Devanagari
त्वत्पादुके अविरतं परि ये चरन्ति
ध्यायन्त्यभद्रनशने शुचयो गृणन्ति ।
विन्दन्ति ते कमलनाभ भवापवर्ग-
माशासते यदि त आशिष ईश नान्ये ॥ ४ ॥
Verse text
tvat-pāduke avirataṁ pari ye caranti
dhyāyanty abhadra-naśane śucayo gṛṇanti
vindanti te kamala-nābha bhavāpavargam
āśāsate yadi ta āśiṣa īśa nānye
Synonyms
tvat
—
Your
;
pāduke
—
slippers
;
aviratam
—
constantly
;
pari
—
fully
;
ye
—
who
;
caranti
—
serve
;
dhyāyanti
—
meditate upon
;
abhadra
—
of inauspicious things
;
naśane
—
which (cause) the destruction
;
śucayaḥ
—
purified
;
gṛṇanti
—
and describe in their words
;
vindanti
—
obtain
;
te
—
they
;
kamala
—
(like a) lotus
;
nābha
—
O You whose navel
;
bhava
—
of material life
;
apavargam
—
the cessation
;
āśāsate
—
harbor desires
;
yadi
—
if
;
te
—
they
;
āśiṣaḥ
—
(attain) the desired objects
;
īśa
—
O Lord
;
na
—
not
;
anye
—
other persons .
Translation
Purified persons who constantly serve, meditate upon and glorify Your shoes, which destroy everything inauspicious, are sure to obtain freedom from material existence, O lotus-naveled one. Even if they desire something in this world, they obtain it, whereas others — those who do not take shelter of You — are never satisfied, O Lord.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Purified persons who constantly serve, meditate upon and glorify Your shoes, which destroy everything inauspicious, are sure to obtain freedom from material existence, O lotus-naveled one. Even if they desire something in this world, they obtain it, whereas others—those who do not take shelter of You—are never satisfied, O Lord.
KB 10.72.4
“My dear Lord, those who are constantly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and who think of Your lotus feet or Your shoes are certainly freed from all contamination of material life. Such persons, who engage in Your service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, who meditate upon You only and offer prayers unto You, are purified souls. Being constantly engaged in Kṛṣṇa conscious service, they are freed from the cycle of repeated birth and death. Or, even if they do not want to be freed from this material existence but desire to enjoy material opulences, their desires are also fulfilled by their Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. In fact, those who are pure devotees of Your lotus feet have no desire for material opulences. As far as we are concerned, we are fully surrendered unto Your lotus feet, and by Your grace we are so fortunate as to see You personally. Therefore, naturally we have no desire for material opulences.
Purport
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in this connection that liberated, Kṛṣṇa conscious persons “do not even desire to become freed from this material existence or to enjoy material opulences; their desires are fulfilled by Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. As far as we [King Yudhiṣṭhira] are concerned, we are fully surrendered unto Your lotus feet, and by Your grace we are so fortunate to see You personally. Therefore, naturally we have no desire for material opulences. The verdict of the Vedic wisdom is that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I want to establish this fact, and I also want to show the world the difference between accepting You as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and accepting You as an ordinary powerful historical person. I wish to show the world that one can attain the highest perfection of life simply by taking shelter at Your lotus feet, exactly as one can satisfy the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers of an entire tree simply by watering the root. Thus, if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his life becomes fulfilled both materially and spiritually.”
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī similarly explains King Yudhiṣṭhira’s statement: “We feel no great urgency to perform the Rājasūya sacrifice, nor do we have any personal interest, since we are already seeing Your lotus feet and by Your boundless mercy have been taken into Your personal association. But in this world there are some whose hearts are contaminated and who thus think You are not the Supreme Personality of Godhead but an ordinary man. Or else they find fault with You and even criticize You. This is an arrow piercing our hearts.
“Therefore, to extract this arrow from our heart, we must call to this place — on the pretext of the Rājasūya — Brahmā, Rudra and other wise
brahmacārīs
and demigods who reside in each of the fourteen planetary systems. When such an exalted congregation has assembled, it will be incumbent upon them to first arrange for the
agra-pūjā,
or the first worship for the most worthy person present. And when they are directly shown that You, Lord Kṛṣṇa, are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the arrow piercing our heart will be removed.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"We, who by your unlimited mercy of your direct association, see your lotus feet, have no need for performing the rajasuya sacrifice. However, the evil hearted persons present do not recognize you as the supreme lord and think you are a human being. Even, they find fault with you and criticize your behavior. This is an arrow in our hearts. Therefore on the pretext of the sacrifice, calling Brahma, Siva and others, who know everything, the brahmacaris and devatas, calling all those in the fourteen worlds, who will establish who is to be worshipped first, as is necessary in any assembly, and thus showing who is the supreme lord, the arrow in our hearts will be destroyed. That is my desire." He expresses this in three verses.
Dividing pari and caranti is poetic license. "Those who serve your lotus feet which destroy all inauspicious elements up to ignorance (the root), attain freedom from bondage. And those who meditate on you , being worshippers full of desires, if desiring material objects, enjoy these, but not others. This means that your worshippers include even those with material desires and they desire such things, but your devotees never desire material results (na anye). What to speak of us, who have no material desires, having taken shelter of your feet, and directly seen you."
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Persons who constantly serve your shoes obtain liberation what to speak of those who serve your lotus feet directly. What to speak of those who without effort meditate on them or without effort glorify them. They glorify your shoes as the object of devotion, for they destroy all inauspiciousness at once. They become free of all inauspicious obstacles to bhakti internally and externally (sucayaḥ). If these people do not fully engage in bhakti, they still obtain all material and non-material enjoyment and destruction of saṁsāra. The Lord himself says this and it is not available to others:
sarvaṁ mad-bhakti-yogena mad-bhakto labhate ’ñjasā
svargāpavargaṁ mad-dhāma kathañcid yadi vāñchati
If somehow or other my devotee desires Svarga, liberation, or residence in my abode, he easily achieves such benedictions. SB 11.20.33
It is also said:
svargāpavargayoḥ puṁsāṁ rasāyāṁ bhuvi sampadām
sarvāsām api siddhīnāṁ mūlaṁ tac-caraṇārcanam
Devotional service to his lotus feet is the root cause of all the perfections a person can find in heaven, in liberation, in the subterranean regions and on earth. SB 10.81.20
The reason is given. You have a lotus navel (as Garbhodakaśāyī): you are the shelter of all the worlds just by your expansion. You are the controller of all beings (īśa). Or joining the last statement with aviratam the meaning is “They enjoy blessings constantly.”
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Persons who constantly serve your shoes obtain liberation what to speak of those who serve your lotus feet directly. Kunti states that the feet give mercy to the earth:
neyaṁ śobhiṣyate tatra yathedānīṁ gadādhara |
tvat-padair aṅkitā bhāti sva-lakṣaṇa-vilakṣitaiḥ ||
O holder of the club! When you go, this land, marked with the special signs on your feet, will not glow as it does now. SB 1.8.39
Though one generally thinks of the Lord’s feet without shoes, the statement is made considering offering royal items to the Lord. Or it is stated out of great humility. Or he accepts when some devotees insist on offering them. Or since the shoes exist among the Lord’s wardrobe, they constantly serve, meditate on and glorify those shoes. This is the tendency of devotees when they develop rasa or pious persons situated here and there in order to make their bodies, minds and words successful. Or they constantly hear (gṛṇanti) about the shoes which destroy unlimited suffering at the root at all times. By doing one of the actions, all three are accomplished.
Those who have pure hearts by performing pure actions will do this (śucayaḥ). It accomplishes all dharmas. Or those who purify the world or who shine like fire (śucayaḥ) attain cessation of material life. Among serving, meditating and glorifying, glorifying is easiest. But any of them give effects. In the list glorifying requires less effort than meditating with prānāyāma.
The persons attain destruction of saṁsāra, or liberation in the form of Vaikuṇṭha. Having a lotus navel indicates that the Lord is supreme, giving rise to the lotus which produces Brahmā, and that he consists of all the worlds. Serving the shoes of this Lord is the cause of attaining cessation of material life. Or kamala-nabha means that his navel is shaped like a lotus. Thus he is most beautiful as the supreme Lord.
If these persons desire anything, they attain it. However they do not desire anything, since they have bhakti-rasa. If for some reason, at some time, they were to desire, they would attain those desires. O Lord (īśa)! All those desired attainments are dependent on you. Or without serving you, even kings have no power to attain these items. Or they attain liberation (bhavāpavargam). If they desire something for assisting their service to you, they attain it. Or if others, devoid of serve, desire items, they do not attain them by yoga, sacrifices etc.