Devanagari
यन्नाभिपद्मभवनादहमासमीड्य
लोकत्रयोपकरणो यदनुग्रहेण ।
तस्मै नमस्त उदरस्थभवाय योग-
निद्रावसानविकसन्नलिनेक्षणाय ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
yan-nābhi-padma-bhavanād aham āsam īḍya
loka-trayopakaraṇo yad-anugraheṇa
tasmai namas ta udara-stha-bhavāya yoga-
nidrāvasāna-vikasan-nalinekṣaṇāya
Synonyms
yat
—
whose
;
nābhi
—
navel
;
padma
—
lotus
;
bhavanāt
—
from the house of
;
aham
—
I
;
āsam
—
became manifested
;
īḍya
—
O worshipable one
;
loka
—
traya — the three worlds
;
upakaraṇaḥ
—
helping in the creation of
;
yat
—
whose
;
anugraheṇa
—
by the mercy
;
tasmai
—
unto Him
;
namaḥ
—
my obeisances
;
te
—
unto You
;
udara
—
stha — situated within the abdomen
;
bhavāya
—
having the universe
;
yoga
—
nidrā — avasāna — after the end of that transcendental sleep
;
vikasat
—
blossoming
;
nalina
—
īkṣaṇāya — unto Him whose opening eyes are like lotuses .
Translation
O object of my worship, I am born from the house of Your lotus navel for the purpose of creating the universe by Your mercy. All these planets of the universe were stationed within Your transcendental abdomen while You were enjoying sleep. Now, Your sleep having ended, Your eyes are open like blossoming lotuses in the morning.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O worshipable Lord! I offer respects to the Lord from whose navel lotus abode I appear, by whose mercy I give benefit to the three worlds, who holds the universe in his belly, and who glances with his open lotus eye at the end of the night of devastation.
I arose (āsam) from the abode in the lotus in his navel. I am the maker of the three worlds, or I benefit the three worlds by creating. I offer respects to the Lord who has the material realm (bhavāya) situated in his belly, who has a glance like a blossoming lotus at the end of yoganidrā, at the end of night. O my Lord! Ocean of mercy! Wake up! Wake up! I, your servant, should perform maṅgalārātrika for you.
Purport
Brahmā is teaching us the beginning of
arcanā
regulations from morning (four o’clock) to night (ten o’clock). Early in the morning, the devotee has to rise from his bed and pray to the Lord, and there are other regulative principles for offering
maṅgala-ārati
early in the morning. Foolish nondevotees, not understanding the importance of
arcanā,
criticize the regulative principles, but they have no eyes to see that the Lord also sleeps, by His own will. The impersonal conception of the Supreme is so detrimental to the path of devotional service that it is very difficult to associate with the stubborn nondevotees, who always think in terms of material conceptions.
Impersonalists always think backwards. They think that because there is form in matter, spirit should be formless; because in matter there is sleep, in spirit there cannot be sleep; and because the sleeping of the Deity is accepted in
arcanā
worship, the
arcanā
is
māyā.
All these thoughts are basically material. To think either positively or negatively is still thinking materially. Knowledge accepted from the superior source of the
Vedas
is standard. Here in these verses of the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
we find that
arcanā
is recommended. Before Brahmā took up the task of creation, he found the Lord sleeping on the serpent bed in the waves of the water of devastation. Therefore, sleeping exists in the internal potency of the Lord, and this is not denied by pure devotees of the Lord like Brahmā and his disciplic succession. It is clearly said here that the Lord slept very happily within the violent waves of the water, manifesting thereby that He is able to do anything and everything by His transcendental will and not be hampered by any circumstances. The Māyāvādī cannot think beyond this material experience, and thus he denies the Lord’s ability to sleep within the water. His mistake is that he compares the Lord to himself — and that comparison is also a material thought. The whole philosophy of the Māyāvāda school, based on “not this, not that” (
neti, neti
), is basically material. Such thought cannot give one the chance to know the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He is.