Devanagari
त्वं न: सपत्नैरभवाय किं भृतो
यो मायया हन्त्यसुरान् परोक्षजित् ।
त्वां योगमायाबलमल्पपौरुषं
संस्थाप्य मूढ प्रमृजे सुहृच्छुच: ॥ ४ ॥
Verse text
tvaṁ naḥ sapatnair abhavāya kiṁ bhṛto
yo māyayā hanty asurān parokṣa-jit
tvāṁ yoga-māyā-balam alpa-pauruṣaṁ
saṁsthāpya mūḍha pramṛje suhṛc-chucaḥ
Synonyms
tvam
—
You
;
naḥ
—
us
;
sapatnaiḥ
—
by our enemies
;
abhavāya
—
for killing
;
kim
—
is it that
;
bhṛtaḥ
—
maintained
;
yaḥ
—
He who
;
māyayā
—
by deception
;
hanti
—
kills
;
asurān
—
the demons
;
parokṣa
—
jit — who conquered by remaining invisible
;
tvām
—
You
;
yoga
—
māyā — balam — whose strength is bewildering power
;
alpa
—
pauruṣam — whose power is meager
;
saṁsthāpya
—
after killing
;
mūḍha
—
fool
;
pramṛje
—
I shall wipe out
;
suhṛt
—
śucaḥ — the grief of my kinsmen .
Translation
You rascal, You have been nourished by our enemies to kill us, and You have killed some demons by remaining invisible. O fool, Your power is only mystic, so today I shall enliven my kinsmen by killing You.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Were you, who kill the demons by deception by remaining invisible, protected by the devatās in order to kill me? I will wipe away the tears of grief of my friends after destroying you, a coward with strength produced by yoga-māyā
Have you, who kill by deception, by remaining invisible, been protected by the devatās, my enemy, for destroying me? You do not kill them directly. After killing you who do not have physical strength, only yoga-māyā, I shall wipe away the tears of lamentation of my friends. There is another meaning to his words.
Have the devatās taken shelter of you, who kill asuras by your mercy (māyayā) in order to award me liberation? By killing the demons you give them a spiritual destination. You remain victorious though you are invisible. Your invisibility is your greater mercy. The devatās show themselves after a little sādhana but you do not reveal yourself even after plenty of sādhana. After fixing my mind on you who have inconceivable powers (yoga-māyā-balam) and who make Mahāviṣṇu insignificant (alpa-pauruṣam), I will completely destroy (pramṛje) the suffering of material existence (śucaḥ) of my friends, since you liberate even the friends of those who remember you. O Lord, you show satisfaction with the fools by giving them your bhakti (mūḍha)!
Purport
The demon used the word
abhavāya,
which means “for killing.” Śrīdhara Svāmī comments that this “killing” means liberating, or, in other words, killing the process of continued birth and death. The Lord kills the process of birth and death and keeps Himself invisible. The activities of the Lord’s internal potency are inconceivable, but by a slight exhibition of this potency, the Lord, by His grace, can deliver one from nescience.
Śucaḥ
means “miseries”; the miseries of material existence can be extinguished by the Lord by His internal potency,
yoga-māyā.
In the
Upaniṣads
(
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad
6.8) it is stated,
parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate.
The Lord is invisible to the eyes of the common man, but His energies act in various ways. When demons are in adversity, they think that God is hiding Himself and is working by His mystic potency. They think that if they can find God they can kill Him just by seeing Him. Hiraṇyākṣa thought that way, and he challenged the Lord: “You have done tremendous harm to our community, taking the part of the demigods, and You have killed our kinsmen in so many ways, always keeping Yourself hidden. Now I see You face to face, and I am not going to let You go. I shall kill You and save my kinsmen from Your mystic misdeeds.”
Not only are demons always anxious to kill God with words and philosophy, but they think that if one is materially powerful he can kill God with materially fatal weapons. Demons like Kaṁsa, Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu thought themselves powerful enough to kill even God. Demons cannot understand that God, by His multifarious potencies, can work so wonderfully that He can be present everywhere and still remain in His eternal abode, Goloka Vṛndāvana.