Shloka 45
Nimi Questions the Yogendras: Māyā, Cosmic Dissolution, Guru-Śaraṇāgati, Bhakti, and Deity Worship
नाचरेद् यस्तु वेदोक्तं स्वयमज्ञोऽजितेन्द्रिय: । विकर्मणा ह्यधर्मेण मृत्योर्मृत्युमुपैति स: ॥ ४५ ॥
nācared yas tu vedoktaṁ svayam ajño ’jitendriyaḥ vikarmaṇā hy adharmeṇa mṛtyor mṛtyum upaiti saḥ
အဇ్ఞာနဖြစ်၍ အင်္ဒြိယမအောင်နိုင်သေးသူက ဝေဒညွှန်ကြားချက်ကို မလိုက်နာလျှင်၊ မုချ ဝိကမ္မနှင့် အဓမ္မတွင် ကျရောက်မည်; ထို့ကြောင့် “သေခြင်းပေါ် သေခြင်း” ဟူသော ထပ်ခါထပ်ခါ မွေး-သေ ကို ခံစားရသည်။
In the previous verse it was stated that although fruitive activities are prescribed in the Vedas, the actual goal of human life is to free oneself from all materialistic activities. Therefore, one may conclude that there is no need to perform the Vedic rituals, which offer regulated sense gratification. But an ignorant person, or, in other words, one who has not understood that he is not the material body but an eternal spiritual soul, part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, will invariably be unable to control the urges of the material senses. Therefore, if such a materially inclined person neglects the Vedic injunctions that administer regulated sense gratification, he will surely fall down into unregulated sense gratification in pāpa, or sinful life. For example, those who are affected by sexual desire are ordered to accept the vivāha-yajña, or religious marriage ceremony. We often see that because of false pride a so-called brahmacārī, or celibate student of Vedic knowledge, rejects the marriage ceremony as māyā, or material illusion. But if such a celibate student is unable to control his senses he will undoubtedly degrade himself by eventually engaging in illicit sex, which has no connection to Vedic culture. Similarly, a neophyte in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is encouraged to eat kṛṣṇa-prasādam to his full satisfaction. Sometimes an immature practitioner of bhakti-yoga tries to make a show of severe eating habits and eventually falls down into eating unregulated and abominable foodstuffs.
FAQs
This verse warns that vikarma—actions opposed to dharma—done under uncontrolled senses leads to spiritual downfall and repeated entanglement in death (mṛtyor mṛtyum).
While instructing Uddhava on dharma and spiritual life, Kṛṣṇa cautions that Vedic practices require qualification—especially self-control—otherwise one may misuse them and fall into adharma.
Adopt disciplines that restrain the senses (clean habits, truthful conduct, regulated life, devotion) and avoid rationalizing harmful actions as “religious” or “scriptural,” since unqualified practice can become hypocrisy and lead to suffering.