Narada Purana — Purva Bhaga, Shloka 45

Śrāddha-prayoga: Niyama, Brāhmaṇa-parīkṣā, Kutapa-kāla, Tithi-nyāya, and Vaiṣṇava-phala

Devanagari script

गंधैश्च पत्रपुष्पैश्च धूपैर्दीपैश्च सत्तम । वासोर्भिभूषणैश्वैव यथाविभवमर्चयेत् ॥ ४५ ॥

Transliteration

gaṃdhaiśca patrapuṣpaiśca dhūpairdīpaiśca sattama | vāsorbhibhūṣaṇaiśvaiva yathāvibhavamarcayet || 45 ||

Translation

အကျင့်သီလကောင်းမြတ်သူတို့အထဲမှ အကောင်းဆုံးသောသူရေ— မိမိအင်အားအလိုက် (ယထာဝိဘဝ) သခင်ကို အర్చနာပြုရမည်။ အနံ့သာ၊ ရွက်နှင့်ပန်း၊ မီးခိုး (ဓူပ) နှင့် မီးအလင်း (ဒီပ) တို့ကိုလည်းကောင်း၊ အဝတ်အစားနှင့် အလှဆင်ပစ္စည်းတို့ကိုလည်းကောင်း ပူဇော်ရမည်။

Word by Word

• गन्धैः: with fragrances
• गन्धैः: Karaṇa (करण/instrument)
• Type: Noun
• Root: गन्ध (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, तृतीया, बहुवचन — Masculine, Instrumental, Plural

• च: and
• च: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/connector)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चय-अव्यय (conjunction)

• पत्रपुष्पैः: with leaves and flowers
• पत्रपुष्पैः: Karaṇa (करण/instrument)
• Type: Noun
• Root: पत्र (प्रातिपदिक) + पुष्प (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: द्वन्द्व (पत्राणि च पुष्पाणि च), नपुंसकलिङ्ग (समाहार-द्वन्द्व), तृतीया, बहुवचन — Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

• च: and
• च: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/connector)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चय-अव्यय (conjunction)

• धूपैः: with incense
• धूपैः: Karaṇa (करण/instrument)
• Type: Noun
• Root: धूप (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, तृतीया, बहुवचन — Masculine, Instrumental, Plural

• दीपैः: with lamps
• दीपैः: Karaṇa (करण/instrument)
• Type: Noun
• Root: दीप (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, तृतीया, बहुवचन — Masculine, Instrumental, Plural

• च: and
• च: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/connector)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: च (अव्यय)
• Form: समुच्चय-अव्यय (conjunction)

• सत्तम: O best (one)
• सत्तम: Sambodhana (सम्बोधन/vocative)
• Type: Noun
• Root: सत्तम (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: पुंलिङ्ग, सम्बोधन, एकवचन — Masculine, Vocative, Singular

• वासोभिः: with garments
• वासोभिः: Karaṇa (करण/instrument)
• Type: Noun
• Root: वासस्/वासो (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया, बहुवचन — Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

• भूषणैः: with ornaments
• भूषणैः: Karaṇa (करण/instrument)
• Type: Noun
• Root: भूषण (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: नपुंसकलिङ्ग, तृतीया, बहुवचन — Neuter, Instrumental, Plural

• एव: indeed
• एव: Sambandha (सम्बन्ध/particle)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: एव (अव्यय)
• Form: अवधारण-अव्यय (particle: indeed/only)

• यथा-विभवम्: according to ability
• यथा-विभवम्: Kriyā-viśeṣaṇa (क्रिया-विशेषण)
• Type: Indeclinable
• Root: यथा (अव्यय) + विभव (प्रातिपदिक)
• Form: अव्ययीभाव (यथा + विभवम्), क्रियाविशेषण — adverbial compound meaning ‘according to one’s means’

• अर्चयेत्: should worship/honor
• अर्चयेत्: Kriyā (क्रिया)
• Type: Verb
• Root: अर्च् (धातु)
• Form: विधिलिङ् (optative), प्रथमपुरुष, एकवचन, परस्मैपद — Optative, 3rd person, Singular; ‘should worship/honor’

Speaker

Sanatkumara (in instruction to Narada)

Vrata Kalpa

Vrata: none

Verse Rasa

Primary Rasa: bhakti

Secondary Rasa: shanta

Characters & Entities

• Vishnu

FAQs

What is the spiritual significance of this verse in Narada Purana?

It teaches that sincere worship is valid at every level: offerings in pūjā should be made “according to one’s means” (yathā-vibhavam), emphasizing devotion over display.

How does this verse explain the path of devotion (Bhakti)?

Bhakti is expressed through loving service (arcana) using simple, tangible items—fragrance, flowers, incense, and light—showing that heartfelt upāsanā is accessible to all.

What practical Vedic knowledge (Vedanga) is highlighted here?

Ritual practice (kalpa-oriented pūjā procedure) is implied: the standard upacāras of worship—dhūpa (incense) and dīpa (lamp) along with floral offerings—are prescribed as practical steps.