Devanagari
पुरेह भूमन् बहवोऽपि योगिन-
स्त्वदर्पितेहा निजकर्मलब्धया ।
विबुध्य भक्त्यैव कथोपनीतया
प्रपेदिरेऽञ्जोऽच्युत ते गतिं पराम् ॥ ५ ॥
Verse text
pureha bhūman bahavo ’pi yoginas
tvad-arpitehā nija-karma-labdhayā
vibudhya bhaktyaiva kathopanītayā
prapedire ’ṣjo ’cyuta te gatiṁ parām
Synonyms
purā
—
previously
;
iha
—
in this world
;
bhūman
—
O almighty Lord
;
bahavaḥ
—
many
;
api
—
indeed
;
yoginaḥ
—
followers of the path of yoga
;
tvat
—
unto You
;
arpita
—
having offered
;
īhāḥ
—
all their endeavors
;
nija
—
karma — by their prescribed duties
;
labdhayā
—
which is achieved
;
vibudhya
—
coming to understand
;
bhaktyā
—
by devotional service
;
eva
—
indeed
;
kathā
—
upanītayā — cultivated through hearing and chanting topics about You
;
prapedire
—
they achieved by surrender
;
aṣjaḥ
—
easily
;
acyuta
—
O infallible one
;
te
—
Your
;
gatim
—
destination
;
parām
—
supreme .
Translation
O almighty Lord, in the past many yogīs in this world achieved the platform of devotional service by offering all their endeavors unto You and faithfully carrying out their prescribed duties. Through such devotional service, perfected by the processes of hearing and chanting about You, they came to understand You, O infallible one, and could easily surrender to You and achieve Your supreme abode.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O almighty Lord, in the past many yogīs in this world achieved the platform of devotional service by offering all their endeavors unto You and faithfully carrying out their prescribed duties. Through such devotional service, perfected by the processes of hearing and chanting about You, they came to understand You, O infallible one, and could easily surrender to You and achieve Your supreme abode.
KB 10.14.5
“My dear Lord, there are many instances in the history of human society where a person, after failing to achieve the transcendental platform, engaged himself in devotional service with his body, mind and words and thus attained the highest perfectional state of entering into Your abode. The processes of understanding You by speculation or mystic meditation are all useless without devotional service. One should therefore engage himself in Your devotional service even in his worldly activities, and one should always keep himself near You by the process of hearing and chanting Your transcendental glories. Simply by being attached to hearing and chanting Your glories, one can attain the highest perfectional stage of entering into Your kingdom. If a person, therefore, always keeps in touch with You by hearing and chanting Your glories and offers the results of his work for Your satisfaction only, he very easily and happily attains entrance into Your supreme abode. You are realizable by persons who have cleansed their hearts of all contamination. This cleansing of the heart is made possible by chanting and hearing the glories of Your Lordship.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In the previous two verses, bhakti is established as the means of attaining the Lord, by negation and positive statement. In the present verse the activities of bhakti are established.
"O lord (bhuman), in this universe (iha), there are many who practice bhakti (yoginah) and they offer their activities to you, using all their senses to increase their devotion. Being fully engrossed in bhakti with faith, and disregarding varnasrama, they engage in hearing and chanting (nija karma labdhaya) only about you. By the prema bhakti which arises from hearing and chanting (kathopanitaya), they realize (vibudhya) the Lord’s form, qualities and activities, and attain eternal association of the lord in prema (param)."
The verse can also be taken as a rejection of the yoga process after having rejected jnana in the previous verses. "After practicing yoga for a long time and understanding its futility, o Lord, the yogis understand you through devotion mixed with jnana attained through offering you his activities and attain you."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
This process is not just words, but was practiced and realized by many in the past. Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that they offered their prescribed karmas to the Lord and their individual actions as well (tvad-arpitehā).
dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ |
notpādayed yadi ratiṁ śrama eva hi kevalam ||
Varṇāśrama-dharma of the human being, which does not produce attraction for topics of the Lord, is only wasted effort. SB 1.2.8
By having a taste of your topics they attained nearness to you. By developing taste for those topics one can realize you.
satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido
bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ
taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani
śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati
From association with the best devotees, topics of my glorious pastimes become directly realized, bringing the devotee to niṣṭhā. Then the topics become an elixir for the heart and ears at the stage of ruci. By taste for these topics, āsakti, bhāva and then prema for the Lord who is the destroyer of material life, quickly develop in sequence. SB 3.25.25
ity acyutāṅghriṁ bhajato 'nuvṛttyā
bhaktir viraktir bhagavat-prabodhaḥ
bhavanti vai bhāgavatasya rājaṁs
tataḥ parāṁ śāntim upaiti sākṣāt
O King! The devotee who worships the lotus feet of the infallible Lord with constant endeavor achieves unflinching devotion, detachment and experience of the Lord. He achieves supreme happiness. SB 11.2.43
With an increase in prema the person then attains with surrender (prapedire) an intimate relationship with you (parām gatim). O lord with unlimited glories (bhūman)! This is a suitable result for bhakti dedicated to you. O Lord, you do not fail to give the desired results by performance of bhakti (acyuta)!
na cyavante hi mad-bhaktā mahatyāṁ pralayād api
ato ’acyuto ’khile loke vidvadbhiḥ pariṇīyate
My devotees do not perish even at the time of universal destruction. The Lord alone is indestructible and all pervading in all planets. Skanda Purāṇa
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
This process is not just words, but was practiced and realized by many in the past. O Lord with unlimited glories (bhūman)! This is a suitable result for bhakti dedicated to you. Even liberated person (yoginaḥ) by hearing and glorifying your topics (te kathopanītayā) offered their activities to you. Or “Bhakti is difficult since it allows one to attain the supreme goal.” It can be done by purification (upanītayā) through hearing and glorifying you or by topcis concerning you which bring about glorification (upanītayā). Those topics are most excellent.
O Lord, you do not fail to give the desired results by performance of bhakti (acyuta)! Or by bhakti the yogīs will associate with you. They will attain the outstanding place, Vaikuṇṭha or prema (paraṁ gatim), understanding (vibudhya) it is the highest result.