Shloka 4
Karma, Jñāna, and Bhakti: Vedic Dharma, Piety and Sin, and the Boat of Human Life
पितृदेवमनुष्याणां वेदश्चक्षुस्तवेश्वर । श्रेयस्त्वनुपलब्धेऽर्थे साध्यसाधनयोरपि ॥ ४ ॥
pitṛ-deva-manuṣyānāṁ vedaś cakṣus taveśvara śreyas tv anupalabdhe ’rthe sādhya-sādhanayor api
အို အရှင်၊ ပိတೃများ၊ ဒေဝများနှင့် လူသားတို့အတွက် ဝေဒသည် သင်ပေးအပ်သော မျက်စိဖြစ်သည်။ တိုက်ရိုက်အတွေ့အကြုံကို ကျော်လွန်သော အရာများ—မောက္ခ၊ စွာဂ္ဂ စသည့်အရာများ—နှင့် အလုံးစုံ၏ ရည်မှန်းချက်နှင့် နည်းလမ်းကို သိရန် ဝေဒကျမ်းများသည် အမြင့်ဆုံး သက်သေဖြစ်သည်၊ အကြောင်းမှာ ထိုကျမ်းများသည် သင်၏ ဥပဒေနှင့် ထုတ်ဖော်ချက်ပင် ဖြစ်သောကြောင့်။
One might argue that while human beings are certainly prone to ignorance, the elevated forefathers and demigods are considered to be all-knowing within universal affairs. If such superior beings would communicate with the earth, then everyone could bypass Vedic knowledge in achieving his personal desire. This concept is denied here by the words vedaś cakṣuḥ. Even the demigods and forefathers have at best an ambiguous conception of supreme liberation, and even in material affairs they are subject to personal frustration. Although the demigods are all-powerful in awarding material benedictions to inferior species such as human beings, they are sometimes thwarted in their personal programs of sense gratification. A rich businessman, for example, may have no difficulty paying the insignificant salary of one of his innumerable workers, but the same wealthy man may be completely frustrated in his dealings with his own family and friends and may also be defeated in his attempts to expand his fortune by further investments. Although a rich man appears to be all-powerful to his subordinate workers, he must personally struggle to fulfill his personal desires. Similarly, the demigods and forefathers encounter many difficulties in maintaining and expanding their celestial standard of living. They must therefore constantly take shelter of superior Vedic knowledge. Even in the administration of cosmic affairs, they strictly follow the guidelines of the Vedas, which are the laws of God. If such fabulous entities as demigods must take shelter of the Vedas, we can just imagine the position of human beings, who are frustrated at virtually every step of their lives. Every human being should accept Vedic knowledge as the highest evidence in material and spiritual affairs. Uddhava points out to the Lord that if one accepts the authority of Vedic knowledge, it is seemingly impossible to reject the concept of material piety and sin. Thus Uddhava persists in examining the Lord’s controversial statement at the end of the last chapter.
FAQs
This verse says the Vedas are like divinely given “eyes” that reveal śreyas—the highest good—especially when the true goal and the means to reach it are not directly perceivable.
In the Uddhava Gita context, Uddhava is acknowledging Krishna as the Supreme Lord and affirming that Vedic revelation is Krishna’s provision for guiding beings toward the ultimate good when confusion exists about aims and methods.
When you feel uncertain about life’s purpose or the right practice, use reliable śāstra-guided principles (and qualified teachers aligned with them) to choose goals and habits that lead to lasting spiritual welfare rather than temporary gain.