Shloka 28
Nimi Questions the Yogendras: Varṇāśrama’s Purpose, Ritualism’s Fall, and Yuga-Avatāras with Kali-yuga Saṅkīrtana
तं तदा पुरुषं मर्त्या महाराजोपलक्षणम् । यजन्ति वेदतन्त्राभ्यां परं जिज्ञासवो नृप ॥ २८ ॥
taṁ tadā puruṣaṁ martyā mahā-rājopalakṣaṇam yajanti veda-tantrābhyāṁ paraṁ jijñāsavo nṛpa
အို မင်းကြီး၊ ဒွာပရယုဂ၌ အမြင့်ဆုံး ပုရုရှကို သိလိုသော လူသားတို့သည် မဟာရာဇာကို ဂౌరవသကဲ့သို့သော စိတ်ထားဖြင့်၊ ဝေဒနှင့် တန္တရ နှစ်မျိုးလုံး၏ ညွှန်ကြားချက်များအတိုင်း ပူဇော်ကြသည်။
When Lord Kṛṣṇa was leaving the city of Hastināpura, Arjuna personally held an umbrella over the Lord, and Uddhava and Sātyaki fanned the Lord with decorated fans ( Bhāg. 1.10.17 , 18). In this way, Emperor Yudhiṣṭhira and his followers worshiped Kṛṣṇa as the greatest of noble kings and as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Similarly, at the Rājasūya sacrifice all of the great souls of the universe elected Kṛṣṇa as the King of all kings, the greatest personality, deserving of first worship. Such reverential worship of the Lord is characteristic of Dvāpara-yuga, as described in this verse ( mahā-rājopalakṣaṇam ). With each successive yuga, namely Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the condition of human society deteriorates more and more. As mentioned in this verse, the only favorable qualification of the residents of Dvāpara-yuga is that they are jijñāsavaḥ, strongly desirous of knowing the Absolute Truth. Otherwise there is no good qualification mentioned. The inhabitants of Satya-yuga were described as śāntāḥ, nirvairāḥ, suhṛdaḥ and samāḥ, or peaceful, free from envy, the well-wishers of every living entity, and fixed on the spiritual platform beyond the modes of material nature. Similarly the inhabitants of Tretā-yuga were described as dharmiṣṭhāḥ and brahma-vādinaḥ, or thoroughly religious, and expert followers of the Vedic injunctions. In the present verse, the inhabitants of Dvāpara-yuga are said to be simply jijñāsavaḥ, desiring to know the Absolute Truth. Otherwise they are described as martyāḥ, or subject to the weakness of mortal beings. If the human society of even Dvāpara-yuga was clearly inferior to that of Satya and Tretā-yugas, we can hardly imagine the truly disastrous condition of human society in Kali-yuga. Therefore, as will be mentioned in the following verses, human beings who have taken their birth in the present Age of Kali should attach themselves rigidly to the movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu to free themselves from foolishness.
FAQs
This verse says sincere seekers worship the Supreme Person using authorized guidance—Vedic injunctions and regulated spiritual systems—rather than whimsical or self-made methods.
Śukadeva is instructing King Parīkṣit directly, framing the teaching as guidance for a responsible ruler and for all humans seeking the Supreme Truth.
Follow an authentic tradition: learn from bona fide teachers, practice regulated devotion (mantra, prayer, worship, ethical living), and keep the goal as realization of the Supreme rather than mere ritualism.