Verse Text
tatra nāma-śravaṇaṁ, yathā gāruḍe—
saṁsāra-sarpa-daṣṭa-naṣṭa-ceṣṭaika-bheṣajam |
kṛṣṇeti vaiṣṇavaṁ mantraṁ śrutvā mukto bhaven naraḥ ||171||
Translation
Hearing the name of the Lord (verse 87), from Garuḍa Purāṇa: Hearing the Vaiṣṇava mantra ‘Kṛṣṇa’, which is the only effective medicine to counteract the bite of the snake of saṁsāra, a man becomes liberated.
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
In the Garuḍa Purāṇa the stress on hearing is expressed very nicely. It is said there, “The state of conditioned life in the material world is just like that of a man lying unconscious, having been bitten by a snake. This is because both such unconscious states can be ended by the sound of a mantra.” When a man is snake-bitten he does not die immediately, but first becomes unconscious and remains in a comatose condition. Anyone who is in the material world is also sleeping, as he is ignorant of his actual self or his actual duty and his relationship with God. So materialistic life means that one is bitten by the snake of māyā, illusion, and thus, without any Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is almost dead. Now, the so-called dead man bitten by a snake can be brought back to life by the chanting of some mantra. There are expert chanters of these mantras who can perform this feat. Similarly, one can be brought back into Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the deadly unconscious state of material life by hearing of the mahā-mantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare / Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.