Shloka 36
Karma, Jñāna, and Bhakti: Vedic Dharma, Piety and Sin, and the Boat of Human Life
न मय्येकान्तभक्तानां गुणदोषोद्भवा गुणा: । साधूनां समचित्तानां बुद्धे: परमुपेयुषाम् ॥ ३६ ॥
na mayy ekānta-bhaktānāṁ guṇa-doṣodbhavā guṇāḥ sādhūnāṁ sama-cittānāṁ buddheḥ param upeyuṣām
ငါ့ကို တစ်စိတ်တစ်ပိုင်းမခွဲဘဲ ယုံကြည်သက်ဝင်သော ဘက္တိများ—စိတ်တည်ငြိမ်ညီမျှသော သာဓုများ၊ ပစ္စည်းဉာဏ်မလှမ်းမီသော အမြင့်ဆုံး ငါ့ကို ရောက်ပြီးသူများ—အတွင်း၌ လောကဂုဏ်ဒोषမှ ပေါ်လာသော ကုသိုလ်အပြစ် မရှိတော့။
The words buddheḥ param indicate that the material modes of nature cannot be found within a pure devotee absorbed in the transcendental qualities of the Lord. In the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, Lord Kṛṣṇa clearly explains that a pure devotee is recognized by complete detachment from personal desire; therefore, a pure devotee constantly engaged in selfless service to Lord Kṛṣṇa may not always observe the innumerable details of Vedic rituals and regulations. Such occasional negligence is not to be considered a transgression. Similarly, observance of ordinary material piety does not constitute the ultimate qualification of a soul surrendered to God. Love of Kṛṣṇa and absolute surrender to the Lord’s will raise one immediately to the transcendental platform, where activities performed on the Lord’s behalf are absolute, being an expression of God’s will. Ordinary materialistic persons sometimes falsely claim this exalted status for their whimsical, immoral activities and cause a great disturbance in society. However, just as an ordinary person should not falsely claim the executive privileges of the personal assistants of a national leader, similarly, an ordinary conditioned soul may not foolishly claim that his immoral, whimsical or speculative activities are sheltered by divine right, being the will of God. One must actually be a pure devotee of the Lord, empowered by the Lord Himself and completely surrendered to the will of the Lord, before one may be accepted as transcendental to ordinary piety and sin.
FAQs
This verse says that in exclusive devotees of Krishna, qualities born of material virtue and vice no longer truly manifest, because their consciousness is fixed in the Lord beyond the gunas.
Krishna explains that saintly devotees remain steady in all circumstances because they have reached the supreme intelligence—seeing everything in relation to Him rather than through material likes and dislikes.
Practice one-pointed devotion—regular hearing, chanting, and remembrance of Krishna—so that daily successes and failures do not disturb the mind, and decisions become guided by spiritual purpose rather than reactive judgment.