FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.10.11

देह: किमन्नदातु: स्वं निषेक्तुर्मातुरेव च । मातु: पितुर्वा बलिन: क्रेतुरग्ने: शुनोऽपि वा ॥ ११ ॥
dehaḥ kim anna-dātuḥ svaṁ
[dehah kim anna-daatuh svam]
niṣektur mātur eva ca
[nishektur maatur eva cha]
mātuḥ pitur vā balinaḥ
[maatuh pitur vaa balinah]
kretur agneḥ śuno ’pi vā
[kretur agneh shuno ’pi vaa]
Word-for-word
dehaḥ — this body kim anna - dātuḥ — does it belong to the employer who gives me the money to maintain it svam — or does it belong to me personally niṣektuḥ — (or does it belong) to the person who discharged the semen mātuḥ eva — (or does it belong) to the mother who maintained this body within her womb ca — and mātuḥ pituḥ vā — or (does it belong) to the father of the mother (because sometimes the father of the mother takes a grandson as an adopted son) balinaḥ — (or does it belong) to the person who takes this body away by force kretuḥ — or to the person who purchases the body as a slave agneḥ — or to the fire (because ultimately the body is burned) śunaḥ — or to the dogs and vultures that ultimately eat it api — even vā — or .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
dehaḥ kim anna-dātuḥ svaṁ
dehaḥ
this body
kim anna - dātuḥ
does it belong to the employer who gives me the money to maintain it
svam
or does it belong to me personally
niṣektur mātur eva ca
niṣektuḥ
(or does it belong) to the person who discharged the semen
mātuḥ eva
(or does it belong) to the mother who maintained this body within her womb
ca
and
mātuḥ pitur vā balinaḥ
mātuḥ pituḥ vā
or (does it belong) to the father of the mother (because sometimes the father of the mother takes a grandson as an adopted son)
balinaḥ
(or does it belong) to the person who takes this body away by force
kretur agneḥ śuno ’pi vā
kretuḥ
or to the person who purchases the body as a slave
agneḥ
or to the fire (because ultimately the body is burned)
śunaḥ
or to the dogs and vultures that ultimately eat it
api
even
vā
or .
Important Words
  • dehaḥ — this body
    From √dih, 'to smear, plaster.' The body is literally 'the thing plastered together' — a temporary assembly. Gauḍīya frame: deha is not ātmā; the jīva is the eternal proprietor of a series of dehas, not of any one.
  • anna-dātuḥ — of the one who gives food (employer)
    Genitive compound. The first candidate Nārada lists is the employer who feeds the body — and is immediately set aside. The body's maintenance does not equal ownership; the wage does not buy the man.
  • balinaḥ — of the one who takes by force
    Genitive of balin, 'strong one.' Even violent appropriation does not establish ownership. The list deliberately walks through every conventional claim — birth, purchase, force, cremation — and dismantles each.
  • agneḥ — of the fire
    Genitive of agni. The final claimant is the cremation fire. In Vedic ritual, agni is the messenger to the devas; in this verse, he is the closing claimant on the body. Both readings co-exist — the body's last destination is Yajña's altar of dissolution.
While alive, does this body belong to its employer, to the self, to the father, the mother, or the mother’s father? Does it belong to the person who takes it away by force, to the slave master who purchases it, or to the sons who burn it in the fire? Or, if the body is not burned, does it belong to the dogs that eat it? Among the many possible claimants, who is the rightful claimant? Not to ascertain this but instead to maintain the body by sinful activities is not good.
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
While alive, does this body belong to its employer, to the self, to the father, the mother, or the mother's father? Does it belong to the person who takes it away by force, to the slave master who purchases it, or to the sons who burn it in the fire? Or, if the body is not burned, does it belong to the dogs that eat it? Among the many possible claimants, who is the rightful claimant? Not to ascertain this but instead to maintain the body by sinful activities is not good.
Commentary

This verse shows that from not understanding the fault of possessiveness of the body many contradictions arise. Nisektuh refers to the father, who inseminates to create the child. Is this body the wealth (svam) of the father, mother, or father of the mother (if only girl children are born to a man the grandchild act as his son)?

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

One cannot determine who owns the body. Contrary conceptions arise. Does the body belong to one self like a treasure (svam)? Does it belong to a person who forcibly takes one away as a slave (balinaḥ)? The word eva can be supplied to all the phrases. Another version has kretur vā balino ‘gneh.

Related values & verses
Related values
Discriminative WisdomYajña (Sacrifice / Spirit of Offering)Anahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)
Related verses
SB 4.29.1 SB 10.10.8 SB 10.10.9 SB 10.10.10 SB 10.10.12 SB 10.10.13 SB 10.10.14 BG 18.54 BG 10.4 BG 3.21 BG 12.3 BG 3.19 BG 6.5
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
The body has no single rightful owner — sustaining it through sinful acts is folly; use it instead in Kṛṣṇa's service while you can.
Practical Applications
  • Before any indulgence today, ask: 'Whose body am I feeding — employer's, parents', the funeral fire's?' and let the question break the false sense of ownership.
  • Refuse to justify one shortcut, lie, or compromise at work today on the grounds that 'I need it for myself' — the 'self' you're protecting isn't even yours.
  • Offer one bodily act today (a meal, a task, your morning grooming) explicitly to Kṛṣṇa, treating the body as a tool on loan rather than property to be maintained at any cost.
Analogy

A bullock-cart passes from owner to owner — the breeder, the buyer, the renter, the merchant who hires it for one trip. None is the cart; each handles it for a while. The body is the same cart, claimed by parents, employer, fire, dog. Whose, then, is the 'mine' that drives such fierce labor to maintain it?

Stories
Bharata's deer

Mahārāja Bharata, having renounced his empire and gone to the forest, fell into attachment to a single orphaned deer. He fed it, slept with it, woke for it — until at death he thought only of the deer and was born as a deer himself.

In his next life as Jaḍa Bharata he refused to identify with the body at all — even when carried to a sacrifice as a human sacrifice. The arc demonstrates SB 10.10.11 from the other side: once you stop asking 'whose body?' you stop being owned by the answer.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

← Read full Chapter 10