जाग्रतो ह्येव तां रात्रिं सौमित्रेरुदितो रविः।
सूतस्य तमसातीरे रामस्य ब्रुवतो गुणान्॥
jāgrato hy eva tāṁ rātriṁ saumitrer udito raviḥ
sūtasya tamasā-tīre rāmasya bruvato guṇān
jāgrataḥ hi eva = who had stayed awake; tām rātrim = for the whole night; saumitreḥ = as Sumitrā’s son; uditaḥ = began to rise; raviḥ = the sun; sūtasya = to the sūta; tamasā-tīre = on the bank of Tamasā; rāmasya = of Rāma; bruvataḥ = described; guṇān = the auspicious characteristics.
As Sumitrā’s son described the auspicious characteristics of Rāma to the sūta who had stayed awake for the whole night on the bank of Tamasā, the sun began to rise.
1 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam repeatedly asserts that pure devotees of Lord Viṣṇu are eager to spend every moment of their lives in one or more items of nava-vidha-bhakti headed by hearing about His holy names, forms, qualities and pastimes, uttering them and remembering them. Lakṣmaṇa did not talk about Rāma just to keep Himself or the sūta awake. They were naturally absorbed in loving devotional service to Rāmacandra.
2 The word sadā (“always”) should be understood to apply to each of these nine primary symptoms. In other words, a person who has begun to experience the Supreme Lord internally will always exhibit these external symptoms. And these symptoms cannot be faked. Therefore, Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has noted in his commentary to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.1.11 that these symptoms invariably reveal the presence of bhāva-bhakti in the heart of such a devotee.
3 This is clear from Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.106-113. After one passes the stage of pure sādhana-bhakti, one’s karmic reactions are vanquished and he develops all auspicious characteristics (kleśaghnī śubhadā).
Śrī Lakṣmaṇa spoke about Śrī Rāma’s auspicious characteristics to spend the time [usefully].1 It is implied that he spoke about Rāma’s spiritual qualities till the sun rose.
NOTE. Lakṣmaṇa’s giving up sleep to engage in Rāma-kīrtana, glorification of Rāma, was natural for Him since He was a perfect pure devotee of Rāma.
Prabhupāda describes this feature of the perfection of pure devotional service thus:
As far as sleeping is concerned, a Kṛṣṇa conscious person is always alert in the discharge of his duties in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and therefore any unnecessary time spent sleeping is considered a great loss. Avyartha-kālatvam: a Kṛṣṇa conscious person cannot bear to pass a minute of his life without being engaged in the service of the Lord. Therefore, his sleeping is kept to a minimum. His ideal in this respect is Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, who was always engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa and who could not sleep more than two hours a day, and sometimes not even that. Ṭhākura Haridāsa would not even accept prasādam nor even sleep for a moment without finishing his daily routine of chanting with his beads three hundred thousand names. (Bhagavad-gītā 6.17 purport)
Avyartha-kālatvam (“not wasting time”) is a reference to one of the nine primary features of a pure devotee of the Lord who has begun to directly realize His names, forms, qualities and pastimes. These nine features are set out as:
kṣāntir avyartha-kālatvaṁ viraktir māna-śūnyatā
āśā-bandhaḥ samutkaṇṭhā nāma-gāne sadā ruciḥ
āsaktis tad-guṇākhyāne prītis tad-vasati-sthale
ity ādayo ’nubhāvāḥ syur jāta-bhāvāṅkure jane
“When the seed of ecstatic emotion for Kṛṣṇa fructifies, the following nine symptoms manifest in one’s behavior: forgiveness, concern that time should not be wasted, detachment, absence of false prestige, hope, eagerness, a taste for chanting the holy name of the Lord, attachment to descriptions of the transcendental qualities of the Lord, and affection for those places where the Lord resides—that is, a temple or a holy place like Vṛndāvana. These are all called anubhāva, subordinate signs of ecstatic emotion. They are visible in a person in whose heart the seed of love of God has begun to fructify.”2 (Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya 23.18-19)
In these verses quoted above, ity ādayaḥ indicate that all the qualities of a Vaiṣṇava enlisted by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Chapter 20 of Bhagavad-gītā are found in such a devotee.3