Devanagari
एतद् वपुस्ते भगवन्ध्यायत: परमात्मन: ।
सर्वतो गोप्तृ सन्त्रासान्मृत्योरपि जिघांसत: ॥ २९ ॥
Verse text
etad vapus te bhagavan
dhyāyataḥ paramātmanaḥ
sarvato goptṛ santrāsān
mṛtyor api jighāṁsataḥ
Synonyms
etat
—
this
;
vapuḥ
—
body
;
te
—
Your
;
bhagavan
—
O Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
dhyāyataḥ
—
those who meditate upon
;
parama
—
ātmanaḥ — of the Supreme Person
;
sarvataḥ
—
from everywhere
;
goptṛ
—
the protector
;
santrāsāt
—
from all kinds of fear
;
mṛtyoḥ api
—
even from fear of death
;
jighāṁsataḥ
—
if one is envied by an enemy .
Translation
My dear Lord, O Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are the Supreme Soul. If one meditates upon Your transcendental body, You naturally protect him from all sources of fear, even the imminent danger of death.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O Lord! You are the protector from all fear and destructive death for the person who meditates upon the form of Paramātmā.
You are the protector (goptṛ) from death (mṛtyoḥ).
Purport
Everyone is sure to die, for no one is excused from the hands of death, which is but a feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead (
mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham
). When one becomes a devotee, however, he is not destined to die according to a limited duration of life. Everyone has a limited duration of life, but a devotee’s lifetime can be extended by the mercy of the Supreme Lord, who is able to nullify the results of one’s
karma.
Karmāṇi nirdahati kintu ca bhakti-bhājāṁ.
This is the statement of
Brahma-saṁhitā
(5.54)
. A devotee is not under the laws of
karma.
Therefore even a devotee’s scheduled death can be avoided by the causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord. God protects the devotee even from the extreme danger of death.