Devanagari
सकृद् यद्दर्शितं रूपमेतत्कामाय तेऽनघ ।
मत्काम: शनकै: साधु सर्वान्मुञ्चति हृच्छयान् ॥ २२ ॥
Verse text
sakṛd yad darśitaṁ rūpam
etat kāmāya te ’nagha
mat-kāmaḥ śanakaiḥ sādhu
sarvān muṣcati hṛc-chayān
Synonyms
sakṛt
—
once only
;
yat
—
that
;
darśitam
—
shown
;
rūpam
—
form
;
etat
—
this is
;
kāmāya
—
for hankerings
;
te
—
your
;
anagha
—
O virtuous one
;
mat
—
Mine
;
kāmaḥ
—
desire
;
śanakaiḥ
—
by increasing
;
sādhuḥ
—
devotee
;
sarvān
—
all
;
muṣcati
—
gives away
;
hṛt
—
śayān — material desires .
Translation
O virtuous one, you have only once seen My person, and this is just to increase your desire for Me, because the more you hanker for Me, the more you will be freed from all material desires.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O sinless Nārada! I showed myself once to produce a desire in you to see me. The devotee so desiring me gradually becomes freed of all material desires.
Purport
A living being cannot be vacant of desires. He is not a dead stone. He must be working, thinking, feeling and willing. But when he thinks, feels and wills materially, he becomes entangled, and conversely when he thinks, feels and wills for the service of the Lord, he becomes gradually freed from all entanglement. The more a person is engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, the more he acquires a hankering for it. That is the transcendental nature of godly service. Material service has satiation, whereas spiritual service of the Lord has neither satiation nor end. One can go on increasing his hankerings for the loving transcendental service of the Lord, and yet he will not find satiation or end. By intense service of the Lord, one can experience the presence of the Lord transcendentally. Therefore seeing the Lord means being engaged in His service because His service and His person are identical. The sincere devotee should go on with sincere service of the Lord. The Lord will give proper direction as to how and where it has to be done. There was no material desire in Nārada, and yet just to increase his intense desire for the Lord, he was so advised.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
“But just show yourself once more to me!”
Seeing me only once, not many times, is enough to produce desire for me (kāmāya). By only slight increase in longing, prema will not develop to the state of youthfulness in a person having somewhat weak prema. My rule is that I show myself one time only to a person practicing in his present body (in his sādhaka-deha) who has developed prema. The infant state of prema in the sādhaka’s body matures to a youthful state in the siddha-deha by an increase of prema arising from longing in separation. That youthful prema allows the devotee to see me constantly and serve me directly. I alone, and not my devotee, know the process of fulfilling the desires of my devotee. You, who simply desire me (mat-kāmaḥ), even without having seen me, will become free from all desires for material enjoyment (hṛccayān). This statement does not actually apply to Nārada since he did not have any material desires, being at the level of prema already. But saying this, the Lord shows the nature of devotion. Additionally by saying this, the Lord increases the humility of Nārada.