Srimad Bhagavatam — Saptama Skandha, Shloka 12
Prahlāda Rejects Material Boons; Forgives His Father; Tripura and the Power of Remembrance
कथा मदीया जुषमाण: प्रियास्त्व- मावेश्य मामात्मनि सन्तमेकम् । सर्वेषु भूतेष्वधियज्ञमीशं यजस्व योगेन च कर्म हिन्वन् ॥ १२ ॥
kathā madīyā juṣamāṇaḥ priyās tvam āveśya mām ātmani santam ekam sarveṣu bhūteṣv adhiyajñam īśaṁ yajasva yogena ca karma hinvan
သင်သည် ဤလောက၌ရှိနေသော်လည်း ငါ၏ သန့်ရှင်းသော ကထာများကို အမြဲတမ်း နားထောင်၍ နှစ်သက်လော့။ ငါကို သင်၏နှလုံးသား၌ တစ်ပါးတည်းသော ပရမာတ္မာအဖြစ် တည်စေပြီး အမြဲ ငါ၌ စိတ်လုံးဝ စိမ့်ဝင်နေပါ။ ငါသည် သတ္တဝါအားလုံးအတွင်းရှိ အဓိယဇ္ဉ အီશ્વရဖြစ်သဖြင့် ယောဂဖြင့် ငါကို ပူဇော်ကာ အကျိုးလိုလားသော ကర్మများကို စွန့်လွှတ်လော့။
When a devotee becomes materially very opulent, one should not think that he is enjoying the results of his fruitive activities. A devotee in this material world uses all material opulences for the service of the Lord because he is planning how to serve the Lord with these opulences, as advised by the Lord Himself. Whatever material opulence is within his possession he engages to expand the glories and service of the Lord. A devotee never performs any fruitive or ritualistic ceremony to enjoy the results of such karma. Rather, a devotee knows that karma-kāṇḍa is meant for the less intelligent man. Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says in his Prema-bhakti-candrikā, karma-kāṇḍa, jñāna-kāṇḍa, kevala viṣera bhāṇḍa: both karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa — fruitive activities and speculation about the Supreme Lord — are like pots of poison. One who is attracted to karma-kāṇḍa and jñāna-kāṇḍa spoils his existence as a human being. Therefore a devotee is never interested in karma-kāṇḍa or jñāna-kāṇḍa, but is simply interested in favorable service to the Lord ( ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānuśīlanam ), or cultivation of spiritual activities in devotional service.
FAQs
This verse teaches that by relishing narrations about the Lord (madīyā kathā) and absorbing the mind in Him, one’s devotion becomes steady and life becomes aligned with worship.
After the Lord’s protection was revealed, Prahlāda guides others toward the practical path of devotion—hearing about the Lord, remembering Him within the heart, and worshiping Him present in all beings.
See every person as a soul under the Lord’s presence, avoid harming others, serve with humility, and perform daily work as an offering—keeping the mind absorbed in the Lord through regular hearing and remembrance.