Devi Shri Lalmati ji took full advantage of the rare gift of a human body. And she did it through one thing alone: priti. Priti for Gaura and Shyama, Shri Radha-Krishna. Priti for Yamuna ji and the kunjas along her banks. Priti for Bansi-Bat and the kunjas of Vraja. Priti for Gokula and the gurujan dwelling there. Priti for the dense twelve forests. Priti for the city of Mathura. Priti for Giri Govardhana. Through loving and firm, unwavering Vrindavan-vasa, that nagari attained the true labha of the human body. Her priti for Shri Radha-Krishna was of the vatsalya bhava.
With her story, Goswami Shri Nabha ji Maharaj completed his description of the names and yasha of more than one thousand bhaktas and santas. In his closing words, he turns to address all who have listened.
The priti that Haridasa finds in hearing the su-yasha of Hari is the very same priti that Shri Hari finds in hearing the su-yasha of His own dasas. This mutual, unbroken, ekrasa sneha between Bhagavan and His bhaktas has endured through all four yugas: Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali. Just as bhaktas proclaim the kirti of Bhagavan, so too Bhagavan sings the kirti of His bhaktas. Shri Krishna Chandra spoke from His own mukha the exalted yasha of His anuchara bhaktas to Uddhava. And Prabhu Shri Raghuvir ji, when entering Shri Avadhpuri from the forest, praised from His own lips the kirti of Hanumat, Sugriva, and the vanaras before Bharata, Vasishtha, and Sumantra.
The anuraga of Bhagavan toward bhaktas and the priti of bhaktas toward Bhagavan is woven through and through. The entire jagat knows this.
Shri Nabha Swami ji then reminds us: look at what Bhagavan has done for His bhaktas across the ages. For Dhruva, He descended. For Gajaraja, He rushed to rescue. For Prahlada, He split open a stone pillar and appeared in Narasimha-rupa. For Shri Shabari ji, He ate her tasted fruits, honored her as a mother, and granted her parama-pada. At the Rajasuya yajna of Shri Yudhishthira ji, Shri Yadunatha washed the charana of bhaktas and cleared away the used patras with His own hands. He removed the calamities of the Pandavas. And for Chandrahasa-bhakta, He turned poison into divine blessing.
In Kaliyuga too, these miracles continue. Prithviraj received darshana when Prabhu came from Dvaraka. Namadeva fed milk from his own hands. Karma's khichdi was eaten by the Lord Himself. Bhagavan lived in the house of Jilovan-bhakta for fourteen months performing santa-seva. The son of Sadavrati-bhakta died and was cremated, yet returned to life. Even today, the transcendent anugraha of Shri Hari is experienced. Therefore, hold vishvasa in the chitta. Be astika in the kripa of Shri Hari. Listen, and walk the path of bhakti.
Nabha Swami ji then humbly addresses the santas whose yasha he could not include. Just as watering the root of a tree nourishes every limb, may those santas consider themselves included in the yasha of their acharya and gurujan and be gracious toward him.
How can all the Bhagavad-bhaktas in this bhuloka be counted? It is as if a little bird attempted in shraddha to drink all the oceans. How could it possibly fit within its belly?
He appeals to all Vaishnavas: you are all murtis of Shri Bhagavan, like Shalagrama ji. Whether a Shalagrama murti is large or small, whether the Tulasi-dala is large or small, the guna and mahatmya of all is fathomless. Some have been described earlier and some later. Please do not consider this ordering a fault. Kindly forgive.
Just as fruits receive their shobha from remaining on the tree, and the tree receives greater shobha from its fruits, so it is with guru and shishya. The shishya gains kirti-shobha from the guru, and the guru gains even greater kirti-shobha from the shishya.
Whatever bhaktas have been in all four yugas, I shall place the dust of all their charana upon my head. That alone is my wealth, my prana, my all, and the very root of my life.
By describing the gunas of Hari-jana, kirti and mangala arise in the jagat. The three tapas are destroyed. And one attains an unshakable place in the hridaya of Hari.
The Rare Human Birth Is Redeemed by Love
Shri Lalmati Devi Ji took the dulabha manushya deha, the rare and precious human birth, and did not let it slip past in the fog of distraction. She took its labha, its genuine fruit. The Bhaktamal's chhappaya verse says plainly: she obtained the true profit of this difficult-to-attain human form. That profit was not accumulation, status, or clever argument. It was priti. The kind of love that reaches every sacred grove, every forest, every river bend, every hill. The teaching is simple and complete: you have been given something extraordinarily rare. The way not to waste it is to let your heart fill with love for what is real and lasting. Everything else takes care of itself from there.
Bhaktamal, chhappaya 188 (Shri Lalmati Devi Ji); tilak commentary by Priyadas Ji
Let Your Love Be Specific and Total
When the Bhaktamal describes Shri Lalmati Devi Ji's priti, it does not speak in vague generalities. It lists: Gaura-Shyama. Yamuna Ji. The kunjas along her banks. Bansi-Bat. The sacred groves of Vraja. Gokul and the beloved elders who lived there. The dense twelve forests. Mathura. Govardhana. Each named. Each loved individually and completely. This is not the scattered affection of someone who says they love everything and therefore love nothing deeply. It is the fully inhabited love of someone who has arrived, who has looked at each sacred face and said: yes, this too. The teaching is that genuine devotion becomes specific. It lands. It has an address. Love everything by loving each thing completely.
Bhaktamal, chhappaya 188 (Shri Lalmati Devi Ji)
Settled Residence in the Heart Is the True Vrindavan Vasa
Shri Lalmati Devi Ji lived in Vrindavan with a dridha vasa, an unwavering, settled, unshakeable residence. The tilak commentary calls her a nagari, a woman skilled in the city of priti, trained through her own life in the art of the love-path. But the residence being spoken of is not about having a house in a particular town. It is about the attention having come permanently home. The seeker who has found the object of their love does not wander internally anymore. There is a settledness, a stability, not from controlling the mind by force but from the mind having found what it was always restlessly seeking. The heart that is full of priti has nowhere left to run. That is dridha vasa. That is the real Vrindavan.
Bhaktamal, chhappaya 188 and tilak commentary (Shri Lalmati Devi Ji)
Bhagavan Delights in Hearing the Stories of His Bhaktas
One of the great revelations in the Bhaktamal's concluding verses is this: the same priti that Haridasa feels when hearing the glories of Shri Hari is the very same priti that Shri Hari feels when hearing the glories of his own dasas. This is not a small thing. It means that every time the Bhaktamal is recited, every time a devotee tells the story of a saint with a loving heart, the Lord himself is listening with delight. In the Bhagavatam's Ekadasha Skandha, Shri Krishna sang the yasha of his own bhaktas to Uddhava from his own mukha. At Ayodhya, Shri Raghuvir praised Hanuman and Sugriva before entering the city. The Lord does not wait for our praises. He sings first, of us. The garland of saints is dear to him because his love for his devotees is total and unashamed.
Bhaktamal concluding verses, chhappaya 201; tilak commentary by Priyadas Ji
The Dust of the Feet of All Saints Is Enough
When Goswami Shri Nabhadas Ji Maharaj reaches the end of the Bhaktamal, having sung of more than a thousand saints across all four yugas, this is what he says his wealth is: the dust of all their charana, placed upon his head. Not the knowledge he gathered. Not the verses he composed. Not the lineage he belonged to. The charana-dhuli of every bhakta in every age. That dust is his everything, his prana, the root of his life. For the seeker who feels overwhelmed by the vast ocean of the tradition, by the impossibility of knowing it all or practicing it all, this is the teaching. You do not have to conquer the entire path. You only need to bow. The dust of the saints' feet is already a complete inheritance.
Bhaktamal concluding verses; tilak commentary by Priyadas Ji
Hindi text from OCR scan (Khemraj Shrikrishnadas Prakashan, CC0). May contain errors.