Shloka 1
Karma, Jñāna, and Bhakti: Vedic Dharma, Piety and Sin, and the Boat of Human Life
श्रीउद्धव उवाच विधिश्च प्रतिषेधश्च निगमो हीश्वरस्य ते । अवेक्षतेऽरविन्दाक्ष गुणं दोषं च कर्मणाम् ॥ १ ॥
śrī-uddhava uvāca vidhiś ca pratiṣedhaś ca nigamo hīśvarasya te avekṣate ’raviṇḍākṣa guṇaṁ doṣaṁ ca karmaṇām
သီရိ ဥဒ္ဓဝ က ပြောသည်— အို ကြာပန်းမျက်စိရှိသော ကృష్ణ၊ သင်သည် အမြင့်ဆုံး အရှင်ဖြစ်သဖြင့် အမိန့်နှင့် တားမြစ်ချက်တို့ပါဝင်သော ဝေဒကျမ်းများသည် သင်၏ အမိန့်တော်ပင် ဖြစ်သည်။ ထိုကျမ်းများသည် ကర్మ၏ ကောင်းမှုနှင့် အပြစ်ကို စိစစ်၍ ညွှန်ပြသည်။
At the end of the previous chapter, Lord Kṛṣṇa stated, guṇa-doṣa-dṛśir doṣo guṇas tūbhaya-varjitaḥ: “Focusing upon material piety and sin is itself a discrepancy, since actual piety means to transcend both of them.” Śrī Uddhava now pursues this point so that Lord Kṛṣṇa will give a more elaborate explanation of this difficult subject matter. Śrī Uddhava here states that the Vedic literatures, which constitute the laws of God, deal with piety and sin; therefore, it must be clarified how one transcends activities recommended in the Vedas. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Uddhava suddenly understood Lord Kṛṣṇa’s purpose in the words He had just spoken, and to induce the Lord to elaborate upon this interesting point Uddhava outwardly challenged the Lord’s statement.
FAQs
This verse states that the Vedas—being the Lord’s own ordinance—teach both what should be done and what should be avoided, evaluating actions by their merit (guṇa) and fault (doṣa).
Uddhava is seeking clarity from Kṛṣṇa about how scriptural rules function—why the Vedas prescribe and forbid actions, and how to understand the good and bad results connected with karma.
Use śāstra-guided principles to evaluate choices: adopt actions that cultivate virtue and devotion, and avoid habits that produce harm and moral decline—especially in the distractions of Kali Yuga.