Devanagari
दर्शनं नो दिदृक्षूणां देहि भागवतार्चितम् ।
रूपं प्रियतमं स्वानां सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाञ्जनम् ॥ ४४ ॥
Verse text
darśanaṁ no didṛkṣūṇāṁ
dehi bhāgavatārcitam
rūpaṁ priyatamaṁ svānāṁ
sarvendriya-guṇāṣjanam
Synonyms
darśanam
—
vision
;
naḥ
—
our
;
didṛkṣūṇām
—
desirous to see
;
dehi
—
kindly exhibit
;
bhāgavata
—
of the devotees
;
arcitam
—
as worshiped by them
;
rūpam
—
form
;
priya
—
tamam — dearmost
;
svānām
—
of Your devotees
;
sarva
—
indriya — all the senses
;
guṇa
—
qualities
;
aṣjanam
—
very much pleasing .
Translation
My dear Lord, I wish to see You exactly in the form that Your very dear devotees worship. You have many other forms, but I wish to see Your form that is especially liked by the devotees. Please be merciful upon me and show me that form, for only that form worshiped by the devotees can perfectly satisfy all the demands of the senses.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Show us the form worshipped by the devotees, the beautiful form most treasured by your devotees, endowed with all qualities and senses, for we desire to see it.
Remembering in this way, purifying the body, sense and mind by offering respects, he has become qualified. Now he prays to see the Lord. “What form should I show you?” It should be beautiful (rūpam), most loved by your devotees. This excludes the universal form. It is attractive, being covered with senses, qualities and form. This excludes the Brahman. Or the form has a beneficial (guṇa) ointment (aṣjanam) for all the senses, so that the senses give up the blindness of experiencing material enjoyment, and are able to experience the Lord, taking on his vision. The śruti says cakṣuṣaś cakṣuḥ: the Lord is the eye of the eye.
Purport
In the
śruti,
or
veda-mantra,
it is said that the Supreme Absolute Truth is
sarva-kāmaḥ sarva-gandhaḥ sarva-rasaḥ,
or, in other words, He is known as
raso vai saḥ,
the source of all relishable relationships (
rasas
). We have various senses — the powers of seeing, tasting, smelling, touching, etc. — and all the propensities of our senses can be satisfied when the senses are engaged in the service of the Lord.
Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate:
“
Bhakti
means engaging all the senses in the service of the master of the senses, Hṛṣīkeśa.” (
Nārada-paṣcarātra
) These material senses, however, cannot be engaged in the service of the Lord; therefore one has to become free from all designations.
Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tatparatvena nirmalam:
one has to become free from all designation or false egotism and thus become purified. When we engage our senses in the service of the Lord, the desires or the inclinations of the senses can be perfectly fulfilled. Lord Śiva therefore wants to see the Lord in a form which is inconceivable to the Bauddha philosophers, or the Buddhists.
The impersonalists and the voidists also have to see the form of the Absolute. In Buddhist temples there are forms of Lord Buddha in meditation, but these are not worshiped like the forms of the Lord in Vaiṣṇava temples — forms like Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Sītā-Rāma or Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. Amongst the different
sampradāyas
(Vaiṣṇava sects) either Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa or Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa is worshiped. Lord Śiva wants to see that form perfectly, just as the devotees want to see it. The words
rūpaṁ priyatamaṁ svānām
are specifically mentioned here, indicating that Lord Śiva wants to see that form which is very dear to the devotees. The word
svānām
is especially significant because only the devotees are very, very dear to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The
jṣānīs, yogīs
and
karmīs
are not particularly dear, for the
karmīs
simply want to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead as their order supplier, the
jṣānīs
want to see Him to become one with Him, and the
yogīs
want to see Him partially represented within their heart as Paramātmā. But the
bhaktas,
or the devotees, want to see Him in His complete perfection. As stated in
Brahma-saṁhitā
(5.30)
:
veṇuṁ kvaṇantam aravinda-dalāyatākṣaṁ
barhāvataṁsam asitāmbuda-sundarāṅgam
kandarpa-koṭi-kamanīya-viśeṣa-śobhaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is adept at playing on His flute, whose eyes are blooming like lotus petals, whose head is bedecked with peacock feathers, whose beauty is tinged with the hue of blue clouds, and whose unique loveliness charms millions of Cupids.” Thus Lord Śiva’s desire is to see the Supreme Personality of Godhead as He is described in this way — that is, he wants to see Him as He appears to the
bhāgavatas,
the devotees. The conclusion is that Lord Śiva wants to see Him in complete perfection and not in the impersonalist or voidist way. Although the Lord is one in His various forms (
advaitam acyutam anādim
), still His form as the young enjoyer of the
gopīs
and companion of the cowherd boys (
kiśora-mūrti
) is the most perfect form. Thus Vaiṣṇavas accept the form of the Lord in His Vṛndāvana pastimes as the chief form.