Devanagari
शिरस्तु तस्योभयलिङ्गमान-
मेत्तदेव यत् पश्यति तद्धि चक्षु: ।
अङ्गानि विष्णोरथ तज्जनानां
पादोदकं यानि भजन्ति नित्यम् ॥ ४ ॥
Verse text
śiras tu tasyobhaya-liṅgam ānamet
tad eva yat paśyati tad dhi cakṣuḥ
aṅgāni viṣṇor atha taj-janānāṁ
pādodakaṁ yāni bhajanti nityam
Synonyms
śiraḥ
—
head
;
tu
—
and
;
tasya
—
of Him
;
ubhaya
—
both
;
liṅgam
—
to the manifestations
;
ānamet
—
bows down
;
tat
—
that
;
eva
—
only
;
yat
—
which
;
paśyati
—
sees
;
tat
—
that
;
hi
—
indeed
;
cakṣuḥ
—
eye
;
aṅgāni
—
limbs
;
viṣṇoḥ
—
of Lord Viṣṇu
;
atha
—
or
;
tat
—
His
;
janānām
—
of the devotees
;
pāda
—
udakam — the water which has washed the feet
;
yāni
—
which
;
bhajanti
—
honor
;
nityam
—
regularly .
Translation
An actual head is one that bows down to the Lord in His manifestations among the moving and nonmoving creatures, real eyes are those that see only the Lord, and actual limbs are those which regularly honor the water that has bathed the Lord’s feet or those of His devotees.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
An actual head is one that bows down to the Lord in His manifestations among the moving and nonmoving creatures, real eyes are those that see only the Lord, and actual limbs are those which regularly honor the water that has bathed the Lord's feet or those of His devotees.
KB 10.80.4
… and the function of the head can be fully utilized when the head is engaged in bowing down before the Lord and His representative. That the Lord is represented in everyone’s heart is a fact, and therefore the highly advanced devotee offers his respects to every living entity, considering that the body is the temple of the Lord. But it is not possible for all men to come to that stage of life immediately, because that stage is for the first-class devotee. The second-class devotee can consider the Vaiṣṇavas, or the devotees of the Lord, to be representatives of Kṛṣṇa, and the devotee who is just beginning, the neophyte or third-class devotee, can bow his head before the Deity in the temple and before the spiritual master, who is the direct manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, in the neophyte stage, in the intermediate stage or in the fully advanced, perfected stage, one can make the function of the head perfect by bowing down before the Lord or His representative. Similarly, one can perfect the function of the eyes by seeing the Lord and His representative. In this way, everyone can elevate the functions of the different parts of his body to the highest perfectional stage simply by engaging them in the service of the Lord or His representative. If one is able to do nothing more, he can simply bow down before the Lord and His representative and drink the caraṇāmṛta, the water which has washed the lotus feet of the Lord or His devotee.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The eye which sees the murti of Visnu and his devotee, , the head which bows to those two forms (ubhayalingam), the limbs of the body (about the navel) which receive the foot water of Visnu and his devotee, are fortunate.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
One should bow the head completely (ā--namet), touching the ground, to the deity forms of the Lord and to his devotee. The eyes are only (eva) those that see the forms of the Lord and devotees. They should see nothing else. The word eva should be understood with all the limbs.
Then the limbs should with faith always (nityam) hold the water from the forms of the Lord and the devotee. Nityam is placed last to indicate it should be added to all statements in the two verses. The water should be placed on limbs above the navel since placing the holy water lower than that is forbidden. One can gain perfection by engaging each sense or limb in devotional acts,
By producing perfection the limbs become completely useful. Without doing that, all my limbs are useless. By your mercy only, my ear has become successful.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
One should bow the head to the śāligrāma and the devotees (ubhaya-liṅgam), or the moving and nonmoving mūrtis, touching the head to the ground (ānamet). The eye has a tendency to see many forms. That eye alone (hi) is an eye which sees only (eva) the forms of the Lord. Or eva can mean certainly and can be applied to all statements in the verse.
The word viṣṇoḥ implies that the Lord spreads throughout the universe in various forms like śālagrāma. Thus his foot water is easy to obtain. And the limbs should accept with faith (bhajanti) even (atha) the foot water of his devotees. The word nityam (constantly) at the end should be applied to all the statements. The water should be placed on limbs above the navel since placing the holy water lower than that is forbidden.
It is stated that there is complete perfection of words by chanting the Lord’s names etc.
Śrīdhara Svāṁī explains that all the other engagements are given as examples in order show to perfection of words.
Or there is success of words etc. by directing them to the Lord. But being unfortunate, everything is useless since I do not have those engagements. Let my sense of hearing be successful by your mercy. This is a statement of humility and misery made in devotion.