Devanagari
भक्त्यावेश्य मनो यस्मिन् वाचा यन्नाम कीर्तयन् ।
त्यजन् कलेवरं योगी मुच्यते कामकर्मभि: ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
bhaktyāveśya mano yasmin
vācā yan-nāma kīrtayan
tyajan kalevaraṁ yogī
mucyate kāma-karmabhiḥ
Synonyms
bhaktyā
—
with devout attention
;
āveśya
—
meditating
;
manaḥ
—
mind
;
yasmin
—
in whose
;
vācā
—
by words
;
yat
—
Kṛṣṇa
;
nāma
—
holy name
;
kīrtayan
—
by chanting
;
tyajan
—
quitting
;
kalevaram
—
this material body
;
yogī
—
the devotee
;
mucyate
—
gets release
;
kāma
—
karmabhiḥ — from fruitive activities .
Translation
The Personality of Godhead, who appears in the mind of the devotee by attentive devotion and meditation and by chanting of the holy name, releases the devotee from the bondage of fruitive activities at the time of his quitting the material body.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The devotee whose mind is absorbed in Kṛṣṇa, whose voice chants his name, becomes freed from all karmas on giving up the material body. May that Kṛṣṇa, lord of lords, with glowing lotus face, red eyes and pleasing smile, with four arms, the object of my meditation, remain before me while I drink his beauty and praise him, before giving up this body.
Purport
Yoga
means concentration of the mind detached from all other subject matter. And actually such concentration is
samādhi,
or cent-percent engagement in the service of the Lord. And one who concentrates his attention in that manner is called a
yogī.
Such a
yogī
devotee of the Lord engages himself twenty-four hours daily in the service of the Lord so that his whole attention is engrossed with the thoughts of the Lord in ninefold devotional service, namely hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, praying, becoming a voluntary servant, carrying out orders, establishing a friendly relationship, or offering all that one may possess in the service of the Lord. By such practice of
yoga,
or linking up in the service of the Lord, one is recognized by the Lord Himself, as it is explained in the
Bhagavad-gītā
concerning the highest perfectional stage of
samādhi.
The Lord calls such a rare devotee the best amongst all the
yogīs.
Such a perfect
yogī
is enabled by the divine grace of the Lord to concentrate his mind upon the Lord with a perfect sense of consciousness, and thus by chanting His holy name before quitting the body the
yogī
is at once transferred by the internal energy of the Lord to one of the eternal planets where there is no question of material life and its concomitant factors. In material existence a living being has to endure the material conditions of threefold miseries, life after life, according to his fruitive work. Such material life is produced by material desires only. Devotional service to the Lord does not kill the natural desires of the living being, but they are applied in the right cause of devotional service. This qualifies the desire to be transferred to the spiritual sky. General Bhīṣmadeva is referring to a particular type of
yoga
called
bhakti-yoga,
and he was fortunate enough to have the Lord directly in his presence before he quitted his material body. He therefore desired that the Lord stay before his view in the following verses.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
May he remain here (pratīkṣatām) until I, after some time, after drinking the sweetness of his beauty with my eyes, after I praise him and reveal what is in my mind, give up my body. May he with four arms, who should at all times be the object of my meditation, since he is my object of worship, with his pleasing form and smile, remain directly in front of my eyes at the time of my passing from the body.
Bhīṣma addressed him as a form with four arms because that was the form of Kṛṣṇa mentioned in the mantra he used during meditation.