Devanagari
दृष्टं तवाङ्घ्रियुगलं जनतापवर्गं
ब्रह्मादिभिर्हृदि विचिन्त्यमगाधबोधै: ।
संसारकूपपतितोत्तरणावलम्बं
ध्यायंश्चराम्यनुगृहाण यथा स्मृति: स्यात् ॥ १८ ॥
Verse text
dṛṣṭaṁ tavāṅghri-yugalaṁ janatāpavargaṁ
brahmādibhir hṛdi vicintyam agādha-bodhaiḥ
saṁsāra-kūpa-patitottaraṇāvalambaṁ
dhyāyaṁś carāmy anugṛhāṇa yathā smṛtiḥ syāt
Synonyms
dṛṣṭam
—
seen
;
tava
—
Your
;
aṅghri
—
of feet
;
yugalam
—
pair
;
janatā
—
for Your devotees
;
apavargam
—
the source of liberation
;
brahma
—
ādibhiḥ — by persons such as Lord Brahmā
;
hṛdi
—
within the heart
;
vicintyam
—
meditated upon
;
agādha
—
unfathomable
;
bodhaiḥ
—
whose intelligence
;
saṁsāra
—
of material life
;
kūpa
—
in the well
;
patita
—
of those who are fallen
;
uttaraṇa
—
for deliverance
;
avalambam
—
the shelter
;
dhyāyan
—
constantly thinking
;
carāmi
—
I may travel
;
anugṛhāṇa
—
please bless me
;
yathā
—
so that
;
smṛtiḥ
—
remembrance
;
syāt
—
may be .
Translation
Now I have seen Your feet, which grant liberation to Your devotees, which even Lord Brahmā and other great personalities of unfathomable intelligence can only meditate upon within their hearts, and which those who have fallen into the well of material existence resort to for deliverance. Please favor me so that I may constantly think of You as I travel about. Please grant Me the power to remember You.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Now I have seen Your feet, which grant liberation to Your devotees, which even Lord Brahmā and other great personalities of unfathomable intelligence can only meditate upon within their hearts, and which those who have fallen into the well of material existence resort to for deliverance. Please favor me so that I may constantly think of You as I travel about. Please grant Me the power to remember You.
KB 10.69.18
“It is my great fortune that I have been able to see Your lotus feet today. Anyone who becomes attached to Your lotus feet is elevated to the supreme position of neutrality and is uncontaminated by the material modes of nature. My Lord, You are unlimited—there is no limit to Your opulences. Great demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are always busy placing You within their hearts and meditating upon You. The conditioned souls, who have now been put into the blind well of material existence, can get out of this eternal captivity only by accepting Your lotus feet. Thus, You are the only shelter of all conditioned souls. My dear Lord, You have very kindly asked what You can do for me. In answer to this I simply request that I may not forget Your lotus feet at any time. I do not care where I may be, but I pray that I constantly be allowed to remember Your lotus feet.”
By asking this benediction from the Lord, the sage Nārada showed the ideal prayer of all pure devotees. A pure devotee never asks for any kind of material or spiritual benediction from the Lord; his only prayer is that he may not forget the lotus feet of the Lord in any condition of life. A pure devotee does not care whether he is put into heaven or hell; he is satisfied anywhere, provided he can constantly remember the lotus feet of the Lord. Lord Caitanya taught this same process of prayer in His Śikṣāṣṭaka, in which He clearly stated that all He wanted was devotional service, birth after birth. A pure devotee does not even want to stop the repetition of birth and death. To a pure devotee, it does not matter whether he has to take birth again in the various species of life. His only ambition is that he not forget the lotus feet of the Lord in any condition of life.
Purport
Lord Kṛṣṇa had asked Nārada Muni, “What can We do for you?” and here Nārada answers. Nārada Muni is a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thus his request is sublime.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"O great sage, for what purpose have you come? Do you intend to stay here, or go and stay elsewhere?" Anticipating this question, Narada speaks this verse.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Your feet are the final result of meditation for your perfected pure devotees (janatāpavargam). Those feet are remembered with the greatest effort by the greatest person like Brahmā in the deepest workings of the heart. What to speak of those feet being suitable as the shelter for deliverance from saṁsāra for all those in this world of saṁsāra. It is my great fortune to have seen those feet. Thinking that such good fortune is very rare to be permanent, he prays. Meditating on those feet, let me wander about in this world. “That is to be achieved by your mind. Why do you have to pray?” Be merciful so that I can remember. Only by your mercy can this be achieved and not otherwise. Or, be merciful to me so that I can wander about meditating on your feet. Similarly be merciful so that you will always remember me.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Brahmā and others meditate on your feet, only with delay (vi-cintya). Some serve your feet with devotion to gain liberation. And even if they are liberated, they cannot see your feet. Persons desiring liberation take shelter of your feet to attain deliverance from the well of saṁsāra. Thus your feet are very rare. Nārada indicates that even he is not a devotee since as a great, humble devotee he does not identify himself as a devotee.
Or his feet destroy (vargam) the pain of separation (tapa) of the devotees (jana), by directly being seen. They are attained by the devotee. I will meditate on those feet. Or I will wander from house to house here, because, having directly seen those feet, they always appear internally. But be merciful so that you will always remember me.