Devanagari
तस्मिंस्तदा लब्धरुचेर्महामते
प्रियश्रवस्यस्खलिता मतिर्मम ।
ययाहमेतत्सदसत्स्वमायया
पश्ये मयि ब्रह्मणि कल्पितं परे ॥ २७ ॥
Verse text
tasmiṁs tadā labdha-rucer mahā-mate
priyaśravasy askhalitā matir mama
yayāham etat sad-asat sva-māyayā
paśye mayi brahmaṇi kalpitaṁ pare
Synonyms
tasmin
—
it being so
;
tadā
—
at that time
;
labdha
—
achieved
;
ruceḥ
—
taste
;
mahā
—
mate — O great sage
;
priyaśravasi
—
upon the Lord
;
askhalitā matiḥ
—
uninterrupted attention
;
mama
—
mine
;
yayā
—
by which
;
aham
—
I
;
etat
—
all these
;
sat
—
asat — gross and subtle
;
sva
—
māyayā — one’s own ignorance
;
paśye
—
see
;
mayi
—
in me
;
brahmaṇi
—
the Supreme
;
kalpitam
—
is accepted
;
pare
—
in the Transcendence .
Translation
O great sage, as soon as I got a taste of the Personality of Godhead, my attention to hear of the Lord was unflinching. And as my taste developed, I could realize that it was only in my ignorance that I had accepted gross and subtle coverings, for both the Lord and I are transcendental.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Having attained an excellent taste for the Lord, my intelligence did not waver from the Lord. By my intelligence, I directly experienced that my gross and subtle bodies created by the Lord’s material energy were fixed only in the Supreme Lord.
Purport
Ignorance in material existence is compared to darkness, and in all Vedic literatures the Personality of Godhead is compared to the sun. Wherever there is light there cannot be darkness. Hearing of the Lord’s pastimes is itself transcendental association with the Lord because there is no difference between the Lord and His transcendental pastimes. To become associated with the supreme light is to dissipate all ignorance. By ignorance only, the conditioned soul wrongly thinks that both he and the Lord are products of material nature. But in fact the Personality of Godhead and the living beings are transcendental, and they have nothing to do with the material nature. When ignorance is removed and it is perfectly realized that there is nothing existing without the Personality of Godhead, then nescience is removed. Since the gross and subtle bodies are emanations from the Personality of Godhead, the knowledge of light permits one to engage both of them in the service of the Lord. The gross body should be engaged in acts of rendering service to the Lord (as in bringing water, cleansing the temple or making obeisances, etc.). The path of
arcanā,
or worshiping the Lord in the temple, involves engaging one’s gross body in the service of the Lord. Similarly, the subtle mind should be engaged in hearing the transcendental pastimes of the Lord, thinking about them, chanting His name, etc. All such activities are transcendental. None of the gross or subtle senses should otherwise be engaged. Such realization of transcendental activities is made possible by many, many years of apprenticeship in the devotional service, but simply attraction of love for the Personality of Godhead, as it was developed in Nārada Muni, by hearing, is highly effective.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Having attained an excellent taste, my intelligence became steadily fixed in the Lord. By that intelligence I saw the gross and subtle body (sad-asat) existing in me by the influence of the Lord’s material energy to be established in Kṛṣṇa (brahmaṇi). The gross body became fixed in offering respects, carrying the Lord’s water pot and other actions, not in material actions for oneself. The subtle body with senses such as ear, eye, mind and intelligence became fixed in tasting the sweetness of the lord’s qualities and form, not in material objects for one’s own pleasure. Previously the eye and mind were not fixed in the Lord even by exerting much effort. That is not the case now. With the development of rati, the mind and other senses, giving up the practice of fixing themselves on their material sense objects to which they had been long accustomed, became automatically fixed only on the Lord. Thus “I see” here means “directly experience.”