Shloka 5
Karma-vāda Critiqued, Varṇāśrama Reframed, and the Soul’s Distinction from the Body
यमानभीक्ष्णं सेवेत नियमान् मत्पर: क्वचित् । मदभिज्ञं गुरुं शान्तमुपासीत मदात्मकम् ॥ ५ ॥
yamān abhīkṣṇaṁ seveta niyamān mat-paraḥ kvacit mad-abhijñaṁ guruṁ śāntam upāsīta mad-ātmakam
ငါကို အမြင့်ဆုံး ဘဝရည်မှန်းချက်အဖြစ် လက်ခံသူသည် အပြစ်ကို တားမြစ်သော ယမများကို တင်းကျပ်စွာ လိုက်နာရမည်၊ ထို့ပြင် ဖြစ်နိုင်သမျှ သန့်ရှင်းမှုကဲ့သို့ နိယမများကိုလည်း ဆောင်ရွက်ရမည်။ သို့သော် နောက်ဆုံးတွင် ငါကို အမှန်တကယ် သိမြင်သော၊ စိတ်ငြိမ်သက်သော၊ ဝိညာဉ်ရေးအဆင့်မြင့်ခြင်းကြောင့် ငါနှင့် မကွာခြားသော စဒ္ဂုရုထံ ချဉ်းကပ်၍ ကိုးကွယ်ရမည်။
The word yamān refers to major regulative injunctions necessary for preserving one’s purity. In the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all bona fide members must give up eating meat, fish and eggs, and they must also avoid intoxication, gambling and illicit sex. The word abhīkṣṇam indicates that one cannot at any time perform such forbidden activities, even in difficult circumstances. The word niyamān refers to less obligatory injunctions, such as bathing three times daily. In certain difficult situations one may not bathe three times daily yet may still maintain one’s spiritual position. But if one engages in sinful, forbidden activities, even in difficult circumstances, there undoubtedly will be a spiritual falldown. Ultimately, as explained in Upadeśāmṛta, mere adherence to rules and regulations cannot give one spiritual perfection. One must approach a bona fide spiritual master who is mad-abhijñam, or in full knowledge of the personal form of Godhead. The word mat (“Me”) negates the possibility of a bona fide spiritual master having an impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth. Furthermore, the guru must be in complete control of his senses; therefore he is called śānta, or peaceful. Because of being completely surrendered to the mission of the Lord, such a spiritual master is mad-ātmakam, or nondifferent from the Personality of Godhead.
FAQs
In 11.10.5, Krishna instructs that a devotee should constantly practice the yamas (restraints) and observe the niyamas (disciplines) as appropriate, integrating moral conduct with devotion to Him.
Krishna says the guru who truly knows Him should be honored as His own embodiment, because the guru transmits realized knowledge and guides the devotee’s disciplined bhakti in a peaceful, God-centered way.
Maintain steady ethical restraints (truthfulness, non-violence, self-control), adopt supportive disciplines (cleanliness, contentment, study, prayer), and regularly serve a genuine, Krishna-centered teacher with humility and consistency.