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Read one verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with its Sanskrit, word meanings, translation and study points.

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Canto 6 · Prescribed Duties for Mankind · 19 chapters

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How to study this verse, in six steps

1Chant the verse. Say the Sanskrit slowly and carefully.
2Read the word meanings. Go through each Sanskrit word and its meaning.
3Find the meaning yourself. Before the translation, piece the meaning together from the words.
4Read the translation. Ask: what is the Lord teaching here, and how does it apply to my life?
5Read the purport slowly. Read it two or three times. Don't rush.
6Write down what touched you. Note the main points in your own notebook.

Read the full guide: how to hear the Bhāgavatam ›

Canto 6 · Chapter 4: The Haṁsa-guhya Prayers Offered to the Lord by Prajāpati Dakṣa

6.4.27-28 6.4.30

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam · Text 6.4.29

Āśraya· The supreme shelter

Who is speaking and story frame

Speaking:Prajāpati Dakṣasince 6.4.23inside 2 frames: Sūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaŚukadeva Gosvāmī → King Parīkṣit

यद्यन्निरुक्तं वचसा निरूपितं

धियाक्षभिर्वा मनसोत यस्य ।

मा भूत्स्वरूपं गुणरूपं हि तत्तत्

स वै गुणापायविसर्गलक्षण: ॥ २९ ॥

yad yan niruktaṁ vacasā nirūpitaṁ

dhiyākṣabhir vā manasota yasya

mā bhūt svarūpaṁ guṇa-rūpaṁ hi tat tat

sa vai guṇāpāya-visarga-lakṣaṇaḥ

Translation

Anything expressed by material vibrations, anything ascertained by material intelligence and anything experienced by the material senses or concocted within the material mind is but an effect of the modes of material nature and therefore has nothing to do with the real nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Lord is beyond the creation of this material world, for He is the source of the material qualities and creation. As the cause of all causes, He exists before the creation and after the creation. I wish to offer my respectful obeisances unto Him.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io

Understand it

Three study points drawn from the translation and purport.

Know the Lord Beyond Material Conceptions

1
The Supreme Lord existed before creation. His name, form and qualities are always transcendental, never materially created.
2
Material thoughts, senses and invented names cannot reveal the Lord. We must receive knowledge from a person to whom He has revealed Himself.
3
By the Lord’s grace, understanding His transcendental nature frees one from repeated birth and death. One who desires freedom from misery should hear, glorify and remember the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Key points from the purport

One who manufactures names, forms, qualities or paraphernalia pertaining to the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot understand Him, since He is beyond creation.
Therefore by our material concoctions, vibrations and thoughts we cannot ascertain the Supreme Lord.
Nārāyaṇa is always transcendental, beyond this material creation.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Connected verses· 3

The purport of SB 6.4.29 quotesBG 9.11

This is confirmed by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (9.11): “Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form.

The purport of SB 6.4.29 quotesBG 4.9

This is further confirmed by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad-gītā (4.9): “One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.”

The purport of SB 6.4.29 quotesSB 2.1.5

Simply by understanding the Supreme Lord, one goes beyond birth, death, old age and disease.

Each link is a verse the purport itself quotes, or a purport elsewhere that quotes this verse, shown with the purport's own words.

How it feels

Anger and conflict → Spiritual commitment. Competing understandings of duty create relational tension.

Chapters 4–6 of Canto 6: Dakṣa, Nārada and the consequences of preaching. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 4: The Haṁsa-guhya Prayers Offered to the Lord by Prajāpati Dakṣa

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Since the living entity is alive, he can understand the creation of this material world to some extent, but he cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the conception of the body, mind and intelligence. Nevertheless, great sages who are always in meditation can see the personal form of the Lord within their hearts.

Read the whole chapter summary Back to this verse in chapter 6.4

Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

yat yatwhatever
niruktamexpressed
vacasāby words
nirūpitamascertained
dhiyāby so-called meditation or intelligence
akṣabhiḥby the senses
vāor
manasāby the mind

Key ideas in this verse

The subject this verse serves and the themes it speaks of.

Āśraya · The summum bonum
Who is the shelter of everything? · Subject 10 of 10
Moha · Material attachment
The pull of ego, desire and impermanent relationships. · Theme in SB 6.4
In this verse: “material”, “materially”
Jñāna · Spiritual insight
Inquiry, revelation and discrimination between self and matter. · Theme in SB 6.4
In this verse: “knowledge”, “understanding”
Kīrtana · Hearing and chanting
Remembering the Lord through sacred sound. · Theme in SB 6.4
In this verse: “glorify”

Chapter themes come from the story phase this chapter belongs to.

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

Am I learning about the Lord from revealed knowledge, or relying on my own imagined ideas?

Practice

Read the translation aloud once, then spend a minute remembering the Lord as beyond material creation.

The story around it

The story this chapter belongs to.

Connected stories

Keep going: stories told elsewhere in the Bhāgavatam that this verse or its purport brings in.

The purport quotesSB 2.1.5

Found where this verse or Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport names them. See all of chapter 6.4's connections

Live this todayKnow the Lord Beyond Material ConceptionsThis verse's lesson: one practice and one question for today

Study points are short summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport on Vedabase.

Ask the BhāgavatamHave a question about SB 6.4.29? Get an answer from the verses themselves.

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