Devanagari
तव परि ये चरन्त्यखिलसत्त्वनिकेततया
त उत पदाक्रमन्त्यविगणय्य शिरो निर्ऋतेः ।
परिवयसे पशूनिव गिरा विबुधानपि तां-
स्त्वयि कृतसौहृदा: खलु पुनन्ति न ये विमुखा: ॥ २७ ॥
Verse text
tava pari ye caranty akhila-sattva-niketatayā
ta uta padākramanty avigaṇayya śiro nirṛteḥ
parivayase paśūn iva girā vibudhān api tāṁs
tvayi kṛta-sauhṛdāḥ khalu punanti na ye vimukhāḥ
Synonyms
tava
—
You
;
pari ye caranti
—
who worship
;
akhila
—
of all
;
sattva
—
created entities
;
niketatayā
—
as the shelter
;
te
—
they
;
uta
—
simply
;
padā
—
with their feet
;
ākramanti
—
step upon
;
avigaṇayya
—
disregarding
;
śiraḥ
—
the head
;
nirṛteḥ
—
of Death
;
parivayase
—
You tie up
;
paśūn iva
—
like animals
;
girā
—
with Your words (of the Vedas )
;
vibudhān
—
wise
;
api
—
even
;
tān
—
them
;
tvayi
—
to whom
;
kṛta
—
those who have made
;
sauhṛdāḥ
—
friendship
;
khalu
—
indeed
;
punanti
—
purify
;
na
—
not
;
ye
—
who
;
vimukhāḥ
—
inimical .
Translation
The devotees who worship You as the shelter of all beings disregard Death and place their feet on his head. But with the words of the Vedas You bind the nondevotees like animals, though they be vastly learned scholars. It is Your affectionate devotees who can purify themselves and others, not those who are inimical to You.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The devotees who worship You as the shelter of all beings disregard Death and place their feet on his head. But with the words of the Vedas You bind the nondevotees like animals, though they be vastly learned scholars. It is Your affectionate devotees who can purify themselves and others, not those who are inimical to You.
KB 10.87.27
The personified Vedas continued: “Dear Lord, less intelligent men take to other ways of self-realization, but actually there is no chance of becoming purified from material contamination or of stopping the repeated cycle of birth and death unless one is a thoroughly pure devotee. Dear Lord, everything rests on Your different potencies, and everyone is supported by You, as stated in the Vedas: eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān. Therefore Your Lordship is the supporter and maintainer of all living entities—demigods, human beings and animals. Everyone is supported by You, and You are also situated in everyone’s heart. In other words, You are the root of the whole creation. Therefore those who engage in Your devotional service without deviation, who always worship You, actually pour water on the root of the universal tree. By devotional service, therefore, one satisfies not only the Personality of Godhead but also all others, because everyone is maintained and supported by Him. Because a devotee understands the all-pervasive feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he is the most practical philanthropist and altruist. Such pure devotees, thoroughly engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, very easily overcome the cycle of birth and death, and they as much as jump over the head of death.”
A devotee is never afraid of death, or changing his body; his consciousness is transformed into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and even if he does not go back to Godhead, even if he transmigrates to another material body, he has nothing to fear. A vivid example is Bharata Mahārāja. Although in his next life he became a deer, in the life after that he became completely free from all material contamination and was elevated to the kingdom of God. The Bhagavad-gītā affirms, therefore, that a devotee is never vanquished. A devotee’s path to the spiritual kingdom, back home, back to Godhead, is guaranteed. Even though a devotee slips in one birth, the continuation of his Kṛṣṇa consciousness elevates him further and further, until he goes back to Godhead. Not only does a pure devotee purify his own personal existence, but whoever becomes his disciple also becomes purified and is ultimately able to enter the kingdom of God without difficulty. In other words, not only can a pure devotee easily surpass death, but by his grace his followers can also do so without difficulty. The power of devotional service is so great that a pure devotee can electrify another person by his transcendental instruction on crossing over the ocean of nescience.
The instructions of a pure devotee to his disciple are also very simple. No one feels any difficulty in following in the footsteps of a pure devotee of the Lord. Anyone who follows in the footsteps of recognized devotees, such as Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, the Kumāras, Manu, Kapila, King Prahlāda, King Janaka, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Yamarāja and their followers in disciplic succession, very easily finds the door of liberation open. On the other hand, those who are not devotees but are engaged in uncertain processes of self-realization, such as jṣāna, yoga and karma, are understood to be still contaminated. Such contaminated persons, although apparently advanced in self-realization, cannot liberate even themselves, what to speak of those who follow them. Such nondevotees are compared to chained animals, for they are not able to go beyond the jurisdiction of the formalities of a certain type of faith. In the Bhagavad-gītā they are condemned as veda-vāda-rata. They cannot understand that the Vedas deal with activities of the material modes of nature—goodness, passion and ignorance. But as Lord Kṛṣṇa advised Arjuna, one has to go beyond the jurisdiction of the duties prescribed in the Vedas and take to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service. The Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā, nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna: “My dear Arjuna, just try to become transcendental to the Vedic rituals.” This transcendental position beyond the Vedic ritualistic performances is devotional service. In the Bhagavad-gītā the Lord clearly says that persons who are engaged in His devotional service without adulteration are situated in Brahman. Actual Brahman realization means Kṛṣṇa consciousness and engagement in devotional service. The devotees are therefore real brahmacārīs because their activities are always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service.
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement therefore issues a supreme call to all kinds of religionists, asking them with great authority to join this movement, by which one can learn how to love God and thus surpass all formulas and formalities of scriptural injunction. A person who cannot overcome the jurisdiction of stereotyped religious principles is compared to an animal chained up by his master. The purpose of all religion is to understand God and develop one’s dormant love of Godhead. If one simply sticks to the religious formulas and formalities but does not become elevated to the position of love of God, he is considered to be a chained animal. In other words, if one is not in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is not eligible for liberation from the contamination of material existence.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī has composed a nice verse in this regard: “Let others engage in severe austerities, let others fall to the land from the tops of hills and give up their lives, let others travel to many holy places of pilgrimage for salvation, or let them engage in deep study of philosophy and Vedic literature. Let the mystic yogīs engage in their meditational service, and let the different sects engage in unnecessary arguing as to which is the best. But it is a fact that unless one is Kṛṣṇa conscious, unless one is engaged in devotional service, and unless one has the mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he cannot cross over this material ocean.” An intelligent person, therefore, gives up all stereotyped ideas and joins the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for factual liberation.
Purport
The personified
Vedas
have now set aside the erroneous philosophies of several contending schools: the
asad-utpatti-vāda
of the Vaiśeṣikas, who presume a material source of creation; the
sad-vināśa-vada
of the Naiyāyikas, who would deprive the liberated soul of consciousness; the
saguṇatva-bheda-vāda
of the Sāṅkhyas, who isolate the soul from all his apparent qualities; the
vipaṇa-vāda
of the Mīmāṁsakas, who condemn the soul to eternal involvement in the mundane commerce of
karma;
and the
vivarta-vāda
of the Māyāvādīs, who denigrate the soul’s real life in this world as a hallucination. Having rejected all these ideas, the personified
Vedas
now present the philosophy of devotional service,
paricaryā-vāda.
The Vaiṣṇavas who accept this philosophy teach that the
jīva
soul is an atomic particle of spiritual personality who possesses minute knowledge, is not independent and has no material qualities. Being minute, he is prone to come under the control of the material energy, where he suffers the pains of material life. He can end his suffering and regain the shelter of the Supreme Lord’s divine, internal energy only by rendering devotional service to the Lord, not by engaging in fruitive work, mental speculation or any other process.
As Lord Kṛṣṇa says in His own words,
bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ
śraddhayātmā priyaḥ satām
bhaktiḥ punāti man-niṣṭhā
śva-pākān api sambhavāt
“Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith in Me can one obtain Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I am naturally dear to My devotees, who take Me as the only goal of their loving service. By engaging in such pure devotional service, even the dog-eaters can purify themselves from the contamination of their low birth.” (
Bhāg.
11.14.21
)
Devotees of the Personality of Godhead worship Him as the shelter (
niketa
) of everything that exists (
akhila-sattva
). Moreover, these Vaiṣṇava devotees themselves can be called
akhila-sattva-niketa
in the sense that their abode and shelter is the philosophic truth of the reality (
sattvam
) of both the material and spiritual worlds. Thus Śrīpāda Madhvācārya, in his
Vedānta-sūtra-bhāṣya,
quotes the
śruti-mantra:
satyaṁ hy evedaṁ viśvam asṛjata.
“He created this world as real.” And the Seventh Canto of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
(7.1.11)
refers to the Supreme Lord as
pradhāna-pumbhyāṁ naradeva satya-kṛt,
“the creator of a real universe of matter and living entities.”
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura points out yet another, more confidential, meaning of
akhila-sattva-niketa:
that the Supreme Lord’s personal abodes are in no way
khila,
or imperfect, and so are called Vaikuṇṭha, the realms free of anxiety and restriction. Vaiṣṇavas whose devotional service the Lord has kindly accepted are so sure of His protection that they no longer fear death, which becomes for them just another easy step on the way back to their eternal home.
But are only devotees of the Supreme Lord eligible for liberation from the fear of death? Why are all other mystics and learned scholars disqualified? Here the
śrutis
answer: “Anyone who is
vimukha,
who has not turned his face toward the Lord with hopeful expectation of His mercy, is bound up in illusion by the same words of the
Vedas
that enlighten the surrendered devotees.” The
Vedas
themselves warn,
tasya vāk-tantir nāmāni dāmāni;
tasyedaṁ vācā tantyā nāmabhir dāmabhiḥ sarvaṁ sitam:
“The threads of this transcendental sound form a string of sacred names, but also a set of binding ropes. With the rope of their injunctions, the
Vedas
tie up this entire world, leaving all beings fettered by false designations.”
The reality of the soul and Supersoul is
aparokṣa,
perceivable, but only to one with transcendental vision. Philosophers whose hearts are impure mistakenly presume that this truth is instead
parokṣa,
that it can only be speculated upon and never experienced directly. The knowledge of such thinkers may help them dispel certain doubts and misconceptions about the lesser aspects of reality, but it is useless for transcending material illusion and approaching the Absolute Truth. As a general rule, only the devotees who faithfully render loving service unto the Supreme Lord up to the point of complete purification receive His grace in the form of
aparokṣa-jṣāna,
direct realization of His greatness and wonderful compassion. The Personality of Godhead is of course free to award His mercy even to the undeserving, as He does when He personally kills offensive demons, but He is much less inclined to bless Māyāvādīs and other atheistic philosophers.
One should not think, however, that the devotees of Viṣṇu are ignorant because they may not be expert in philosophic analysis and argument. The soul’s perfect realization is to be gained not through his own efforts at mental speculation but by receiving the Lord’s favor. This we hear from Vedic authority (
Kaṭha Upaniṣad
2.2.23 and
Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad
3.2.3):
nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena
yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyas
tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṁ svām
“This Supreme Self cannot be reached by argumentation, or by applying one’s independent brain power, or by studying many scriptures. Rather, he alone can achieve the Self whom the Self chooses to favor. To that person the Self reveals His own true, personal form.”
Elsewhere the
śruti
describes the devotee’s success:
dehānte devaḥ paraṁ brahma tārakaṁ vyacaṣṭe.
“At the end of this body’s life, the sanctified soul perceives the Supreme Lord just as clearly as if seeing the stars in the sky.” And in its last statement, the
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad
(6.23) offers this encouragement to aspiring Vaiṣṇavas:
yasya deve parā bhaktir
yathā deve tathā gurau
tasyaite kathitā hy arthāḥ
prakāśante mahātmanaḥ
“Unto those great souls who have implicit faith in both the Lord and the spiritual master, all the imports of Vedic knowledge are automatically revealed.”
In this regard Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī cites other verses of
Śrī Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad
(4.7-8 and 4.13):
juṣṭaṁ yadā paśyaty anyam īśam
asya mahimānam iti vīta-śokaḥ
ṛco ’kṣare pare vyoman
yasmin devā adhi viśve niṣeduḥ
yas taṁ veda kim ṛcā kariṣyati
ya it tad vidus ta ime samāsate
“The Supreme Lord is He who is referred to by the
mantras
of the
Ṛg Veda,
who resides in the topmost, eternal sky, and who elevates His saintly devotees to share that same position. One who has developed pure love for Him and realizes His uniqueness then appreciates His glories and is freed from sorrow. What further good can the
Ṛg mantras
bestow on one who knows that Supreme Lord? All who come to know Him achieve the supreme destination.”
yo vedānām adhipo
yasmiḻ lokā adhiśrītāḥ
ya īśo ’sya dvipadaś catuṣpadas
tasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema
“To Him who is the master of all the
Vedas,
in whom all planets rest, who is the Lord of all known creatures, both the two-legged and the four-legged — to Him, the Personality of Godhead, we offer our worship with oblations of ghee.”
Referring to those who desire liberation, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī prays:
tapantu tāpaiḥ prapatantu parvatād
aṭantu tīrthāni paṭhantu cāgamān
yajantu yāgair vivadantu vādair
hariṁ vina naiva mṛtiṁ taranti
“Let them suffer austerities, throw themselves from mountaintops, travel to holy places, study the scriptures, worship with fire sacrifices and argue various philosophies, but without Lord Hari they will never cross beyond death.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In the previous two verses in regards to the highest attainment, five different opinions have been stated: Patanjali’s attainment of Brahman by material arrangement (asat utpatti vada): Nyaya’s destruction of the jiva’s consciousness (sat vinasa vada); sankhya’s separation of the jiva from qualities (sagunatva bheda); karma mimamsa’s pious actions for enjoyment in the material world (vipina vada) ; and the mayavada’s claim of an illusory world (vivarta vada). In this verse the srutis discuss service to the Lord (paricarya vad). According to its proponents, the vaisnavas, the jivas are particles of consciousness, with a small amount of knowledge, a small capacity for pervasion. They are dependent and without material qualities. Only bhakti, and none of the other processes such as jnana, is effective for destroying the suffering of material existence and attaining the Lord. The following texts illustrate this.
daivi hy esa guna mayi mama maya duratyata mam eve ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te.
This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Some śrutis inclined to bhakti speak. What is the use of jñāna, devoid of prema for you, and difficult to perform? Service to you, filled with the highest prema, which yields that result, is the best because it provides shelter for everyone or because it is the shelter of all śudda-sattva forms and qualities, or because it causes absorption of everyone’s antaḥ-karaṇa. That service is the best because it produces the highest prema. Since it is everyone’s highest attainment, liberation is a side effect. By the Lord’s mercy this liberation will not be contradictory to the prema. Those who practice jñāna cannot escape from the natural bondage created by the words of ordinance and forbiddance in the Vedas, which are filled with your māyā. Your devotees disregard the head of death. They do not give it any regard and surpass it. They become liberated. You tie up those who have knowledge as defined in the śrutis because only those who become friendly to you, who desire to serve you in prema, become purified, whereas those who do not serve do not become purified.
śreyaḥ-sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya te vibho
kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate
nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām
O Lord! If fools give up bhakti the all-inclusive path and suffer to attain realization of ātmā without bhakti, they attain simply suffering and nothing else. They are like fools who beat emply husk. SB 10.14.4
The śrutis say:
juṣṭaṁ yadā paśyaty anyam īśam
asya mahimānam iti vīta-śokaḥ
ṛco ’kṣare pare vyoman
yasmin devā adhi viśve niṣeduḥ
yas taṁ veda kim ṛcā kariṣyati
ya it tad vidus ta ime samāsate
The Supreme Lord is he who is referred to by the mantras of the Ṛg Veda, who resides in the topmost, eternal sky, and who elevates his saintly devotees to share that same position. One who has developed pure love for him and realizes his uniqueness then appreciates his glories and is freed from sorrow. What further good can the Ṛg mantras bestow on one who knows that Supreme Lord? All who come to know him achieve the supreme destination.
The service to the Lord (juṣṭam) is shown in this verse:
yo vedānām adhipo yasmil? lokā adhiśrītāḥ
ya īśo ’sya dvipadaś catuṣpadas tasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema
To him who is the master of all the Vedas, in whom all planets rest, who is the Lord of all known creatures, both the two-legged and the four-legged—to him we offer our worship with oblations of ghee. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 4.7-8 and 4.13
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Even (uta) the devotee who worship you as the puruṣa avatāra, the controller of everything in sattva-guṇa, the maintainer, place their feet on the head of death. What to speak of the devotees who worship you as Kṛṣṇa, playing in Vṛndāvana. They do this easily (avigaṇayya), as a secondary result.
You bind up those who are not devotees, who are involved with the puruṣārthas and karmas by use of words indicating rules and forbiddances, who may be very intelligent. This indicates that the devotees are beyond the rules of karma.
Those who are friendly to you purify others. Those inimical to you do not purify anyone since they are bound by ropes of rules. They continuall suffer in saṁsāra. Or those fools either intelligent or foolish whom you tie up by words, making them absorbed in karmas, by becoming friendly to you, purify others.