Devanagari
यदु ह वाव तव पुनरदभ्रकर्तरिह समाहूतस्तत्रार्थधियां मन्दानां नस्तद्यद्देवहेलनं देवदेवार्हसि साम्येन सर्वान् प्रतिवोढुमविदुषाम् ॥ १५ ॥
Verse text
yad u ha vāva tava punar adabhra-kartar iha samāhūtas tatrārtha-dhiyāṁ mandānāṁ nas tad yad deva-helanaṁ deva-devārhasi sāmyena sarvān prativoḍhum aviduṣām.
Synonyms
yat
—
because
;
u ha vāva
—
indeed
;
tava
—
Your
;
punaḥ
—
again
;
adabhra
—
kartaḥ — O Lord, who perform many activities
;
iha
—
here, in this arena of sacrifice
;
samāhūtaḥ
—
invited
;
tatra
—
therefore
;
artha
—
dhiyām — who aspire to fulfill material desires
;
mandānām
—
not very intelligent
;
naḥ
—
of us
;
tat
—
that
;
yat
—
which
;
deva
—
helanam — disrespect of the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
deva
—
deva — Lord of lords
;
arhasi
—
please
;
sāmyena
—
because of Your equipoised position
;
sarvān
—
everything
;
prativoḍhum
—
tolerate
;
aviduṣām
—
of us, who are all ignorant .
Translation
O Lord, You perform many wonderful activities. Our only aim was to acquire a son by performing this great sacrifice; therefore our intelligence is not very sharp. We are not experienced in ascertaining life’s goal. By inviting You to this negligible sacrifice for some material motive, we have certainly committed a great offense at Your lotus feet. Therefore, O Lord of lords, please excuse our offense because of Your causeless mercy and equal mind.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O performer of many actions! Lord of lords! You should tolerate the offense of persons like us who are foolish and full of material desires and who have called you to this sacrifice, since you are equal to all.
Asking pardon for their offense of asking for a material benediction, they conclude their praise of the Lord. O performer of many activities! This means “Though you rarely show yourself to Brahmā, you have shown yourself to us, who are full of desires.” You should tolerate the offense of us priests who have called you here because of our foolishness and material desires, because, O Lord of lords, you are equal to all (sāmyena).
Purport
The priests were certainly unhappy to have called the Supreme Lord from Vaikuṇṭha for such an insignificant reason. A pure devotee never wants to see the Lord unnecessarily. The Lord is engaged in various activities, and the pure devotee does not want to see Him whimsically, for his own sense gratification. The pure devotee simply depends on the Lord’s mercy, and when the Lord is pleased, he can see Him face to face. The Lord is unseen even by demigods like Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva. By calling on the Supreme Lord, the priests of Nābhi Mahārāja proved themselves unintelligent; nonetheless, the Lord came out of His causeless mercy. All of them therefore wanted to be excused by the Lord.
Worship of the Supreme Lord for material gain is not approved by authorities. As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.16)
:
catur-vidhā bhajante māṁ
janāḥ sukṛtino ’rjuna
ārto jijṣāsur arthārthī
jṣānī ca bharatarṣabha
“O best among the Bharatas [Arjuna], four kinds of pious men render devotional service unto Me — the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.”
Initiation into
bhakti
begins when one is in a distressed condition or in want of money, or when one is inquisitive to understand the Absolute Truth. Nonetheless, people who approach the Supreme Lord in this way are not actually devotees. They are accepted as pious (
sukṛtinaḥ
) due to their inquiring about the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Not knowing the various activities and engagements of the Lord, such people unnecessarily disturb the Lord for material gain. However, the Lord is so kind that even though disturbed, He fulfills the desires of such beggars. The pure devotee is
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnya;
he has no motive behind his worship. He is not conducted by the influence of
māyā
in the form of
karma
or
jṣāna.
The pure devotee is always prepared to execute the order of the Lord without personal consideration. The
ṛtvijaḥ,
the priests at the sacrifice, knew very well the distinction between
karma
and
bhakti,
and because they considered themselves under the influence of
karma,
fruitive activity, they begged the Lord’s pardon. They knew that the Lord had been invited to come for some paltry reason.