Text 44
taṁ tvā jagat-sthity-udayānta-hetuṁ
samaṁ prasāntaṁ suhṛd-ātma-daivam
ananyam ekaṁ jagad-ātma-ketaṁ
bhavāpavargāya bhajāma devam
tam — Him; tvā — You; jagat — of the universe; sthiti — of the maintenance; udaya — the rise; anta — and the demise; hetum — the cause; samam — equipoised; praśāntam — perfectly at peace; suhṛt — the friend; ātma — Self; daivam — and worshipable Lord; ananyam — without a second; ekam — unique; jagat — of all the worlds; ātma — and all souls; ketam — the shelter; bhava — of material life; apavargāya — for the cessation; bhajāma — let us worship; devam — the Supreme Lord.
Let us worship You, the Supreme Lord, to be freed from material life. You are the maintainer of the universe and the cause of its creation and demise. Equipoised and perfectly at peace, You are the true friend, Self and worshipable Lord. You are one without a second, the shelter of all the worlds and all souls.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī states that the Lord is a true friend because He sets one’s proper intelligence into motion if one desires to know the truth about God and the soul. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī both emphasize that the term bhavāpavargāya indicates the highest liberation of pure love of Godhead, characterized by unalloyed devotional service unto the Lord.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also explains that the Supreme Lord is samam, “perfectly objective and balanced,” whereas other living beings, having an incomplete grasp of reality, cannot be perfectly objective. Those who surrender unto the Lord also become fully objective by taking shelter of His supreme consciousness.