FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.7.36

యతో యదనుశిక్షామి యథా వా నాహుషాత్మజ । తత్తథా పురుషవ్యాఘ్ర నిబోధ కథయామి తే ॥ ౩౬ ॥
yato yad anuśikṣāmi
[yato yad anushikshaami]
yathā vā nāhuṣātmaja
[yathaa vaa naahushaatmaja]
tat tathā puruṣa-vyāghra
[tat tathaa purusha-vyaaghra]
nibodha kathayāmi te
[nibodha kathayaami te]
yataḥ — from whom yat — what anuśikṣāmi — I have learned yathā — how vā — and nāhuṣa-ātma-ja — O son of King Nāhuṣa (Yayāti) tat — that tathā — thus puruṣa-vyāghra — O tiger among men nibodha — listen kathayāmi — I will recount te — to you.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
yato yad anuśikṣāmi
yataḥ
from whom
yat
what
anuśikṣāmi
I have learned
yathā vā nāhuṣātmaja
yathā
how
vā
and
nāhuṣa-ātma-ja
O son of King Nāhuṣa (Yayāti)
tat tathā puruṣa-vyāghra
tat
that
tathā
thus
puruṣa-vyāghra
O tiger among men
nibodha kathayāmi te
nibodha
listen
kathayāmi
I will recount
te
to you.
Please listen, O son of Mahārāja Yayāti, O tiger among men, as I explain to you what I have learned from each of these gurus.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
O son of Mahārāja Yayāti! O tiger among men! Please listen, as I explain to you what I have learned from each of these gurus.
Like the avadhūta before Yayāti's son, openly receive Kṛṣṇa's lessons through whatever guru-form He sends — and be willing to articulate them.
Practical Applications
  • Name one person or situation today as a teacher Kṛṣṇa has placed before you, and write down what specifically you are meant to learn from it.
  • Refuse the reflex of dismissing a lesson because the messenger seems low — listen first, weigh the teaching against śāstra second.
  • Before sleeping, articulate aloud to one trusted devotee what you actually learned today, the way the avadhūta agrees to tell Yayāti's son.
Reflection Questions
  • Which gurus has Kṛṣṇa already arranged in my life that I have been refusing to recognize because they did not arrive in the form I expected?
  • What have I learned this year that I have never spoken aloud — and what is the cost of keeping it un-articulated?
For Each Age Group
youth
  • Pick the classmate, teacher, or coach you find most irritating this semester and write down one quality in them Kṛṣṇa is asking you to learn from — not to imitate them, but to recognize the lesson.
  • After your next argument with a parent or friend, instead of replaying your side in your head, articulate to yourself what they were actually trying to teach you, even clumsily.
  • Refuse the social-media habit of only following people who flatter your existing taste — deliberately keep one voice in your feed whose discipline or sva-dharma exposes your own laxity.
householder
  • Treat your spouse's most repeated complaint this week as a guru-instruction Kṛṣṇa has placed in your home, and act on it once concretely before the week ends.
  • At the dinner table, ask each child what they learned today and then offer one thing you learned — modeling the avadhūta's willingness to articulate, not just absorb.
  • Identify one colleague or client whose competence in a worldly skill (patience, precision, follow-through) outstrips yours, and apprentice yourself to that quality without confusing it for their philosophy.
senior
  • Name the younger devotees or family members from whom you have quietly been learning, and tell at least one of them directly — refusing the pride that says elders only teach.
  • Before a grandchild or mentee, narrate one lesson from your life the way the avadhūta narrates here — plainly, with the source named, without self-aggrandizement.
  • Treat each diminishment of body and memory as a guru sent by Kṛṣṇa to teach detachment, and write down weekly what specifically that guru is asking you to release.
Common Pitfalls
  • Treating openness to many teachers as license to bypass the bona fide guru and śāstra, collapsing discrimination in the name of humility.
  • Collecting lessons intellectually but never doing what the avadhūta does here — actually narrating them, putting them under the scrutiny of a serious hearer.
  • Romanticising the idea of learning from everything while in practice ignoring the unglamorous teachers Kṛṣṇa has actually sent — a difficult spouse, a demanding boss, an irritating neighbor.
Discussion Prompts
  • Share one teacher Kṛṣṇa has sent you in the last month whom you initially refused to recognize as a teacher — what made you finally see it, or what is still blocking you?
  • The avadhūta is willing to be questioned by a king and to explain himself in detail; where in your life are you hoarding lessons rather than offering them for examination?
  • How do we hold together the principle of one dīkṣā-guru with the practice of learning from many śikṣā-sources without it sliding into eclectic spirituality?
Role Play

One student plays a senior devotee who has just been corrected on a small point of etiquette by a much younger devotee in front of others; another plays a friend asking them, an hour later, what they actually learned. The senior must answer in the spirit of this verse — naming the younger devotee as a guru Kṛṣṇa sent, and articulating the lesson plainly — rather than defending themselves.

Objections & Responses
  • If I can learn from anyone and anything, why do I need a formal guru at all? This verse seems to dissolve the need for paramparā.
    Notice the frame: the avadhūta speaks to Yayāti's son as a serious hearer, and within Bhāgavata he is himself situated in the broader teaching of Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava. Many śikṣā-gurus only function safely under one dīkṣā-guru and śāstra; without that anchor, "learning from everything" becomes learning from one's own ahaṅkāra wearing many masks.
  • This sounds like spiritual eclecticism — pick lessons from wherever, build your own path. Very modern, not very Gauḍīya.
    The avadhūta is not picking and choosing doctrines; he is reading Kṛṣṇa's arrangements through the lens he already holds. The teaching is not "all paths are equal" but "Kṛṣṇa is teaching me everywhere, and I must have the eyes to see it." That is the opposite of eclecticism — it is single-pointed vision applied to a many-formed world.
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