Devanagari
तत्तेऽनुकम्पां सुसमीक्षमाणो
भुञ्जान एवात्मकृतं विपाकम् ।
हृद्वाग्वपुर्भिर्विदधन्नमस्ते
जीवेत यो मुक्तिपदे स दायभाक् ॥ ८ ॥
Verse text
tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo
bhuṣjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam
hṛd-vāg-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jīveta yo mukti-pade sa dāya-bhāk
Synonyms
tat
—
therefore
;
te
—
Your
;
anukampām
—
compassion
;
su
—
samīkṣamāṇaḥ — earnestly hoping for
;
bhuṣjānaḥ
—
enduring
;
eva
—
certainly
;
ātma
—
kṛtam — done by himself
;
vipākam
—
the fruitive results
;
hṛt
—
with his heart
;
vāk
—
words
;
vapurbhiḥ
—
and body
;
vidadhan
—
offering
;
namaḥ
—
obeisances
;
te
—
unto You
;
jīveta
—
lives
;
yaḥ
—
anyone who
;
mukti
—
pade — to the position of liberation
;
saḥ
—
he
;
dāya
—
bhāk — the rightful heir .
Translation
My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.
KB 10.14.8
One should simply understand that the distress and happiness of this body are predestined; there is no need to try to avoid the distress of this bodily existence or to attempt to achieve happiness by different types of exercises. The best course is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead with body, mind and words and always be engaged in His service. This transcendental labor is fruitful, but other attempts to understand the Absolute Truth are never successful. Therefore an intelligent man does not try to understand the Absolute Truth by speculative or mystic power. Rather, he engages in devotional service and depends on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He knows that whatever may happen to the body is due to his past fruitive activities. If one lives such a simple life in devotional service, then automatically he inherits the transcendental abode of the Lord. Actually, every living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and a son of the Godhead. Each has the natural right to inherit and share the transcendental pleasures of the Lord, but due to the contact of matter, conditioned living entities have been practically disinherited. If one adopts the simple method of engaging himself in devotional service, automatically he becomes eligible to be freed from material contamination and elevated to the transcendental position of associating with the Supreme Lord.
Purport
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains in his commentary that just as a legitimate son has to simply remain alive to gain an inheritance from his father, one who simply remains alive in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, following the regulative principles of
bhakti-yoga,
automatically becomes eligible to receive the mercy of the Personality of Godhead. In other words, he will be promoted to the kingdom of God.
The word
su-samīkṣamāṇa
indicates that a devotee earnestly awaits the mercy of the Supreme Lord even while suffering the painful effects of previous sinful activities. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains in the
Bhagavad-gītā
that a devotee who fully surrenders unto Him is no longer liable to suffer the reactions of his previous
karma.
However, because in his mind a devotee may still maintain the remnants of his previous sinful mentality, the Lord removes the last vestiges of the enjoying spirit by giving His devotee punishments that may sometimes resemble sinful reactions. The purpose of the entire creation of God is to rectify the living entity’s tendency to enjoy without the Lord, and therefore the particular punishment given for a sinful activity is specifically designed to curtail the mentality that produced the activity. Although a devotee has surrendered to the Lord’s devotional service, until he is completely perfect in Kṛṣṇa consciousness he may maintain a slight inclination to enjoy the false happiness of this world. The Lord therefore creates a particular situation to eradicate this remaining enjoying spirit. This unhappiness suffered by a sincere devotee is not technically a karmic reaction; it is rather the Lord’s special mercy for inducing His devotee to completely let go of the material world and return home, back to Godhead.
A sincere devotee earnestly desires to go back to the Lord’s abode. Therefore he willingly accepts the Lord’s merciful punishment and continues offering respects and obeisances to the Lord with his heart, words and body. Such a bona fide servant of the Lord, considering all hardship a small price to pay for gaining the personal association of the Lord, certainly becomes a legitimate son of God, as indicated here by the words
dāya-bhāk.
Just as one cannot approach the sun without becoming fire, one cannot approach the supreme pure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, without undergoing a rigid purificatory process, which may appear like suffering but which is in fact a curative treatment administered by the personal hand of the Lord.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Now that other processes have been rejected and bhakti accepted as the process to attain bhagavan, the process of bhakti is described. "The devotee understands that the happiness and distress that he experiences due to performing bhakti and committing aparadhas are the mercy of the Lord. It is like that father who sometimes makes his child drink milk and sometimes makes him drink bitter nima juice, and sometimes embraces and kisses him and sometimes beats him. The devotee thinks that this is the arrangement of Lord working for his benefit. ‘The lord knows and I do not know. Karma and time have no effect on the devotee, so it is his personal arrangement. By his mercy he sometimes gives me happiness and sometimes gives me distress, considering how to engage me in his service.’ Yatha caret balahitam pita svayam tathatvam evarhasi nah samihitam. ( as the father does what is beneficial for the son, so you are engaged in arrangements for my benefit.) sb. 4.20.31. The person who spends his life offering respects with body, mind and words to the lotus feet of the Lord like Prthu Maharaja, does not accept the suffering of austerities or other hardships. He becomes the dayabhak (recipient) of two results: liberation from material bondage and service to the lord ( mukti-pada). As the inheritance from the father is the livelihood for the son, so the attainment of liberation and service to the Lord maintain the life of the devotee. And while living in this world the devotee remains fixed on the path of devotion." Bhagavatam says: drtaya iva svasanty asubhatauyadi te ‘nuvidha: the jiva’s life becomes successful by offering devotion to you. Otherwise the body is just like a bellows inhaling and exhaling air.
Only if they become Your faithful followers are those who breathe actually alive, otherwise their breathing is like that of a bellows. 10.87.18
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The word eva should be used with words in the sentence as necessary. One should regard one’s various present karmas (vipākam) as earned by one’s own actions (ātma-kṛtam), and necessary to be experienced. Therefore one does not consider happiness and distress arising in those conditions. One offers respect to you with attachment, using mind, body and words in order to develop a taste for your topics, as described in verse 5. Other types of bhakti which inculcate humility are also included. Your lotus feet are called mukti:
sa vai mahā-bhāgavataḥ parīkṣid
yenāpavargākhyam adabhra-buddhiḥ |
jñānena vaiyāsaki-śabditena
bheje khagendra-dhvaja-pāda-mūlam ||
Parīkṣit, the great devotee, with pure intelligence, attained liberation, in the form of the feet of the Lord having a flag marked with Garuḍa, through knowledge spoken by Śukadeva. SB 1.18.16
atra sargo visargaś ca sthānaṁ poṣaṇam ūtayaḥ |
manvantareśānukathā nirodho muktir āśrayaḥ ||
In this Purāṇa there are ten topics: creation, secondary creation, protection, mercy of the Lord, material activities, the conduct of the Manus, stories of the Lord, destruction of the universe, liberation and the ultimate shelter. SB 2.10.1
In this statement, Bhagavān is the shelter (pade) of mukti, the ninth item. Śrīdhara Svāmī also says that the shelter, Kṛṣṇa, the tenth topic is presented in the Tenth Canto: daśame daśamaṁ lakṣyam. You are that devotee’s portion, when the father’s property is divided among brothers. That devotee receives you, mukti-pada, the shelter of liberation, as his share. What use is liberation then? Śrīdhara Svāmī says that without living (jīveta), the devotee, like the property claimant, cannot claim liberation. In this matter material intelligence is forbidden but, even without speculating, we know that the living son inherits the property. In terms of the verse, the person on the path of bhakti receives the property since he is really living. Dṛtaya iva śvasanty asu-bhṛto yadi te ’nuvidhā: only if they become your faithful followers are those who breathe actually alive, otherwise their breathing is like that of a bellows. (SB 10.87.17)
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
The person waits patiently (su-samīṣamānaḥ) for mercy while he experiences his self-produced suffering, results of karma (vipākam). The word eva should be used with words in the sentence as necessary. He does not give regard for his happiness or suffering. He offers respects with mind words and body. This shows attachment (āsakti) only to the Lord and not to others, to the abode of liberation (mukti-pade) or mahākālapuram, or the place which is the very form of liberation, Vaikuṇṭha, or the lord’s lotus feet. Or the word can be taken as amukti-pade: the feet of he who does not give liberation to the devotees. By drowning in the ocean of the Lord’s sweet qualities, they reject the drop of salt water known as liberation.
This person becomes the giver (bhāk) of wealth (dāya). Just by his mind, making decisions, he gives mukti-pada to others. By his words alone and by the touch of his body, he delivers others.