Shloka 30
Chapter 19
को यज्ञः का च दक्षिणा पुंसः किं स्विद् बलं श्रीमन् ।
भगो लाभश्च केशव का विद्या ह्रीः परा का श्रीः ॥
ko yajñaḥ kā ca dakṣiṇā puṃsaḥ kiṃ svid balaṃ śrīman / bhago lābhaś ca keśava kā vidyā hrīḥ parā kā śrīḥ //
အို ဂုဏ်ထူးမြတ်သော အရှင်ဘုရား၊ ယဇ္ဈ (ယဇ్ఞ) ဆိုတာဘာလဲ၊ တကယ့် ဒက္ခိဏာ (ပူဇော်လှူဒါန်း) ကဘာလဲ။ လူ၏ တကယ့် အင်အားကဘာလဲ။ အို ကေရှဝ၊ တကယ့် အိုင်ශ්ဝရ្យ (ဂုဏ်သိက္ခာ) နဲ့ တကယ့် အမြတ်လားဘ်ကဘာလဲ။ တကယ့် ဗိဒ္ယာ၊ အမြင့်ဆုံး ရှက်ကြောက်မှု၊ နှင့် အမြတ်ဆုံး သရီ (အလှနှင့် စည်းစိမ်) ကဘာလဲ။
Continuing his inquiry, Uddhava probes the heart of Vedic culture: yajña (sacrifice), dakṣiṇā (the offering that completes sacrifice), strength, prosperity, gain, knowledge, modesty, and beauty. These are commonly praised in society, yet easily misunderstood. In the Bhagavata’s vision, yajña ultimately culminates in devotion to the Supreme Lord—offering one’s life, actions, and results to Him. Dakṣiṇā is not a transaction for prestige but a sacred act that supports dharma and honors those who transmit spiritual knowledge. Strength is redefined away from domination toward mastery over the senses and steadiness in righteousness. Similarly, opulence and gain are measured not by accumulation but by what advances one toward liberation and loving service to Kṛṣṇa. Knowledge is not mere information but realized wisdom that reveals the self and the Lord. Higher modesty is the refined inner restraint that protects devotion from pride and exploitation. By asking these questions, Uddhava prepares the listener to see that all celebrated human assets—power, wealth, learning, and beauty—reach their perfection only when harmonized with bhakti and offered back to the source of all blessings, Śrī Kṛṣṇa.
FAQs
In Uddhava’s questions here, yajña is treated as a spiritual principle needing definition—pointing toward sacrifice perfected when centered on the Supreme Lord and offered without ego.
Dakṣiṇā is the proper offering given in connection with sacrifice; Uddhava asks its true meaning so it is understood as dharmic support and sacred gratitude, not display or bargaining.
Use this verse to reassess strength as self-control and integrity, and gain as what increases spiritual clarity and devotion rather than only material accumulation.