Śabarī had reached the ultimate stage of being fixed in respectful surrender unto a bona fide ācārya [technically known as ācāryābhimāna]. Later in the Rāmāyaṇa (3.74), Śabarī will request Lord Rāma to bless her to attain the destination attained by her spiritual masters whom she had served. She was capable of carrying out her duty of [properly] honoring her guests; in other words, she knew the subtleties of carrying out dharma. It is well known that she used to repeatedly examine the sweetness of sweet fruits by personally tasting them in order to give them to Rāma when He met her.

Śramaṇīm indicates that she was a female wandering mendicant [for it refers to a female] śramaṇa, that is, one who has attained the fourth āśrama or the renounced order of life: caturtham āśramaṁ prāptāḥ śramaṇā nāma te smṛtāḥ.

Śabarīm: A śabarī [is a female śabara and] is born of a second-class marital union where the wife’s varṇa is superior to the husband’s varṇa. This is stated in the Nāradīya Purāṇa:

nṛpāyāṁ vaiśyato jātaḥ śabaraḥ parikīrtitaḥ
madhūni vṛkṣād ānīya vikrīṇīte sva-vṛttaye

“A śabara is stated to be one born of a vaiśya husband and a kṣatriya wife, and he brings honey from trees and sells them to maintain himself [and his dependents].”

In some manuscripts, rāghavaḥ, and in some other manuscripts, rāghava appear instead of rāghavam. In the former case, this verse
needs to be read along with the next verse. [The meaning remains the same.] In the latter case, the meaning of the verse is:

“Kabandha stood [for a moment in the skies on the way to the heavens] and said, “O Rāghava, respectfully approach Śabarī, a lady renunciant who was absorbed in carrying out her dharma [of serving her spiritual masters and so on] and who was capable of carrying out the duty [of properly honoring her guests].”

It is stated here that because of the glory of devotional service to a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, even a person born in an inferior community [engaged in such service] should be approached respectfully.

NOTE. In a booklet titled Artha-pañcaka, a Bengali rendition of its namesake by Lokācārya of the Rāmānuja-sampradāya, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura describes ācāryābhimāna or absolute dedication to an ācārya thus:

āmi aśakta o dīna, ei buddhite upayukta bhāgavata ācāryera nikaṭa āpana duḥkha jānaiyā tānhāra sahita dṛḍha-sambandhe bhagavad-bhajana karāra nāma ācāryābhimāna.

“With the consideration of being incapable [of properly executing karma, jñāna, bhakti or even surrender unto the Lord] and wretched, to go to a bona fide Vaiṣṇava-ācārya, to inform him of one’s distressed condition and to engage in devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead in a firm relationship with that ācārya is called ācāryābhimāna.”

Śabarī had taken to this process of absolutely surrendering unto Vaiṣṇava-ācāryas and therefore Lord Rāma was delighted to meet her.