Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.72.4
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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pāduke
—
Your slippers
Dual. The two sandals — service to which is itself the highest worship. For Gauḍīyas, the pādukās are non-different from the Lord by acintya-bhedābheda: serve the sandals, you have served Him.
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abhadra-naśane
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which destroy everything inauspicious
Compound, locative dual. The sandals themselves do the destroying — the devotee need not even strain. Cf. Caitanya: the Lord's name and feet cleanse what no austerity can touch.
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kamala-nābha
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O lotus-naveled one
Vocative. From Kṛṣṇa's navel rose Brahmā and the universe; Yudhiṣṭhira is reminding himself (and the sabhā) that he is addressing the source of cosmic manifestation, not merely a kinsman.
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bhava-apavargam
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cessation of material existence
The fruit served by the pādukās. Note: not extinguishment of self but liberation from saṁsāra. Gauḍīyas read apavarga not as merging but as entering eternal service in the Lord's realm.
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anye
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others (who do not take shelter)
The pivot of the verse. Whatever non-devotees pursue slips through their hands — devotees, even when they harbour desires, attain them along with apavarga. The verse closes with the cold word anye, leaving them empty.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes in this connection that liberated, Kṛṣṇa conscious persons “do not even desire to become freed from this material existence or to enjoy material opulences; their desires are fulfilled by Kṛṣṇa conscious activities. As far as we [King Yudhiṣṭhira] are concerned, we are fully surrendered unto Your lotus feet, and by Your grace we are so fortunate to see You personally. Therefore, naturally we have no desire for material opulences. The verdict of the Vedic wisdom is that You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. I want to establish this fact, and I also want to show the world the difference between accepting You as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and accepting You as an ordinary powerful historical person. I wish to show the world that one can attain the highest perfection of life simply by taking shelter at Your lotus feet, exactly as one can satisfy the branches, twigs, leaves and flowers of an entire tree simply by watering the root. Thus, if one takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his life becomes fulfilled both materially and spiritually.” Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī similarly explains King Yudhiṣṭhira’s statement: “We feel no great urgency to perform the Rājasūya sacrifice, nor do we have any personal interest, since we are already seeing Your lotus feet and by Your boundless mercy have been taken into Your personal association. But in this world there are some whose hearts are contaminated and who thus think You are not the Supreme Personality of Godhead but an ordinary man. Or else they find fault with You and even criticize You. This is an arrow piercing our hearts. “Therefore, to extract this arrow from our heart, we must call to this place — on the pretext of the Rājasūya — Brahmā, Rudra and other wise brahmacārīs and demigods who reside in each of the fourteen planetary systems. When such an exalted congregation has assembled, it will be incumbent upon them to first arrange for the agra-pūjā, or the first worship for the most worthy person present. And when they are directly shown that You, Lord Kṛṣṇa, are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the arrow piercing our heart will be removed.”
"We, who by your unlimited mercy of your direct association, see your lotus feet, have no need for performing the rajasuya sacrifice. However, the evil hearted persons present do not recognize you as the supreme lord and think you are a human being. Even, they find fault with you and criticize your behavior. This is an arrow in our hearts. Therefore on the pretext of the sacrifice, calling Brahma, Siva and others, who know everything, the brahmacaris and devatas, calling all those in the fourteen worlds, who will establish who is to be worshipped first, as is necessary in any assembly, and thus showing who is the supreme lord, the arrow in our hearts will be destroyed. That is my desire." He expresses this in three verses. Dividing pari and caranti is poetic license. "Those who serve your lotus feet which destroy all inauspicious elements up to ignorance (the root), attain freedom from bondage. And those who meditate on you , being worshippers full of desires, if desiring material objects, enjoy these, but not others. This means that your worshippers include even those with material desires and they desire such things, but your devotees never desire material results (na anye). What to speak of us, who have no material desires, having taken shelter of your feet, and directly seen you."
Persons who constantly serve your shoes obtain liberation what to speak of those who serve your lotus feet directly. What to speak of those who without effort meditate on them or without effort glorify them. They glorify your shoes as the object of devotion, for they destroy all inauspiciousness at once. They become free of all inauspicious obstacles to bhakti internally and externally (sucayaḥ). If these people do not fully engage in bhakti, they still obtain all material and non-material enjoyment and destruction of saṁsāra. The Lord himself says this and it is not available to others: sarvaṁ mad-bhakti-yogena mad-bhakto labhate ’ñjasā svargāpavargaṁ mad-dhāma kathañcid yadi vāñchati If somehow or other my devotee desires Svarga, liberation, or residence in my abode, he easily achieves such benedictions. SB 11.20.33 It is also said: svargāpavargayoḥ puṁsāṁ rasāyāṁ bhuvi sampadām sarvāsām api siddhīnāṁ mūlaṁ tac-caraṇārcanam Devotional service to his lotus feet is the root cause of all the perfections a person can find in heaven, in liberation, in the subterranean regions and on earth. SB 10.81.20 The reason is given. You have a lotus navel (as Garbhodakaśāyī): you are the shelter of all the worlds just by your expansion. You are the controller of all beings (īśa). Or joining the last statement with aviratam the meaning is “They enjoy blessings constantly.”
Persons who constantly serve your shoes obtain liberation what to speak of those who serve your lotus feet directly. Kunti states that the feet give mercy to the earth: neyaṁ śobhiṣyate tatra yathedānīṁ gadādhara | tvat-padair aṅkitā bhāti sva-lakṣaṇa-vilakṣitaiḥ || O holder of the club! When you go, this land, marked with the special signs on your feet, will not glow as it does now. SB 1.8.39 Though one generally thinks of the Lord’s feet without shoes, the statement is made considering offering royal items to the Lord. Or it is stated out of great humility. Or he accepts when some devotees insist on offering them. Or since the shoes exist among the Lord’s wardrobe, they constantly serve, meditate on and glorify those shoes. This is the tendency of devotees when they develop rasa or pious persons situated here and there in order to make their bodies, minds and words successful. Or they constantly hear (gṛṇanti) about the shoes which destroy unlimited suffering at the root at all times. By doing one of the actions, all three are accomplished. Those who have pure hearts by performing pure actions will do this (śucayaḥ). It accomplishes all dharmas. Or those who purify the world or who shine like fire (śucayaḥ) attain cessation of material life. Among serving, meditating and glorifying, glorifying is easiest. But any of them give effects. In the list glorifying requires less effort than meditating with prānāyāma. The persons attain destruction of saṁsāra, or liberation in the form of Vaikuṇṭha. Having a lotus navel indicates that the Lord is supreme, giving rise to the lotus which produces Brahmā, and that he consists of all the worlds. Serving the shoes of this Lord is the cause of attaining cessation of material life. Or kamala-nabha means that his navel is shaped like a lotus. Thus he is most beautiful as the supreme Lord. If these persons desire anything, they attain it. However they do not desire anything, since they have bhakti-rasa. If for some reason, at some time, they were to desire, they would attain those desires. O Lord (īśa)! All those desired attainments are dependent on you. Or without serving you, even kings have no power to attain these items. Or they attain liberation (bhavāpavargam). If they desire something for assisting their service to you, they attain it. Or if others, devoid of serve, desire items, they do not attain them by yoga, sacrifices etc.
- Badahari Pr SB 10-72-04 - Remembering Krishna even while Performing Devotional Service - 2007-12-10 ISKCON Melbourne
- Tamohara Pr SB 10-72-04 - 2015-08-14 ISKCON Alachua
- CMS SB 10-72-04 - Seeking Krishna to fulfill your Desires - 2015-12-19 ISKCON Chowpatty
- PrahladAnS SB 10-72-04 - Shlokas for Shelter - 2014 dallas
- Where am I treating bhakti as if it could only meet my 'spiritual' needs?
- What would change if I trusted Kṛṣṇa with practical desires too?
Kṛṣṇa's pādukā — His sandals — are like a king's seal: wherever the seal is pressed, the king's authority is present. Bharata ruled Ayodhyā with Rāma's sandals on the throne. The verse promises that even constant remembrance of those sandals destroys what is inauspicious — for the seal carries the king Himself.
When Rāma went to the forest, Bharata refused the throne and instead placed Rāma's pādukās on it, ruling as their servant for fourteen years. Whatever was inauspicious in the kingdom was burnt away by that single act of taking shelter of the Lord's sandals.
Yudhiṣṭhira invokes that same image: the pādukā is not symbolic. It is the Lord's tangible mercy, capable of destroying material life itself (bhava-apavargam).
Dhruva went to the forest asking for a kingdom greater than his father's; what arrived was the Lord Himself, and the kingdom became an afterthought. The verse here makes the same point: those who serve the Lord's feet get the lasting fruit (bhava-apavargam), and even their material desires, if any, are fulfilled along the way. Those who do not take shelter (anye) get neither permanent nor temporary satisfaction.
My note
Source: vedabase.io