Shloka 18
Parīkṣit’s Comprehensive Inquiries and the Bhāgavata as Śabda-avatāra
नृणां साधारणो धर्म: सविशेषश्च यादृश: । श्रेणीनां राजर्षीणां च धर्म: कृच्छ्रेषु जीवताम् ॥ १८ ॥
nṛṇāṁ sādhāraṇo dharmaḥ saviśeṣaś ca yādṛśaḥ śreṇīnāṁ rājarṣīṇāṁ ca dharmaḥ kṛcchreṣu jīvatām
လူသားတို့၏ အထွေထွေ ဓမ္မသည် အဘယ်နည်း၊ အထူး (အလုပ်အကိုင်) ဓမ္မသည် မည်သို့နည်း။ လူမှုအဆင့်အတန်းများနှင့် ရာဇဋ္ဌိ (ရာဇရ္ဩီ) များ၏ ဓမ္မ၊ ဒုက္ခအခက်အခဲတွင် နေထိုင်သူတို့အတွက် ဓမ္မကိုလည်း ရှင်းပြပါ။
The common religion of all classes of human beings, regardless of whosoever and whatsoever one may be, is devotional service. Even the animals may be included in devotional service to the Lord, and the best example is set by Śrī Vajrāṅgajī, or Hanumān, the great devotee of Lord Śrī Rāma. As we have already discussed, even the aborigines and cannibals can also be engaged in the devotional service of the Lord if they happen to be under the guidance of a genuine devotee of the Lord. In the Skanda Purāṇa there is a narration that a hunter in the jungle became the most enlightened devotee of the Lord by the guidance of Śrī Nārada Muni. Therefore devotional service to the Lord can be equally shared by every living being.
FAQs
This verse asks for both sādhāraṇa-dharma (universal duties for all humans) and viśeṣa-dharma (duties according to one’s role—such as occupational orders and saintly rulers).
Facing imminent death and the pressures of Kali-yuga conditions, Parīkṣit seeks clear guidance on how people—especially leaders and social orders—should live righteously even under distress.
Hold to universal virtues (truthfulness, compassion, self-control) while also responsibly fulfilling your specific duties (family, work, leadership) without abandoning spiritual purpose during difficult times.