Walking alone on the path, Shri Katyayaniji would sing the glories of Prabhu with a rasa-filled tongue. She would become so overflowing with prema-avesha that when the wind stirred the trees and produced a sound, she took it to be mridanga and tala accompanying her singing. Overcome with delight, she would toss her garments and ornaments upon the trees.
Her prema for Shri Krishnachandraji was exactly like that of the Gopa women. In singing Prabhu's guna-anuvada, her voice would become choked with the intensity of anurag. In her chitta there was no awareness whatsoever of worldly illusion. Maya did not touch her even slightly.
Seeing the manner of Shri Katyayaniji's anurag for Bhagavan, the saints confirmed: indeed, this alone is the true name of anurag.
Who can speak of her prema? She needed no temple, no congregation, no instruments. The wind in the trees was her orchestra. The open road was her mandira. And the singing that poured from her was so drenched in love that even the saints, who had seen everything, stopped and said: so this is what anurag really looks like.
Love That Cannot Stay Silent
Shri Katyayini Ji walked alone on an open road with no temple, no congregation, no scheduled worship. And as she walked, her tongue simply overflowed with the glories of Prabhu. This is a quiet but radical teaching: devotion does not require architecture. When love becomes the very substance of who you are, every road becomes the place of practice and every step becomes an offering. The Bhaktamal places her story here to remind us that bhakti does not wait for the right setting or the right company. It arises from within, and when it is genuine, no circumstances can suppress it. The road itself becomes the mandira. Movement through the ordinary world becomes sacred ground.
Bhaktamal, Chhappay 1297
When the Forest Joins Your Kirtan
In a state of complete absorption in love, Shri Katyayini Ji would hear the wind moving through trees and rustling the branches as the beating of a mridanga keeping perfect tala. The invisible musicians of the forest were joining her kirtan. Her heart, filled beyond its capacity, had become a more reliable witness than her eyes. This is what the tradition calls prema-avesha: a condition of total overtaking, where ordinary perception dissolves and every sound in creation becomes the sound of devotion. The saints who observed her said simply: this is what anurag really means. Not the word for it, but the thing itself, alive, walking, listening to trees.
Bhaktamal, Chhappay 1297; tilak commentary
The Gopis' Way: Wanting Only One Thing
The Bhaktamal places Shri Katyayini Ji within the lineage of the gopa women of Vrindavan, saying her prema was of exactly the same quality as theirs. This is among the highest recognitions the tradition can offer. The gopis of Gokula performed the Katyayani Vrata during the month of Margashirsha, rising before dawn, bathing in the cold Yamuna, and praying with one unashamed longing: make the son of Nanda my husband. They addressed Katyayani as Mahamaye, the great weaver of illusion, and asked her to remove the one illusion they could not bear: the illusion of separation from Krishna. Their worship was not an end in itself. It was a door, and through that door walked their entire life.
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.22; Bhaktamal, Chhappay 1297
Guna-Anuvada: Keeping the Mind Soaked in the Beloved
Shri Katyayini Ji practiced what the tradition calls guna-anuvada: the sustained, repeated contemplation and vocalization of the Lord's qualities. Not as theological exercise, but as a way of keeping the mind continuously soaked in the presence of the beloved. When she spoke the glories of Prabhu, anurag would rise so intensely that her voice would become choked. She did not confine this practice to a set hour or a special place. The road was enough. The day was enough. Any moment became the moment of remembrance. For a seeker, this points to something essential: the practice is not the scheduled ritual alone. The practice is the steady turning of the heart toward the Lord, again and again, in every ordinary hour.
Bhaktamal, Chhappay 1297; tilak commentary
No Room for Maya When Love Is Complete
The saints who witnessed Shri Katyayini Ji noticed something that the tilak records precisely: in her chitta, in the innermost chamber of her awareness, there was no registration of jagat prapancha, the web of worldly entanglement. And the touch of maya was described as not even a trace, not even the lightest contact. The text is careful not to present this as a technique she mastered. It was simply the natural consequence of a heart so completely filled with love for the Lord that nothing else could find entry. This is the bhakti path at its fullest: not a suppression of the world, but a fulfillment so total that the world's pull simply ceases. The seeker does not push maya away. The seeker becomes so saturated with love that maya finds no foothold.
Bhaktamal, Chhappay 1297
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.