FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 3.13.35

रूपं तवैतन्ननु दुष्कृतात्मनां दुर्दर्शनं देव यदध्वरात्मकम् । छन्दांसि यस्य त्वचि बर्हिरोम- स्वाज्यं द‍ृशि त्वङ्‌घ्रि षु चातुर्होत्रम् ॥ ३५ ॥
rūpaṁ tavaitan nanu duṣkṛtātmanāṁ
[roopam tavaitan nanu dushkritaatmanaam]
durdarśanaṁ deva yad adhvarātmakam
[durdarshanam deva yad adhvaraatmakam]
chandāṁsi yasya tvaci barhi-romasv
[chandaamsi yasya tvachi barhi-romasv]
ājyaṁ dṛśi tv aṅghriṣu cātur-hotram
[aajyam drishi tv anghrishu chaatur-hotram]
Word-for-word
rūpam — form tava — Your etat — this nanu — but duṣkṛta-ātmanām — of souls who are simply miscreants durdarśanam — very difficult to see deva — O Lord yat — that adhvara-ātmakam — worshipable by performances of sacrifice chandāṁsi — the Gāyatrī mantra and others yasya — whose tvaci — touch of the skin barhiḥ — sacred grass called kuśa romasu — hairs on the body ājyam — clarified butter dṛśi — in the eyes tu — also aṅghriṣu — on the four legs cātuḥ-hotram — four kinds of fruitive activities.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
rūpaṁ tavaitan nanu duṣkṛtātmanāṁ
rūpam
form
tava
Your
etat
this
nanu
but
duṣkṛta-ātmanām
of souls who are simply miscreants
durdarśanaṁ deva yad adhvarātmakam
durdarśanam
very difficult to see
deva
O Lord
yat
that
adhvara-ātmakam
worshipable by performances of sacrifice
chandāṁsi yasya tvaci barhi-romasv
chandāṁsi
the Gāyatrī mantra and others
yasya
whose
tvaci
touch of the skin
barhiḥ
sacred grass called kuśa
romasu
hairs on the body
ājyaṁ dṛśi tv aṅghriṣu cātur-hotram
ājyam
clarified butter
dṛśi
in the eyes
tu
also
aṅghriṣu
on the four legs
cātuḥ-hotram
four kinds of fruitive activities.
O Lord, Your form is worshipable by performances of sacrifice, but souls who are simply miscreants are unable to see it. All the Vedic hymns, Gāyatrī and others, are in the touch of Your skin. In Your bodily hairs is the kuśa grass, in Your eyes is the clarified butter, and in Your four legs are the four kinds of fruitive activities.
Purport

There is a class of miscreants who are known in the words of Bhagavad-gītā as veda-vādī, or so-called strict followers of the Vedas. They do not believe in the incarnation of the Lord, what to speak of the Lord’s incarnation as the worshipable hog. They describe worship of the different forms or incarnations of the Lord as anthropomorphism. In the estimation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam these men are miscreants, and in Bhagavad-gītā (7.15) they are called not only miscreants but also fools and the lowest of mankind, and it is said that their knowledge has been plundered by illusion due to their atheistic temperament. For such condemned persons, the Lord’s incarnation as the gigantic hog is invisible. These strict followers of the Vedas who despise the eternal forms of the Lord may know from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that such incarnations are personified forms of the Vedas. Lord Boar’s skin, His eyes and His bodily hair holes are all described here as different parts of the Vedas. He is therefore the personified form of the Vedic hymns, and specifically the Gāyatrī mantra.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
O Lord! The sinful cannot see your form as sacrifice, from whose skin arose the verses, from whose hair holes arose kuśa grass, from whose eyes arose ghee, and from whose feet arose the four hotras. They praise Varāha as the form of sacrifice in four verses. Saying that the verses of the Vedas are in his skin means that his skin is the cause of the verses. Absence of long vowel in barhi is poetic license. Cāturhotram refers to the four actions of the hotra, adhvaryu, udgātā and brahma.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Worship in this verse is described as the soul's most natural language, the one we forget we already know. The verse invites us to use it without dressing it up.
Reflection Questions
  • Where in your prayer life have polished phrases replaced honest ones?
  • Whom could you teach to pray honestly, even briefly, this week?
📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

← Read full Chapter 13