Shloka 3

Yoga-siddhi — The Mystic Perfections and Their Origin in Meditation on the Lord

Devanagari script

श्रीभगवानुवाच सिद्धयोऽष्टादश प्रोक्ता धारणा योगपारगै: । तासामष्टौ मत्प्रधाना दशैव गुणहेतव: ॥ ३ ॥

Transliteration

śrī-bhagavān uvāca siddhayo ’ṣṭādaśa proktā dhāraṇā yoga-pāra-gaiḥ tāsām aṣṭau mat-pradhānā daśaiva guṇa-hetavaḥ

Translation

သီရိဘဂဝန် မိန့်တော်မူသည်—ယောဂကို ကျွမ်းကျင်သူများက သိဒ္ဓိနှင့် ဓာရဏာ အမျိုးအစား ၁၈ မျိုးရှိသည်ဟု ဆိုကြသည်။ ထိုအထဲမှ ၈ မျိုးသည် ငါ့ကို အခြေခံသော အဓိကဖြစ်ပြီး၊ ကျန် ၁၀ မျိုးသည် သတ္တဝဂုဏ်မှ ပေါ်ထွန်းသော အလယ်အလတ် (ဂೌဏ) ဖြစ်သည်။

Synonyms

• śrī-bhagavān: the Blessed Lord
• śrī-bhagavān: Karta (कर्ता/Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: śrī-bhagavat (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), एकवचन (Singular)

• uvāca: said
• uvāca: Kriyā (क्रिया/Verbal action)
• Type: Verb
• Root: vac (धातु)
• Form: लिट्-लकार (Perfect), प्रथम-पुरुष (3rd person), एकवचन (Singular), परस्मैपद (Parasmaipada)

• siddhayaḥ: perfections
• siddhayaḥ: Karta (कर्ता/Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: siddhi (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), बहुवचन (Plural)

• aṣṭādaśa: eighteen
• aṣṭādaśa: Visheshana (विशेषण/Qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: aṣṭā + daśa (संख्याप्रातिपदिक)
• Form: अव्ययवत् संख्याशब्द (numeral, indeclinable-like in many contexts); here qualifying ‘siddhayaḥ’ (Plural sense)

• proktāḥ: are declared
• proktāḥ: Kriyā (क्रिया/Predicative)
• Type: Verb
• Root: prokta (कृदन्त, √vac धातु with pra-)
• Form: क्त-प्रत्ययान्त (PPP), स्त्रीलिङ्ग?—here agrees with ‘सिद्धयः’ (Feminine plural nominative): प्रथमा-विभक्ति, बहुवचन

• dhāraṇāḥ: concentrations (dhāraṇās)
• dhāraṇāḥ: Karta (कर्ता/Subject/Apposition)
• Type: Noun
• Root: dhāraṇā (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), बहुवचन (Plural)

• yoga-pāra-gaiḥ: by those who have mastered yoga
• yoga-pāra-gaiḥ: Karaṇa (करण/Agent-instrument: ‘by’)
• Type: Noun
• Root: yoga (प्रातिपदिक) + pāra (प्रातिपदिक) + ga (कृदन्त, √gam धातु)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), तृतीया-विभक्ति (Instrumental/3rd), बहुवचन (Plural); ‘ग’ = क्त/णिनि-भावे agentive ‘one who has gone’ (पारग)

• tāsām: of those (perfections)
• tāsām: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/Genitive relation)
• Type: Noun
• Root: tad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), षष्ठी-विभक्ति (Genitive/6th), बहुवचन (Plural)

• aṣṭau: eight
• aṣṭau: Karta (कर्ता/Subject)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: aṣṭan (संख्याप्रातिपदिक)
• Form: प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), बहुवचन (Plural) (numeral used substantively/qualifying)

• mat-pradhānāḥ: chiefly pertaining to Me
• mat-pradhānāḥ: Visheshana (विशेषण/Qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: mad (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक) + pradhāna (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग (Feminine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), बहुवचन (Plural); ‘मत्’ = मम (my) in compound

• daśa: ten
• daśa: Karta (कर्ता/Subject)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: daśan (संख्याप्रातिपदिक)
• Form: प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), बहुवचन (Plural) (numeral)

• eva: indeed/only
• eva: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/Particle)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: eva (अव्यय)
• Form: अवधारण-अव्यय (emphatic particle)

• guṇa-hetavaḥ: caused by the guṇas
• guṇa-hetavaḥ: Visheshana (विशेषण/Qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: guṇa (प्रातिपदिक) + hetu (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग (Masculine), प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), बहुवचन (Plural)

Purport

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains the word mat pradhānāḥ as follows. Lord Kṛṣṇa is naturally the shelter of the eight primary mystic potencies and meditations because such perfections emanate from the Lord’s personal potency, and thus they are fully developed only within the Lord Himself and the Lord’s personal associates. When materialistic persons mechanically acquire such potencies, the perfections awarded are of an inferior degree and are considered to be manifestations of māyā, illusion. A pure devotee of the Lord automatically receives from the Lord wonderful potencies to execute his devotional service. If for sense gratification one mechanically endeavors to acquire mystic perfections, then these perfections are certainly considered to be inferior expansions of the Lord’s external potency.

Characters & Entities

• Kṛṣṇa

FAQs

What does the Srimad Bhagavatam say about the number of mystic siddhis?

In this verse, Lord Kṛṣṇa states that yogic authorities describe eighteen mystic perfections (siddhis).

Why does Kṛṣṇa distinguish between siddhis dependent on Him and those born of the guṇas?

Kṛṣṇa clarifies that some perfections are granted by divine sanction (dependent on Him), while others are products of material nature’s modes, helping the listener discern spiritual gifts from material accomplishments.

Practical application of this teaching on siddhis in modern life?

Treat extraordinary abilities or achievements with humility and discrimination—seek devotion to Kṛṣṇa rather than becoming distracted by powers that can arise from material conditioning.