The Uddhava Gita is drawn from the Srimad Bhagavata Purana

Description of Varnashrama-dharma

वर्णाश्रम-धर्म का वर्णन

श्रीउद्धवगीता

48 versesChapter 13

Verses · श्लोक

Verse 1

vanaprastha opens chapter 18spouse accompanies or remainstritiyam bhagam ayushahshantah peaceful withdrawalgradual not abrupt

श्रीभगवानुवाच । वनं विविक्षुः पुत्रेषु भार्यां न्यस्य सहैव वा । वन एव वसेच्छान्तस्तृतीयं भागमायुषः ॥१८-१॥

śrī-bhagavān uvāca | vanaṁ vivikṣuḥ putreṣu bhāryāṁ nyasya sahaiva vā | vana eva vasec chāntas tṛtīyaṁ bhāgam āyuṣaḥ ||18-1||

The Blessed Lord said: One desiring to enter the forest should either entrust his wife to their sons or take her along, and should dwell peacefully in the forest for the third portion of life.

Modern Reflection

Chapter eighteen opens with Krishna resuming direct speech after the seventeenth chapter's long householder material, and the very first verse names a specific practical choice: a couple entering the vanaprastha stage together, or a wife remaining with capable sons while the husband withdraws alone, both presented as legitimate options rather than a single fixed rule. A retired couple in a small ashram community near Rishikesh, having spent their working years raising children and running a business in Delhi, chose the shared path this verse permits, moving together into a simpler, more contemplative life once their children were established, rather than separating. Tṛtīyaṁ bhāgam āyuṣaḥ, "the third portion of life," assumes a fourfold division of a full human lifespan, student, householder, forest-dweller, renunciant, and names this specific transition as belonging to a person's later, though not yet final, years, a deliberate, gradual stepping-back from full worldly engagement rather than an abrupt severance. Śāntaḥ, peacefully, sets the tone for the entire chapter that follows: whatever specific austerities are about to be described, the underlying disposition sought is calm rather than anxious withdrawal.

Verse 2

vanaprastha material regimekanda mula phalavalkala bark clothingmedhyaih pure discriminationmanu smriti parallel 6 13

कन्दमूलफलैर्वन्यैर्मेध्यैर्वृत्तिं प्रकल्पयेत् । वसीत वल्कलं वासस्तृणपर्णाजिनानि च ॥१८-२॥

kanda-mūla-phalair vanyair medhyair vṛttiṁ prakalpayet | vasīta valkalaṁ vāsas tṛṇa-parṇājināni ca ||18-2||

One should arrange one's sustenance with pure, wild bulbs, roots, and fruits growing in the forest, and should wear tree bark for clothing, or grass, leaves, and animal skins.

Modern Reflection

This verse describes an almost complete withdrawal from cultivated economy, wild-gathered food only, bark and leaves for clothing, which reads today as extreme, but its underlying logic, deliberately reducing material dependency to the barest sustainable minimum, remains recognizable in less extreme contemporary forms. A retired forest officer in Uttarakhand, having spent a career studying and protecting wild ecosystems, chooses in his later years to live in a small, simple cottage adjacent to the forest he once managed, growing much of his own food and deliberately limiting consumption to what the immediate surroundings can sustainably provide, a modern, moderated echo of this verse's radical vanaprastha simplicity. Medhyaiḥ, "pure," qualifying the permitted forest foods, is a small but telling word: even this stripped-down existence retains careful discrimination rather than indiscriminate survival, suggesting that the discipline described here is not mere deprivation but a deliberate, thoughtful minimalism, still exercising judgment about what is fit to consume even at the very edge of material simplicity.

Verse 3

deliberate ungroomingecho of brahmachari rulessthandile shayahbracketing householder stageredirected attention

केशरोमनखश्मश्रुमलानि बिभृयाद्दतः । न धावेदप्सु मज्जेत त्रिकालं स्थण्डिलेशयः ॥१८-३॥

keśa-roma-nakha-śmaśru-malāni bibhṛyād dataḥ | na dhāved apsu majjeta tri-kālaṁ sthaṇḍile-śayaḥ ||18-3||

One should allow hair, body hair, nails, beard, and the teeth to remain untended, should not scrub them clean, should bathe in water three times daily, and should sleep on the bare ground.

Modern Reflection

This verse describes deliberate abandonment of ordinary personal grooming, and read alongside verse 502's nearly identical instructions for the young brahmachari, it suggests something worth noticing: the tradition brackets active worldly life, householdership, on both sides with periods of deliberately reduced attention to physical appearance, before it begins and after it substantially concludes. A wandering sadhu encountered occasionally in the Himalayan foothills near Badrinath, easily recognizable by matted hair and simple, unwashed dress, is living a visibly extreme version of exactly this instruction, and the visible neglect of appearance functions as more than incidental hardship; it is a continuous, wordless statement that this person's attention has been redirected entirely away from how they are seen by others and toward inward concerns the verse's surrounding context makes clear. Sthaṇḍile-śayaḥ, sleeping on the bare ground, completes the picture: even basic bodily comfort during rest is deliberately reduced, training a mind that might otherwise cling to physical ease toward the deeper austerity the entire vanaprastha stage is meant to cultivate.

Verse 4THE FAMOUS pancha-agni image of extreme seasonal austerity

pancha agni tapastrikala seasonal austerityextreme end of spectrumkumbh mela continuationoptional not universal

ग्रीष्मे तप्येत पञ्चाग्नीन् वर्षास्वासारषाड्जले । आकण्ठमग्नः शिशिर एवं वृत्तस्तपश्चरेत् ॥१८-४॥

grīṣme tapyeta pañcāgnīn varṣāsv āsāra-ṣāḍ jale | ākaṇṭha-magnaḥ śiśira evaṁ vṛttas tapaś caret ||18-4||

In summer one should practice austerity amid five fires, enduring the torrents of the rainy season unsheltered, and remain submerged in water up to the neck through winter's cold — thus engaged, one should practice penance.

Modern Reflection

This verse describes the most extreme, physically demanding austerities in the entire discourse, exposure to the elements across all three seasons taken to their limit, and it is worth reading as an option representing one end of a spectrum rather than a universal requirement, since the following chapters continue to describe gentler, more moderate paths as equally legitimate. Occasional ascetics still visible at the Kumbh Mela and other major gatherings, standing for extended periods with one arm raised or sitting motionless amid ritual fires during peak summer heat, represent living continuations of exactly this specific tradition, chosen by a small minority of practitioners as their particular path, while the vast majority of even seriously devoted Hindu practitioners pursue far gentler disciplines. Pañcāgni, the five fires, specifically names four fires lit around the practitioner plus the blazing summer sun overhead as a fifth, an image whose extremity is deliberate: the verse is describing the outer boundary of what human physical endurance and spiritual discipline together were understood to be capable of, offered as a real option for those specifically called to it, not as a standard every vanaprasthi was expected to meet.

Verse 5

four methods of food preparationkala pakvam raw fooddanta ulukhalagraduated flexibilitynot rigid uniformity

अग्निपक्वं समश्नीयात्कालपक्वमथापि वा । उलूखलाश्मकुट्टो वा दन्तोलूखल एव वा ॥१८-५॥

agni-pakvaṁ samaśnīyāt kāla-pakvam athāpi vā | ulūkhalāśma-kuṭṭo vā dantolūkhala eva vā ||18-5||

One may eat food cooked by fire, or food naturally ripened by time, ground with mortar and stone, or simply chewed with the teeth alone.

Modern Reflection

This verse offers a graduated set of options for food preparation, from cooked food down to simply chewing raw ripened fruit with one's own teeth, and its practical flexibility is easy to overlook amid the more dramatic austerities of surrounding verses. An elderly ascetic encountered occasionally in forest retreats near Rishikesh, having gradually simplified food preparation over decades until he now eats mostly raw, naturally ripened fruit requiring no tools or fire at all, is exercising exactly the flexibility this verse permits, choosing the simplest available option among several legitimate ones rather than being locked into a single fixed method. The verse's careful listing of four distinct methods, fire-cooking, natural ripening, mechanical grinding, or simply chewing, suggests the text's actual concern is not prescribing a single correct technique but acknowledging that circumstances, available resources, physical capacity, and personal choice will reasonably vary even within a broadly austere lifestyle, and that the tradition accommodates this variation explicitly rather than demanding rigid uniformity.

Verse 6

self sufficiency and non hoardingdesha kala bala abhijnadaily renewed trustagainst anxious accumulationpragmatic not reckless

स्वयं सञ्चिनुयात्सर्वमात्मनो वृत्तिकारणम् । देशकालबलाभिज्ञो नाददीतान्यदाहृतम् ॥१८-६॥

svayaṁ sañcinuyāt sarvam ātmano vṛtti-kāraṇam | deśa-kāla-balābhijño nādadītānyadāhṛtam ||18-6||

One should personally gather everything needed for one's own sustenance, understanding pragmatically the demands of place, time, and one's own strength, and should never store provisions for another time.

Modern Reflection

This verse names two distinct disciplines, self-sufficiency and non-hoarding, and pairs them deliberately: gathering one's own needs personally rather than depending on others, while explicitly refusing to stockpile beyond the present day's requirement. A forest hermit maintaining a small retreat outside Nashik understands na ādadīta anyadā āhṛtam, never storing provisions for another time, as a specific, disciplined practice against a very human anxiety, the impulse to accumulate a buffer against future uncertainty, insisting instead on daily, renewed trust that tomorrow's needs will be met by tomorrow's gathering. Deśa-kāla-bala-abhijñaḥ, pragmatically understanding place, time, and strength, prevents this discipline from becoming reckless idealism; the verse does not demand impossible feats beyond one's actual physical capacity, only that whatever is gathered be gathered fresh, for present need, rather than accumulated defensively against imagined future scarcity. The pairing of self-reliance with explicit non-hoarding names a specific, demanding relationship with material security: capable of meeting one's own needs, yet deliberately unwilling to build the kind of buffer that a more anxious relationship with scarcity would demand.

Verse 7THE FAMOUS explicit prohibition of animal sacrifice for the forest-dweller

prohibition of animal sacrificebhakti supersedes karma kandaahimsa over shrauta permissionvanya caru purodashatheological internal correction

वन्यैश्चरुपुरोडाशैर्निर्वपेत्कालचोदितान् । न तु श्रौतेन पशुना मां यजेत वनाश्रमी ॥१८-७॥

vanyaiś caru-puroḍāśair nirvapet kāla-coditān | na tu śrautena paśunā māṁ yajeta vanāśramī ||18-7||

The forest-dweller should offer the seasonally enjoined sacrifices using wild-grain oblations and cakes, but should never worship me through the animal sacrifices prescribed in Vedic scripture.

Modern Reflection

This verse contains a striking, explicit reversal: even though Vedic scripture itself (śrautena) technically permits and prescribes animal sacrifice in certain ritual contexts, Krishna directly forbids the vanaprasthi from performing it, substituting grain-based offerings instead, and the theological weight of a deity overriding his own scripture's technical permission is worth sitting with. A wildlife sanctuary caretaker in a forest reserve in Madhya Pradesh, having devoted a career to protecting the very animals ancient ritual once sacrificed, would find in this verse an unexpected but genuine ally: the text's own internal development moves explicitly away from animal sacrifice at precisely the life stage most associated with dwelling closest to and most dependent on the forest and its creatures. This verse is one of several moments across the Bhagavata where devotional theology (bhakti) is shown deliberately correcting or superseding older ritual prescription (karma-kanda), and its placement here, specifically regarding the forest-dweller who lives in closest daily proximity to wild animals, carries particular resonance: the very life stage that could most easily rationalize using locally available animals for traditional sacrifice is the one Krishna explicitly exempts from that practice, prioritizing ahimsa even against established ritual precedent.

Verse 8

purva vat ritual continuitycaturmasya seasonal vowsanchoring through transitionnot wholesale rupturecontinuity amid change

अग्निहोत्रं च दर्शश्च पूर्णमासश्च पूर्ववत् । चातुर्मास्यानि च मुनेराम्नातानि च नैगमैः ॥१८-८॥

agni-hotraṁ ca darśaś ca paurṇamāsaś ca pūrva-vat | cātur-māsyāni ca muner āmnātāni ca naigamaiḥ ||18-8||

The daily fire-offering, the new-moon and full-moon sacrifices, just as before in household life, and the four-month seasonal vows, are all enjoined for the sage by expert knowers of the Vedic tradition.

Modern Reflection

This verse insists on ritual continuity across a major life transition, pūrva-vat, "just as before," specifying that the vanaprasthi continues the same core sacrificial calendar he maintained as a householder rather than abandoning it entirely upon entering the forest. A retired schoolteacher in Nagpur who has moved from a demanding professional career into a quieter retirement still keeps the same disciplined morning routine, the same specific prayers, the same weekly volunteer commitment he maintained during his working years, understanding intuitively that a change in life stage need not mean abandoning every previously established discipline, only adapting its outer circumstances. Cātur-māsyāni, the four-month seasonal vows traditionally observed during the rainy season, represents one specific continuity the text insists on maintaining, suggesting that vanaprastha is conceived less as a wholesale rupture from householder practice than as a deliberate intensification and simplification of disciplines already well established during the preceding stage. The verse's underlying principle, keep doing what has proven spiritually valuable even as material circumstances change dramatically, offers a stabilizing anchor precisely at the point in life when so much else, home, occupation, daily structure, is being deliberately released.

Verse 9

dhamani santatah emaciationbeyond rishi lokatapo mayam aradhyaausterity as offering not achievementdevotional reframing of discipline

एवं चीर्णेन तपसा मुनिर्धमनिसन्ततः । मां तपोमयमाराध्य ऋषिलोकादुपैति माम् ॥१८-९॥

evaṁ cīrṇena tapasā munir dhamani-santataḥ | māṁ tapo-mayam ārādhya ṛṣi-lokād upaiti mām ||18-9||

By austerity thus practiced, the sage, his body so emaciated that his veins show throughout, worshiping me as the very embodiment of austerity, attains me directly, going beyond even the world of the sages.

Modern Reflection

This verse names the culmination of the extreme austerity described across the preceding several verses, and its final destination is worth noting: not merely reaching ṛṣi-loka, the world of sages, a respectable but intermediate cosmic destination, but going beyond it, upaiti mām, attaining Krishna directly. A veteran mountaineer who has trained an entire body toward a single, extreme physical goal, emaciated and weathered by years of high-altitude endurance training, understands something of dhamani-santataḥ, veins visible throughout an emaciated frame, as the visible cost of total, uncompromising dedication to a single aim; the physical transformation is not incidental but is itself the evidence of complete commitment. What distinguishes this verse from a mere celebration of physical endurance is its insistence that the austerity itself is not the goal but the offering, tapo-mayam ārādhya, worshiping Krishna as the very embodiment of the austerity being practiced, so that even this most extreme physical discipline remains, at its core, an act of devotion rather than an athletic accomplishment pursued for its own sake or for personal glory.

Verse 10THE FAMOUS 'greatest fool' warning against squandering great capacity on small desire

balishah the foolproportionality of capacity and goalnihshreyasam mahatwasted spiritual capacityecho of verse 521

यस्त्वेतत्कृच्छ्रतश्चीर्णं तपो निःश्रेयसं महत् । कामायाल्पीयसे युञ्ज्याद्बालिशः कोऽपरस्ततः ॥१८-१०॥

yas tv etat kṛcchrataś cīrṇaṁ tapo niḥśreyasaṁ mahat | kāmāyālpīyase yuñjyād bāliśaḥ ko 'paras tataḥ ||18-10||

But whoever applies this austerity, practiced with such great difficulty and capable of granting the highest liberation, merely for the sake of some trivial desire — what greater fool could there be than this?

Modern Reflection

This verse issues a sharp, direct rebuke aimed at anyone who possesses genuinely rare capacity and spends it on trivially small ends, and its rhetorical force, bāliśaḥ kaḥ aparaḥ, "what greater fool could there be," is unusually blunt for this discourse's generally measured tone. A brilliant research scientist in Bangalore who could pursue genuinely transformative medical research but instead spends an equally rigorous, equally demanding career optimizing advertising algorithms for marginal commercial gain exemplifies exactly the waste this verse names, not because the alternate work is inherently wrong, but because the sheer capacity and discipline being deployed vastly exceeds the smallness of the goal it serves. The verse's logic mirrors verse 521's earlier claim that a brahmana's body is not meant for kṣudra-kāma, petty desire, but extends that principle here to any capacity for niḥśreyasam, the highest good, regardless of specific vocation: possessing rare, hard-won capability and deliberately aiming it at something trivially small is treated here not as a neutral choice but as the very definition of foolishness, a genuine misallocation of a scarce and precious resource.

Verse 11

agni pravesha historical practicedistinguished from suicidemac cittah mind fixed on godnot contemporary practicedifficult historical material

यदासौ नियमेऽकल्पो जरया जातवेपथुः । आत्मन्यग्नीन् समारोप्य मच्चित्तोऽग्निं समाविशेत् ॥१८-११॥

yadāsau niyame 'kalpo jarayā jāta-vepathuḥ | ātmany agnīn samāropya mac-citto 'gniṁ samāviśet ||18-11||

When this forest-dweller becomes incapable of maintaining his prescribed disciplines, his body trembling with old age, he should ritually place the sacred fires within himself and, with his mind fixed on me, may enter into fire.

Modern Reflection

This verse describes a specific, historically documented practice, ritual self-immolation by fire as a chosen conclusion to vanaprastha life when the body genuinely can no longer sustain its disciplines, and it deserves careful, historically grounded reading rather than either romanticizing or dismissing it as barbaric. Traditional Hindu ascetic literature records this practice, alongside alternatives like jala-praveśa, entering a river, or himalaya-praveśa, walking into the Himalayan snow, as one recognized option among several available to an aged ascetic whose body could no longer sustain even the reduced disciplines of forest life, always understood as a deliberate, conscious choice rather than despair-driven suicide, distinguished sharply in traditional ethics from ordinary self-harm precisely by its context of complete spiritual preparation and mac-cittaḥ, mind fixed entirely on the divine, at the moment of departure. This is genuinely difficult material for a contemporary reader; the text itself frames the act not as escape from suffering but as a deliberate, ritually structured final offering, chosen only after a lifetime of preparation and only when ordinary discipline has become physically impossible to sustain, a context that meaningfully distinguishes it from any modern understanding of suicide as a response to despair.

Verse 12THE FAMOUS radical claim — even Brahmaloka is essentially hellish compared to liberation

nirayatmasu even heaven is hellsamyak viraga genuine dispassionauthentic vs performed renunciationdissatisfaction with successradical subordination of karma kanda

यदा कर्मविपाकेषु लोकेषु निरयात्मसु । विरागो जायते सम्यङ् न्यस्ताग्निः प्रव्रजेत्ततः ॥१८-१२॥

yadā karma-vipākeṣu lokeṣu nirayātmasu | virāgo jāyate samyaṅ nyastāgniḥ pravrajet tataḥ ||18-12||

When complete dispassion genuinely arises toward all worlds obtainable as results of ritual action, understanding them to be, in essence, hellish, one should then relinquish the sacred fires and take up wandering renunciation.

Modern Reflection

This verse makes an audacious claim: even the highest heavenly realms attainable through ritual accomplishment, up to and including Brahmaloka itself, are here classified as niraya-ātmasu, essentially hellish, when measured against the standard of genuine liberation. A successful entrepreneur in Bengaluru who has achieved every conventional marker of worldly success, wealth, recognition, comfortable retirement, and yet finds himself experiencing a genuine, unshakeable dissatisfaction with even these considerable achievements, is living out something of virāgo jāyate samyak, complete dispassion genuinely arising, the specific psychological and spiritual state this verse identifies as the sole legitimate trigger for taking up sannyasa. The verse is careful to specify this dispassion must arise samyak, genuinely and completely, rather than being performed or forced; artificial renunciation adopted before this authentic inner shift has occurred is implicitly distinguished from the real thing the verse describes. What makes the claim so striking is its refusal to treat even the most exalted conventional religious achievement, celestial realms earned through a lifetime of accumulated merit, as a satisfactory final destination, insisting that anything short of complete liberation remains, by comparison, a kind of confinement.

Verse 13

sannyasa vidhi formal entrydattva sarva svam total givinginternalizing the sacred firenirapekshah freedom from expectationtest of genuine dispassion

इष्ट्वा यथोपदेशं मां दत्त्वा सर्वस्वमृत्विजे । अग्नीन् स्वप्राण आवेश्य निरपेक्षः परिव्रजेत् ॥१८-१३॥

iṣṭvā yathopadeśaṁ māṁ dattvā sarva-svam ṛtvije | agnīn sva-prāṇa āveśya nirapekṣaḥ parivrajet ||18-13||

Having worshiped me according to scriptural instruction, and having given away all one's possessions to the officiating priest, one should place the sacred fires within one's own vital breath and wander forth, free from all expectation.

Modern Reflection

This verse describes the formal entry ritual into sannyasa, and its central action, dattvā sarva-svam, giving away everything one owns, deserves attention for its completeness: not a partial donation or a symbolic gesture, but total relinquishment of all accumulated property to another before setting out with literally nothing. A wealthy industrialist in Kolkata who, upon genuine spiritual awakening late in life, transfers his entire company and personal wealth to a charitable trust before taking formal sannyasa vows, keeping absolutely nothing for himself, enacts precisely this verse's demand in a modern setting, and such stories, rare but genuinely documented across contemporary Indian religious life, retain real cultural power precisely because the completeness of the renunciation is so unusual and so costly. Nirapekṣaḥ, free from all expectation, is the psychological state this total material relinquishment is meant to produce and simultaneously test: a person who has genuinely given away everything, with no residual claim or expectation of return, discovers immediately whether their inner freedom matches their outer poverty, since nothing remains to fall back on if the inner transformation proves incomplete.

Verse 14THE FAMOUS verse on the demigods' jealousy and obstacles at the threshold of liberation

devanam vighnani celestial obstaclestemptation intensifies near breakthroughindra jealousy tropepsychological pattern in practicerecognizing not mistaking resistance

विप्रस्य वै सन्न्यसतो देवा दारादिरूपिणः । विघ्नान् कुर्वन्त्ययं ह्यस्मानाक्रम्य समियात्परम् ॥१८-१४॥

viprasya vai sannyasato devā dārādi-rūpiṇaḥ | vighnān kurvanty ayaṁ hy asmān ākramya samiyāt param ||18-14||

Toward the brahmana genuinely taking renunciation, the celestials, thinking, 'This man, having surpassed us, will go straight to the Supreme,' create obstacles by appearing in the form of his former wife and similar attractions.

Modern Reflection

This verse offers a striking psychological insight framed in mythological language: the closer a person comes to genuine spiritual breakthrough, the more intense and specifically targeted the obstacles become, here personified as devās, celestial beings, deliberately creating temptation precisely because this particular seeker threatens to surpass, samiyāt param, ākramya asmān, even them. A meditation practitioner in an intensive retreat in Dharamshala, having sustained weeks of genuine, deepening practice, often reports the strongest waves of distraction, doubt, and sudden unexpected craving arriving not at the beginning of the retreat but precisely as real breakthrough seems close, a pattern serious practitioners across traditions have long observed and named in various ways. This verse's specific mythological framing, temptation appearing in the form of dārādi, one's former wife and similar attractions, uses the most emotionally potent available image for a renunciant specifically, but the underlying psychological principle generalizes readily: obstacles to genuine spiritual progress often intensify rather than diminish as real transformation approaches, and recognizing this pattern for what it is, rather than mistaking it for evidence of failure or unreadiness, is itself part of what allows a serious practitioner to continue through the threshold rather than turning back at the exact point of greatest promise.

Verse 15

kaupina danda patraconcrete countable minimalismanapadi ordinary circumstance exceptionsannyasi insigniaspecific not vague simplicity

बिभृयाच्चेन्मुनिर्वासः कौपीनाच्छादनं परम् । त्यक्तं न दण्डपात्राभ्यामन्यत्किञ्चिदनापदि ॥१८-१५॥

bibhṛyāc cen munir vāsaḥ kaupīnācchādanaṁ param | tyaktaṁ na daṇḍa-pātrābhyām anyat kiñcid anāpadi ||18-15||

If the sage wears any clothing at all, let it be only an outer wrap covering the loincloth. Having given up everything else, in the absence of emergency he should possess nothing besides his staff and waterpot.

Modern Reflection

This verse specifies the absolute maximum permitted possessions for a sannyasi in ordinary circumstances, a loincloth wrap, a staff, a waterpot, and nothing else, and the precision of this limit, rather than a vague general instruction toward simplicity, is itself instructive. A traveling monk occasionally encountered walking the roads near Haridwar, carrying literally nothing beyond a walking staff and a simple water vessel, embodies this verse's exact prescription with striking literalness, and the specific, countable nature of the permitted items, exactly two objects beyond minimal clothing, removes any ambiguity about what "simplicity" actually requires in practice. Anāpadi, "in the absence of emergency," is a careful qualifier the verse includes: this is the standard for ordinary circumstances, not an absolute rule permitting no exception whatsoever, echoing the āpad-dharma flexibility already established for other classes and stages earlier in this discourse. The verse's real teaching lies in its specificity: genuine renunciation, at least as this tradition understands it, is not a vague spiritual attitude but something concrete and countable enough to be checked against an actual inventory of possessions.

Verse 16THE FAMOUS fourfold purity verse — sight, cloth, truth, and mind as filters

fourfold purity formuladrishti puta careful walkingahimsa motivated mindfulnessjain iryasamiti parallelcontinuous deliberate attention

दृष्टिपूतं न्यसेत्पादं वस्त्रपूतं पिबेज्जलम् । सत्यपूतां वदेद्वाचं मनःपूतं समाचरेत् ॥१८-१६॥

dṛṣṭi-pūtaṁ nyaset pādaṁ vastra-pūtaṁ pibej jalam | satya-pūtāṁ vaded vācaṁ manaḥ-pūtaṁ samācaret ||18-16||

One should place the foot only after purifying it with careful sight, drink water only after filtering it through cloth, speak only words purified by truth, and act only in ways purified by careful judgment of the mind.

Modern Reflection

This verse names four distinct filters applied to four distinct domains of ordinary action, walking, drinking, speaking, acting, and its structure is worth appreciating: rather than a single vague call to mindfulness, it specifies exactly what kind of attentive filter belongs to each specific act. A field ecologist working in a fragile wetland habitat near Bharatpur genuinely watches where each foot falls, dṛṣṭi-pūtaṁ nyaset pādam, purifying each step with careful sight, precisely to avoid crushing nesting birds or delicate vegetation, a literal, practical, entirely secular embodiment of this verse's first instruction. The verse's real depth lies in its progression from the most concrete, physical discipline, literally watching where one steps, through increasingly internal ones, filtered water, truthful speech, and finally manaḥ-pūtam, action purified by the mind's own careful judgment, the most internal and demanding filter of all, since it requires ongoing discernment rather than a single external check like a cloth filter or a downward glance. Taken together, the four instructions describe a person whose entire moment-to-moment existence, body, consumption, speech, and action, has become continuously, deliberately filtered rather than operating on unconscious habit.

Verse 17THE FAMOUS distinction between outer symbol and inner reality of renunciation

danda wordplay staff vs disciplineveshabhava outward vs innerveshabhava distinctionmauna aniha pranayamawarning against hollow performance

मौनानीहानिलायामा दण्डा वाग्देहचेतसाम् । न ह्येते यस्य सन्त्यङ्ग वेणुभिर्न भवेद्यतिः ॥१८-१७॥

maunānīhānilāyāmā daṇḍā vāg-deha-cetasām | na hy ete yasya santy aṅga veṇubhir na bhaved yatiḥ ||18-17||

Silence, freedom from fruitive striving, and breath-control are the true disciplines of speech, body, and mind. One in whom these do not truly exist, O Uddhava, does not become a genuine ascetic merely by carrying bamboo staffs.

Modern Reflection

This verse delivers a sharp, direct warning aimed at anyone tempted to mistake external religious symbolism for genuine internal transformation, and its rhetorical device, playing on daṇḍa, meaning both "discipline" and the literal "staff" a sannyasi traditionally carries, is worth appreciating for its wit as much as its severity. A person who wears the visible markers of religious devotion, distinctive clothing, prominent religious jewelry, publicly performed rituals, while privately continuing dishonest business practices or harboring uncontrolled anger, is precisely the target this verse names, whether encountered in an ancient forest hermitage or a contemporary temple committee meeting. Veṇubhir na bhaved yatiḥ, "one does not become a genuine ascetic merely by carrying bamboo staffs," extends easily beyond its original monastic context into a universal principle applicable to any religious or ethical performance: possessing the recognized external markers of a role, without the corresponding internal reality, deceives observers but changes nothing substantive about the actual person. Krishna's direct address, aṅga, "O Uddhava," at the verse's emotional pivot point signals how seriously this warning is meant to land, a friend speaking bluntly to a friend about the ease and danger of religious self-deception.

Verse 18

madhukari bee like beggingsapta agarani seven housesasankliptan unplannedtraining equanimity not optimizationacross all four varnas

भिक्षां चतुर्षु वर्णेषु विगर्ह्यान् वर्जयंश्चरेत् । सप्तागारानसङ्कॢप्तांस्तुष्येल्लब्धेन तावता ॥१८-१८॥

bhikṣāṁ caturṣu varṇeṣu vigarhyān varjayaṁś caret | saptāgārān asaṅkḷptāṁs tuṣyel labdhena tāvatā ||18-18||

One should go for alms among all four varnas, excluding only disreputable households, approaching seven houses chosen without prior planning, and should remain content with whatever that yields.

Modern Reflection

This verse specifies a genuinely radical practice for a wandering sannyasi's daily food, exactly seven houses, chosen asaṅkḷptān, without any advance planning or preference for wealthier or more generous households, accepting entirely whatever fortune actually provides. A wandering monk in the tradition of the Ramakrishna order, following a similarly disciplined begging practice even today in some communities, deliberately avoids selecting houses based on likely generosity, understanding that the discipline's entire point lies precisely in removing personal preference and calculation from the equation, training complete equanimity regardless of outcome. The fixed number seven functions as a genuine limit rather than a minimum floor: even a monk who has received nothing from the first six houses does not extend the search indefinitely hoping for better luck, but accepts whatever the seventh house yields, even if that means going hungry that day, as the day's complete and sufficient provision. Tuṣyel labdhena tāvatā, content with exactly that much, whatever it turns out to be, names the actual spiritual achievement this practice targets: not merely surviving on minimal food, but training a mind capable of genuine contentment regardless of how the actual daily outcome unfolds.

Verse 19

eating outside settled areasvak yatah silent eatingbhunjita ashesham finish completelymindful eating paralleldaily dependence on providence

बहिर्जलाशयं गत्वा तत्रोपस्पृश्य वाग्यतः । विभज्य पावितं शेषं भुञ्जीताशेषमाहृतम् ॥१८-१९॥

bahir jalāśayaṁ gatvā tatropaspṛśya vāg-yataḥ | vibhajya pāvitaṁ śeṣaṁ bhuñjītāśeṣam āhṛtam ||18-19||

Having gone outside the town to a reservoir of water, having purified himself there in silence, and having distributed a portion to any who ask, he should eat entirely, leaving nothing, whatever was gathered.

Modern Reflection

This verse names a specific, disciplined eating ritual, eating outside settled areas, in silence, sharing before consuming, and finishing everything gathered without leftover, and each element serves a distinct purpose worth noting individually. Bhuñjīta aśeṣam, eating everything gathered with nothing left over, is a specific discipline against waste that a farming household in rural Punjab still teaches children directly: finish what is on your plate, since food carefully gathered or grown deserves complete respect rather than casual discard, a principle whose practical, ecological wisdom needs no religious framing to be self-evidently sound. Vāg-yataḥ, remaining silent through the entire meal, extends the mindful-eating principle already established in verse 503's brahmachari instructions into the sannyasi's own daily practice, suggesting a consistent thread across every life stage this discourse describes: eating deserves the same undivided, silent attention as any other significant act, never treated as background activity conducted while distracted by conversation or other concerns.

Verse 20THE FAMOUS solitary wanderer verse — five compressed marks of the accomplished renunciant

five compressed marksatma krida atma rata atma vansama darshana equal visionsolitude producing inner sufficiencybhagavad gita 6 29 parallel

एकश्चरेन्महीमेतां निःसङ्गः संयतेन्द्रियः । आत्मक्रीड आत्मरत आत्मवान् समदर्शनः ॥१८-२०॥

ekaś caren mahīm etāṁ niḥsaṅgaḥ saṁyatendriyaḥ | ātma-krīḍa ātma-rata ātma-vān sama-darśanaḥ ||18-20||

One should wander this earth alone, free from all attachment, with senses fully controlled, delighting and content within the self, steady and established, seeing all things with equal vision.

Modern Reflection

This verse packs five compressed markers of accomplished renunciation into a single line, and each ātma-compound, ātma-krīḍa, ātma-rata, ātma-vān, names a progressively deeper relationship with one's own inner reality as the actual source of satisfaction, rather than any external circumstance. An elderly renunciant occasionally encountered walking alone along mountain paths near Kedarnath, carrying nothing beyond the minimal permitted possessions described in verse 552, embodies eka-caret, wandering entirely alone, not as isolation or loneliness but as ātma-rata, genuinely content in solitude because the actual source of satisfaction has shifted entirely inward. Sama-darśanaḥ, seeing all with equal vision, closing the list, recalls the aprthag-dhih of verse 511 much earlier in this discourse, an undivided perception recognizing the same underlying reality in every person and circumstance encountered, so that the solitary wanderer's freedom from external attachment does not curdle into indifference toward others but instead produces a wide, equal regard extending to everyone met along the way, precisely because that regard no longer depends on personal preference or self-interested calculation.

Verse 21THE FAMOUS non-dual meditation instruction — self as non-different from Krishna

atmanam ekam abhedena mayabhakti jnana synthesisvivikta kshema sharanaadvaitic language in bhakti contextcommentarial debate verse

विविक्तक्षेमशरणो मद्भावविमलाशयः । आत्मानं चिन्तयेदेकमभेदेन मया मुनिः ॥१८-२१॥

vivikta-kṣema-śaraṇo mad-bhāva-vimalāśayaḥ | ātmānaṁ cintayed ekam abhedena mayā muniḥ ||18-21||

Taking shelter in a solitary and safe place, his consciousness purified through constant thought of me, the sage should contemplate the self as one, non-different from me.

Modern Reflection

This verse names the specific inner practice at the very heart of the sannyasi's discipline: contemplation of ātmānam ekam abhedena mayā, the self as one, non-different from Krishna, a formulation that stands at the meeting point between devotional bhakti and non-dual Vedanta, refusing to fully separate them. A senior practitioner at a Vedanta ashram in Kanchipuram spending long daily hours in this exact form of meditation describes the actual practice as neither purely intellectual philosophy nor purely emotional devotion but something integrating both, recognizing the deepest self and the divine as genuinely non-different while approaching that recognition through mad-bhāva, sustained loving orientation toward Krishna, rather than dry philosophical analysis alone. Vivikta-kṣema-śaraṇaḥ, taking shelter in a solitary, safe place, names the practical precondition this depth of contemplation requires: not any location will do, since genuine depth of practice needs both genuine solitude, freedom from distraction, and genuine safety, freedom from the anxious vigilance a precarious or dangerous location would otherwise demand of attention that needs to be fully available for contemplation instead.

Verse 22THE FAMOUS definition — bondage and liberation both located in sense-management alone

bandha moksha reductive definitionindriya vikshepa samyamasankhya yoga parallelpsychological clinical resonancephilosophically compressed verse

अन्वीक्षेतात्मनो बन्धं मोक्षं च ज्ञाननिष्ठया । बन्ध इन्द्रियविक्षेपो मोक्ष एषां च संयमः ॥१८-२२॥

anvīkṣetātmano bandhaṁ mokṣaṁ ca jñāna-niṣṭhayā | bandha indriya-vikṣepo mokṣa eṣāṁ ca saṁyamaḥ ||18-22||

Through steady, established knowledge, one should carefully examine the soul's bondage and liberation. Bondage is simply the scattering of the senses toward external objects; liberation is simply the complete control of these very senses.

Modern Reflection

This verse offers a strikingly clean, almost clinical definition of two of the tradition's largest, most elaborately theorized concepts, bandha and moksha, bondage and liberation, reducing both to a single shared mechanism: indriya-vikṣepa versus indriya-saṁyama, scattered senses versus controlled senses. A clinical psychologist in a Mumbai practice specializing in attention and impulse-control disorders would recognize this verse's core insight as remarkably compatible with contemporary understanding: much of what people experience as being trapped, addiction, compulsive behavior, chronic distraction, does trace back precisely to indriya-vikṣepa, senses and attention perpetually scattered outward toward whatever stimulus currently demands them, while genuine functional freedom does correlate strongly with developed capacity for sustained attentional control. The verse's real philosophical daring lies in its refusal of any more elaborate or mysterious account of bondage and liberation, no cosmic drama, no complex multi-stage process, simply the presence or absence of sense-control, offered here as sufficient explanation for both states, a radical simplification that later commentators would spend considerable effort either defending as profound or qualifying as one useful lens among several rather than a complete final account.

Verse 23THE FAMOUS closing verse of this section — great inner happiness through sense-control

shad varga six facultiessukham mahat great happinessgita 5 21 6 21 parallelredirection not deprivationclosing verse of the chunk

तस्मान्नियम्य षड्वर्गं मद्भावेन चरेन्मुनिः । विरक्तः क्षुद्रकामेभ्यो लब्ध्वाऽऽत्मनि सुखं महत् ॥१८-२३॥

tasmān niyamya ṣaḍ-vargaṁ mad-bhāvena caren muniḥ | viraktaḥ kṣudra-kāmebhyo labdhvātmani sukhaṁ mahat ||18-23||

Therefore, having fully controlled this group of six — the five senses and the mind — the sage should live with consciousness fixed on me, detached from trivial desires, having attained the great happiness that exists within the self.

Modern Reflection

This verse closes the extended teaching on renunciation with a specific, positive promise, sukhaṁ mahat, great happiness, achieved not through acquisition or external circumstance but through niyamya ṣaḍ-vargam, disciplined control of the six inner faculties, the five senses and the mind together. A monk who has spent decades in disciplined practice at an ashram in the Himalayan foothills, when asked by a visiting journalist whether his renounced life feels like sacrifice, typically answers with something close to this verse's own claim: what looks like deprivation from the outside is experienced from the inside as sukham mahat, considerable, genuine happiness, precisely because attention no longer scatters outward chasing kṣudra-kāma, small, ultimately unsatisfying desires, but rests instead in something the tradition insists was always available within, requiring only that the six faculties stop constantly diverting attention away from it. This verse's real argument, echoing the entire chapter's cumulative teaching, is that renunciation is not fundamentally about loss but about redirection: the same energy previously spent chasing external satisfaction, redirected inward through disciplined sense-control, is claimed to yield a happiness considerably greater than what was given up, a claim the entire preceding sequence of austerities and disciplines has been building toward as its final, positive payoff.

Verse 24

पुरग्रामव्रजान्सार्थान् भिक्षार्थं प्रविशंश्चरेत् । पुण्यदेशसरिच्छैलवनाश्रमवतीं महीम् ॥ 18.24 ॥

pura-grāma-vrajān sārthān bhikṣārthaṁ praviśaṁś caret puṇya-deśa-saric-chaila- vanāśrama-vatīṁ mahīm

He should wander into cities, villages and cow-pastures for alms, and roam over the earth adorned with sacred places, rivers, mountains, forests and hermitages.

Verse 25

वानप्रस्थाश्रमपदेष्वभीक्ष्णं भैक्ष्यमाचरेत् । संसिध्यत्याश्वसम्मोहः शुद्धसत्त्वः शिलान्धसा ॥ 18.25 ॥

vānaprasthāśrama-padeṣv abhīkṣṇaṁ bhaikṣyam ācaret saṁsidhyaty āśv asammohaḥ śuddha-sattvaḥ śilāndhasā

He should regularly beg at the hermitages of forest-dwellers; one who lives on such begged grain, freed from illusion, quickly becomes purified in being and attains perfection.

Verse 26

नैतद् वस्तुतया पश्येद् दृश्यमानं विनश्यति । असक्तचित्तो विरमेदिहामुत्र चिकीर्षितात् ॥ 18.26 ॥

naitad vastutayā paśyed dṛśyamānaṁ vinaśyati asakta-citto viramed ihāmutra-cikīrṣitāt

He should not regard as real that which is perceived, since all that is seen is perishing; with a mind free of attachment, he should cease from all he wishes to accomplish, in this life or the next.

Verse 27

यदेतदात्मनि जगन्मनोवाक्प्राणसंहतम् । सर्वं मायेति तर्केण स्वस्थस्त्यक्त्वा न तत् स्मरेत् ॥ 18.27 ॥

yad etad ātmani jagan mano-vāk-prāṇa-saṁhatam sarvaṁ māyeti tarkeṇa sva-sthas tyaktvā na tat smaret

By reasoning he should recognize this world of mind, speech and life-breath, appearing within the self, as entirely maya; established in himself, he should give it up and never again dwell on it.

Verse 28

ज्ञाननिष्ठो विरक्तो वा मद्भक्तो वानपेक्षकः । सलिङ्गानाश्रमांस्त्यक्त्वा चरेदविधिगोचरः ॥ 18.28 ॥

jñāna-niṣṭho virakto vā mad-bhakto vānapekṣakaḥ sa-liṅgān āśramāṁs tyaktvā cared avidhi-gocaraḥ

One dedicated to knowledge, or one who is detached, or my devotee who has no further expectation even of liberation, should give up all external symbols and orders of life and move beyond the bounds of formal rule.

Verse 29

बुधो बालकवत् क्रीडेत् कुशलो जडवच्चरेत् । वदेदुन्मत्तवद् विद्वान् गोचर्यां नैगमश्चरेत् ॥ 18.29 ॥

budho bālaka-vat krīḍet kuśalo jaḍa-vac caret vaded unmatta-vad vidvān go-caryāṁ naigamaś caret

Though wise, he should play like a child; though capable, he should act as though dull; though learned, he should speak as though mad; and though versed in the Vedas, he should move about freely, unbound by convention.

Verse 30

वेदवादरतो न स्यान्न पाषण्डी न हैतुकः । शुष्कवादविवादे न कञ्चित् पक्षं समाश्रयेत् ॥ 18.30 ॥

veda-vāda-rato na syān na pāṣaṇḍī na haitukaḥ śuṣka-vāda-vivāde na kañcit pakṣaṁ samāśrayet

He should not be devoted to mere Vedic ritualism, nor become a heretic, nor a mere logician; in barren disputation he should take no side whatsoever.

Verse 31

नोद्विजेत जनाद् धीरो जनं चोद्वेजयेन्न तु । अतिवादांस्तितिक्षेत नावमन्येत कञ्चन । देहमुद्दिश्य पशुवद् वैरं कुर्यान्न केनचित् ॥ 18.31 ॥

nodvijeta janād dhīro janaṁ codvejayen na tu ati-vādāṁs titikṣeta nāvamanyeta kañcana deham uddiśya paśu-vad vairaṁ kuryān na kenacit

The self-composed man should neither be frightened by others nor frighten anyone; he should tolerate harsh words, disrespect no one, and never, like an animal, create enmity for the sake of the body.

Verse 32

एक एव परो ह्यात्मा भूतेष्वात्मन्यवस्थितः । यथेन्दुरुदपात्रेषु भूतान्येकात्मकानि च ॥ 18.32 ॥

eka eva paro hy ātmā bhūteṣv ātmany avasthitaḥ yathendur uda-pātreṣu bhūtāny ekātmakāni ca

The one Supreme Self dwells alike in all beings and in one's own self, just as the single moon is reflected in many vessels of water — so are all beings essentially of that one self.

Verse 33

अलब्ध्वा न विषीदेत काले कालेऽशनं क्वचित् । लब्ध्वा न हृष्येद् धृतिमानुभयं दैवतन्त्रितम् ॥ 18.33 ॥

alabdhvā na viṣīdeta kāle kāle ’śanaṁ kvacit labdhvā na hṛṣyed dhṛtimān ubhayaṁ daiva-tantritam

He should not grieve when food is not obtained at a given time, nor rejoice when it is; the steadfast person should understand both conditions to be governed by providence.

Verse 34

आहारार्थं समीहेत युक्तं तत् प्राणधारणम् । तत्त्वं विमृश्यते तेन तद् विज्ञाय विमुच्यते ॥ 18.34 ॥

āhārārthaṁ samīheta yuktaṁ tat-prāṇa-dhāraṇam tattvaṁ vimṛśyate tena tad vijñāya vimucyate

He should exert himself for food only to the extent needed to sustain life; thereby he is able to reflect on the truth, and by knowing it he becomes liberated.

Verse 35

यदृच्छयोपपन्नान्नमद्याच्छ्रेष्ठमुतापरम् । तथा वासस्तथा शय्यां प्राप्तं प्राप्तं भजेन्मुनिः ॥ 18.35 ॥

yadṛcchayopapannānnam adyāc chreṣṭham utāparam tathā vāsas tathā śayyāṁ prāptaṁ prāptaṁ bhajen muniḥ

He should eat whatever food comes unsought, whether excellent or ordinary; likewise the sage should accept whatever clothing and bedding come to him, just as they come.

Verse 36

शौचमाचमनं स्नानं न तु चोदनया चरेत् । अन्यांश्च नियमाञ्ज्ञानी यथाहं लीलयेश्वरः ॥ 18.36 ॥

śaucam ācamanaṁ snānaṁ na tu codanayā caret anyāṁś ca niyamāñ jñānī yathāhaṁ līlayeśvaraḥ

Cleanliness, sipping water and bathing — these he should not perform under compulsion of rule; the man of knowledge should observe other regulations too, just as I, though the Lord, perform them only as play.

Verse 37

न हि तस्य विकल्पाख्या या च मद्वीक्षया हता । आदेहान्तात् क्वचित् ख्यातिस्ततः सम्पद्यते मया ॥ 18.37 ॥

na hi tasya vikalpākhyā yā ca mad-vīkṣayā hatā ā-dehāntāt kvacit khyātis tataḥ sampadyate mayā

The perception of difference, once destroyed by realization of me, no longer belongs to him; even if it should sometimes reappear until the body's end, thereafter he attains oneness with me.

Verse 38

दुःखोदर्केषु कामेषु जातनिर्वेद आत्मवान् । अजिज्ञासितमद्धर्मो मुनिं गुरुमुपव्रजेत् ॥ 18.38 ॥

duḥkhodarkeṣu kāmeṣu jāta-nirveda ātmavān ajijñāsita-mad-dharmo muniṁ gurum upavrajet

One who has grown detached from sense pleasures, knowing they end in suffering, who is self-possessed but has not yet inquired deeply into the path to me, should approach a wise and learned spiritual master.

Verse 39

तावत् परिचरेद् भक्तः श्रद्धावाननसूयकः । यावद् ब्रह्म विजानीयान्मामेव गुरुमादृतः ॥ 18.39 ॥

tāvat paricared bhaktaḥ śraddhāvān anasūyakaḥ yāvad brahma vijānīyān mām eva gurum ādṛtaḥ

The devotee, full of faith and free of envy, should serve the guru — who is nondifferent from me — with reverence, until he comes to know the Absolute.

Verse 40

यस्त्वसंयतषड्वर्गः प्रचण्डेन्द्रियसारथिः । ज्ञानवैराग्यरहितस्त्रिदण्डमुपजीवति ॥ 18.40 ॥

yas tv asaṁyata-ṣaḍ-vargaḥ pracaṇḍendriya-sārathiḥ jñāna-vairāgya-rahitas tridaṇḍam upajīvati

One who has not controlled the six passions, whose charioteer is his own violent senses, who is devoid of knowledge and detachment, and who takes up the triple staff merely to earn a livelihood —

Verse 41

सुरानात्मानमात्मस्थं निह्नुते मां च धर्महा । अविपक्वकषायोऽस्मादमुष्माच्च विहीयते ॥ 18.41 ॥

surān ātmānam ātma-sthaṁ nihnute māṁ ca dharma-hā avipakva-kaṣāyo ’smād amuṣmāc ca vihīyate

— that destroyer of dharma, who denies the gods, his own indwelling self and me as well, remains unripened in his impurities, and is lost both from this world and the next.

Verse 42

भिक्षोर्धर्मः शमोऽहिंसा तप ईक्षा वनौकसः । गृहिणो भूतरक्षेज्या द्विजस्याचार्यसेवनम् ॥ 18.42 ॥

bhikṣor dharmaḥ śamo ’hiṁsā tapa īkṣā vanaukasaḥ gṛhiṇo bhūta-rakṣejyā dvijasyācārya-sevanam

The duty of the renunciant is peace and non-violence; of the forest-dweller, austerity and discernment; of the householder, protecting living beings and performing sacrifice; and of the twice-born student, serving the teacher.

Verse 43

ब्रह्मचर्यं तपः शौचं सन्तोषो भूतसौहृदम् । गृहस्थस्याप्यृतौ गन्तुः सर्वेषां मदुपासनम् ॥ 18.43 ॥

brahmacaryaṁ tapaḥ śaucaṁ santoṣo bhūta-sauhṛdam gṛhasthasyāpy ṛtau gantuḥ sarveṣāṁ mad-upāsanam

Celibacy, austerity, purity, contentment and goodwill toward all beings — these apply even to the householder outside the season for procreation; and worship of me is common to all, whatever their order.

Verse 44

इति मां यः स्वधर्मेण भजेन् नित्यमनन्यभाक् । सर्वभूतेषु मद्भावो मद्भक्तिं विन्दते दृढाम् ॥ 18.44 ॥

iti māṁ yaḥ sva-dharmeṇa bhajen nityam ananya-bhāk sarva-bhūteṣu mad-bhāvo mad-bhaktiṁ vindate dṛḍhām

One who thus worships me constantly through his own prescribed duty, with undivided devotion, and who sees my presence in all beings, attains firm devotion to me.

Verse 45

भक्त्योद्धवानपायिन्या सर्वलोकमहेश्वरम् । सर्वोत्पत्त्यप्ययं ब्रह्म कारणं मोपयाति सः ॥ 18.45 ॥

bhaktyoddhavānapāyinyā sarva-loka-maheśvaram sarvotpatty-apyayaṁ brahma kāraṇaṁ mopayāti saḥ

O Uddhava, through unfailing devotion he attains me — the supreme lord of all the worlds, the Absolute, the cause of the origin and dissolution of everything.

Verse 46

इति स्वधर्मनिर्णिक्तसत्त्वो निर्ज्ञातमद्गतिः । ज्ञानविज्ञानसम्पन्नो नचिरात् समुपैति माम् ॥ 18.46 ॥

iti sva-dharma-nirṇikta- sattvo nirjñāta-mad-gatiḥ jñāna-vijñāna-sampanno na cirāt samupaiti mām

Thus one whose being has been purified by his own prescribed duty, who has fully realized my nature, and who is endowed with both scriptural knowledge and direct realization, attains me very soon.

Verse 47

वर्णाश्रमवतां धर्म एष आचारलक्षणः । स एव मद्भक्तियुतो निःश्रेयसकरः परः ॥ 18.47 ॥

varṇāśramavatāṁ dharma eṣa ācāra-lakṣaṇaḥ sa eva mad-bhakti-yuto niḥśreyasa-karaḥ paraḥ

This is the dharma marked by proper conduct for followers of varnashrama; that very dharma, when joined with devotion to me, becomes the supreme bestower of the highest good.

Verse 48

एतत्तेऽभिहितं साधो भवान् पृच्छति यच्च माम् । यथा स्वधर्मसंयुक्तो भक्तो मां समियात् परम् ॥ 18.48 ॥

etat te ’bhihitaṁ sādho bhavān pṛcchati yac ca mām yathā sva-dharma-saṁyukto bhakto māṁ samiyāt param

O saintly one, I have now told you what you asked of me — how a devotee, engaged in his own prescribed duty, may attain me, the Supreme.

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