Shloka 26
कलौ धर्मसुलभता — व्यासोपाख्यानम् एवं संकीर्तन-प्रधानता
तस्यार्जने महान् क्लेशः पालने च द्विजोत्तमाः तथासद्विनियोगाय विज्ञेयं गहनं नृणाम्
tasyārjane mahān kleśaḥ pālane ca dvijottamāḥ tathāsadviniyogāya vijñeyaṃ gahanaṃ nṛṇām
In acquiring it there is great hardship, and in safeguarding it as well, O best of the twice-born; and then its wrongful expenditure—know this to be the deep snare that bewilders human beings.
Sage Parāśara (teaching Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: The burdens and delusions surrounding wealth: acquisition, protection, and wrongful expenditure
Teaching: Ethical
Quality: revealing
Concept: Wealth binds through the triple misery of earning, guarding, and then being driven into wrongful use—an obscure snare that confuses human discernment.
Vedantic Theme: Maya
Application: Simplify possessions, practice transparency and restraint in spending, and redirect surplus toward dharmic purposes to avoid compulsive acquisition.
Vishishtadvaita: Highlights bondage through misdirected agency; liberation is aided when resources are subordinated to service of the Lord rather than to egoic control.
FAQs
This verse frames wealth as binding because it brings suffering in acquisition, anxiety in protection, and moral downfall through wrongful use—an emblem of Kali Yuga’s confusion.
Parāśara highlights a cycle of toil and attachment: people struggle to gain possessions, fear losing them, and then become entangled in unethical spending—showing how dharma becomes obscured.
By exposing the bondage of attachment, the text implicitly points toward Vishnu-centered dharma and inner surrender as the stabilizing refuge beyond Kali Yuga’s worldly traps.