Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.6.50
శ్రీశుక ఉవాచ
ఏవం విజ్ఞాపితో రాజన్ భగవాన్ దేవకీసుత: ।
ఏకాన్తినం ప్రియం భృత్యముద్ధవం సమభాషత ॥ ౫౦ ॥
śrī-śuka uvāca
[shree-shuka uvaacha]
evaṁ vijṣāpito rājan
[evam vijshaapito raajan]
bhagavān devakī-sutaḥ
[bhagavaan devakee-sutah]
ekāntinaṁ priyaṁ bhṛtyam
[ekaantinam priyam bhrityam]
uddhavaṁ samabhāṣata
[uddhavam samabhaashata]
Word-for-word
śrī-śukaḥ uvāca
—
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said
evam
—
in this way
vijṣāpitaḥ
—
requested
rājan
—
O King
bhagavān
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
devakī-sutaḥ
—
the son of Devakī
ekāntinam
—
in private
priyam
—
dear
bhṛtyam
—
to the servant
uddhavam
—
Uddhava
samabhāṣata
—
He spoke at length.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
śrī-śuka uvāca
śrī-śukaḥ uvāca
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said
evaṁ vijṣāpito rājan
evam
in this way
vijṣāpitaḥ
requested
rājan
O King
bhagavān devakī-sutaḥ
bhagavān
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
devakī-sutaḥ
the son of Devakī
ekāntinaṁ priyaṁ bhṛtyam
ekāntinam
in private
priyam
dear
bhṛtyam
to the servant
uddhavaṁ samabhāṣata
uddhavam
Uddhava
samabhāṣata
He spoke at length.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King Parīkṣit, thus addressed, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, the son of Devakī, began to reply confidentially to His dear, unalloyed servant Uddhava.
Purport
According to Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, the conditioned living entities, by their movements, laughter, activities and words, simply bind themselves more and more in material existence. But if they engage in hearing and chanting about the pastimes of the Personality of Godhead, the conditioned souls will achieve liberation from the bondage of repeated birth and death. This process of supreme liberation will now be elaborately described by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa to His dearmost devotee Śrī Uddhava.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Eleventh Canto, Sixth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Yadu Dynasty Retires to Prabhāsa.”
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King Parīkṣit! Thus addressed, the Supreme Lord, the son of Devakī, spoke to his dear, unalloyed servant Uddhava.
Kṛṣṇa spoke to Uddhava, because he could not hide his intentions from Uddhava.
Thus ends the commentary on Sixth Chapter of the Eleventh Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
Chapter Seven
Gurus of the Avadhūta
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
Kṛṣṇa speaks the supreme path of liberation confidentially to Uddhava — His unalloyed servant — because intimate truth flows to the surrendered heart.
Practical Applications
- Identify one teaching you have heard publicly but never received as if Kṛṣṇa were speaking it personally to you, and sit with it today as His private instruction.
- Before your sādhana, place yourself in Uddhava's posture — an ekāntin, hearing from Kṛṣṇa alone — rather than as a curious bystander collecting ideas.
- Refuse to gossip or laugh away the day; instead spend one slot hearing or chanting about Kṛṣṇa, which Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī says cuts the bondage of birth and death.
Reflection Questions
- Where in my life am I still a public audience to the Bhāgavatam, never an ekāntin who hears it as a personal address from Kṛṣṇa?
- What unalloyed quality in Uddhava draws this confidential reply from the Lord, and which of those qualities is most absent in me?
For Each Age Group
youth
- When you scroll, you collect a thousand voices a day — pick one verse from class this week and read it as if Kṛṣṇa, not your teacher, were addressing you alone.
- Notice how much of your laughter and talk with friends simply ties you tighter to material identity, and trade one such session this week for hearing or chanting about Kṛṣṇa.
- Before an exam or interview, step into Uddhava's mood for sixty seconds — "I am Your servant, tell me what to do" — instead of bargaining with the outcome.
householder
- In a household full of opinions, carve out one fixed slot daily where you are not the head of the family but Uddhava — silent, receptive, hearing Kṛṣṇa speak through the Bhāgavatam.
- When a family decision arises today, ask the verse's question before asking your own preferences — "What would an unalloyed servant of Kṛṣṇa do here?" — and act from that.
- Refuse the dinner-table habit of cynical laughter and idle talk that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī names as bondage; replace it with one Kṛṣṇa-katha story shared with your children or spouse.
senior
- Reorder your day so that hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa, not news or reminiscence, is the central activity — the purport names this as the very process of liberation.
- Stop styling yourself as the family elder with answers; in the time you have left, cultivate Uddhava's posture of the dear servant who is still being instructed.
- Bequeath to children and grandchildren not opinions or wealth alone but the example of one who, near the end, sat down to hear Kṛṣṇa confidentially rather than to be heard.
Common Pitfalls
- Treating the upcoming Uddhava-gītā as philosophy to be mastered rather than a confidential transmission to be received in a servant's mood.
- Imagining that ekāntika devotion is a feeling one summons, rather than the fruit of steady hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa's pastimes.
- Reading "confidential" as elitist secrecy, instead of recognizing it as the natural intimacy Kṛṣṇa reserves for the surrendered.
Discussion Prompts
- Share a teaching you have heard a hundred times — what would change if you received it as Kṛṣṇa speaking directly to you, the way He speaks to Uddhava here?
- Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī says ordinary movements, laughter and words bind us further — discuss one concrete habit in your week that does exactly this, and what hearing-and-chanting would replace it with.
- What is the difference between being Kṛṣṇa's "dear servant" and being His student, fan, or admirer — and which are you, honestly?
Role Play
Two students pair up. One plays a sincere seeker who has read many spiritual books and approaches a senior devotee saying, "Teach me the highest truth." The other plays the senior devotee, who must respond in the spirit of this verse — making clear that the confidential teaching is not withheld arbitrarily, but is naturally given to one who, like Uddhava, has become an unalloyed servant. Switch roles after five minutes.
Objections & Responses
- Why does Kṛṣṇa reserve the highest teaching for a "dear servant"? That sounds like favoritism, not universal truth.
Kṛṣṇa is impartial in offering the path — hearing and chanting are open to everyone — but the confidential taste of that path naturally unfolds in proportion to one's surrender. Uddhava receives it not because Kṛṣṇa loves others less, but because Uddhava has become the kind of vessel that can hold it. The same is offered to us the moment we take that posture. - I do not have a personal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, so when you say He is speaking to me, that feels like make-believe.
The relationship is already there — He is the son of Devakī seated within the heart — but it is dormant. Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī's prescription in the purport is precise: hear and chant about His pastimes, and the bondage of repeated birth and death loosens, and with it the dullness that makes Him feel like make-believe. Begin there; the personal sense follows the practice.
My note
Source: vedabase.io