Devanagari
य आशु हृदयग्रन्थिं निर्जिहीर्षु: परात्मन: ।
विधिनोपचरेद् देवं तन्त्रोक्तेन च केशवम् ॥ ४७ ॥
Verse text
ya āśu hṛdaya-granthiṁ
nirjihīrṣuḥ parātmanaḥ
vidhinopacared devaṁ
tantroktena ca keśavam
Synonyms
yaḥ
—
one who
;
āśu
—
quickly
;
hṛdaya
—
granthim — the knot of the heart (false identification with the material body)
;
nirjihīrṣuḥ
—
desirous of cutting
;
parātmanaḥ
—
of the transcendental soul
;
vidhinā
—
with the regulations
;
upacaret
—
he should worship
;
devam
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
tantra
—
uktena — which are described by the tantras (the supplementary Vedic literatures that give detailed instructions for spiritual practice)
;
ca
—
as well (in addition to those regulations which are directly vedoktam )
;
keśavam
—
Lord Keśava .
Translation
One who desires to quickly cut the knot of false ego, which binds the spirit soul, should worship the Supreme Lord, Keśava, by the regulations found in Vedic literatures such as the tantras.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
One who desires to cut the knot of false ego, which binds the spirit soul, should worship the Supreme Lord, Keśava, by the regulations found in literatures such as the Paṣcarātra and the Vedas.
Karma-yoga was directed at foolish people. Now hear instructions for the wise. This verse encourages people to worship the Lord directly. One should desire to cut the ahaṅkāra (hṛdaya-granthim) of the ātmā which is different from the body (parātmanaḥ). One should worship the Lord according to the rules of the agamas (tantroktena). The word ca indicates the Vedas.
Purport
The Vedic literatures contain mysterious descriptions of the Absolute Truth that stimulate philosophical speculation. The
Vedas
also offer heavenly rewards for the performance of ritualistic ceremonies. But as stated in verse 44 of this chapter such
jṣāna-kāṇḍa
and
karma-kāṇḍa
sections of the
Vedas
are
bālānām anuśāsanam;
that is, because less intelligent or childish persons are addicted to mental speculation and fruitive activity, these sections of the
Vedas
are meant to attract such persons to take shelter of the Vedic injunctions for gradual promotion to the perfect stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Now that the path for those who are materialistic has been described in several verses, this verse describes the process for those who are
vijṣaḥ,
or learned transcendentalists. Such learned transcendentalists are advised to follow the regulated worship described in such Vaiṣṇava
tantras
as
Śrī Nārada-paṣcarātra
for pleasing the Supreme Lord directly. The words
upacared devaṁ tantroktena ca keśavam
indicate that one should directly worship Keśava, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears in many different incarnations to please His devotees. Śrīla Jayadeva Gosvāmī has described the pastimes of the Lord in his song describing ten prominent incarnations of the Personality of Godhead, Keśava: Lord Fish, Lord Tortoise, Lord Boar, Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, Lord Vāmana, Lord Paraśurāma, Lord Rāmacandra, Lord Balarāma, Lord Buddha and Lord Kalki. The words
upacared devam
indicate devotional service to the Personality of Godhead. And therefore the word
tantroktena,
or “injunctions of the
tantras,
” should be understood to indicate
vaiṣṇava-tantras
such as
Śrī Nārada-paṣcarātra,
which give explicit and detailed instructions for worshiping Keśava. The
Vedas
are referred to by the term
nigama.
And the elaborate explanation of these
nigamas
is called
āgama,
or
tantra.
When the transcendental living entity becomes perturbed by the obnoxious harassment of material bodily dualities, he becomes eager to hear from the
Vedas
about his transcendental situation. The word
āśu
in this verse indicates that those who are eager to put a quick end to material existence and situate themselves in the eternal blissful life of perfect knowledge should directly worship Lord Kṛṣṇa, bypassing the preliminary Vedic rituals described in the previous verses.