SB 5.11.1 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

ब्राह्मण उवाच अकोविद: कोविदवादवादान्वदस्यथो नातिविदां वरिष्ठ: । न सूरयो हि व्यवहारमेनंतत्त्वावमर्शेन सहामनन्ति ॥ १ ॥

Verse text

brāhmaṇa uvāca akovidaḥ kovida-vāda-vādān vadasy atho nāti-vidāṁ variṣṭhaḥ na sūrayo hi vyavahāram enaṁ tattvāvamarśena sahāmananti

Synonyms

brāhmaṇaḥ uvāca — the brāhmaṇa said ; akovidaḥ — without having experience ; kovida — vāda — vādān — words used by experienced persons ; vadasi — you are speaking ; atho — therefore ; na — not ; ati — vidām — of those who are very experienced ; variṣṭhaḥ — the most important ; na — not ; sūrayaḥ — such intelligent persons ; hi — indeed ; vyavahāram — mundane and social behavior ; enam — this ; tattva — of the truth ; avamarśena — fine judgment by intelligence ; saha — with ; āmananti — discuss .

Translation

The brāhmaṇa Jaḍa Bharata said: My dear King, although you are not at all experienced, you are trying to speak like a very experienced man. Consequently you cannot be considered an experienced person. An experienced person does not speak the way you are speaking about the relationship between a master and a servant or about material pains and pleasures. These are simply external activities. Any advanced, experienced man, considering the Absolute Truth, does not talk in this way.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The brāhmaṇa (Jaḍa Bharata) said: Though unlearned, you are speaking words of the learned. You are not the best among the learned. The wise do not speak of the material world by discerning it to be the truth. The Eleventh Chapter describes that the mind is the cause of saṁsāra, that it has many transformations, and that, by engaging it in bhakti, one can attain liberation. You are not learned, but you speak words of objection like those of the wise. Therefore you are not the best among the very wise, since the wise do not speak of the material world and its objects with deliberation on truth, calling the objects substantial, while giving examples, since both have faults. You have given the example of the fire applied to the pot, which heats the milk, which cooks the rice. In this example there is connection of material pot with material fire. However, there is no contact of the material senses with the liberated ātmā, a spiritual particle. Thus fatigue of the body does not mean fatigue of the ātmā. Because the conditioned jīva is covered by the material body, the conditioned jīva experiences fatigue because of the fatigued body which is material. Your inference fails because you cannot say that you, the conditioned jīva, are the same as me, the liberated jīva.

Purport

Kṛṣṇa similarly chastised Arjuna. Aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ prajṣā-vādāṁś ca bhāṣase: “While speaking learned words, you are lamenting for what is not worthy of grief.” ( Bg. 2.11 ) Similarly, among people in general, 99.9 percent try to talk like experienced advisers, but they are actually devoid of spiritual knowledge and are therefore like inexperienced children speaking nonsensically. Consequently their words cannot be given any importance. One has to learn from Kṛṣṇa or His devotee. If one speaks on the basis of this experience — that is, on the basis of spiritual knowledge — one’s words are valuable. At the present moment, the entire world is full of foolish people. Bhagavad-gītā describes these people as mūḍhas. They are trying to rule human society, but because they are devoid of spiritual knowledge, the entire world is in a chaotic condition. To be released from these miserable conditions, one has to become Kṛṣṇa conscious and take lessons from an exalted personality like Jaḍa Bharata, Lord Kṛṣṇa and Kapiladeva. That is the only way to solve the problems of material life.