TEXT 34

panthas tu koti-sata-vatsara-sampragamyo
vayor athapi manaso muni-pungavanam
so 'py asti yat-prapada-simny avicintya-tattve
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami

WORD FOR WORD

panthah--the path; tu--but; koti-sata--thousands of millions; vatsara--of years; sampragamyah--extending over; vayoh-- of wind; atha api--or; manasah--of the mind; muni-pungavanam--of the foremost jnanis; sah--that (path); api--only; asti--is; yat--of whom; prapada--of the toe; simni--to the tip; avicintya-tattve--beyond material conception; govindam--Govinda; adi-purusam--the original person; tam--Him; aham--I; bhajami--worship.

TRANSLATION

I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, only the lip of the toe of whose lotus feet is approached by the yogis who aspire after the transcendental and be take themselves to pranayama by drilling the respiration; or by the jnanis who try to find out the non differentiated Brahman by the process of elimination of the mundane, extending over thousands of millions of years.

PURPORT

The attainment of the lotus feet of Govinda consists in the realization of unalloyed devotion. The kaivalya (realized non alternative state) which is attained by the astanga-yogis by practicing trance for thousands of millions of years and the state of merging into the non differentiated impersonality of Godhead beyond the range of limitation attained by non dualists after a similar period passed in distinguishing between the spirituals and nonspiritual and eliminating things of the limited sphere one after another by the formula "not this, not that," are simply the outs its of the lotus feet of Krsna and not the lotus feet themselves. The long and short of the matter is this, kaivalya or merging into the Brahman constitutes the line of demarcation between the world of limitation and the transcendental world. For, unless we step beyond them, we can have no taste of the variegatedness of the transcendental sphere. These conditions are the simple absence of misery arising from mundane affinity but are not real happiness or felicity. If the absence of misery be called a bit of pleasure then also that bit is very small and of no consequence. It is not sufficient to destroy the condition of materiality; but the real gain to the jiva is his eternal existence in his self-realized state. This can be attained only by the grace of unalloyed devotion which is essentially cut or transcendental in character. For this end abstract and uninteresting mental speculation is of no avail.