मानं जनादविदुष: करुणो वृणीते ।
यद् यज्जनो भगवते विदधीत मानं
तच्चात्मने प्रतिमुखस्य यथा मुखश्री: ॥ ११ ॥
mānaṁ janād aviduṣaḥ karuṇo vṛṇīte
yad yaj jano bhagavate vidadhīta mānaṁ
tac cātmane prati-mukhasya yathā mukha-śrīḥ
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvamāśritāḥ
SYNONYMS
na—nor; eva—certainly; ātmanaḥ—for His personal benefit; prabhuḥ—Lord; ayam—this; nija-lābha-pūrṇaḥ—is always satisfied in Himself (He does not need to be satisfied by the service of others); mānam—respect; janāt—from a person; aviduṣaḥ—who does not know that the aim of life is to please the Supreme Lord; karuṇaḥ—(the Supreme Personality of Godhead), who is so kind to this foolish, ignorant person; vṛṇīte—accepts; yat yat—whatever; janaḥ—a person; bhagavate—unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead; vidadhīta—may offer; mānam—worship; tat—that; ca—indeed; ātmane—for his own benefit; prati-mukhasya—of the reflection of the face in the mirror; yathā—just as; mukha-śrīḥ—the decoration of the face.
TRANSLATION
The Supreme Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is always fully satisfied in Himself. Therefore when something is offered to Him, the offering, by the Lord's mercy, is for the benefit of the devotee, for the Lord does not need service from anyone. To give an example, if one's face is decorated, the reflection of one's face in a mirror is also seen to be decorated.
PURPORT
In bhakti-yoga it is recommended that a devotee follow nine principles; śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam/ arcanam. vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam [SB 7.5.23] . This service of glorifying the Lord by hearing, chanting and so on is not, of course, meant for the benefit of the Lord; this devotional service is recommended for the benefit of the devotee. The Lord is always glorious, whether the devotee glorifies Him or not, but if the devotee engages in glorifying the Lord, the devotee himself automatically becomes glorious. Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam [Cc. Antya 20.12]. By glorifying the Lord constantly, the living entity becomes purified in the core of his heart, and thus he can understand that he does not belong to the material world but is a spirit soul whose actual activity is to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that he may become free from the material clutches. Thus the blazing fire of material existence is immediately extinguished (bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam). A foolish person is amazed that Kṛṣṇa orders, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: [Bg. 18.66] "Abandon all varieties of religious activities and just surrender unto Me." Some foolish scholars even say that this is too much to demand. But this demand is not for the benefit of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; rather, it is for the benefit of human society. If human beings individually and collectively surrender everything to the Supreme Personality of Godhead in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, all of human society will benefit. One who does not dedicate everything to the Supreme Lord is described in this verse as aviduṣa, a rascal. In Bhagavad-gītā (7.15), the Lord Himself speaks in the same way:
prapadyante narādhamāḥ
māyayāpahṛta-jñānā
āsuraṁ bhāvamāśritāḥ