SB 12.8.46 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

तस्मात्तवेह भगवन्नथ तावकानां शुक्लां तनुं स्वदयितां कुशला भजन्ति । यत् सात्वता: पुरुषरूपमुशन्ति सत्त्वं लोको यतोऽभयमुतात्मसुखं न चान्यत् ॥ ४६ ॥

Verse text

tasmāt taveha bhagavann atha tāvakānāṁ śuklāṁ tanuṁ sva-dayitāṁ kuśalā bhajanti yat sātvatāḥ puruṣa-rūpam uśanti sattvaṁ loko yato ’bhayam utātma-sukhaṁ na cānyat

Synonyms

tasmāt — therefore ; tava — Your ; iha — in this world ; bhagavan — O Supreme Lord ; atha — and ; tāvakānām — of Your devotees ; śuklām — transcendental ; tanum — the personal form ; sva — dayitām — most dear to them ; kuśalāḥ — those who are expert in spiritual knowledge ; bhajanti — worship ; yat — because ; sātvatāḥ — the great devotees ; puruṣa — of the original Personality of Godhead ; rūpam — the form ; uśanti — consider ; sattvam — the mode of goodness ; lokaḥ — the spiritual world ; yataḥ — from which ; abhayam — fearlessness ; uta — and ; ātma — sukham — the happiness of the soul ; na — not ; ca — and ; anyat — any other .

Translation

O Lord, because fearlessness, spiritual happiness and the kingdom of God are all achieved through the mode of pure goodness, Your devotees consider this mode, but never passion and ignorance, to be a direct manifestation of You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Intelligent persons thus worship Your beloved transcendental form, composed of pure goodness, along with the spiritual forms of Your pure devotees.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

O Lord! Therefore in this world, the wise worship your pure form and your devotee’s pure form, and not the forms made of material guṇas, since the devotees like Nārada recognize your form as śuddha-sattva, from which arises Vaikuṇṭha, a place which has no fear of falling and is endowed with spiritual bliss. Therefore the wise give up the impure forms of Indra and others made of māyā and worship the śuddha-sattva forms of the Lord and his devotees. Devotees like Nārada (sātvatāḥ) recognize the form of Viṣṇu which is sattva. “What type of sattva is this?” From this Lord arises Vaikuṇṭha, with no fear of falling. There is fear of falling from Svarga. Because there is no fear of falling there is spiritual happiness, not happiness arising from results of karma. Therefore, it is actually śuddha-sattva, not material sattva.

Purport

Intelligent persons do not worship the demigods, who represent the modes of passion and ignorance. Lord Brahmā represents passion, Lord Śiva represents ignorance, and demigods such as Indra also represent the modes of material nature. But Lord Viṣṇu, or Nārāyaṇa, represents pure spiritual goodness, which brings one realization of the spiritual world, freedom from fear, and spiritual bliss. Such benefits can never be derived from impure, material goodness, for it is always mixed with the modes of passion and ignorance. As clearly indicated in this verse, the transcendental form of God is fully constituted of eternal spiritual goodness and thus has no tinge of the material mode of goodness, passion or ignorance.