Chapter 23
देश: काल: पृथग्द्रव्यं मन्त्रतन्त्रर्त्विजोऽग्नय: । देवता यजमानश्च क्रतुर्धर्मश्च यन्मय: ॥ १० ॥ तं ब्रह्म परमं साक्षाद् भगवन्तमधोक्षजम् । मनुष्यदृष्ट्या दुष्प्रज्ञा मर्त्यात्मानो न मेनिरे ॥ ११ ॥
Transliteration
deśaḥ kālaḥ pṛthag dravyaṁ mantra-tantrartvijo ’gnayaḥ devatā yajamānaś ca kratur dharmaś ca yan-mayaḥtaṁ brahma paramaṁ sākṣād bhagavantam adhokṣajam manuṣya-dṛṣṭyā duṣprajñā martyātmāno na menire
Synonyms (Word-for-Word)
deśaḥ — the place; kālaḥ — time; pṛthak dravyam — particular items of paraphernalia; mantra — Vedic hymns; tantra — prescribed rituals; ṛtvijaḥ — priests; agnayaḥ — sacrificial fires; devatāḥ — the presiding demigods; yajamānaḥ — the performer of the sacrifice; ca — and; kratuḥ — the offering; dharmaḥ — the invisible power of fruitive results; ca — and; yat — whom; mayaḥ — constituting; tam — Him; brahma paramam — the Supreme Absolute Truth; sākṣāt — directly manifest; bhagavantam — the Personality of Godhead; adhokṣajam — who is transcendental to material senses; manuṣya-dṛṣṭyā — seeing Him as an ordinary man; duṣprajñāḥ — perverted in their intelligence; martya-ātmānaḥ — falsely identifying themselves with the material body; na menire — they did not properly honor.
Translation
“Although the ingredients of sacrificial performance — the place, time, particular paraphernalia, mantras, rituals, priests, fires, demigods, performer, offering and the as yet unseen beneficial results — are all simply aspects of His opulences, the brāhmaṇas saw Lord Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary human because of their perverted intelligence. They failed to recognize that He is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the directly manifest Personality of Godhead, whom the material senses cannot ordinarily perceive. Thus bewildered by their false identification with the mortal body, they did not show Him proper respect.”