Shloka 3
वैष्णवीमायावितानम्, उग्रसेनाभिषेकः, सुधर्मासभा, सांदीपनिगमनम्, पाञ्चजन्य-प्राप्तिः, गुरुदक्षिणा
कुर्वतां याति यः कालो मातापित्रोर् अपूजनम् तत् खण्डम् आयुषो व्यर्थं साधूनाम् उपजायते
kurvatāṃ yāti yaḥ kālo mātāpitror apūjanam tat khaṇḍam āyuṣo vyarthaṃ sādhūnām upajāyate
For those who let their days pass without honoring mother and father, the time that slips away thus becomes, to the wise, a wasted fragment cut from the span of life.
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya in a dharma-instruction passage)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Kṛṣṇa’s instruction on honoring parents in the context of His reunion
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: authoritative
Avatara: Krishna
Purpose: Kṛṣṇa teaches dharma by declaring that neglect of mother and father makes one’s lifetime fruitless.
Leela: Dharma-upadesa
Dharma Restored: Gṛhastha-dharma and social order rooted in reverence to parents
Concept: Time spent without honoring one’s parents is a wasted portion of life even for the wise.
Vedantic Theme: Dharma
Application: Maintain regular acts of gratitude and service to parents/elders (care, respectful speech, support), treating it as daily sādhana.
Vishishtadvaita: Dharma is embodied devotion: service to those who mediate one’s existence (parents) aligns the self with Bhagavān’s order.
Vishnu Form: Krishna
Bhakti Type: Dasya
FAQs
This verse treats neglect of parents as a direct loss of meaningful life-time—time passes, but it becomes spiritually “wasted” when basic dharma like mātṛ-pitṛ-pūjā is ignored.
Parāśara frames time as a measurable portion of one’s lifespan; when spent in apūjana (non-honoring) of parents, it is a “khanda” of life that yields no dharmic fruit for the sādhus.
Even when Vishnu is not named, the instruction supports Vaishnava dharma: sustaining social and moral order is part of living in alignment with the Supreme Lord’s cosmic governance, where dharma makes life purposeful.