हंसस्वरूप्यवददच्युत आत्मयोगं दत्त: कुमार ऋषभो भगवान् पिता न: । विष्णु: शिवाय जगतां कलयावतीर्ण- स्तेनाहृता मधुभिदा श्रुतयोहयास्ये ॥ १७ ॥
haṁsa-svarūpy avadad acyuta ātma-yogaṁ dattaḥ kumāra ṛṣabho bhagavān pitā naḥ viṣṇuḥ śivāya jagatāṁ kalayāvatīrṇas tenāhṛtā madhu-bhidā śrutayo hayāsye
- haṁsa-svarūpī
- assuming His eternal form of the swan incarnation
- avadat
- He spoke
- acyutaḥ
- the infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead
- ātma-yogam
- self-realization
- dattaḥ
- Dattātreya
- kumāraḥ
- the Kumāra brothers, headed by Sanaka
- ṛṣabhaḥ
- Ṛṣabhadeva
- bhagavān
- the Lord
- pitā
- father
- naḥ
- our
- viṣṇuḥ
- Lord Viṣṇu
- śivāya
- for the welfare
- jagatām
- of all the world
- kalayā
- by His secondary personal expansions
- avatīrṇaḥ
- descending to this world
- tena
- by Him
- āhṛtāḥ
- were brought back (from the depths of Pātālaloka)
- madhu-bhidā
- by the killer of the demon Madhu
- śrutayaḥ
- the original texts of the Vedas
- haya-āsye
- in the horse-headed incarnation
The infallible Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu, has descended into this world by His various partial incarnations such as Lord Haṁsa [the swan], Dattātreya, the four Kumāras and our own father, the mighty Ṛṣabhadeva. By such incarnations, the Lord teaches the science of self-realization for the benefit of the whole universe. In His appearance as Hayagrīva He killed the demon Madhu and thus brought the Vedas back from the hellish planet Pātālaloka.