Devanagari
यथोपश्रयमाणस्य भगवन्तं विभावसुम् ।
शीतं भयं तमोऽप्येति साधून् संसेवतस्तथा ॥ ३१ ॥
Verse text
yathopaśrayamāṇasya
bhagavantaṁ vibhāvasum
śītaṁ bhayaṁ tamo ’pyeti
sādhūn saṁsevatas tathā
Synonyms
yathā
—
just as
;
upaśrayamāṇasya
—
of one who is approaching
;
bhagavantam
—
the powerful
;
vibhāvasum
—
fire
;
śītam
—
cold
;
bhayam
—
fear
;
tamaḥ
—
darkness
;
apyeti
—
are removed
;
sādhūn
—
saintly devotees
;
saṁsevataḥ
—
for one who is serving
;
tathā
—
similarly .
Translation
Just as cold, fear and darkness are eradicated for one who has approached the sacrificial fire, so dullness, fear and ignorance are destroyed for one engaged in serving the devotees of the Lord.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Just as cold, fear and darkness are eradicated for one who has approached a fire, so apathy, fear and ignorance are destroyed for one engaged in serving the devotees of the Lord.
When one uses fire for cooking, cold, fear and darkness are also destroyed as a secondary result. When one serves devotees for perfecting worship, the stupefying influence of karma, fear of saṁsāra, obstacles to worship are destroyed.
Purport
Those engaged in fruitive activities are certainly dull; they lack higher awareness of the Supreme Lord and the soul. Materialists are engaged more or less mechanically in gratifying their senses and ambitions, and thus they are considered dull or practically unconscious. All such dullness, fear and ignorance are removed when one serves the lotus feet of the Lord, just as cold, fear and darkness are removed when one approaches a fire.