Shloka 12
Varṇāśrama-dharma as a Path to Bhakti
Yuga-dharma Origins, Universal Virtues, Brahmacarya and Gṛhastha Duties
त्रेतामुखे महाभाग प्राणान्मे हृदयात्त्रयी । विद्या प्रादुरभूत्तस्या अहमासं त्रिवृन्मख: ॥ १२ ॥
tretā-mukhe mahā-bhāga prāṇān me hṛdayāt trayī vidyā prādurabhūt tasyā aham āsaṁ tri-vṛn makhaḥ
အို မဟာဘဂါ၊ တရေတာယုဂအစတွင် ပရာဏ၏ အာသနဖြစ်သော ငါ၏ နှလုံးမှ ဝေဒဗေဒပညာသည် သုံးပိုင်း—ရိဂ်၊ စာမ၊ ယဇုရ်—အဖြစ် ပေါ်ထွန်းလာသည်။ ထိုပညာမှတစ်ဆင့် ငါသည် သုံးမျိုးယဇ္ဍ (ယဇ్ఞ) အဖြစ် ထင်ရှားလာသည်။
In Tretā-yuga, the bull of religion loses one leg, and only seventy-five percent of religious principles are manifested, represented by the three principal Vedas — Ṛg, Sāma and Yajur. The Lord appears in the process of threefold Vedic sacrifice. The three divisions are understood as follows. The hotā priest offers oblations into the fire and chants the Ṛg Veda; the udgātā priest chants the Sāma Veda; and the adhvaryu priest, who arranges the sacrificial ground, altar, etc., chants the Yajur Veda. In Tretā-yuga such sacrifice is the authorized process for spiritual perfection. The word prāṇāt in this verse refers to the universal form of the Personality of Godhead. This form is further described in the following verses.
FAQs
In this verse, Śrī Kṛṣṇa states that at the beginning of Tretā-yuga the threefold Vedic knowledge (trayī-vidyā) manifested from the life-breath within His own heart—indicating the Vedas are divine revelation rooted in the Supreme.
Kṛṣṇa is instructing Uddhava on dharma and varṇāśrama principles; here He grounds Vedic ritual and yajña in their ultimate source—Himself—so Uddhava understands that true dharma culminates in devotion to the Lord.
Offer daily work, worship, charity, and simple acts of service with devotion, remembering that the goal of all sacred duty is to please the Supreme—turning “ritual” into heartfelt God-centered living.