Text 46
labdhvā jano durlabham atra mānuṣaṁ
kathañcid avyaṅgam ayatnato ’nagha
pādāravindaṁ na bhajaty asan-matir
gṛhāndha-kūpe patito yathā paśuḥ
labdhvā — attaining; janaḥ — a person; durlabham — rarely obtained; atra — in this world; mānuṣam — the human form of life; kathañcit — somehow or other; avyaṅgam — with undistorted limbs (unlike the various animal forms); ayatnataḥ — without endeavor; anagha — O sinless one; pāda — Your feet; aravindam — lotuslike; na bhajati — he does not worship; asat — impure; matiḥ — his mentality; gṛha — of home; andha — blind; kūpe — in the well; patitaḥ — fallen; yathā — as; paśuḥ — an animal.
That person has an impure mind who, despite having somehow or other automatically obtained the rare and highly evolved human form of life, does not worship Your lotus feet. Like an animal that has fallen into a blind well, such a person has fallen into the darkness of a material home.
Our real home is in the kingdom of God. Despite our tenacious determination to remain in our material home, death will rudely eject us from the theater of material affairs. To stay at home is not bad, nor is it bad to devote ourselves to our loved ones. But we must understand that our real home is eternal, in the spiritual kingdom.
The word ayatnataḥ indicates that human life has been automatically awarded to us. We have not constructed our human bodies, and therefore we should not foolishly claim, “This body is mine.” The human form is a gift of God and should be used to achieve the perfection of God consciousness. One who does not understand this is asan-mati, possessed of dull, mundane understanding.