ya ÄÅ›u há¹›daya-granthiá¹
nirjihīṛṣuḥ parÄtmanaḥ
vidhinopacared devaá¹
tantroktena ca keśavam
yaḥ - one who; ÄÅ›u - quickly; há¹›daya-granthim - the knot of the heart (false identification with the material body); nirjihÄ«rá¹£uḥ - desirous of cutting; parÄtmanaḥ - of the transcendental soul; vidhinÄ - with the regulations; upacaret - he should worship; devam - the Supreme Personality of Godhead; tantra-uktena - which are described by the tantras (the supplementary Vedic literatures that give detailed instructions for spiritual practice); ca - as well (in addition to those regulations which are directly vedoktam); keÅ›avam - Lord KeÅ›ava.
The Vedic literatures contain mysterious descriptions of the Absolute Truth that stimulate philosophical speculation. The Vedas also offer heavenly rewards for the performance of ritualistic ceremonies. But as stated in verse 44 of this chapter such jñÄna-kÄṇá¸a and karma-kÄṇá¸a sections of the Vedas are bÄlÄnÄm anuÅ›Äsanam; that is, because less intelligent or childish persons are addicted to mental speculation and fruitive activity, these sections of the Vedas are meant to attract such persons to take shelter of the Vedic injunctions for gradual promotion to the perfect stage of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Now that the path for those who are materialistic has been described in several verses, this verse describes the process for those who are vijñaḥ, or learned transcendentalists. Such learned transcendentalists are advised to follow the regulated worship described in such Vaiṣṇava tantras as ÅšrÄ« NÄrada-pañcarÄtra for pleasing the Supreme Lord directly. The words upacared devaá¹ tantroktena ca keÅ›avam indicate that one should directly worship KeÅ›ava, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appears in many different incarnations to please His devotees. ÅšrÄ«la Jayadeva GosvÄmÄ« has described the pastimes of the Lord in his song describing ten prominent incarnations of the Personality of Godhead, KeÅ›ava: Lord Fish, Lord Tortoise, Lord Boar, Lord Ná¹›siá¹hadeva, Lord VÄmana, Lord ParaÅ›urÄma, Lord RÄmacandra, Lord BalarÄma, Lord Buddha and Lord Kalki. The words upacared devam indicate devotional service to the Personality of Godhead. And therefore the word tantroktena, or “injunctions of the tantras,†should be understood to indicate vaiṣṇava-tantras such as ÅšrÄ« NÄrada-pañcarÄtra, which give explicit and detailed instructions for worshiping KeÅ›ava. The Vedas are referred to by the term nigama. And the elaborate explanation of these nigamas is called Ägama, or tantra. When the transcendental living entity becomes perturbed by the obnoxious harassment of material bodily dualities, he becomes eager to hear from the Vedas about his transcendental situation. The word ÄÅ›u in this verse indicates that those who are eager to put a quick end to material existence and situate themselves in the eternal blissful life of perfect knowledge should directly worship Lord Kṛṣṇa, bypassing the preliminary Vedic rituals described in the previous verses.