Shloka 9

Devanagari script

श्रीभगवानुवाच धर्म्य एष तव प्रश्न‍ो नै:श्रेयसकरो नृणाम् । वर्णाश्रमाचारवतां तमुद्धव निबोध मे ॥ ९ ॥

Transliteration

śrī-bhagavān uvāca dharmya eṣa tava praśno naiḥśreyasa-karo nṛṇām varṇāśramācāravatāṁ tam uddhava nibodha me

Translation

ဘုရားသခင်က မိန့်တော်မူသည်– အို ဥဒ္ဓဝ၊ သင်၏ မေးခွန်းသည် ဓမ္မနှင့် ကိုက်ညီပြီး လူသားတို့အတွက် အမြင့်ဆုံးသော ကောင်းကျိုး—နိဿရေယသ—ကို ဖြစ်စေသည်။ သာမန်လူများအတွက်လည်း၊ ဝဏ္ဏာရှ్రమ အကျင့်ကို လိုက်နာသူများအတွက်လည်း ဖြစ်သည်။ ယခု ငါထံမှ ထိုအမြင့်မြတ်သော ဓမ္မသဘောတရားများကို သင်ယူလော့။

Synonyms

• śrī-bhagavān: The Supreme Lord
• śrī-bhagavān: Karta (Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: śrī-bhagavat (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular

• uvāca: said
• uvāca: Kriya (Action)
• Type: Verb
• Root: vac (धातु)
• Form: Lit (Perfect), Parasmaipada, 3rd Person, Singular

• dharmyaḥ: consistent with dharma/religious
• dharmyaḥ: Visheshana (Qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: dharmya (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular

• eṣaḥ: this
• eṣaḥ: Karta (Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: etad (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular

• tava: your
• tava: Sambandha (Relation)
• Type: Noun
• Root: yuṣmad (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Genitive (6th/षष्ठी), Singular

• praśnaḥ: question
• praśnaḥ: Karta (Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: praśna (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular

• naiḥśreyasa-karaḥ: causing the highest good (liberation)
• naiḥśreyasa-karaḥ: Visheshana (Qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: naiḥśreyasa-kara (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Nominative (1st/प्रथमा), Singular

• nṛṇām: of men/humans
• nṛṇām: Sambandha (Relation)
• Type: Noun
• Root: nṛ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Genitive (6th/षष्ठी), Plural

• varṇāśramācāravatāṁ: of those following the conduct of Varna and Ashrama
• varṇāśramācāravatāṁ: Visheshana (Qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: varṇāśramācāravat (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Genitive (6th/षष्ठी), Plural

• tam: that (answer/topic)
• tam: Karma (Object)
• Type: Noun
• Root: tad (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Accusative (2nd/द्वितीया), Singular

• uddhava: O Uddhava
• uddhava: Sambodhana (Address)
• Type: Noun
• Root: uddhava (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Masculine, Vocative (Sambodhana/सम्बोधन), Singular

• nibodha: learn/hear
• nibodha: Kriya (Action)
• Type: Verb
• Root: ni + budh (धातु)
• Form: Lot (Imperative), Parasmaipada, 2nd Person, Singular

• me: from me
• me: Apadana (Source)
• Type: Noun
• Root: asmad (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: Ablative (5th/पञ्चमी), Singular

Purport

The word naiḥśreyasa-kara indicates that which awards the highest perfection of life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which the Lord is explaining to Śrī Uddhava. When considering religious principles, ordinary human beings remain bogged down in sectarian mundane considerations. The process that awards the highest perfection of life should be considered the most auspicious for human beings. The varṇāśrama system is the most scientific presentation of religiosity on the earth, and those who are most perfect in that system come to the point of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, or dedicating everything for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord.

Characters & Entities

• Uddhava
• Kṛṣṇa

FAQs

What does the Srimad Bhagavatam say about varṇāśrama-dharma in Canto 11?

In this verse, Lord Kṛṣṇa affirms that inquiry into varṇāśrama conduct is righteous and beneficial, and He begins instructing Uddhava on the system of regulated duties meant to bring the highest welfare (naiḥśreyasa) to human life.

Why did Lord Kṛṣṇa say this to Uddhava?

Uddhava asked a dharmic question aimed at true well-being, so Kṛṣṇa praises the inquiry and prepares to teach the practical code of varṇa and āśrama as part of His Uddhava-gītā instructions.

Practical application of naiḥśreyasa (highest good) in modern life?

Approach spiritual life with sincere questions and adopt a disciplined, duty-based lifestyle aligned with one’s nature and stage of life, using dharma as a framework to progress toward inner purification and liberation.