Shloka 21

Nimi Questions the Yogendras: Māyā, Cosmic Dissolution, Guru-Śaraṇāgati, Bhakti, and Deity Worship

Devanagari script

तस्माद् गुरुं प्रपद्येत जिज्ञासु: श्रेय उत्तमम् । शाब्दे परे च निष्णातं ब्रह्मण्युपशमाश्रयम् ॥ २१ ॥

Transliteration

tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam

Translation

ထို့ကြောင့် အမြင့်ဆုံး ကောင်းကျိုးကို သိလိုသူသည် ဒီက္ခာခံယူ၍ တရားဝင် ဝိညာဉ်ရေးဆရာ (ဂုရု) ထံသို့ ခိုလှုံရမည်။ စစ်မှန်သော ဂုရုသည် သာස්တရဝါကျနှင့် အမြင့်ဆုံး တတ္တဝါကို ကျွမ်းကျင်၍ စဉ်းစားသုံးသပ်ကာ သာස්တရဆုံးဖြတ်ချက်ကို သိမြင်ထားပြီး၊ ဘဂဝန်၏ အာश्रယကို ယူကာ လောကီအာရုံများကို စွန့်၍ ငြိမ်းချမ်းနေသူ ဖြစ်သည်။

Synonyms

• तस्मात्: therefore
• तस्मात्: Hetu (हेतु/Reason)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: तद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: तस्मात्-इत्यव्ययीभाववत्; हेत्वर्थे अपादान-प्राय (therefore/from that reason)

• गुरुम्: a spiritual teacher
• गुरुम्: Karma (कर्म/Object)
• Type: Noun
• Root: गुरु (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन

• प्रपद्येत: one should surrender/approach
• प्रपद्येत: Kriya (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: प्र-√पद् (धातु)
• Form: विधिलिङ् (Optative), प्रथमपुरुष (3rd), एकवचन; आत्मनेपद

• जिज्ञासुः: one who desires to know
• जिज्ञासुः: Karta (कर्ता/Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: जिज्ञासु (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, प्रथमा (1st/Nominative), एकवचन; इच्छार्थक-प्रातिपदिक (desirous of knowing)

• श्रेयः: the ultimate good
• श्रेयः: Karma (कर्म/Object)
• Type: Noun
• Root: श्रेयस् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन; ‘the highest good’ (object of desire)

• उत्तमम्: supreme
• उत्तमम्: Karma (कर्म/Object-qualifier)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: उत्तम (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन; विशेषण (of श्रेयः)

• शाब्दे: in the Vedic sound (scripture)
• शाब्दे: Adhikarana (अधिकरण/Locative)
• Type: Noun
• Root: शाब्द (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग/नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th/Locative), एकवचन; ‘शब्द-ब्रह्म’/वेद (in the Vedic revelation)

• परे: in the Supreme (Brahman)
• परे: Adhikarana (अधिकरण/Locative)
• Type: Noun
• Root: पर (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग/नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th/Locative), एकवचन; ‘परब्रह्म’ (in the Supreme)

• च: and
• च: Samuccaya (समुच्चय)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च (अव्यय)
• Form: अव्यय; समुच्चय (conjunction)

• निष्णातम्: well-versed
• निष्णातम्: Karma (कर्म/Object-qualifier of गुरुम्)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: नि-√स्ना (धातु) + क्त (कृदन्त)
• Form: भूतकर्मणि कृदन्त (past passive participle), पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन; ‘well-versed/bathed (in)’

• ब्रह्मणि: in Brahman
• ब्रह्मणि: Adhikarana (अधिकरण/Locative)
• Type: Noun
• Root: ब्रह्मन् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी (7th/Locative), एकवचन; ‘in Brahman / in Vedic truth’

• उपशम-आश्रयम्: one who has taken refuge in tranquility
• उपशम-आश्रयम्: Karma (कर्म/Object-qualifier of गुरुम्)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: उपशम + आश्रय (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया (2nd/Accusative), एकवचन; ‘उपशमाश्रय’ = whose refuge is tranquility/cessation

Purport

According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, the word śābde refers to the Vedic literature, and pare refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The bona fide spiritual master must be niṣṇātam, deeply experienced in authorized Vedic literatures and in practical understanding of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Without scriptural knowledge and practical realization of the Personality of Godhead, a so-called guru will be unable to dissipate the doubts of his disciples and therefore unable to execute the function of bringing the sincere student back home, back to Godhead. The symptom of realized understanding of the Vedas and Kṛṣṇa is upaśamāśrayam. In other words, the bona fide spiritual master is one who has retired from the glittering illusions of materialistic society, friendship and love.

Characters & Entities

• Guru

FAQs

What does the Srimad Bhagavatam say about taking shelter of a guru?

This verse says that one seeking the highest good should surrender to a genuine guru who is expert in Vedic scripture and realized in the Supreme Truth, and who is established in peaceful detachment.

Why did Krishna speak about approaching a guru in Canto 11?

In the Uddhava-gītā context, Kṛṣṇa instructs Uddhava on the proper path to the highest welfare; He emphasizes that true spiritual knowledge is received by surrendering to a qualified teacher who embodies both scriptural mastery and realization.

Practical application of surrendering to a guru in modern life?

Seek guidance from a teacher rooted in authentic śāstra, test the teachings by their power to cultivate peace, detachment, and devotion, and commit to disciplined learning and practice under that guidance.