Text 97
kṛṣṇa-nāme ye ānanda-sindhu-āsvādana
brahmānanda tāra āge khātodaka-sama
kṛṣṇa-nāme — in the holy name of the Lord; ye — which; ānanda — transcendental bliss; sindhu — ocean; āsvādana — tasting; brahma-ānanda — the transcendental bliss of impersonal understanding; tāra — its; āge — in front; khāta-udaka — shallow water in the canals; sama — like.
“Compared to the ocean of transcendental bliss that one tastes by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, the pleasure derived from impersonal Brahman realization [brahmānanda] is like the shallow water in a canal.
In the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.1.38) it is stated:
brahmānando bhaved eṣa cet parārdha-guṇī-kṛtaḥ
naiti bhakti-sukhāmbhodheḥ paramāṇu-tulām api
“If brahmānanda, the transcendental bliss derived from understanding impersonal Brahman, were multiplied a million times, such a quantity of brahmānanda could not compare with even an atomic portion of the pleasure relished in pure devotional service.”