Note: paada means feet. To read about the significance of the feet of the Guru, read: feet.

Notes: We often see the 'b' sound written 'bh' in the transliteration, meaning that it has extra air after it. But there is a different Sanskrit letter for a 'b' sound without extra air after it as well - and that is what we have to start this phrase. Not all 'b' sounds are 'bh' sounds.

In the transliteration, the 'u' should be pronounced like our 'oooo' sound.

in Sanskrit, there are two 'r' sounds - one that is a consonant, like our 'r', and another that is actually a vowel. Vowels have the purpose of helping you get from one sound to the next sound smoothly and easily. So when you see an 'r' before another consonant or consonant pair like the 'smrt' here, it's usually the vowel - give the 'r' a little roll of the tongue to lead it into the letters that follow. Sometimes it helps to imagine an invisible short 'i' after the 'r' sound, to help you say it.

If the word 'smrit' is a little tricky for you, try it at first as though you were saying 'sma+rit'. Then start making the 'a' shorter and shorter between 'sm' + 'rit', like you're smashing sma into rit so fast there's no longer room for the 'a' sound in between them.

Smrtvaa means memory or remember. For instance, there is a large classification of scriptures in India known as smrti, based on knowledge that has been remembered.

Notes: Not all instances of 'r' before consonants are the use of the vowel 'r' (as above in phrase 2). Here we have an 'r' sound that is not a vowel; in other words it does not act to link two sounds. It is just its own sound. This is just like how we use 'r' in English, so don't add a roll to it at all. It's just a flat 'r'.

In English, when we see a 'th', we always want to pronounce it like 'this' or 'that'. These are sounds that don't exist in Sanskrit. When you see the 'th', just give it extra air after the 't', like our word anthill.

Sarva means all and tirthaa means places of pilgrimage.

Note: In English, when we see a 'ph', we always want to pronounce it like 'fit' or 'fat'. These are sounds that don't exist in Sanskrit. When you see the 'ph', just give it extra air after the 'p', like our word pound.

In Sanskrit there is a letter often seen at the end of words that looks like a colon :
It is called visargha, and tells us to repeat the last vowel as though there were a faint echo to it. So here, our last vowel was an 'a', which is pronounced like a dull 'u' sound. So we kind of bounce on that once again, ever-so gently and delicately. Here is nara:

नरः

Phalam means fruit, and is used here to mean that which is fruitful or beneficial.

Now repeat the entire verse all together: