FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.8.34

विदेहानां पुरे ह्यस्मिन्नहमेकैव मूढधी: । यान्यमिच्छन्त्यसत्यस्मादात्मदात् काममच्युतात् ॥ ३४ ॥
videhānāṁ pure hy asminn
[videhaanaam pure hy asminn]
aham ekaiva mūḍha-dhīḥ
[aham ekaiva moodha-dheeh]
yānyam icchanty asaty asmād
[yaanyam ichchanty asaty asmaad]
ātma-dāt kāmam acyutāt
[aatma-daat kaamam achyutaat]
Word-for-word
videhānām — of the residents of Videha pure — in the city hi — certainly asmin — this aham — I ekā — alone eva — undoubtedly mūḍha — fool dhīḥ — whose intelligence yā — (I am that one) who anyam — another icchantī — desiring asatī — being most unchaste asmāt — other than Him ātma-dāt — who awards us our real, spiritual form kāmam — sense gratification acyutāt — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Acyuta.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
videhānāṁ pure hy asminn
videhānām
of the residents of Videha
pure
in the city
aham ekaiva mūḍha-dhīḥ
hi
certainly
yānyam icchanty asaty asmād
asmin
this
aham
I
ekā
alone
eva
undoubtedly
mūḍha
fool
dhīḥ
whose intelligence
yā
(I am that one) who
anyam
another
icchantī
desiring
asatī
being most unchaste
asmāt
other than Him
ātma-dāt kāmam acyutāt
ātma-dāt
who awards us our real, spiritual form
kāmam
sense gratification
acyutāt
the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Acyuta.
Certainly in this city of Videha I alone am completely foolish. I neglected the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who awards us everything, even our original spiritual form, and instead I desired to enjoy sense gratification with many men.
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
Certainly in this city of Videha I alone am completely foolish. I neglected the Supreme Lord who gives himself and instead I desired to enjoy with other men. I am unchaste, desiring enjoyment with men other than the Lord.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Piṅgalā's awakening: I alone was the fool — chasing fleeting lovers while neglecting Acyuta, who alone awards our eternal spiritual form.
Practical Applications
  • Name today the one viṣaya you keep returning to for fulfillment, and admit honestly: it has never delivered.
  • Each time a craving for a temporary pleasure arises, redirect that same longing toward Kṛṣṇa, who alone is ātma-dāt.
  • Refuse to call yourself wise while you are still bartering your soul's worth for the approval or contact of those who cannot give what He gives.
Reflection Questions
  • Which "many men" — people, jobs, or pleasures — am I still soliciting for the fulfillment only Acyuta can grant?
  • What would it cost me to confess, like Piṅgalā, that in this whole city I alone have been the foolish one?
For Each Age Group
youth
  • Notice the hour you spend refreshing a chat or a feed waiting for one person's attention — and ask whether that person can give what Kṛṣṇa gives.
  • When peer approval feels like oxygen before an exam or a party, whisper Piṅgalā's line: "in this whole campus, I alone am foolish for soliciting them."
  • Refuse to build your identity around someone who has not even committed to you, and offer that same intensity of longing to your morning sādhana instead.
householder
  • Identify the one client, raise, or social circle you keep courting for security, and admit it is not ātma-dāt — then continue the work as duty, not as suitor.
  • When tempted to chase a second income stream or status purchase "just one more," pause and ask whether you are repeating Piṅgalā's nightly mistake in a respectable dress.
  • Speak honestly with your spouse this week about one area where you have been soliciting fulfillment from outside the home or from them in a way they cannot deliver.
senior
  • Audit the relationships and recognitions you are still subtly hoping will arrive before you die, and release each one back to Acyuta.
  • Where you find disgust rising at your own past pattern of seeking, do not bury it — let it ripen into the same nirveda that turned Piṅgalā toward Kṛṣṇa.
  • Mentor a younger seeker by naming, without euphemism, the specific viṣaya you wasted years soliciting, so they need not repeat it.
Common Pitfalls
  • Treating this verse as a lesson about sexual restraint only, and missing that every materialist transaction is the same mūḍha-dhīḥ.
  • Romanticizing Piṅgalā's disgust as a one-time dramatic conversion, instead of the slow, repeated disillusionment a sādhaka must actually undergo.
  • Confessing foolishness in general terms ("I am fallen") to avoid naming the specific viṣaya one is still soliciting.
Discussion Prompts
  • Piṅgalā says "I alone am foolish" while standing in a whole city of materialists — what shifts when blame turns inward instead of outward?
  • Where in your life have you mistaken a giver-of-scraps for ātma-dāt, and what finally exposed the substitution?
  • Is disgust (nirveda) with one's own pattern a reliable doorway to bhakti, or can it harden into mere self-loathing — how do we tell the difference?
Role Play

One student plays Piṅgalā at the end of a long, fruitless night at her door; another plays a sympathetic friend who insists "you just haven't met the right man yet — don't give up." Piṅgalā must articulate, in her own words, why no future lover can be ātma-dāt and why Acyuta alone qualifies — without sliding into despair or self-pity.

Objections & Responses
  • Calling yourself "the only fool in the city" is just toxic self-shaming dressed up as spirituality.
    Piṅgalā is not performing self-hatred; she is finally seeing clearly. Shame says "I am worthless"; her insight says "I have been spending my worth in the wrong market." That precision is what frees her — and it ends not in collapse but in confident surrender to Acyuta.
  • Why frame ordinary desire for companionship as foolishness? Humans are wired to seek connection.
    The verse does not condemn the longing — it questions the address. The same hunger that drove Piṅgalā to strangers is the hunger meant for Kṛṣṇa, ātma-dāt, who alone can return us our original spiritual form. Misdirected, it exhausts us; rightly directed, it becomes bhakti.
📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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