Devanagari
नैवात्मन: प्रभुरयं निजलाभपूर्णो
मानं जनादविदुष: करुणो वृणीते ।
यद् यज्जनो भगवते विदधीत मानं
तच्चात्मने प्रतिमुखस्य यथा मुखश्री: ॥ ११ ॥
Verse text
naivātmanaḥ prabhur ayaṁ nija-lābha-pūrṇo
mānaṁ janād aviduṣaḥ karuṇo vṛṇīte
yad yaj jano bhagavate vidadhīta mānaṁ
tac cātmane prati-mukhasya yathā mukha-śrīḥ
Synonyms
na
—
nor
;
eva
—
certainly
;
ātmanaḥ
—
for His personal benefit
;
prabhuḥ
—
Lord
;
ayam
—
this
;
nija
—
lābha — pūrṇaḥ — is always satisfied in Himself (He does not need to be satisfied by the service of others)
;
mānam
—
respect
;
janāt
—
from a person
;
aviduṣaḥ
—
who does not know that the aim of life is to please the Supreme Lord
;
karuṇaḥ
—
(the Supreme Personality of Godhead), who is so kind to this foolish, ignorant person
;
vṛṇīte
—
accepts
;
yat yat
—
whatever
;
janaḥ
—
a person
;
bhagavate
—
unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
vidadhīta
—
may offer
;
mānam
—
worship
;
tat
—
that
;
ca
—
indeed
;
ātmane
—
for his own benefit
;
prati
—
mukhasya — of the reflection of the face in the mirror
;
yathā
—
just as
;
mukha
—
śrīḥ — the decoration of the face .
Translation
The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always fully satisfied in Himself. Therefore when something is offered to Him, the offering, by the Lord’s mercy, is for the benefit of the devotee, for the Lord does not need service from anyone. To give an example, if one’s face is decorated, the reflection of one’s face in a mirror is also seen to be decorated.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Lord, complete in himself and merciful, does not accept the respect of an ignorant person for his own benefit. Whatever that person gives to the Lord is for that person’s benefit, just as a face’s beauty produces a beautiful reflection.
“Then respecting me by hearing, chanting and offerings is bhakti. I am pleased with that, and not by austerity or study of the Vedas. If that is so, it means that I am self-centered.” That is not so. You, the Lord, do not accept respect from an ignorant person for yourself. Everyone from Brahmā to the tree is ignorant. No righteous person accepts respect from a person devoid of knowledge of scripture. It is said that the quality of knowledge in a person is the cause of accepting his respect. And a certain quality fixed in you is a cause of accepting that person’s respect. You are complete in your own attainments, but merciful. Thus you accept the respect of an ignorant person. Why do you accept? You accept to show mercy to him. Your accepting his respect is your quality of mercy, which is fixed in you. That is the cause. You do not gain by the respect given by any material person, but the giver of respect gains. Whatever worship a person offers to the Lord is beneficial for that person, just as the beauty of tilaka on the face is reflected in a beautiful image on a mirror. Beautifying a reflection does not produce a beautiful reflection.
Purport
In
bhakti-yoga
it is recommended that a devotee follow nine principles:
śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam/ arcanaṁ
vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.
This service of glorifying the Lord by hearing, chanting and so on is not, of course, meant for the benefit of the Lord; this devotional service is recommended for the benefit of the devotee. The Lord is always glorious, whether the devotee glorifies Him or not, but if the devotee engages in glorifying the Lord, the devotee himself automatically becomes glorious.
Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam.
By glorifying the Lord constantly, the living entity becomes purified in the core of his heart, and thus he can understand that he does not belong to the material world but is a spirit soul whose actual activity is to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that he may become free from the material clutches. Thus the blazing fire of material existence is immediately extinguished (
bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam
). A foolish person is amazed that Kṛṣṇa orders,
sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja:
“Abandon all varieties of religious activities and just surrender unto Me.” Some foolish scholars even say that this is too much to demand. But this demand is not for the benefit of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; rather, it is for the benefit of human society. If human beings individually and collectively surrender everything to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all of human society will benefit. One who does not dedicate everything to the Supreme Lord is described in this verse as
aviduṣa,
a rascal. In
Bhagavad-gītā
(7.15)
, the Lord Himself speaks in the same way:
na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jṣānā
āsuraṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ
“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.” Because of ignorance and misfortune, the atheists and the
narādhamas,
the lowest of men, do not surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore although the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa, is full in Himself, He appears in different
yugas
to demand the surrender of the conditioned souls so that they will benefit by becoming free from the material clutches. In conclusion, the more we engage in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and render service unto the Lord, the more we benefit. Kṛṣṇa does not need service from any of us.