Shloka 8
Divinity and Divine Service
Bhagavān and Bhakti as the Supreme Dharma
धर्म: स्वनुष्ठित: पुंसां विष्वक्सेनकथासु य: । नोत्पादयेद्यदि रतिं श्रम एव हि केवलम् ॥ ८ ॥
dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ notpādayed yadi ratiṁ śrama eva hi kevalam
Die Pflichten, die ein Mensch seiner Stellung gemäß ausführt, sind nur nutzlose Mühe, wenn sie keine Liebe zu den Erzählungen von Viṣvaksena (dem Herrn) erwecken.
There are different occupational activities in terms of man’s different conceptions of life. To the gross materialist who cannot see anything beyond the gross material body, there is nothing beyond the senses. Therefore his occupational activities are limited to concentrated and extended selfishness. Concentrated selfishness centers around the personal body — this is generally seen amongst the lower animals. Extended selfishness is manifested in human society and centers around the family, society, community, nation and world with a view to gross bodily comfort. Above these gross materialists are the mental speculators who hover aloft in the mental spheres, and their occupational duties involve making poetry and philosophy or propagating some ism with the same aim of selfishness limited to the body and the mind. But above the body and mind is the dormant spirit soul whose absence from the body makes the whole range of bodily and mental selfishness completely null and void. But less intelligent people have no information of the needs of the spirit soul.
FAQs
This verse says that even well-performed prescribed duties are only labor if they do not awaken attraction (rati) for hearing and speaking the Lord’s narrations (Viṣvaksena-kathā).
In Canto 1 Chapter 2, Suta answers the sages’ inquiry about the essence of religion by establishing that the true success of dharma is measured by whether it leads to devotion and relish for the Lord’s topics.
Continue your duties, but connect them to bhakti by regularly hearing Bhagavatam/Krishna-kathā, offering the results to the Lord, and cultivating genuine taste for devotion—so work becomes spiritual practice rather than mere toil.