Shloka 28
Kṛṣṇa’s Impending Departure; Uddhava’s Surrender; King Yadu and the Avadhūta’s Twenty-Four Gurus
Beginnings
त्वं तु कल्प: कविर्दक्ष: सुभगोऽमृतभाषण: । न कर्ता नेहसे किञ्चिज्जडोन्मत्तपिशाचवत् ॥ २८ ॥
tvaṁ tu kalpaḥ kavir dakṣaḥ su-bhago ’mṛta-bhāṣaṇaḥ na kartā nehase kiñcij jaḍonmatta-piśāca-vat
သင်သည် စွမ်းရည်ရှိ၍ ကဗျာဆရာ၊ ကျွမ်းကျင်၊ ရုပ်ရည်လှပြီး အမృతကဲ့သို့ ချိုမြိန်သောစကားပြောသူဖြစ်သော်လည်း၊ ဘာမှမလုပ်၊ ဘာမှမလိုချင်ဘဲ မူးမောရူးသွပ်သကဲ့သို့ နတ်ဆိုးတစ်ကောင်လို ထင်ရသည်။
Ignorant persons often think that renounced spiritual life is meant for those who are impotent or homely or incompetent in practical worldly affairs. Sometimes foolish people say that religious life is a crutch for those who are not expert enough to achieve a high status in society. Therefore King Yadu has described the qualities of the mendicant brāhmaṇa in order to show that the brāhmaṇa has taken to renounced spiritual life in spite of great potential for worldly success. The avadhūta brāhmaṇa is described as being expert, learned, good-looking, eloquent and in every sense qualified to be a great material success. Still, the avadhūta has renounced material life and taken to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Going back home, back to Godhead, for an eternal life of bliss and knowledge is the real work of a human being.
FAQs
This verse shows that a truly wise person may appear outwardly inactive—like dull or mad—yet is inwardly realized; the appearance is not the measure of spiritual attainment.
Seeing the Avadhūta’s obvious wisdom and sweet speech, Yadu is puzzled by his lack of worldly effort and asks why such a capable person behaves like one detached from normal social activity.
Do your duties responsibly, but reduce ego-driven striving—act without obsession for status or results, cultivating inner steadiness and detachment.