त्रस्तोऽस्म्यहं कृपणवत्सल दुःसहोग्र-
संसारचक्रकदनाद्ग्रसतां प्रणीतः ।
बद्धः स्वकर्मभिरुशत्तम तेऽङ्घ्रिमूलं
प्रीतोऽपवर्गशरणं ह्वयसे कदा नु ॥
trasto’smy ahaṁ kṛpaṇa-vatsala duḥsahogra-
saṁsāra-cakra-kadanād grasatāṁ praṇītaḥ |
baddhaḥ sva-karmabhir uśattama te’ṅghri-mūlaṁ
prīto’pavarga-śaraṇaṁ hvayase kadā nu ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 7.9.16)
“Cast among devourers [i.e., asuras],
And bound by my own karmas,
I am afraid of the havoc
Of the fierce, difficult to bear wheel of saṁsāra.
O you who are affectionate to the pitiable,
O Greatest Beloved,
When will you be pleased
And call [me] to the shelter that is [itself] liberation—
The soles of your feet?”
Commentary
kintu tvad-vaimukhya-pradāyaka-duḥsaṅgādibhya eva bhīto’smīty āha—trasto’smīti | duḥsahaṁ yat tvan-nindā-dveṣādi-mayatvād ugraṁ saṁsāra-cakra-kadanaṁ tasmād eva trasto’smi, na tu sādhāraṇa-saṁsārād iti prahlādābhiprāyo vyākhyeyaḥ ‘naivodvije para duratyaya-vaitaraṇyās tvad-vīrya-gāyana-mahāmṛta-magna-cittaḥ’ ity-agrima-tad-ukteḥ |
(Excerpt from the Sārārtha-darśinī-ṭīkā)
“[Prahlāda Mahārāja to Bhagavān:] ‘But I am afraid specifically of the bad association that engenders aversion to you.’ Thus, he [i.e., Prahlāda] says trasto’smi … [i.e., he speaks this verse]. ‘I am afraid specifically of the havoc of the wheel of saṁsāra, which is fierce and difficult to bear because of [its] being filled with enmity, defamation, and so forth of you.’ In this way the intention of Prahlāda is to be explained in accord with his forthcoming statement [in SB 7.9.43], ‘Of mind absorbed in the great nectar of the [songs sung by] singers of your feats, I am certainly not afraid, O Supreme One, of the insurmountable Vaitaraṇī’ [i.e., it is not that Prahlāda Mahārāja fears conventional forms of suffering in saṁsāra but rather that he fears only the elements within saṁsāra that are adverse to bhakti to Bhagavān, which is his sole desired object, since he later says in SB 7.9.43 that by virtue of being absorbed in bhakti to Bhagavān he has no fear of saṁsāra in general].”