GURAU MANTRE NĀMNI PRABHUVARA SACĪGARBHAJA PADE
SVARŪPE SRĪ RŪPE GAṆA-YUJI TADĪYA PRATHAMAJE
GIRĪNDRE GĀNDHARVĀ SARASI MADHUPURYĀṀ VRAJAVANE
VRAJE BHAKTE GOṢṬHĀLAYIṢU PARAMĀSTĀṀ MAMA RATIḤ

Let me have the greatest love for my guru, my initiation-mantra, the holy name of Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the greatest of all Lords, who has appeared from the womb of mother Śacī, Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, his devotees and his elder brother Sanātana Gosvāmī, the king of hills Govardhana, Gāndharvikā’s lake Rādhākuṇḍa, Mathurā-dhāma, the forests of Vraja, the meadows of Vraja and the inhabitants of these meadows.

Stavāmṛta Kaṇā Vyākhyā:

In sādhakāveśa Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī humbly considers himself to be an ordinary immature practicing devotee and takes ten firm vows for himself to become fixed in bhajana.

Devotees who are fixed in bhajana and who desire to attain the perfection of prema should strictly keep their vows.
raghunāthera niyama yeno pāṣāṇera rekhā (C.C.) – “Raghunātha dāsa’s vows were indelible like the lines on a stone.”

Pure devotees, who wander in the realm of bhāva, do not have to follow any regulative principles, because they are floating on the waves of bhāva without being aware of external matters for long stretches of time. It is therefore difficult or sometimes impossible for them to adhere to external rules. Still we see that these great realized souls knowingly do not give up their exemplary regulative principles of bhajana in any way!

When nāmācārya Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura became old and was unable to keep his daily quota of japa, he prayed to Śrīman Mahāprabhu that he could proceed with his antardhāna-līlā (his pastime of leaving his body at his own chosen time).
Śrīla Raghunātha’s adherence to his strict vows is described in the sixth wave of Bhakti Ratnākara:

ati kṣīṇa śarīra durbola kṣaṇe kṣaṇe;  koroye bhakṣaṇa kichu dui cāri dine
yady api śuṣka deha bātāse hāloy;  tathāpi nirbandha kriyā sab samādoy
bhūme paḍi’ praṇami’ uṭhite nāhi pāre;  ithe ye niṣedhe kichu na kohoye tare
anukūla hoile praśaṁsaya bāra bāra; dekhiyā sādhanāgraha deve-o camatkāra

“Raghunātha’s emaciated body became weaker at every moment, and he would only eat something every two or four days. Although his body was so brittle that it could be blown away by the wind, he would still perform all his important duties. When he fell to the ground to offer obeisances, he could not get up anymore, but if anyone (out of concern for him) forbade him to do this, he would not listen. Seeing his strict adherence to his vows, even the demigods were amazed!”

These ten vows of Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa are like the pole-star, like a compass for the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava-practitioners. Previously, in his Manaḥ Siksā, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa had already expressed his loving attachment to the same deities and holy abodes as in the above-mentioned verse, and here he repeats himself to make it absolutely sure that love for Them is indispensable for those who want to attain the perfection of prema.

First of all, Śrī Raghunātha desires to become attached to the lotus feet of his guru. In Śrī Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has described 64 limbs of bhakti, starting with taking shelter of the lotus feet of a guru, accepting an initiation-mantra from him, learning the intricacies of bhajana from him and serving him with love and faith. He mentioned three gates through which we enter the temple of devotion:

guru padāśrayas tasmāt Kṛṣṇa dīkṣādi śikṣānaṁ viśrambheṇa guroḥ sevā. – The guru must be pleased by serving his lotus feet with firm faith, love and passionate devotion. Worship of God can never reach perfection unless the guru is pleased, that is the undisputed verdict of the scriptures.

tad prasādo hi mūlam (Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī): “The cause of perfection is the guru’s grace”.

yāhāra prasāde bhāi, e bhava tariyā yāya, Kṛṣṇa prāpti hoy yāhā hoite
(Prema Bhakti Candrikā): “A by-coming factor of the guru’s satisfaction is liberation from the material world and the main result is attainment of Krsna’s lotus feet.”

In this way the devotee becomes blessed in all respects. Just as water turns into ice when it is exposed to excessive cold, similarly the ocean of the Lord’s grace takes a solid form when it descends to earth in the form of the guru. Therefore, attainment of love for Krsna and of His devotional service are easily accomplished as a result of love for the guru’s lotus feet.

After this, Śrī Raghunātha expresses his desire to love his initiation-mantras.

The mantra which is received from the guru’s lotus feet at the time of initiation is called the iṣṭa mantra, or the beloved transcendental formula.

yo mantraḥ sa guruḥ sākṣāt yo guruḥ sa hariḥ svayam
(Vāmana Kalpa)

“The mantra is nondifferent from the guru and the guru is again non-different from the Supreme Lord Hari.”

Therefore, those who wish to worship Śrī Kṛṣṇa should receive mantra-dīkṣā from a bona fide guru.

In his commentary on the verse mantrasya ca parijñānam from the Bhāgavata (11.21.15), Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartīpāda writes:
sad guru mukhāt yathāvat parijñānaṁ mantra-śuddhiḥ – “The mantra is really pure when it emanates from the mouth of a bona-fide guru.”

Such benefits cannot be had from practising a mantra which is just taken from a book or so.

By the Lord’s wish the mantras which contain His names have been empowered by sages like Nārada, who adorned them with invocatory syllables (bīja) and affixes such as ‘svāhā’ or ‘namaḥ’.
In this way the practitioner of the mantra establishes a special relationship with the Lord and vice-versa. When the devotee practices his mantras with rati (attachment) he will surely and swiftly attain the highest goal of love for the Lord’s lotus feet.

After this, Śrī Raghunātha desires love for and attachment to the holy name of Śrī Hari.

Because the holy name and the Lord are non-different from Each other, the holy name is also self-manifest and transcendental to māyā. The devotee can never independently bring down love for the holy name, simply on the strength of his own practice.
Just like the Lord Himself, the holy name cannot be perceived through the senses, but when a living entity becomes sevonmukha, which means he develops a service-attitude, the holy name will automatically appear on his tongue.
Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī writes in Bhakti Rasāmṛta Sindhu (1.2.234):

atah śrī Kṛṣṇa nāmādi na bhavet grāhyam indriyaiḥ
sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ

“sevonmukha” means the endeavors to please and delight the Lord with one’s devotional service. When, by the grace of great souls or through their association a devotee realizes that the Lord is most pleased if he performs nāma saṅkīrtana, he enthusiastically begins to practice this. By the grace of the great souls the holy name then automatically arises on his tongue and extends its delectable influence there. When the holy name is chanted with other desires than to love and please the Lord, only a semblance of its power and influence will become manifest. Even if this nāmābhāsa (semblance of the holy name) is practiced again and again rati or anurāga will not be attained, but when the holy name is chanted without ulterior motives, simply out of love for the Lord, the practicing devotee will be blessed with prema, love for the Lord’s lotus feet and taste for chanting the holy name.

Kṛṣṇa nāma mahā-mantrera ei to svabhāva; yei jape tāra kṛṣṇe upajaye bhāva
Kṛṣṇa-viṣayaka premā parama puruṣārtha;  yāra āge tṛṇa tulya cāri puruṣārtha
…
Kṛṣṇa-nāmera phala premā sarva śāstre koy…
(C.C.)

“It is the nature of the Kṛṣṇa-nāma mahā-mantra that anyone who repeats it develops love for Kṛṣṇa, which is the fifth and final goal of human life, before which the other four goals are mere blades of grass. All the scriptures say that love for Kṛṣṇa is the proper result of chanting Kṛṣṇa’s holy name.”

English commentary by Rādhākuṇḍa Mahānta Paṇḍita Śrīmat Ananta Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja)

Translated by Sri Advaita das