तत्त्वं न ते वयमनञ्जन रुद्रशापात्
कर्मण्यवग्रहधियो भगवन्विदामः ।
धर्मोपलक्षणमिदं त्रिवृदध्वराख्यं
ज्ञातं यदर्थमधिदैवमदो व्यवस्थाः ॥२७॥
ṛtvija ūcuḥ
tattvaá¹ na te vayam anañjana rudra-Å›ÄpÄt
karmaṇy avagraha-dhiyo bhagavan vidÄmaḥ
dharmopalaká¹£aṇam idaá¹ trivá¹›d adhvarÄkhyaá¹
jñÄtaá¹ yad-artham adhidaivam ado vyavasthÄḥ
á¹›tvijaḥ - the priests; Å«cuḥ - began to say; tattvam - truth; na - not; te - of Your Lordship; vayam - all of us; anañjana - without material contamination; rudra - Lord Åšiva; Å›ÄpÄt - by his curse; karmaṇi - in fruitive activities; avagraha - being too much attached; dhiyaḥ - of such intelligence; bhagavan - O Lord; vidÄmaḥ - know; dharma - religion; upalaká¹£aṇam - symbolized; idam - this; tri-vá¹›t - the three departments of knowledge of the Vedas; adhvara - sacrifice; Äkhyam - of the name; jñÄtam - known to us; yat - that; artham - for the matter of; adhidaivam - for worshiping the demigods; adaḥ - this; vyavasthÄḥ - arrangement.
The priests addressed the Lord, saying: O Lord, transcendental to material contamination, by the curse offered by Lord Śiva’s men we have become attached to fruitive activities, and thus we are now fallen and therefore do not know anything about You. On the contrary, we are now involved in the injunctions of the three departments of the Vedic knowledge under the plea of executing rituals in the name of yajña. We know that You have made arrangements for distributing the respective shares of the demigods.
The Vedas are known as traiguṇya-viá¹£ayÄ vedÄḥ (Bg. 2.45). Those who are serious students of the Vedas are very much attached to the ritualistic ceremonies mentioned in the Vedas, and therefore these veda-vÄdÄ«s cannot understand that the ultimate goal of the Vedas is to understand Lord Kṛṣṇa, or Viṣṇu. Those who have transcended the qualitative Vedic attractions, however, can understand Kṛṣṇa, who is never contaminated by the material qualities. Therefore Lord Viṣṇu is addressed here as anañjana, “free from material contamination.†In Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (2.42) the crude Vedic scholars have been deprecated by Kṛṣṇa as follows:
yÄm imÄá¹ puá¹£pitÄá¹ vÄcaá¹
pravadanty avipaścitaḥ
veda-vÄda-ratÄḥ pÄrtha
nÄnyad astÄ«ti vÄdinaḥ
“Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, and they say that there is nothing more than this.â€
