520
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 9]
of devotional service, as it is very difficult to know the potency of touchstone. As touchstone is rarely found, a pure devotee of the Lord is also rarely to be seen, even amongst the millions of liberated souls ( katsv api mahāmune ). Out of all kinds of perfections attained by the process of knowledge,  yoga  perfection in devotional service is the highest of all and the most mysterious also, even more mysterious than the eight kinds of mystic perfection attained by the process of  yogic  performances. In the  Bhagavad-gītā  the Lord therefore advised Arjuna about this  bhakti-yoga :
sarva-guhyatamaṁ bhūyaḥ śṛṇu me paramaṁ vacaḥ
“Just hear from Me again about the most confidential part of instructions in the  Bhagavad-gītā .” (Bg. 18.64) The same was confirmed by Brahmājī to Nārada in the following words: “ idaṁ bhāgavataṁ nāma yan me bhagavatoditam/ saṅgraho ’yaṁ vibhūtīnāṁ tvam etad vipulīkuru. Yathā harau bhagavati nṛṇāṁ bhaktir bhaviṣyati. ” Brahmājī said to Nārada. “Whatever I have spoken to you about the  Bhāgavatam  was explained to me by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and I am advising you to expand these topics nicely so that people may easily understand the mysterious  bhakti-yoga  by transcendental loving service to the Lord.” It is to be noted here that the mystery of  bhakti-yoga  was disclosed to Brahmājī by the Lord Himself, and the same was explained by Brahmājī to Nārada, and Nārada explained the same to Vyāsa and from Vyāsa to Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and that same knowledge is coming down, in the unalloyed chain of disciplic succession. If one is fortunate enough to have received the knowledge in the transcendental disciplic succession, surely he may have the chance of understanding the mystery of the Lord and that of the  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , the sound incarnation of the Lord.
TEXT 36
एतावदेव जिज्ञास्यं तच्चजिज्ञासुनाऽऽत्मनः । अन्वयव्यतिरेकाभ्यां यत् स्यात् सर्वत्र सर्वदा ॥३६॥
etāvad eva jijñāsyaṁ tattva-jijñāsunātmanaḥ anvaya-vyatirekābhyāṁ yat syāt sarvatra sarvadā