Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 3 Chapter 23 Verse 42

Canto 3: The Status Quo | Chapter 23: Devahūti's Lamentation

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.23.42

kiḿ durāpādanaḿ teṣāḿ

puḿsām uddāma-cetasām

yair āśritas tīrtha-padaś

caraṇo vyasanātyayaḥ

SYNONYMS

kim — what; durāpādanam — difficult to achieve; teṣām — for those; puḿsām — men; uddāma-cetasām — who are determined; yaiḥ — by whom; āśritaḥ — taken refuge; tīrtha-padaḥ — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; caraṇaḥ — feet; vyasana-atyayaḥ — which vanquish dangers.

TRANSLATION

What is difficult to achieve for determined men who have taken refuge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's lotus feet? His feet are the source of sacred rivers like the Ganges, which put an end to the dangers of mundane life.

PURPORT

The words yair āśritas tīrtha-padaś caraṇaḥ are significant here. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as tīrtha-pāda. The Ganges is called a sacred river because it emanates from the toe of Viṣṇu. The Ganges is meant to eradicate all the material distresses of the conditioned souls. For any living entity, therefore, who has taken shelter of the holy lotus feet of the Lord, nothing is impossible. Kardama Muni is special not because he was a great mystic, but because he was a great devotee. Therefore it is said here that for a great devotee like Kardama Muni, nothing is impossible. Although yogīs can perform wonderful feats, as Kardama has already displayed, Kardama was more than a yogī because he was a great devotee of the Lord; therefore he was more glorious than an ordinary yogī. As it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā, "Out of the many yogīs, he who is a devotee of the Lord is first class." For a person like Kardama Muni there is no question of being conditioned; he was already a liberated soul and better than the demigods, who are also conditioned. Although he was enjoying with his wife and many other women, he was above material, conditional life. Therefore the word vyasanātyayaḥ is used to indicate that he was beyond the position of a conditioned soul. He was transcendental to all material limitations.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness