Shloka 29
Karma-vāda Critiqued, Varṇāśrama Reframed, and the Soul’s Distinction from the Body
यद्यधर्मरत: सङ्गादसतां वाजितेन्द्रिय: । कामात्मा कृपणो लुब्ध: स्त्रैणो भूतविहिंसक: ॥ २७ ॥ पशूनविधिनालभ्य प्रेतभूतगणान् यजन् । नरकानवशो जन्तुर्गत्वा यात्युल्बणं तम: ॥ २८ ॥ कर्माणि दु:खोदर्काणि कुर्वन् देहेन तै: पुन: । देहमाभजते तत्र किं सुखं मर्त्यधर्मिण: ॥ २९ ॥
yady adharma-rataḥ saṅgād asatāṁ vājitendriyaḥ kāmātmā kṛpaṇo lubdhaḥ straiṇo bhūta-vihiṁsakaḥ
ထိုကမ္မဖလကြောင့် ဇီဝသည် ထိုကိုယ်ဖြင့်ပင် ဒုက္ခဖလဖြစ်စေသော ကမ္မများကို ဆက်လက်ပြုလုပ်ပြီး၊ ထပ်ခါထပ်ခါ အလားတူ ကိုယ်ကို ခံယူရသည်။ နောက်ဆုံးတွင် သေခြင်းဖြင့်သာ အဆုံးသတ်သော အလုပ်များ၌ ရတနေသူအတွက် ပျော်ရွှင်မှု မည်သို့ရှိနိုင်မည်နည်း။
In the Vedic analysis of civilized life there are two paths. One who takes to the path of nivṛtti-mārga immediately renounces material sense gratification and purifies his existence by performance of austerity and devotional activities. On the path of pravṛtti-mārga one furnishes a steady supply of sense objects to the senses, but one consumes such sense objects under strict regulations and through ritualistic ceremonies, thus gradually purifying the heart and satiating the material senses. Unfortunately, as explained in this and the previous verse, the path of pravṛtti-mārga is extremely volatile because rather than becoming detached, the living entity often becomes uncontrolled and fully addicted to further sense gratification. In the previous verse the path of regulated, authorized sense gratification was described, and in this verse the path of unauthorized, demoniac sense gratification is described.
FAQs
This verse says that association with the wicked pushes one toward adharma, uncontrolled senses, lust, greed, and even violence toward living beings.
In His final instructions, Krishna warns Uddhava how moral and spiritual ruin begins with asat-saṅga and culminates in sinful, violent behavior that binds the soul.
Choose uplifting company, regulate sense habits, and avoid environments that normalize exploitation—especially of people and animals—since these patterns quickly harden into adharma.