सोऽब्रवीद्भरतं हृष्टो निषादाधिपतिर्गुहः।
यद्विधं प्रतिपेदे च रामे प्रियहितेऽतिथौ॥
so ’bravīd bharataṁ hṛṣṭo niṣādādhipatir guhaḥ
yad-vidhaṁ pratipede ca rāme priya-hite ’tithau
saḥ abravīt = and told; bharatam = Bharata; hṛṣṭaḥ = became joyous; niṣāda-adhipatiḥ = the ruler of the niṣādas; guhaḥ = Guha; yat-vidham = how; pratipede ca = he got [the opportunity to render] service; rāme = to Rāma; priya-hite = his pleasant and well-wishing; atithau = guest.
Guha, the ruler of the niṣādas became joyous and told Bharata how he got [the opportunity to render] service to Rāma, his pleasant and well-wishing guest.
1 That is, when it is free from (1) any desire for material happiness and (2) any desire for freedom from material unhappiness.
2 This is directly derived from Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī’s own comment on this verse which runs as follows: hanūmad-ādayaḥ katipaye janā jīvāḥ sevakā vā śuddhāṁ jñāna-karmādy-asambhinnāṁ bhaktiṁ tu raghunāthāvatāre asmāc chrī-devakī-nandanāl lebhire ity uttareṇānvayaḥ. śrīmān parama-saubhāgya-sampad-yuktaḥ. asya ca sarvatraivānuṣaṅgaḥ. nūnaṁ niścaye vitarke vā. lakṣaṇena teṣu śuddha-bhakter anumānāt. yadvā nūnam ity asya daśaratho ’pīty anenaiva sambandhaḥ. tataś ca brahma-śāpād eva putra-viccheda-śokena maraṇāc chuddha-bhaktau saṁśaye jāte ’pi tasya putra-snehena śuddha-bhakti-sambhāvanayā vitarkaḥ. ata evātrāpi-śabdo ’pi.
Guha became joyous because he got an opportunity to speak about Rāma’s activities.
NOTE. It is natural for Guha to become happy to speak about Rāma because a pure devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is naturally inclined to glorify Him and is naturally happy when asked to speak about Him. This is attested in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.2.5 and:
munayaḥ sādhu pṛṣṭo ’haṁ bhavadbhir loka-maṅgalam
yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṇa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati
“O sages, I have been justly questioned by you. Your questions are worthy because they relate to Lord Kṛṣṇa and so are of relevance to the world’s welfare. Only questions of this sort are capable of completely satisfying the self.”
Guha was a pure devotee of Lord Raghunātha without any desire for material enjoyment or liberation, as noted by Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī in Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta 1.5.18-19:
hanūmān jāmbuvān śrīmān sugrīvo ’tha vibhīṣaṇaḥ
guho daśaratho ’py ete nūnaṁ katipaye janāḥ
raghunāthāvatāre ’smāc chuddhāṁ bhaktiṁ tu lebhire
“Later, the incarnation Lord Raghunātha bestowed pure devotion upon a few—Guha, Hanumān, Jāmbavān, Vibhīṣaṇa, Daśaratha, and the blessed Sugrīva.”
Śrī Gopīparāṇadhana Prabhu’s commentary on this verse from Bṛhad Bhāgavatāmṛta contains the following salient remarks:
Some of Lord Rāmacandra’s servants who are jīvas, His janas (personal dependents), reaped from His association the benefit of pure bhakti. Love of God is pure when free from the material motives of karma and jñāna.1 Lord Devakī-nandana in His appearance as the Lord of the Raghus granted such bhakti to only a few of His devotees.
Here Nārada says that “even Daśaratha” (daśaratho ‘pi) obtained bhakti from Lord Rāma. Nārada qualifies his statement in this way to answer a potential doubt—that Daśaratha was an unfortunate person. After all, Daśaratha had been cursed by a brāhmaṇa to suffer separation from his son, and that separation led to his dying untimely and in lamentation. Still, he was blessed with pure bhakti by virtue of his intense attachment to his son Rāma.2