FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.10.12

एवं साधारणं देहमव्यक्तप्रभवाप्ययम् । को विद्वानात्मसात्कृत्वा हन्ति जन्तूनृतेऽसत: ॥ १२ ॥
evaṁ sādhāraṇaṁ deham
[evam saadhaaranam deham]
avyakta-prabhavāpyayam
[avyakta-prabhavaapyayam]
ko vidvān ātmasāt kṛtvā
[ko vidvaan aatmasaat kritvaa]
hanti jantūn ṛte ’sataḥ
[hanti jantoon rite ’satah]
Word-for-word
evam — in this way sādhāraṇam — common property deham — the body avyakta — from unmanifested nature prabhava — manifested in that way apyayam — and again merged with the unmanifested (“for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”) kaḥ — who is that person vidvān — one who is actually in knowledge ātmasāt kṛtvā — claiming as his own hanti — kills jantūn — poor animals ṛte — except asataḥ — rascals who have no knowledge, no clear understanding .
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
evaṁ sādhāraṇaṁ deham
evam
in this way
sādhāraṇam
common property
deham
the body
avyakta-prabhavāpyayam
avyakta
from unmanifested nature
prabhava
manifested in that way
apyayam
and again merged with the unmanifested (“for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”)
kaḥ
who is that person
ko vidvān ātmasāt kṛtvā
vidvān
one who is actually in knowledge
ātmasāt kṛtvā
claiming as his own
hanti jantūn ṛte ’sataḥ
hanti
kills
jantūn
poor animals
ṛte
except
asataḥ
rascals who have no knowledge, no clear understanding .
Important Words
  • sādhāraṇam — common property
    From sa- (with) + ādhāra (basis). The body is 'shared-basis,' belonging equally to all who claim it (parents, employer, fire). Gauḍīya frame: the only thing that is truly 'yours' is your eternal sevā-relation with Kṛṣṇa — the body is on loan.
  • avyakta — unmanifested nature
    Past participle: 'not manifest.' Sāṅkhya term for prakṛti in her unmanifest, equilibrium state. The body's pre-history and post-history is avyakta; its visible phase is a brief vyakta in between.
  • vidvān — one in knowledge
    Present participle from √vid, 'to know.' The rhetorical question — 'who, being a vidvān, would claim and kill?' — implies the answer: no one. Therefore the killer is, by definition, not a vidvān, however learned he sounds.
  • asataḥ — of rascals, the unreal
    Genitive plural of asat. In Gauḍīya frame, asat is paired with sat (Bhagavān, devotees, what endures). Asat-saṅga produces precisely the body-claimer Nārada is naming. SB 10.10.18 will name asat-āśraya as the alternative to sādhu-saṅga — same word, deliberate echo.
This body, after all, is produced by the unmanifested nature and again annihilated and merged in the natural elements. Therefore, it is the common property of everyone. Under the circumstances, who but a rascal claims this property as his own and while maintaining it commits such sinful activities as killing animals just to satisfy his whims? Unless one is a rascal, one cannot commit such sinful activities.
Purport

Atheists do not believe in the existence of the soul. Nonetheless, unless one is very cruel, why should one kill animals unnecessarily? The body is a manifestation of a combination of matter. In the beginning it was nothing, but by a combination of matter it has come into existence. Then again, when the combination is dismantled, the body will no longer exist. In the beginning it was nothing, and in the end it will be nothing. Why then should one commit sinful activities when it is manifested? It is not possible for anyone to do this unless he is rascal number one.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
This body, after all, is produced by the unmanifested nature and again annihilated and merged in the natural elements. Therefore, it is the common property of everyone. Under the circumstances, who but a rascal claims this property as his own and while maintaining it commits such sinful activities as killing animals just to satisfy his whims? Unless one is a rascal, one cannot commit such sinful activities.
Commentary

This body arises from and merges into the pradhana, material cause of the universe. Who except the ignorant person (asatah) will accept such a body as ones own (atmasat krtva) and commit violence to animals?

Jīva Gosvāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

What wise person, knowing the ordinary body as mentioned above understanding that is simply appearance and disappearance from the state of invisible pradhāna, would kill other beings, thinking the body to be the self (ātmasāt)? The materialistic person, even knowing this, would kill others.

Śrīdhara Svāmī Gauḍīya
Commentary

The body depends on the appearance or disappearance of pradhāna (avyakta). One should consider that ātmā, separate from the impermanent body. Or the appearance and disappearance arise from the Lord (avyakta). Thus the body is not independent. Thus one should think of ātmā. The wise man knows this. Or what ignorant person (avidvān) would kill another being, for even he sees the suffering of the being which is killed? That will be explained later. Only a person intoxicated with wealth would do so.

Related values & verses
Related values
Discriminative WisdomAnahankarah (Freedom from False Ego)
Related verses
SB 4.29.1 SB 10.10.9 SB 10.10.10 SB 10.10.11 SB 10.10.13 SB 10.10.14 SB 10.10.15 BG 10.4 BG 3.21 BG 12.3 BG 6.5 BG 16.1 BG 4.1
Concepts
Jiva
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
The body is borrowed matter — common property assembled and dissolved by prakṛti — so claiming it as 'mine' to harm others is the mark of a fool, not a master.
Practical Applications
  • Before any meal today, pause and refuse to treat another being's body as fuel for your whims — choose food offered to Kṛṣṇa, not flesh taken by force.
  • Notice one moment when you assert 'this body is mine' to justify selfishness, and silently correct yourself: 'this body is on loan from prakṛti, due back any day.'
  • Speak to one person today — human or animal — as a soul temporarily wearing matter, not as the matter itself; let that recognition shape how you treat them.
Analogy

A child builds a hut of damp clay on the riverbank, paints his name on the wall, and weeps when the next tide takes it. Prakṛti shapes the body from her elements and dissolves it back; calling 'mine' on a structure made of borrowed earth, water, fire, air, and ether is the universal mistake.

Stories
Kapila's instruction to Devahūti

Kapiladeva, Bhagavān's avatāra, instructed His mother Devahūti in Sāṅkhya — that the body is wholly a product of prakṛti's three modes; that the puruṣa (jīva) is distinct, eternal, and a part of Bhagavān; that bondage arises only when the jīva claims the prakṛti-built body as 'I' and 'mine.'

This is exactly the framework SB 10.10.12 invokes. The verse compresses Kapila's whole canto (SB 3.25–33) into one rebuke: the body is sādhāraṇa, common property of prakṛti, and to claim it for hiṁsā is the asat's signature.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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