Devanagari
मां विधत्तेऽभिधत्ते मां विकल्प्यापोह्यते त्वहम् ।
एतावान् सर्ववेदार्थ: शब्द आस्थाय मां भिदाम् ।
मायामात्रमनूद्यान्ते प्रतिषिध्य प्रसीदति ॥ ४३ ॥
Verse text
māṁ vidhatte ’bhidhatte māṁ
vikalpyāpohyate tv aham
etāvān sarva-vedārthaḥ
śabda āsthāya māṁ bhidām
māyā-mātram anūdyānte
pratiṣidhya prasīdati
Synonyms
mām
—
Me
;
vidhatte
—
enjoins in sacrifice
;
abhidhatte
—
designates as the object of worship
;
mām
—
Me
;
vikalpya
—
presented as alternate hypothesis
;
apohyate
—
am refuted
;
tu
—
also
;
aham
—
I
;
etāvān
—
thus
;
sarva
—
veda — of all the Vedas
;
arthaḥ
—
the meaning
;
śabdaḥ
—
the transcendental sound vibration
;
āsthāya
—
establishing
;
mām
—
Me
;
bhidām
—
material duality
;
māyā
—
mātram — as simply illusion
;
anūdya
—
describing elaborately in different aspects
;
ante
—
ultimately
;
pratiṣidhya
—
negating
;
prasīdati
—
becomes satisfied .
Translation
I am the ritualistic sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas, and I am the worshipable Deity. It is I who am presented as various philosophical hypotheses, and it is I alone who am then refuted by philosophical analysis. The transcendental sound vibration thus establishes Me as the essential meaning of all Vedic knowledge. The Vedas, elaborately analyzing all material duality as nothing but My illusory potency, ultimately completely negate this duality and achieve their own satisfaction.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Vedas indicate bhakti as the action and indicate me as the meaning. I am the meaning of all the Vedas. I, as karma and jṣāna, am proposed and rejected as alternatives. The Vedas, taking shelter of me, proposing karma and jṣāna and then rejecting them as māyā, become happy by giving the devotees bliss.
“Please tell me the answer.” Yes, certainly I will. The Vedas prescribe me. Bhakti is not different from my svarūpa. Thus the meaning is “The Vedas establish that bhakti to me is necessary.” The final goal of sacrifices and other actions is to produce bhakti for me. I have said dharmo mad-bhakti-kṛt prokto: actual religious principles are stated to be those that lead one to my devotional service. (SB 11.19.27) I am the meaning of all the Vedas. I am presented as an alternative and am refuted as an alternative.
yogās trayo mayā proktā nṝṇāṁ śreyo-vidhitsayā
jṣānaṁ karma ca bhaktiś ca nopāyo ’nyo ’sti kutracit
Because I desire that human beings may achieve perfection, I have presented three methods—the path of jṣāna, the path of karma and the path of bhakti. Besides these three there no other means of elevation. SB 11.20.6
In the three kāṇḍas, karma, jṣāna and bhakti are presented as alternatives. First I say “Do karma.” Then I say “Practice jṣāna.” Then I say “Perform bhakti.” They are presented and rejected. First sakāma-karma is rejected in favor of niṣkāma-karma. Then when one rises to jṣāna, niṣkāma-karma is rejected. When jṣāna is perfected, jṣāna should be rejected in order to attain me: jṣānaṁ ca mayi sannyaset. (SB 11.19.1) But no scripture ever says that bhakti should be rejected at any time. The present verse says “I am rejected.” This means that, because karma and jṣāna are rejected, I am rejected. The third person verb is poetic license. The Lord identifies himself as those processes of karma and jṣāna (I am proposed as karma and jṣāna and rejected as karma and jṣāna), because these processes are also means of attaining him. The Lord has his spiritual and material forms. The material forms are rejected here.
“Please explain this more clearly.” The Vedas take shelter of me, by recommending the process of bhakti, saying that other processes such as karma and jṣāna are only māyā, since karma is in the three guṇas and jṣāna, composed of vidyā, is in sattva-guṇa, until realizing ātmā. On finally rejecting the two processes, the Vedas become joyful. The Vedas give joy to the devotees through rasa flowing from the fruit of the sweet creeper of bhakti, beyond the material guṇas, in the form of realization of my sweetness. Thus the Vedas themselves become happy.
Some explain the verse as follows. The Vedas prescribe me as the form of sacrifice in karma-kāṇḍa. They define me in devatḷa-kāṇḍa as the statements of the mantras. In jṣāna-kāṇḍa, they propose that I am ether and other things, which are different from me, and then reject those ideas. This is the meaning of the Vedas. The Vedas, taking shelter of my spiritual form, reject other things as māyā, saying “not this, not this,” having completed their task. In this explanation however, when it says that all other things are rejected as māyā, the devotees, the tools used in bhakti, the abodes of the Lord and other related items, are not included, since they are not part of māyā.
Thus ends the commentary on the Twenty-first Chapter of the Eleventh Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
Chapter Twenty-two
Classification of Elements
Purport
The Lord declared in the previous verse that He alone knows the ultimate purpose of the
Vedas,
and now the Lord reveals that He alone is the ultimate basis and purpose of all Vedic knowledge. The
karma-kāṇḍa
section of the
Vedas
prescribes ritualistic sacrifices for promotion to heaven. Such sacrifices are the Lord Himself. Similarly, the
upāsanā-kāṇḍa
section of the
Vedas
designates different demigods as objects of ritualistic worship, and these deities are not different from the Lord Himself, being expansions of the Lord’s body. In the
jṣāna-kāṇḍa
section of the
Vedas
different philosophical methods of analysis are presented and refuted. Such knowledge, which analyzes the potency of the Supreme Lord, is not different from Him. Ultimately Lord Kṛṣṇa is everything, because everything is part and parcel of the Lord’s multipotencies. Although Vedic literature entices those absorbed in material duality to begin the Vedic way of life by offering them materially desirable rewards, the
Vedas
eventually refute all material duality by bringing one to the stage of God consciousness, wherein there is nothing different from the Supreme Lord.
Within the Vedic literature there are various injunctions stating that at a particular stage of life one should give up fruitive rituals and take to the path of knowledge. Similarly, other injunctions declare that a self-realized soul should give up the path of speculative knowledge and take directly to the shelter of the Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead. But nowhere is there an injunction recommending that one give up the loving service of the Lord, because that is the eternal constitutional position of every living entity. Different philosophical theses are presented and rejected in the
Vedas,
since one who is progressing must give up each previous stage in the advancement of knowledge. For example, one who is addicted to sex enjoyment is taught to accept religious marriage and enjoy sex pleasure with his wife. Such ritualistic knowledge is to be given up when one attains the stage of detachment, whereupon one is recommended to take the renounced order of life. In that stage of life one is forbidden to see or speak with women. When, however, one reaches the perfection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, wherein the Lord is manifest everywhere, one may engage all living entities, including women, in the loving service of the Lord without danger of spiritual falldown. Thus different injunctions based on progressive stages of spiritual vision are presented and refuted in Vedic literature. Since all such injunctions and processes are ultimately meant for the achievement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the loving service of the Lord, they are not different from Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself. The conditioned soul, therefore, should not prematurely stop his progressive march back home, back to Godhead, by foolishly mistaking an intermediate or preliminary stage of advancement as the actual goal of life. One must understand that the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is the source, maintenance and resting place of everything, and that every living entity is the Lord’s eternal servant. In this way one should continue on the Vedic path all the way back home, back to Godhead, for eternal life of bliss and knowledge.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Eleventh Canto, Twenty-first Chapter, of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
entitled “Lord Kṛṣṇa’s Explanation of the Vedic Path.”