jano 'budho 'yaṁ nija-karma-bandhanaḥ
jano 'budho 'yaṁ nija-karma-bandhanaḥ
sukhecchayā karma samīhate 'sukham
yat-sevayā tāṁ vidhunoty asan-matiṁ
granthiṁ sa bhindyād dhṛdayaṁ sa no guruḥ
Foolish people bound by their own actions perform actions with a desire for happiness, but those actions produce distress. You, by service to whom foolish people destroy those desires, should destroy the ignorance in our hearts which causes false conceptions.
Except for you, there is no way of being delivered. The jīva (janaḥ) performs actions with a desire for happiness by which there is no real happiness (asukham). By service to you, they destroy those desires for happiness (tām). You destroy ignorance (granthim) situated in the heart.
|| 8.24.48 ||
yat-sevayāgner iva rudra-rodanaṁ
pumān vijahyān malam ātmanas tamaḥ
bhajeta varṇaṁ nijam eṣa so 'vyayo
bhūyāt sa īśaḥ paramo guror guruḥ
Just as gold ore gives up its impurities by fire, the jīva will give up his ignorance by service to you, and attains his svarūpa. May that supreme unchanging Lord, the supreme guru, be our guru!
One should not claim that one can destroy ignorance by knowledge. Only by service to you the jīva (pumān) can destroy his contamination of ignorance, just as silver or gold (rudra-rodanam—tears of Rudra) gives up its impurities by fire. Śruti says yad arodīt tad rudrasya rudratvaṁ yad aśru aśīryate tad rajatam hiraṇyam abhavat: since he cried out at birth he is called Rudra; the tears that dropped became silver and gold. (Kṛṣṇa Yajur Veda, Taittirīya Saṁhitā 1.5.1.1.5) Ore gives up its impurities by contact with fire but not by washing. Similarly by jñāna and other process the jīva does not give up his impurities.
|| 8.24.49 ||
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