Devanagari
शुचि: सम्मुखमासीन: प्राणसंयमनादिभि: ।
पिण्डं विशोध्य सन्न्यासकृतरक्षोऽर्चयेद्धरिम् ॥ ४९ ॥
Verse text
śuciḥ sammukham āsīnaḥ
prāṇa-saṁyamanādibhiḥ
piṇḍaṁ viśodhya sannyāsa-
kṛta-rakṣo ’rcayed dharim
Synonyms
śuciḥ
—
clean
;
sammukham
—
facing (the Deity)
;
āsīnaḥ
—
thus seated
;
prāṇa
—
saṁyamana — ādibhiḥ — by prāṇāyāma (breathing exercises) and other means
;
piṇḍam
—
the gross body
;
viśodhya
—
purifying
;
sannyāsa
—
by placing transcendental marks of tilaka on various places of the body
;
kṛta
—
rakṣaḥ — in this way invoking the Lord’s protection
;
arcayet
—
one should worship
;
harim
—
Lord Hari .
Translation
After cleansing oneself, purifying the body by prāṇāyāma, bhūta-śuddhi and other processes, and marking the body with sacred tilaka for protection, one should sit in front of the Deity and worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
After cleansing oneself, purifying the body by prāṇāyāma, bhūta-śuddhi and other processes and marking the body with sacred tilaka for protection, one should sit in front of the deity and worship the Lord.
Prāṇa-saṁyamanādibhiḥ means “by prāṇāyāma and bhūta-śuddhi.” Piṇḍam means the body. Protecting himself with proper nyāsas, he should perform worship.
Purport
Prāṇāyāma
is the authorized Vedic process for controlling the air within the body. Similarly,
bhūta-śuddhi
is a process for purifying the body. The word
śuciḥ
means that one should be internally and externally clean.
Śuciḥ
means that one should perform activities only for the pleasure of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If somehow or other one can remember the Supreme Lord constantly by chanting and hearing His holy name, one will come to the pure stage of life, as described in this Vedic
mantra:
om apavitraḥ pavitro vā
sarvāvasthāṁ gato ’pi vā
yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ
sa bahyābhyantara-śuciḥ
(
Garuḍa Purāṇa
)
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has pointed out that although one may mark the body with sacred
tilaka,
perform
mudrās
and chant
mantras,
if one is thinking within his mind of material sense gratification his worship of Lord Śrī Hari is bogus. Therefore the word
śuciḥ
here indicates that one should worship the Lord in a favorable frame of mind, considering the Lord to be sacred and one’s self to be an insignificant servant of the Lord. Those who are not favorably inclined toward the Supreme Personality of Godhead do not like to worship the Deity in the temple, and they discourage people from going to the temple of the Lord by saying that since the Lord is omnipresent there is no need to do so. Such envious persons prefer the gymnastic exercises of
haṭha-yoga
or the
rāja-yoga
system. But statements by the Lord Himself, such as
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
and
māṁ ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja,
indicate that in mature transcendental realization one understands that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the source of everything and therefore the only worshipable object. Thus the devotees who worship the Deity of the Lord according to the
paṣcarātra
system are not attracted by any
yoga
process except
bhakti-yoga.