Shloka 46
Bhagavān’s Avatāras, Their Protections (Poṣaṇa), and the Limits of Knowing Him
ते वै विदन्त्यतितरन्ति च देवमायां स्त्रीशूद्रहूणशबरा अपि पापजीवा: । यद्यद्भुतक्रमपरायणशीलशिक्षा- स्तिर्यग्जना अपि किमु श्रुतधारणा ये ॥ ४६ ॥
te vai vidanty atitaranti ca deva-māyāṁ strī-śūdra-hūṇa-śabarā api pāpa-jīvāḥ yady adbhuta-krama-parāyaṇa-śīla-śikṣās tiryag-janā api kim u śruta-dhāraṇā ye
မိန်းမများ၊ ရှုဒြ၊ ဟုဏ၊ ရှဗရ စသည့် ပాపဘဝနေထိုင်သူများတောင် သန့်ရှင်းသော ဘက္တများထံ အားကိုးအပ်နှံ၍ သူတို့၏ ခြေရာကိုလိုက်ကာ ဘက္တိစေဝာကို ကျင့်သုံးလျှင် ဘုရားသခင်၏ သိပ္ပံကို သိနိုင်ပြီး ဒေဝမாயာကို ကျော်လွန်ကာ လွတ်မြောက်နိုင်သည်။ ထို့ကြောင့် သြတ္တိ (śruti) ကို ထိန်းသိမ်းသူများဆိုလျှင် မည်မျှပိုမိုလွယ်ကူမည်နည်း။
Sometimes there are inquiries as to how one can surrender unto the Supreme Lord. In the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66) the Lord asked Arjuna to surrender unto Him, and therefore persons unwilling to do so question where God is and to whom they should surrender. The answer to such questions or inquiries is given herein very properly. The Personality of Godhead may not be present before one’s eyes, but if one is sincere in wanting such guidance the Lord will send a bona fide person who can guide one properly back home, back to Godhead. There is no need of material qualifications for making progress on the path of spiritual realization. In the material world, when one accepts some particular type of service, he is required to possess some particular type of qualification also. Without this one is unfit for such service. But in the devotional service of the Lord the only qualification required is surrender. Surrendering oneself is in one’s own hand. If one likes, he can surrender immediately, without delay, and that begins his spiritual life. The bona fide representative of God is as good as God Himself. Or, in other words, the loving representative of the Lord is more kind and more easy to approach. A sinful soul cannot approach the Lord directly, but such a sinful man can very easily approach a pure devotee of the Lord. And if one agrees to put himself under the guidance of such a devotee of the Lord, he can also understand the science of God and can also become like the transcendental pure devotee of the Lord and thus get his liberation back to Godhead, back home for eternal happiness.
FAQs
This verse states that anyone can cross the Lord’s māyā by taking shelter of the wondrous path of bhakti and being trained in devotional conduct—even those considered socially outside Vedic culture, and even beings in animal forms.
He emphasizes bhakti’s universality: spiritual realization is not restricted by birth or social category; sincere devotion and proper guidance enable one to know the Lord and transcend māyā.
Focus on steady devotional practice—hearing sacred teachings, associating with devotees, and adopting devotional conduct—rather than judging spiritual potential by background, status, or past mistakes.