Devanagari
त्वत्त: सनातनो धर्मो रक्ष्यते तनुभिस्तव ।
धर्मस्य परमो गुह्यो निर्विकारो भवान्मत: ॥ १८ ॥
Verse text
tvattaḥ sanātano dharmo
rakṣyate tanubhis tava
dharmasya paramo guhyo
nirvikāro bhavān mataḥ
Synonyms
tvattaḥ
—
from You
;
sanātanaḥ
—
eternal
;
dharmaḥ
—
occupation
;
rakṣyate
—
is protected
;
tanubhiḥ
—
by multimanifestations
;
tava
—
Your
;
dharmasya
—
of religious principles
;
paramaḥ
—
the supreme
;
guhyaḥ
—
objective
;
nirvikāraḥ
—
unchangeable
;
bhavān
—
You
;
mataḥ
—
in our opinion .
Translation
You are the source of the eternal occupation of all living entities, and by Your multimanifestations of Personalities of Godhead, You have always protected religion. You are the supreme objective of religious principles, and in our opinion You are inexhaustible and unchangeable eternally.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The eternal dharma, bhakti, arising from you, is protected by your body in the form of the devotees, not the brāhmaṇas. We consider you to be the end result of dharma, the secret, who undergo no change.
People become respectable only by following rules of dharma. Dharma is characterized by bhakti, not by steadiness in varṇāśrama. Devotees institute that dharma. Thus the devotees are superior to the brāhmaṇas. That is expressed in this verse. The sanātana-dharma known as bhakti has arisen from you. Dṛṣṭiḥ satāṁ darśane ’stu bhavat-tanūnām: may our eyes see the forms of Vaiṣṇavas, who are non-different from you. (SB 10.10.38) Since the devotees are non-different from you, dharma is protected by your body in the form of the devotees, since they engage in bhakti everywhere. You are the final fruit of dharma, not temporary attainments such as Svarga. You are without change (nirvikāraḥ bhavān). Attaining you is the result of bhakti to you. Other dharmas should not be explained by the words sanātana and nirvikāra.
Purport
The statement in this verse
dharmasya paramo guhyaḥ
refers to the most confidential part of all religious principles. This is confirmed in
Bhagavad-gītā.
The conclusion of Lord Kṛṣṇa in His advice to Arjuna is: “Give up all other religious engagement and just surrender unto Me.” This is the most confidential knowledge in executing religious principles. In the
Bhāgavatam
also it is stated that if one does not become Kṛṣṇa conscious after very rigidly executing one’s specified religious duties, all his labor in following so-called religious principles is simply a waste of time. Here also the sages confirm the statement that the Supreme Lord, not the demigods, is the ultimate goal of all religious principles. There are many foolish propagandists who say that worship of the demigods is also a way to reach the supreme goal, but in the authorized statements of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
and
Bhagavad-gītā
this is not accepted.
Bhagavad-gītā
says that one who worships a particular demigod can reach the demigod’s planet, but one who worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead can enter into Vaikuṇṭha. Some propagandists say that regardless of what one does he will ultimately reach the supreme abode of the Personality of Godhead, but this is not valid. The Lord is eternal, the Lord’s servitor is eternal, and the Lord’s abode is also eternal. They are all described here as
sanātana,
or eternal. The result of devotional service, therefore, is not temporary, as is the achievement of heavenly planets by worshiping the demigods. The sages wanted to stress that although the Lord, out of His causeless mercy, says that He worships the
brāhmaṇas
and Vaiṣṇavas, actually the Lord is worshipable not only by the
brāhmaṇas
and Vaiṣṇavas but also by the demigods.