Shloka 31

Avadhūta’s Teachers: Python, Ocean, Moth, Bee, Elephant, Deer, Fish—and Piṅgalā’s Song of Detachment

Devanagari script

सन्तं समीपे रमणं रतिप्रदं वित्तप्रदं नित्यमिमं विहाय । अकामदं दु:खभयाधिशोक- मोहप्रदं तुच्छमहं भजेऽज्ञा ॥ ३१ ॥

Transliteration

santaṁ samīpe ramaṇaṁ rati-pradaṁ vitta-pradaṁ nityam imaṁ vihāya akāma-daṁ duḥkha-bhayādhi-śoka- moha-pradaṁ tuccham ahaṁ bhaje ’jñā

Translation

ငါက ဘယ်လောက်မိုက်မဲသနည်း—နှလုံးထဲ၌ အမြဲနီးကပ်တည်ရှိပြီး အလွန်ချစ်မြတ်နိုးဖွယ်၊ စစ်မှန်သောချစ်ခြင်းနှင့် ပျော်ရွှင်မှု၊ စည်းစိမ်ကို ပေးသနားသော စကြဝဠာ၏ အရှင်ကို လျစ်လျူရှုကာ၊ ဆန္ဒမပြည့်စုံစေဘဲ ဒုက္ခ၊ ကြောက်ရွံ့မှု၊ စိုးရိမ်ပူပန်မှု၊ ဝမ်းနည်းမှုနှင့် မောဟသာ ပေးသော တုန့်တုန့်လေးယောက်ျားများကို ငါက ဝန်ဆောင်ခဲ့သည်။

Synonyms

• सन्तम्: the good/virtuous one
• सन्तम्: कर्म (Object)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: सत् (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; विशेषण (रमणम्)

• समीपे: nearby
• समीपे: अधिकरण (Location)
• Type: Noun
• Root: समीप (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, सप्तमी-विभक्ति (Locative/7th), एकवचन

• रमणम्: a beloved/pleasing man
• रमणम्: कर्म (Object of विहाय)
• Type: Noun
• Root: रमण (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन

• रतिप्रदम्: giving pleasure
• रतिप्रदम्: विशेषण (Qualifier of रमणम्)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: रति + प्रद (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; उपपद-तत्पुरुष (रतिं प्रददाति)

• वित्तप्रदम्: giving wealth
• वित्तप्रदम्: विशेषण (Qualifier of रमणम्)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: वित्त + प्रद (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; उपपद-तत्पुरुष (वित्तं प्रददाति)

• नित्यम्: always
• नित्यम्: क्रियाविशेषण (Adverb)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: नित्य (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: क्रियाविशेषण-अव्यय (adverb)

• इमम्: this
• इमम्: कर्म (Object; apposition to रमणम्)
• Type: Noun
• Root: इदम् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; निर्देश (demonstrative)

• विहाय: having abandoned
• विहाय: क्रियाविशेषण (Prior action)
• Type: Verb
• Root: वि-हा (धातु)
• Form: क्त्वान्त (Absolutive/Gerund), अव्ययभाव

• अकामदम्: giving what is not desired
• अकामदम्: विशेषण (Qualifier of तुच्छम्)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अकाम + द (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; उपपद-तत्पुरुष (अकामं ददाति)

• दुःखभयाधिशोकमोहप्रदम्: giving sorrow, fear, grief and delusion
• दुःखभयाधिशोकमोहप्रदम्: विशेषण (Qualifier of तुच्छम्)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: दुःख + भय + अधि-शोक + मोह + प्रद (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; बहुपद-तत्पुरुष (दुःखं च भयं च अधिशोकं च मोहं च प्रददाति)

• तुच्छम्: worthless
• तुच्छम्: कर्म (Object of भजे)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: तुच्छ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, द्वितीया-विभक्ति (Accusative/2nd), एकवचन; विशेषण (कर्म)

• अहम्: I
• अहम्: कर्ता (Subject)
• Type: Noun
• Root: अस्मद् (सर्वनाम-प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), एकवचन

• भजे: I resort to/serve
• भजे: क्रिया (Main verb)
• Type: Verb
• Root: भज् (धातु)
• Form: लट् (Present), उत्तमपुरुष (1st person), एकवचन; आत्मनेपद

• अज्ञा: ignorant (woman)
• अज्ञा: कर्ता (Qualifier of subject)
• Type: Adjective
• Root: अज्ञ (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: स्त्रीलिङ्ग, प्रथमा-विभक्ति (Nominative/1st), एकवचन; विशेषण (अहम्)

Purport

Piṅgalā laments that she chose to serve most sinful, useless men. She falsely thought they would bring her happiness and neglected to serve the actual Lord of the heart, Kṛṣṇa. She could understand how foolishly she had struggled for money, not knowing that the Supreme Lord is always inclined to award prosperity to His sincere devotee. The prostitute was proud of her ability to please men, but she now laments that she did not try to please the Supreme Lord by loving service. The Supreme Lord is completely aloof from the transactions of the material world. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the actual enjoyer of everyone and everything, but one must learn how to please the Lord by pure spiritual service.

FAQs

What does the Srimad Bhagavatam say about why material pursuits lead to fear and sorrow?

This verse states that turning away from the ever-present Lord and worshiping trivial material goals results in misery, fear, anxiety, lamentation, and delusion rather than real fulfillment.

Why does the Avanti brāhmaṇa call himself ignorant in this verse?

He laments that despite the Lord being near and able to grant true satisfaction and wealth, he chose petty objects of worship that cannot truly satisfy desire and instead create suffering.

Practical application of this shloka in modern life?

Prioritize daily devotion and inner spiritual practice over compulsive chasing of external validation and possessions, recognizing that lasting peace comes from turning toward the Lord rather than fleeting gains.