Shloka 37
The First Step in God Realization: The Glory of Hearing and the Virāṭ-Rūpa Meditation
ब्रह्माननं क्षत्रभुजो महात्मा विडूरुरङ्घ्रिश्रितकृष्णवर्ण: । नानाभिधाभीज्यगणोपपन्नो द्रव्यात्मक: कर्म वितानयोग: ॥ ३७ ॥
brahmānanaṁ kṣatra-bhujo mahātmā viḍ ūrur aṅghri-śrita-kṛṣṇa-varṇaḥ nānābhidhābhījya-gaṇopapanno dravyātmakaḥ karma vitāna-yogaḥ
ဗိရာတ်-ပုရုရှ၏ မျက်နှာသည် ဘြာဟ္မဏများ၊ လက်မောင်းများသည် က္ෂတ္တရိယများ; ပေါင်များသည် ဝိုင်ရှျများ၊ ရှုဒ္ဒရများသည် သူ၏ ခြေတော်အောက် အကာအကွယ်တွင် ရှိသည်။ ပူဇော်ထိုက်သော ဒေဝတားများလည်း အမျိုးမျိုးသော နာမများဖြင့် သူ့အတွင်း၌ပင် ပါဝင်နေကြသည်; ထို့ကြောင့် လူတိုင်း၏ တာဝန်မှာ ယथာသတ္တိ ပူဇော်ပစ္စည်းများဖြင့် ယဇ္ဉကို ဆောင်ရွက်ကာ သခင်ကို ပျော်ရွှင်စေခြင်း ဖြစ်သည်။
Monotheism is practically suggested here. Offering sacrifices to many demigods under different names is mentioned in the Vedic literatures, but the suggestion made in this verse is that all those varieties of demigods are included in the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; they are only the parts and parcels of the original whole. Similarly, the divisions of the orders of human society, namely the brāhmaṇas (the intelligent class), the kṣatriyas (the administrators), the vaiśyas (the mercantile community) and the śūdras (the laborer class), are all included in the body of the Supreme. As such, sacrifice by every one of them in terms of pleasing the Supreme by feasible goods is recommended. Generally, the sacrifice is offered with clarified butter and grains, but with the progress of time, human society has produced varieties of goods by transforming materials supplied by God’s material nature. Human society, therefore, must learn to offer sacrifices not only with clarified butter, but also with other manufactured goods in the propagation of the Lord’s glory, and that will bring about perfection in human society. The intelligent class of men, or brāhmaṇas, may give direction for such sacrifices in consultation with the previous ācāryas; the administrators may give all facilities to perform such sacrifices; the vaiśya class or mercantile community, who produce such goods, may offer them for sacrifice; and the śūdra class may offer their manual labor for the successful termination of such sacrifice. Thus by the cooperation of all classes of human beings, the sacrifice recommended in this age, namely the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, may be executed for the common welfare of all the people of the world.
FAQs
This verse explains the Universal Form: brāhmaṇas are His face, kṣatriyas His arms, vaiśyas His thighs, and śūdras are situated at His feet—showing all social orders as parts of the Divine whole.
He is teaching a practical meditation and God-realization method—seeing the cosmos and society as the Lord’s form—so Parikshit can fix his mind on the Supreme while preparing for death.
It encourages humility and service: honoring different roles as interconnected, avoiding pride or contempt, and remembering that all work and social functions are meant to support dharma and devotion.