Srila Gurudeva: Durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti, this path of bhakti is so crooked and it is very hard to walk on this path. But it is also easy if you are of a strong determination, so you should carefully be of a strong determination. If you are not like that, remember the king Bharata Maharaja. He was so much learned and he knew, “I should do bhajana.” He left his home, children, wives, wealth, everything, and went to the forest to worship Krsna. One day, Bharata was chanting, remembering, and doing devotional activities when he saw a female deer grazing very soft and green grasses. At the same time, he saw that a ferocious tiger came and wanted to attack that female deer. The tiger roared and was about to jump on that deer but that female deer jumped up. There was a small river there, full of water. She jumped over that river but she was pregnant and while she was jumping a baby deer came out from her womb. She fell into the river and was dying. She was looking at Bharata, who was chanting and remembering on the other side of the river. With very pathetic eyes she spoke to him, “Can you not come? Can you not come and serve my child?” Seeing this, Bharata Maharaja at once gave up his bhajana and came running. He took that baby deer from the river, put it on his lap and came back to his bhajana kutira.
He very quickly became absorbed in that baby deer. He forgot to chant and to remember Krsna. When he tried to chant or remember, the baby deer would come to his lap and would rub its head against him. The deer wanted to be taken on Bharatas lap like a little baby. Bharatas attraction for that baby deer was gradually increasing. At last, always engaged in pleasing that baby deer, he was about to totally forget chanting and remembering. Going on like this, he gradually became older. He became more and more aged and he began to run here and there. One day, at last, a group of deer were passing through the area and the little deer went with them. The deer ran towards them and mixed with them and they all quickly ran away somewhere. Now the king, Bharata Maharaja, began to search for that deer, “Where is my baby? Where is my baby?” He was so absorbed that he even forgot Krsna and everything. He was searching here and there for that deer. In the meantime, death came and Bharata was remembering that deer. At the moment of his death, he remembered that deer and so in his next birth, he himself became a deer. We should be very careful about this. When you are chanting and remembering, don’t give your attachment to any others than Hari, Guru, and Vaisnavas. Otherwise you will be very far away from krsna-bhakti. Bharata Maharaja at that time was qualified to come to the stage of bhava, rati. But he fell down from that stage.
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on January 21th, 1998, Bali, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 24]