Devanagari
अथापि यत्पादनखावसृष्टं
जगद्विरिञ्चोपहृतार्हणाम्भ: ।
सेशं पुनात्यन्यतमो मुकुन्दात्
को नाम लोके भगवत्पदार्थ: ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
athāpi yat-pāda-nakhāvasṛṣṭaṁ
jagad viriṣcopahṛtārhaṇāmbhaḥ
seśaṁ punāty anyatamo mukundāt
ko nāma loke bhagavat-padārthaḥ
Synonyms
atha
—
therefore
;
api
—
certainly
;
yat
—
whose
;
pāda
—
nakha — nails of the feet
;
avasṛṣṭam
—
emanating
;
jagat
—
the whole universe
;
viriṣca
—
Brahmājī
;
upahṛta
—
collected
;
arhaṇa
—
worship
;
ambhaḥ
—
water
;
sa
—
along with
;
īśam
—
Lord Śiva
;
punāti
—
purifies
;
anyatamaḥ
—
who else
;
mukundāt
—
besides the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa
;
kaḥ
—
who
;
nāma
—
name
;
loke
—
within the world
;
bhagavat
—
Supreme Lord
;
pada
—
position
;
arthaḥ
—
worth .
Translation
Who can be worthy of the name of the Supreme Lord but the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa? Brahmājī collected the water emanating from the nails of His feet in order to award it to Lord Śiva as a worshipful welcome. This very water [the Ganges] is purifying the whole universe, including Lord Śiva.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Who can be called by the name Bhagavān except Mukunda whose toe-nail water purifies the universe along with Śiva and becomes arghya for Brahmā.
Purport
The conception of many gods in the Vedic literatures by the ignorant is completely wrong. The Lord is one without a second, but He expands Himself in many ways, and this is confirmed in the
Vedas.
Such expansions of the Lord are limitless, but some of them are the living entities. The living entities are not as powerful as the Lord’s plenary expansions, and therefore there are two different types of expansions. Lord Brahmā is generally one of the living entities, and Lord Śiva is the medium between the Lord and the living entities. In other words, even demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, who are the chief amongst all demigods, are never equal to or greater than Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, and all-powerful demigods like Brahmā and Śiva are engaged in the worship of Viṣṇu or Lord Kṛṣṇa; therefore who can be more powerful than Mukunda (Lord Kṛṣṇa) to be factually called the Supreme Personality of Godhead? The goddess of fortune, Lakṣmījī, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are not independently powerful; they are powerful as expansions of the Supreme Lord, and all of them are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and so also are the living entities. There are four sects of worshipful devotees of the Lord, and the chief amongst them are the Brahma
sampradāya,
Rudra
sampradāya
and Śrī
sampradāya,
descending directly from Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, respectively. Besides the above-mentioned three
sampradāyas,
there is the Kumāra
sampradāya,
descending from Sanat-kumāra. All of the four original
sampradāyas
are still scrupulously engaged in the transcendental service of the Lord up to date, and they all declare that Lord Kṛṣṇa, Mukunda, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no other personality is equal to Him or greater than Him.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The water which flows from the toenail of the Lord, which acts as arghya water (arhaṇa) for Brahmā for worship (upahṛta), purified the whole universe along with Śiva (seśam). The meaning of the word Bhagavān cannot apply to anyone except Mukunda. He is the Lord of everyone. Since the most elevated persons in the universe — Lakṣmī, Brahmā and Śiva — serve his feet, they point out that he is supreme.