FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.6.44

తవ విక్రీడితం కృష్ణ నృణాం పరమమఙ్గలమ్ । కర్ణపీయూషమాసాద్య త్యజన్త్యన్యస్పృహాం జనా: ॥ ౪౪ ॥
tava vikrīḍitaṁ kṛṣṇa
[tava vikreeditam krishna]
nṛṇāṁ parama-maṅgalam
[nrinaam parama-mangalam]
karṇa-pīyūṣam āsādya
[karna-peeyoosham aasaadya]
tyajanty anya-spṛhāṁ janāḥ
[tyajanty anya-sprihaam janaah]
Word-for-word
tava — Your vikrīḍitam — pastimes kṛṣṇa — O Kṛṣṇa nṛṇām — for men parama-maṅgalam — supremely auspicious karṇa — for the ears pīyūṣam — nectar āsādya — having tasted tyajanti — they reject anya — for other things spṛhām — their desires janāḥ — persons.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
tava vikrīḍitaṁ kṛṣṇa
tava
Your
vikrīḍitam
pastimes
kṛṣṇa
O Kṛṣṇa
nṛṇāṁ parama-maṅgalam
nṛṇām
for men
parama-maṅgalam
supremely auspicious
karṇa-pīyūṣam āsādya
karṇa
for the ears
pīyūṣam
nectar
āsādya
having tasted
tyajanty anya-spṛhāṁ janāḥ
tyajanti
they reject
anya
for other things
spṛhām
their desires
janāḥ
persons.
O my dear Kṛṣṇa, Your pastimes are supremely auspicious for mankind and are an intoxicating beverage for the ears. Tasting such pastimes, people forget their desires for other things.
Purport

Anya-spṛhām, or “desire for things other than Kṛṣṇa,” indicates the material desire to enjoy wife, children, money, and so on. Ultimately, the materialist may desire religious salvation for his personal comfort and satisfaction, but all such desires are mundane, because on the spiritual platform the pure soul thinks only of the Lord’s pleasure and the Lord’s service. Therefore, a pure devotee can never give up Kṛṣṇa, even for a moment, although for Kṛṣṇa’s pleasure he can give up the entire universe.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
O Kṛṣṇa! Having tasted your pastimes which are most auspicious for mankind and are an intoxicating beverage for the ears, people give up their desires for other things. They give up desires for sons, wife, and finally liberation, but they cannot give up your pastimes. How can I give up you?
Personal Guidance
Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are nectar for the ears — drink them daily, and the thirst for everything other than Him quietly falls away.
Practical Applications
  • Begin the day by hearing or reading one of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes before opening any news, feed, or message.
  • Notice when you reach for entertainment to soothe restlessness, and replace one such session today with hearing about Kṛṣṇa.
  • Speak about a pastime of Kṛṣṇa with one person today — let your tongue and ears taste what the verse calls karṇa-pīyūṣam.
Reflection Questions
  • Which anya-spṛhā — desire for something other than Kṛṣṇa — still tastes sweeter to me than hearing about Him, and why?
  • When I last heard a pastime of Kṛṣṇa, did it actually displace any material craving, or did I keep both side by side?
For Each Age Group
youth
  • Before opening Instagram, YouTube, or a group chat in the morning, hear one pastime of Kṛṣṇa for even five minutes — let that be the first input to your ears.
  • When peer pressure pulls you toward a party, a binge, or a relationship you know is hollow, deliberately turn to hari-kathā that evening and watch whether the craving keeps its grip.
  • During exam stress, refuse to numb out with random content; instead, take a short break to hear a pastime, and notice whether you return to study calmer than caffeine would have left you.
householder
  • Share one of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes at the family meal today, so the same nectar reaches spouse and children — making the home itself a place where anya-spṛhā weakens.
  • When a financial worry or career ambition is consuming your mind on the commute, replace the usual podcast with hari-kathā and observe how the worry sits afterward.
  • Before making a significant family decision — a purchase, a move, a school — first hear something about Kṛṣṇa, so the decision is taken from a settled rather than a craving mind.
senior
  • Make hearing Kṛṣṇa's pastimes the central activity of your day, not a supplement to it — let the ears, which served the world for decades, now serve their proper purpose.
  • When attachment to children, grandchildren, or accumulated possessions tightens, return to this verse and let pastimes do the loosening that willpower cannot.
  • Read a pastime aloud to a grandchild or a younger seeker today, so the nectar passes through your voice into another set of ears — your legacy becoming hari-kathā rather than memorabilia.
Common Pitfalls
  • Treating hari-kathā as background noise — playing it while scrolling — so the ears are occupied but never truly tasting.
  • Using the verse to justify spiritual escapism, neglecting one's prescribed duties while claiming to be absorbed in pastimes.
  • Collecting pastimes as literary or cultural knowledge to recite, rather than letting them dissolve actual present-day desires.
Discussion Prompts
  • Share one material desire that has genuinely weakened in you through hearing about Kṛṣṇa — and one that has stubbornly remained. What is the difference?
  • If pastimes are truly karṇa-pīyūṣam, why do we so often prefer other audio — music, podcasts, news? Be honest about what those offer that hari-kathā seems not to.
  • The verse says people forget desires for other things. Is this forgetting passive (it just happens) or active (we must cooperate)? Argue both sides.
Role Play

Two students pair up. One plays a sincere friend who says, 'I tried listening to Kṛṣṇa's pastimes for a week and felt nothing — my desires for career, relationship, and entertainment are exactly the same.' The other, drawing on this verse and Prabhupāda's purport, must respond as a fellow practitioner, not a preacher — diagnosing what kind of hearing the friend was doing and what would shift it from information to nectar.

Objections & Responses
  • This sounds like religious distraction — replacing real desires with stories, so a person never actually deals with wanting wife, money, or success.
    Prabhupāda is precise in the purport: the materialist may even desire salvation for his own comfort, and that too is mundane. Hearing pastimes does not suppress desire by force; it reveals a higher taste, and lower tastes fall away on their own. A devotee still works, marries, raises children — but the center of gravity has shifted from his own enjoyment to Kṛṣṇa's pleasure. That is not avoidance; it is reorientation.
  • Why should pastimes of one personal deity have universal effect on mankind? Surely any uplifting story would do.
    The verse says nṛṇāṁ parama-maṅgalam — supremely auspicious for all mankind — precisely because Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, not one inspirational figure among many. Uplifting stories may soothe the mind; only Kṛṣṇa's pastimes act on the soul, because the soul is His eternal servant. The test is empirical: hear sincerely and observe whether anya-spṛhā actually loosens.
📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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