and serve his Lord. After this, he says:

mamottamasloka janeshu sakhyam
samsara cakre bhramatah sva karmabhih
tvan mayayatmatmaja dara geheshv
asakta cittasya na natha bhuyat
(Srimad Bhagavata, 6.11.27)

“O Lord! Wherever I may take my birth as I revolve in the cycle of birth and death, let me be befriended with Your devotees there! Let my mind not be attached to the ropes of maya in the form of house, wife, children and body!”

Sri Jiva Gosvami writes about this in his Priti Sandarbha (72): tad etac chuddha premodgaramayatvenaiva srimad vritravadho’sau vilakshanatvac chri bhagavata lakshaneshu puranantareshu ganyate vritrasuravadhopetam tad bhagavatam ishyate iti –

“One of the special characteristics of Srimad Bhagavata is that it contains the story of Vritrasura because of Vritrasura’s pure love of God which he expressed in the above quoted verses. This is one of the special characteristics which distinguishes Srimad Bhagavata from other Puranas and thus it is described in those other Puranas.”

Although Sriman Mahaprabhu is Himself the highest truth, He prays here for pure, exclusive devotion to the Lord. Mahaprabhu explained this verse as follows:

dhana, jana nahi mago – kavita sundari
suddha bhakti deho more krishna! kripa kori

“Please, O Krishna! Just give me pure devotion unto You! I don’t ask for wealth, followers, poetry or a beautiful woman!”