Devanagari
वृणीमहे त्वोपाध्यायं ब्रह्मिष्ठं ब्राह्मणं गुरुम् ।
यथाञ्जसा विजेष्याम: सपत्नांस्तव तेजसा ॥ ३२ ॥
Verse text
vṛṇīmahe tvopādhyāyaṁ
brahmiṣṭhaṁ brāhmaṇaṁ gurum
yathāṣjasā vijeṣyāmaḥ
sapatnāṁs tava tejasā
Synonyms
vṛṇīmahe
—
we choose
;
tvā
—
you
;
upādhyāyam
—
as teacher and spiritual master
;
brahmiṣṭham
—
being perfectly aware of the Supreme Brahman
;
brāhmaṇam
—
a qualified brāhmaṇa
;
gurum
—
the perfect spiritual master
;
yathā
—
so that
;
aṣjasā
—
very easily
;
vijeṣyāmaḥ
—
we shall defeat
;
sapatnān
—
our rivals
;
tava
—
your
;
tejasā
—
by the power of austerity .
Translation
Since you are completely aware of the Supreme Brahman, you are a perfect brāhmaṇa, and therefore you are the spiritual master of all orders of life. We accept you as our spiritual master and director so that by the power of your austerity we may easily defeat the enemies who have conquered us.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
We select you, a brāhmaṇa fixed in Brahman and a teacher as our guru so that we will be able to easily defeat our enemies by your power.
We choose you (tva) as guru. They state the reason.
Purport
One must approach a particular type of
guru
to execute a particular type of duty. Therefore although Viśvarūpa was inferior to the demigods, the demigods accepted him as their
guru
to conquer the demons.