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Shloka 5

Vānaprastha-vidhi and Sannyāsa-dharma: Austerity, Detachment, and the Paramahaṁsa Ideal

अग्निपक्वं समश्न‍ीयात् कालपक्व‍मथापि वा । उलूखलाश्मकुट्टो वा दन्तोलूखल एव वा ॥ ५ ॥

agni-pakvaṁ samaśnīyāt kāla-pakvam athāpi vā ulūkhalāśma-kuṭṭo vā dantolūkhala eva vā

မီးဖြင့်ချက်ပြုတ်ထားသော အစေ့အနှံတို့ကိုလည်း စားနိုင်သကဲ့သို့၊ အချိန်ကြာ၍ သဘာဝအတိုင်းမှည့်သော သစ်သီးတို့ကိုလည်း စားနိုင်သည်။ အစားအစာကို အုတ်ခလ်နှင့် ကျောက်ဖြင့် ထောင်းစားနိုင်သလို၊ မိမိသွားများကိုပင် အုတ်ခလ်ကဲ့သို့ သုံး၍ ကိုက်ဝါးစားနိုင်သည်။

अग्नि-पक्वम्fire-cooked (food)
अग्नि-पक्वम्:
कर्म (Karma/Object)
TypeAdjective
Rootअग्नि + पक्व (प्रातिपदिक; क्त-प्रत्ययान्त from √पच्)
Formनपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/द्वितीया), एकवचन; Accusative singular; तत्पुरुष: ‘cooked by fire’
समश्नीयात्should eat
समश्नीयात्:
क्रिया (Kriyā/Verb)
TypeVerb
Rootसम् + अश् (धातु)
Formविधिलिङ् (Optative), प्रथमपुरुष, एकवचन; Parasmaipada; ‘should eat’
काल-पक्वम्time-ripened
काल-पक्वम्:
कर्म (Karma/Object)
TypeAdjective
Rootकाल + पक्व (प्रातिपदिक; क्त-प्रत्ययान्त from √पच्)
Formनपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/द्वितीया), एकवचन; Accusative singular; तत्पुरुष: ‘ripened by time’
अथor else/then
अथ:
सम्बन्धसूचक (Connector)
TypeIndeclinable
Rootअथ (अव्यय)
Formअव्यय; conjunction/particle (अनन्तरार्थक/विकल्पार्थक)
अपिalso/even
अपि:
सम्बन्धसूचक (Particle)
TypeIndeclinable
Rootअपि (अव्यय)
Formअव्यय; particle (समुच्चय/अप्यर्थ)
वाor
वा:
सम्बन्धसूचक (Disjunction)
TypeIndeclinable
Rootवा (अव्यय)
Formअव्यय; disjunctive particle (विकल्पार्थक)
उलूखल-अश्म-कुट्टः(one who uses) mortar and stone-pestle
उलूखल-अश्म-कुट्टः:
कर्ता (Kartā/Subject)
TypeNoun
Rootउलूखल + अश्म + कुट्ट (प्रातिपदिक)
Formपुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st/प्रथमा), एकवचन; Nominative singular; द्वन्द्वसमास (copulative): ‘(using) mortar and stone-pestle’ (as a person having/using them)
वाor
वा:
सम्बन्धसूचक (Disjunction)
TypeIndeclinable
Rootवा (अव्यय)
Formअव्यय; disjunctive particle (विकल्पार्थक)
दन्त-उलूखलः(one who uses) teeth as a mortar
दन्त-उलूखलः:
कर्ता (Kartā/Subject)
TypeNoun
Rootदन्त + उलूखल (प्रातिपदिक)
Formपुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st/प्रथमा), एकवचन; Nominative singular; तत्पुरुष: ‘tooth as mortar’ i.e., grinding with teeth
एवindeed/only
एव:
सम्बन्धसूचक (Emphasis)
TypeIndeclinable
Rootएव (अव्यय)
Formअव्यय; emphatic particle (निश्चयार्थक/अवधारण)
वाor
वा:
सम्बन्धसूचक (Disjunction)
TypeIndeclinable
Rootवा (अव्यय)
Formअव्यय; disjunctive particle (विकल्पार्थक)

In Vedic civilization it is recommended that at the end of one’s life one should go to a holy place or forest for spiritual perfection. In sacred forests one does not find restaurants, supermarkets, fast-food chains and so on, and thus one must eat simply, reducing sense gratification.

K
Kṛṣṇa
U
Uddhava

FAQs

In this verse, Kṛṣṇa explains that a renunciant should accept extremely simple food—either cooked by fire or naturally ripened—minimizing dependence on complex preparation and living with austerity.

Kṛṣṇa is teaching Uddhava the conduct of renunciation and self-control—how an aspirant reduces bodily demands and cultivates detachment while remaining focused on spiritual realization.

Adopt voluntary simplicity: reduce unnecessary consumption, prefer plain and wholesome food, and cultivate gratitude and restraint so the mind can stay steady in devotion and self-discipline.