Abhīṣṭa Sūcanam
(by Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī)

“Indication of my desires”

Translation: Advaita das

verse 2

yad-yatnataḥ śama-damātma-viveka-yogair
adhyātma-lagnam avikāram abhūn mano me |
rūpasya tat smita-sudhaṁ sadayāva-lokam
āsādya mādyati hareś cartair idānīm ||2||

Through the efforts of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī my mind has become equipoised (śama), controlled (dama) and absorbed in transcendence through the practice of ātma viveka (spiritual discrimination) and yoga. Because of attaining his merciful glance and his nectarean smile my mind has now become maddened by Śrī Hari’s pastimes!

    Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā:

Here the word śama means bhagavan-niṣṭhā, loyalty to the Lord, dama means control of the senses, ātma viveka means discrimination between spirit and matter, and yoga means that Śrīpāda’s mind became free from transformations by meditating on the Lord’s lotus feet, which means that he became absorbed in the Lord, freed from lust, anger and greed. As a result of Śrī Rūpa’s special mercy that peaceful mind became mad with the pastimes of Hari. This indicates how pure the heart must be before it is able to perceive the Lord’s pastimes. The desire to relish pure flavours cannot awaken within a heart which has been covered over by the deep darkness of a mundane cultivation from beginningless time.

Śrīman Mahāprabhu Himself proclaimed: malina mana hoile nahe kṛṣṇera smaraṇa (C.C.) “When the mind is contaminated one cannot remember Kṛṣṇa.”

Due to ill fortune, sin and offenses committed to great souls the heart is contaminated, and even after a prolonged practice of bhajana we cannot see the bad habits of the sādhaka disappearing, or rati awakening within his heart. When that love of God awakens, the flavours of His transcendental pastimes can be relished as they are.
Hence the devotee-aspirant should first of all purify his heart by offenselessly hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. By the grace of the rasika bhāgavata bhaktas the moonlight of the love of Vraja will shine on such a crystal-clear heart, thus illuminating it or coloring it with the right feeling. When the heart is thus purified the mundane cultivation is removed and the mind of the sādhaka becomes maddened by the sweetness of the Lord’s pastimes. The relish of these flavours then becomes his very life support.
In Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has ascertained the means by which devotional flavours can be relished:

bhakti nirdhūta doṣāṇāṁ  prasannojjvala cetasām; śrī bhāgavata raktānāṁ  rasikāsaṅga raṅginām
jīvanībhūta govinda pāda bhakti sukhā-śriyām; premāntaraṅga bhūtāni kṛtyānyevānutiṣṭhatām
bhaktānāṁ hṛdi rājantī saṁskāra yugalojjvalā; ratir ānanda rūpaiva nīyamānā tu rasyatām
kṛṣṇādibhir vibhāvādyair gatair anubhavādhvani; prauḍhānanda camatkāra kāṣṭhām apadyate parām

“Those who are completely washed of all material contamination (such as hatred, attachment, lust and anger) by their practice of devotion, whose hearts are brightened by spiritual satisfaction, who are very attached to hearing the holy topics of Śrīmad Bhāgavata, who enjoy the blissful company of rasika saints, whose very life is the blissful wealth of devotion to Govinda’s feet, who always discharge the confidential duties of love like hari nāma saṅkīrtana, associating with rasika saints, hearing transcendental topics from them and remembering these topics throughout the day – for such advanced devotees, whose hearts are always radiant with bliss, having gone through reformatory processes (saṁskāras) in this life and in previous births, the seed of rati, whose form is transcendental bliss, is sown in the heart. Thus the blend of vibhāva and so, that have Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the object, becomes delicious and enters the path of perception, reaching the platform of great bliss and astonishment.” That Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī is such an elevated devotee who has reached this stage of topmost bliss and astonishment is shown by his last words in this verse: mādyati hareś caritair idānīm “My mind is maddened by the pastimes of Hari!”