Devanagari
परस्य ब्रह्मण: साक्षाज्जातवेदोऽसि हव्यवाट् ।
देवानां पुरुषाङ्गानां यज्ञेन पुरुषं यजेति ॥ १७ ॥
Verse text
parasya brahmaṇaḥ sākṣāj
jāta-vedo ’si havyavāṭ
devānāṁ puruṣāṅgānāṁ
yajṣena puruṣaṁ yajeti
Synonyms
parasya
—
of the Supreme
;
brahmaṇaḥ
—
Brahman
;
sākṣāt
—
directly
;
jāta
—
vedaḥ — O fire-god
;
asi
—
you are
;
havyavāṭ
—
the carrier of Vedic offerings of grains and ghee
;
devānām
—
of all the demigods
;
puruṣa
—
aṅgānām — who are limbs of the Supreme Person
;
yajṣena
—
by performing the ritualistic sacrifices
;
puruṣam
—
to the Supreme Person
;
yaja
—
please carry oblations
;
iti
—
thus .
Translation
[This is the mantra by which the inhabitants of Kuśadvīpa worship the fire-god.] O fire-god, you are a part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, and you carry to Him all the offerings of sacrifices. Therefore we request you to offer to the Supreme Personality of Godhead the yajṣic ingredients we are offering the demigods, for the Lord is the real enjoyer.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
They say: O fire! You are directly the carrier of offerings for the Supreme Lord. Please worship the Supreme Lord by offerings to the devatās, who are the limbs of the Lord.
O fire! You are directly the carrier of offerings for the supreme lord. Worship the Lord by sacrifice to the devatās. This means “Offer what is given in the name of the devatās, who are limbs, to the Lord, who is the source of the limbs.”
Purport
The demigods are servants who assist the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one worships the demigods, the demigods, as servants of the Supreme, carry the sacrificial offerings to the Lord, like tax collectors collecting revenue from the citizens and bringing it to the government’s treasury. The demigods cannot accept the sacrificial offerings; they simply carry the offerings to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura,
yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ:
since the
guru
is a representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he carries to the Lord whatever is offered to him. Similarly, all the demigods, as faithful servants of the Supreme Lord, hand over to the Supreme Lord whatever is offered to them in sacrificial performances. There is no fault in worshiping the demigods with this understanding, but to think that the demigods are independent of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and equal to Him is called
hṛta-jṣāna,
a loss of intelligence (
kāmais tais tair hṛta jṣānāḥ
). One who thinks that the demigods themselves are the actual benefactors is mistaken.