SB 7.15.42 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

अक्षं दशप्राणमधर्मधर्मौ चक्रेऽभिमानं रथिनं च जीवम् । धनुर्हि तस्य प्रणवं पठन्ति शरं तु जीवं परमेव लक्ष्यम् ॥ ४२ ॥

Verse text

akṣaṁ daśa-prāṇam adharma-dharmau cakre ’bhimānaṁ rathinaṁ ca jīvam dhanur hi tasya praṇavaṁ paṭhanti śaraṁ tu jīvaṁ param eva lakṣyam

Synonyms

akṣam — the spokes (on the chariot wheel) ; daśa — ten ; prāṇam — the ten kinds of air flowing within the body ; adharma — irreligion ; dharmau — religion (two sides of the wheel, up and down) ; cakre — in the wheel ; abhimānam — false identification ; rathinam — the charioteer or master of the body ; ca — also ; jīvam — the living entity ; dhanuḥ — the bow ; hi — indeed ; tasya — his ; praṇavam — the Vedic mantra oṁkāra ; paṭhanti — it is said ; śaram — an arrow ; tu — but ; jīvam — the living entity ; param — the Supreme Lord ; eva — indeed ; lakṣyam — the target .

Translation

The ten kinds of air acting within the body are compared to the spokes of the chariot’s wheels, and the top and bottom of the wheel itself are called religion and irreligion. The living entity in the bodily concept of life is the owner of the chariot. The Vedic mantra praṇava is the bow, the pure living entity himself is the arrow, and the target is the Supreme Being.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The ten life airs are the spokes. Dharma and adharma are the wheels. The conditioned jīva is the passenger. Oṁ is the bow. They say the pure jīva is the arrow, aimed at the Supreme Lord. The ten types of prāṇa are the spokes. They say the conditioned jīva is the passenger. Oṁ is the valuable bow obtained by the mercy of guru. The pure jīva is the arrow, aimed at the supreme Brahman. As an arrow is aimed with a bow and shot at a target, the jīva is shot at Brahman by uttering oṁ. “But in the metaphor of the chariot, if one aims at Brahman, then Brahman becomes the enemy. The enemy, climbing the chariot, is pierced by an arrow. Is the Brahman the enemy of the jīva because Brahman binds the jīva by its māyā-śakti?” nibhṛta-marun-mano-'kṣa-dṛḍha-yoga-yujo hṛdi yan munaya upāsate tad arayo 'pi yayuḥ smaraṇāt Simply by constantly thinking of him, the enemies of the Lord attained the same Supreme Truth whom sages fixed in yoga worship by controlling their breath, mind and senses. SB 10.87.23 It is true that, by having enmity for the Lord, one can attain the equivalent of the liberation that sages desire. Some say that the Supreme Lord gives both the jṣānī and the enemy liberation on seeing the small amount of secondary bhakti included within jṣāna and the assistance that the enemies give to the Lord in experiencing the happiness of vīra-rasa, since both enemies and the jṣānīs fire arrows at the Lord. Others say that, in aiming at the Paramātmā, they are like those who aimed at the fish in the wheel at Draupadī’s svayamvara ceremony. Just as Arjuna pierced the target with an arrow by the strength of his arms and attained Draupadī, the jṣānīs attain liberation by the strength of their bhakti. (Thus they are not really enemies.)

Purport

Ten kinds of life air always flow within the material body. They are called prāṇa, apāna, samāna, vyāna, udāna, nāga, kūrma, kṛkala, devadatta and dhanaṣjaya. They are compared here to the spokes of the chariot’s wheels. The life air is the energy for all of a living being’s activities, which are sometimes religious and sometimes irreligious. Thus religion and irreligion are said to be the upper and lower portions of the chariot’s wheels. When the living entity decides to go back home, back to Godhead, his target is Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the conditioned state of life, one does not understand that the goal of life is the Supreme Lord. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ . The living entity tries to be happy within this material world, not understanding the target of his life. When he is purified, however, he gives up his bodily conception of life and his false identity as belonging to a certain community, a certain nation, a certain society, a certain family and so on ( sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam ). Then he takes the arrow of his purified life, and with the help of the bow — the transcendental chanting of praṇava, or the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra — he throws himself toward the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has commented that because the words “bow” and “arrow” are used in this verse, one might argue that the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the living entity have become enemies. However, although the Supreme Personality of Godhead may become the so-called enemy of the living being, this is His chivalrous pleasure. For example, the Lord fought with Bhīṣma, and when Bhīṣma pierced the Lord’s body on the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, this was a kind of humor or relationship, of which there are twelve. When the conditioned soul tries to reach the Lord by hurling an arrow at Him, the Lord takes pleasure, and the living entity gains the profit of going back home, back to Godhead. Another example given in this regard is that Arjuna, as a result of piercing the ādhāra-mīna, or the fish within the cakra, achieved the valuable gain of Draupadī. Similarly, if with the arrow of chanting the holy name of the Lord one pierces Lord Viṣṇu’s lotus feet, by dint of performing this heroic activity of devotional service one receives the benefit of returning home, back to Godhead.