SB 4.12.6

SB 4.12.6

Devanagari

भजस्व भजनीयाङ्‌घ्रि मभवाय भवच्छिदम् । युक्तं विरहितं शक्त्या गुणमय्यात्ममायया ॥ ६ ॥

Verse text

bhajasva bhajanīyāṅghrim abhavāya bhava-cchidam yuktaṁ virahitaṁ śaktyā guṇa-mayyātma-māyayā

Synonyms

bhajasva engage in devotional service ; bhajanīya worthy to be worshiped ; aṅghrim unto Him whose lotus feet ; abhavāya for deliverance from material existence ; bhava chidam — who cuts the knot of material entanglement ; yuktam attached ; virahitam aloof ; śaktyā to His potency ; guṇa mayyā — consisting of the modes of material nature ; ātma māyayā — by His inconceivable potency .

Translation

Engage yourself fully, therefore, in the devotional service of the Lord, for only He can deliver us from this entanglement of materialistic existence. Although the Lord is attached to His material potency, He is aloof from her activities. Everything in this material world is happening by the inconceivable potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Therefore go, Dhruva. Good fortune to you. To attain the Lord who has no material existence, while thinking all beings as equal to oneself, worship the Lord, beyond the senses, who is the form of all beings, the destroyer of saṁsāra, whose feet are worthy of worship, and who, though endowed with the material śakti composed of guṇas, is unaffected by it. Sarva-bhūtātma-bhāvena means “with the thought that all beings are like oneself.” Sarva-bhūtātma-vigraham means that the Lord’s form is all beings. Abhavāya means “in order to attain the Lord who has no birth and death.” He is joined to māyā because māyā is his śakti. He is detached from māyā because that śakti is not his svarūpa.

Purport

In continuation of the previous verse, it is specifically mentioned here that Dhruva Mahārāja should engage himself in devotional service. Devotional service cannot be rendered to the impersonal Brahman feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Whenever the word bhajasva appears, meaning “engage yourself in devotional service,” there must be the servant, service and the served. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is served, the mode of activities to please Him is called service, and one who renders such service is called the servant. Another significant feature in this verse is that only the Lord, and no one else, is to be served. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā ( mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja ). There is no need to serve the demigods, who are just like the hands and legs of the Supreme Lord. When the Supreme Lord is served, the hands and legs of the Supreme Lord are automatically served. There is no need of separate service. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (12.7), teṣām ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt. This means that the Lord, in order to show specific favor to the devotee, directs the devotee from within in such a way that ultimately he is delivered from the entanglement of material existence. No one but the Supreme Lord can help the living entity be delivered from the entanglement of this material world. The material energy is a manifestation of one of the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s varieties of potencies ( parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate ). This material energy is one of the Lord’s potencies, as much as heat and light are potencies of fire. The material energy is not different from the Supreme Godhead, but at the same time He has nothing to do with the material energy. The living entity, who is of the marginal energy, is entrapped by the material energy on the basis of his desire to lord it over the material world. The Lord is aloof from this, but when the same living entity engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord, then he becomes attached to this service. This situation is called yuktam. For devotees the Lord is present even in the material energy. This is the inconceivable potency of the Lord. Material energy acts in the three modes of material qualities, which produce the action and reaction of material existence. Those who are not devotees become involved in such activities, whereas devotees, who are dovetailed with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are freed from such action and reaction of the material energy. The Lord is therefore described herewith as bhava-cchidam, one who can give deliverance from the entanglement of material existence.