SB 10.84.12 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

नाग्निर्न सूर्यो न च चन्द्रतारका न भूर्जलं खं श्वसनोऽथ वाङ्‍मन: । उपासिता भेदकृतो हरन्त्यघं विपश्चितो घ्नन्ति मुहूर्तसेवया ॥ १२ ॥

Verse text

nāgnir na sūryo na ca candra-tārakā na bhūr jalaṁ khaṁ śvasano ’tha vāṅ manaḥ upāsitā bheda-kṛto haranty aghaṁ vipaścito ghnanti muhūrta-sevayā

Synonyms

na — not ; agniḥ — fire ; na — not ; sūryaḥ — the sun ; na — not ; ca — and ; candra — the moon ; tārakāḥ — and stars ; na — not ; bhūḥ — earth ; jalam — water ; kham — ether ; śvasanaḥ — breath ; atha — or ; vāk — speech ; manaḥ — and the mind ; upāsitāḥ — worshiped ; bheda — differences (between himself and other living beings) ; kṛtaḥ — of one who creates ; haranti — they take away ; agham — the sins ; vipaścitaḥ — wise men ; ghnanti — destroy ; muhūrta — for a span of minutes ; sevayā — by service .

Translation

Neither the demigods controlling fire, the sun, the moon and the stars nor those in charge of earth, water, ether, air, speech and mind actually remove the sins of their worshipers, who continue to see in terms of dualities. But wise sages destroy one’s sins when respectfully served for even a few moments.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Neither the demigods controlling fire, the sun, the moon and the stars nor those in charge of earth, water, ether, air, speech and mind actually remove the sins of their worshipers, who continue to see in terms of dualities. But wise sages destroy one's sins when respectfully served for even a few moments. KB 10.84.12 “To become purified, one is enjoined to worship the fire, the sun, the moon, the earth, the water, the air, the sky and the mind. By worshiping all the elements and their predominating deities, one can gradually become free from the influence of envy, but all the sins of an envious person can be nullified immediately simply by serving a great soul.

Purport

An immature devotee of the Supreme Lord may accept only the Deity of the Lord as divine and see everything else as material — even the Lord’s confidential servants. Nonetheless, because he recognizes Lord Viṣṇu’s supreme position, such a devotee is better situated than materialistic worshipers of the demigods, and he thus deserves a degree of respect. Association with advanced sages, either directly or by hearing their instructions, is recommended in this verse for one who wishes to advance beyond the lowest stages of devotional life. A neophyte devotee may be free from the more obvious sins of violence against innocent creatures and against his own body and mind, but until he becomes very advanced on the devotional path, he must always contend with the subtler contaminations of false pride, disrespect toward respectable Vaiṣṇavas and lack of compassion for suffering creatures. The best remedy for these symptoms of immaturity is to hear from and honor pure Vaiṣṇavas and to assist them in working to deliver the fallen, conditioned souls.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Concerning the worship of voice and mind, the sruti says, "Those who worship the voice as Brahman and those who worship the mind as brahman." Those who see difference (bheda krt) between himself and others, who are actually similar, because of urges like hunger and thirst and gain of respect and other desires, cannot destroy their sins (agaham) such as envy, disrespect, and contempt arising from seeing difference by such worship. But they can destroy those sins by serving the great devotees.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

“Worship of deities by seeing them and serving places holy because of deities, or worshipping those holy places may be less effective. But what about worshipping the material elements?” Worship of persons like yourselves is the best of all. Tāraka refers to the presiding deities such as Bṛhaspati for the planet Jupiter. Bheda-kṛtaḥ means persons say to others “I am Indra,” or “I am Varuṇa.” Nor do such persons announce to others that the Supreme Lord is non-different from everything. Or by not seeing the Lord, they think in terms of distinctions everywhere. But those who see the Supreme Lord, those who reveal the Supreme Lord to others, destroy sins whose root is ignorance even if one serves them for a moment.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

This is further described. Those devatās think they are each controllers, though they are non-different from the Lord, since he resides in them.