SB 4.21.36
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 36
- aho mamāmī vitaranty anugrahaṁ
- hariṁ guruṁ yajña-bhujām adhīśvaram
- sva-dharma-yogena yajanti māmakā
- nirantaraṁ kṣoṇi-tale dṛḍha-vratāḥ
SYNONYMS
aho — O all of you; mama — unto me; amī — all of them; vitaranti — distributing; anugraham — mercy; harim — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; gurum — the supreme spiritual master; yajña-bhujām — all the demigods eligible to accept yajña offerings; adhīśvaram — the supreme master; sva-dharma — occupational duties; yogena — by dint of; yajanti — worship; māmakāḥ — having a relationship with me; nirantaram — incessantly; kṣoṇi-tale — on the surface of the globe; dṛḍha-vratāḥ — with firm determination.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the master and enjoyer of the results of all sacrifices, and He is the supreme spiritual master as well. All of you citizens on the surface of the globe who have a relationship with me and are worshiping Him by dint of your occupational duties are bestowing your mercy upon me. Therefore, O my citizens, I thank you.
PURPORT
Mahārāja Pṛthu's advice to his citizens to take to devotional service is now concluded in two ways. He has repeatedly advised persons who are neophytes to engage themselves in devotional service according to the capacities of the different orders of social and spiritual life, but here he specifically thanks those already engaged in such devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is actually the enjoyer of all sacrificial ceremonies and who is also the supreme teacher as antaryāmī, or Paramātmā. There is specific mention of the word gurum, which indicates the Supreme Personality as caitya-guru. The Supreme Godhead in His Paramātmā feature is present in everyone's heart, and He is always trying to induce the individual soul to surrender unto Him and to engage in devotional service; therefore He is the original spiritual master. He manifests Himself as spiritual master both internally and externally to help the conditioned soul both ways. Therefore He has been mentioned herein as gurum. It appears, however, that in the time of Mahārāja Pṛthu all the people on the surface of the globe were his subjects. Most of them—in fact, almost all of them—were engaged in devotional service. Therefore he thanked them in a humble way for engaging in devotional service and thus bestowing their mercy upon him. In other words, in a state where the citizens and the head of state are engaged in devotional service unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they help one another and are mutually benefited.