Devanagari
तावद्भयं द्रविणदेहसुहृन्निमित्तं
शोक: स्पृहा परिभवो विपुलश्च लोभ: ।
तावन्ममेत्यसदवग्रह आर्तिमूलं
यावन्न तेऽङ्घ्रिमभयं प्रवृणीत लोक: ॥ ६ ॥
Verse text
tāvad bhayaṁ draviṇa-deha-suhṛn-nimittaṁ
śokaḥ spṛhā paribhavo vipulaś ca lobhaḥ
tāvan mamety asad-avagraha ārti-mūlaṁ
yāvan na te ’ṅghrim abhayaṁ pravṛṇīta lokaḥ
Synonyms
tāvat
—
until then
;
bhayam
—
fear
;
draviṇa
—
wealth
;
deha
—
body
;
suhṛt
—
relatives
;
nimittam
—
for the matter of
;
śokaḥ
—
lamentation
;
spṛhā
—
desire
;
paribhavaḥ
—
paraphernalia
;
vipulaḥ
—
very great
;
ca
—
also
;
lobhaḥ
—
avarice
;
tāvat
—
up to that time
;
mama
—
mine
;
iti
—
thus
;
asat
—
perishable
;
avagrahaḥ
—
undertaking
;
ārti
—
mūlam — full of anxieties
;
yāvat
—
as long as
;
na
—
do not
;
te
—
Your
;
aṅghrim abhayam
—
safe lotus feet
;
pravṛṇīta
—
take shelter
;
lokaḥ
—
the people of the world .
Translation
O my Lord, the people of the world are embarrassed by all material anxieties — they are always afraid. They always try to protect wealth, body and friends, they are filled with lamentation and unlawful desires and paraphernalia, and they avariciously base their undertakings on the perishable conceptions of “my” and “mine.” As long as they do not take shelter of Your safe lotus feet, they are full of such anxieties.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
As much as people do not completely accept your lotus feet which give fearlessness, they suffer material existence caused by attachment to wealth, body and friends, lamentation, hankering, defeat, and overpowering greed; or they have excessive attachment which is the cause of prolonged material existence.
“But the devotees, if they have wives, children and wealth, are also materialists.” No, this is not true. Materialists suffer continued material existence (bhayam) caused by attachment to wealth, body, and friends. This existence consists of lamentation, desire, defeat, and great greed as long as they do not accept your lotus feet as having power. Or to speak in the opposite way, if they accept those feet completely, then by attachment to you, they will give up attachment to wealth etc. And if one is a devotee and has attachment to wealth etc. one should still not worry. The bite of a snake whose two front teeth have been extracted does not cause suffering. Thus, just accepting your feet as worthy of service destroys the very cause of material existence. Later it will be said:
tāvad rāgādayaḥ stenās tāvat kārā-gṛhaṁ gṛham
tāvan moho ’ṅghri-nigaḍo yāvat kṛṣṇa na te janāḥ
My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, until people become your devotees, their material attachments and desires remain thieves, their homes remain prisons, and their affectionate feelings for their family members remain foot-shackles. SB 10.14.36
The word tāvat has been used in both verse, making the case strong. Thus in this verse three types of devotees have been described: those who have great attachment to the Lord (described in the previous verse); those at the stage of anartha-nivṛtti described in the first part of the present verse; and those who have not accomplished anartha-nivṛrti, described in the last part of the present verse.
Purport
One may question how one can always think of the Lord in regard to His name, fame, quality, etc., if one is embarrassed by thoughts of family affairs. Everyone in the material world is full of thoughts about how to maintain his family, how to protect his wealth, how to keep pace with friends and relatives, etc. Thus he is always in fear and lamentation, trying to keep up with the status quo. In answer to this question, this verse spoken by Brahmā is very appropriate.
A pure devotee of the Lord never thinks of himself as the proprietor of his home. He surrenders everything unto the supreme control of the Lord, and thus he has no fear for maintaining his family or protecting the interests of his family. Because of this surrender, he no longer has any attraction for wealth. Even if there is attraction for wealth, it is not for sense enjoyment, but for the service of the Lord. A pure devotee may be attracted to accumulating wealth just like an ordinary man, but the difference is that a devotee acquires money for the service of the Lord, whereas the ordinary man acquires money for his sense enjoyment. Thus the acquisition of wealth by a devotee is not a source of anxieties, as is the case for a worldly man. And because a pure devotee accepts everything in the sense of serving the Lord, the poisonous teeth of accumulation of wealth are extracted. If a snake has its poison removed and bites a man, there is no fatal effect. Similarly, wealth accumulated in the cause of the Lord has no poisonous teeth, and the effect is not fatal. A pure devotee is never entangled in material worldly affairs even though he may remain in the world like an ordinary man.