Devanagari
एतावानेव लोकेऽस्मिन् पुंसां धर्म: पर: स्मृत: ।
भक्तियोगो भगवति तन्नामग्रहणादिभि: ॥ २२ ॥
Verse text
etāvān eva loke ’smin
puṁsāṁ dharmaḥ paraḥ smṛtaḥ
bhakti-yogo bhagavati
tan-nāma-grahaṇādibhiḥ
Synonyms
etāvān
—
this much
;
eva
—
indeed
;
loke asmin
—
in this material world
;
puṁsām
—
of the living entities
;
dharmaḥ
—
the religious principles
;
paraḥ
—
transcendental
;
smṛtaḥ
—
recognized
;
bhakti
—
yogaḥ — bhakti-yoga, or devotional service
;
bhagavati
—
to the Supreme Personality of Godhead (not to the demigods)
;
tat
—
His
;
nāma
—
of the holy name
;
grahaṇa
—
ādibhiḥ — beginning with chanting .
Translation
Devotional service, beginning with the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, is the ultimate religious principle for the living entity in human society.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Pure bhakti to the Supreme Lord, beginning with the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, is the real dharma, the supreme object for the human living in this world.
“Then you should teach us that dharma and deliver us servants!” In spite of many varieties of dharma existing, bhakti is actually the real dharma (etāvān). The word paraḥ is here a noun meaning “the highest thing.” This bhakti-yoga excludes bhakti mixed with the guṇas, such as offering karmas. This is the abhidheya-tattva of the Bhāgavatam. It has been said dharmaḥ projhita-kaitavo ’tra paramaḥ: the highest dharma rejects cheating dharma. (SB 1.1.2) Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmaḥ: bhakti-yoga is the supreme dharma for humanity. (SB 1.2.6)
Purport
As stated in the previous verse,
dharmaṁ bhāgavatam,
real religious principles, are
bhāgavata-dharma,
the principles described in
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
itself or in
Bhagavad-gītā,
the preliminary study of the
Bhāgavatam.
What are these principles? The
Bhāgavatam
says,
dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra:
in
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
there are no cheating religious systems. Everything in the
Bhāgavatam
is directly connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The
Bhāgavatam
further says,
sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje:
the supreme religion is that which teaches its followers how to love the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the reach of experimental knowledge. Such a religious system begins with
tan-nāma-grahaṇa,
chanting of the holy name of the Lord (
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam
). After chanting the holy name of the Lord and dancing in ecstasy, one gradually sees the form of the Lord, the pastimes of the Lord and the transcendental qualities of the Lord. This way one fully understands the situation of the Personality of Godhead. One can come to this understanding of the Lord, how He descends into the material world, how He takes His births and what activities He performs, but one can know this only by executing devotional service. As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā,
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti:
simply by devotional service one can understand everything about the Supreme Lord. If one fortunately understands the Supreme Lord in this way, the result is
tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti:
after giving up his material body, he no longer has to take birth in this material world. Instead, he returns home, back to Godhead. That is the ultimate perfection. Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in
Bhagavad-gītā
(8.15)
:
mām upetya punar janma
duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam
nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ
saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ
“After attaining Me, the great souls, who are
yogīs
in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.”