FolioCorpusBhagavad-gītā

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.9.1

శ్రీబ్రాహ్మణ ఉవాచ పరిగ్రహో హి దు:ఖాయ యద్ యత్ప్రియతమం నృణామ్ । అనన్తం సుఖమాప్నోతి తద్ విద్వాన్ యస్త్వకిఞ్చన: ॥ ౧ ॥
śrī-brāhmaṇa uvāca
[shree-braahmana uvaacha]
parigraho hi duḥkhāya
[parigraho hi duhkhaaya]
yad yat priyatamaṁ nṛṇām
[yad yat priyatamam nrinaam]
anantaṁ sukham āpnoti
[anantam sukham aapnoti]
tad vidvān yas tv akiṣcanaḥ
[tad vidvaan yas tv akishchanah]
Word-for-word
śrī-brāhmaṇaḥ uvāca — the saintly brāhmaṇa said parigrahaḥ — attachment to possession hi — certainly duḥkhāya — leading to misery yat yat — whatever priya-tamam — is most dear nṛṇām — of men anantam — unlimited sukham — happiness āpnoti — achieves tat — that vidvān — knowing yaḥ — whoever tu — indeed akiṣcanaḥ — is free from such attachment.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
śrī-brāhmaṇa uvāca
śrī-brāhmaṇaḥ uvāca
the saintly brāhmaṇa said
parigraho hi duḥkhāya
parigrahaḥ
attachment to possession
hi
certainly
duḥkhāya
leading to misery
yad yat priyatamaṁ nṛṇām
yat yat
whatever
priya-tamam
is most dear
nṛṇām
of men
anantaṁ sukham āpnoti
anantam
unlimited
sukham
happiness
āpnoti
achieves
tad vidvān yas tv akiṣcanaḥ
tat
that
vidvān
knowing
yaḥ
whoever
tu
indeed
akiṣcanaḥ
is free from such attachment.
The saintly brāhmaṇa said: Everyone considers certain things within the material world to be most dear to him, and because of attachment to such things one eventually becomes miserable. One who understands this gives up material possessiveness and attachment and thus achieves unlimited happiness.
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
The brāhmaṇa said: Because of attachment to things considered most dear, one becomes miserable. One who gives up material desires is learned and achieves unlimited happiness. In the Ninth Chapter, seven gurus are described starting with the kurara bird, as well as the body, the eighth guru. This makes a total of twenty-five gurus. He explains what he learned from the kurara bird in two verses. From attachment to what is most dear, one suffers. He who is without desire is learned and attains unlimited happiness.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
What we cling to as most dear becomes the very source of our misery; the akiṣcana, owning nothing, drinks unlimited happiness.
Practical Applications
  • Name today the one possession or relationship you call "most dear" and notice the precise fear that comes with holding it.
  • Give away one item you have been quietly hoarding, and offer the act to Kṛṣṇa rather than to your self-image as a generous person.
  • Refuse one purchase or upgrade you were about to make, and redirect that time and money into hearing or chanting instead.
Reflection Questions
  • Which single attachment, if it were removed tomorrow, would unravel my sense of who I am — and what is that telling me about where I have located my self?
  • Where in my life am I already tasting the duḥkha that parigraha promises, yet still calling it love or responsibility?
For Each Age Group
youth
  • Pick the one app, follower count, or friendship slot you check most anxiously and observe how the attachment, not the thing itself, is already making you miserable.
  • Refuse one purchase you were about to make to fit in — a shoe, a gadget, a trend — and notice what the refusal costs your ahaṅkāra.
  • Tell one close friend honestly that your worth does not depend on the grade, the admission, or the relationship status you have been quietly clinging to.
householder
  • Open the family budget this week and identify one line item that exists purely to protect an attachment rather than to serve dependents or Kṛṣṇa, then redirect it.
  • Have one honest conversation with your spouse about a possession, house, or career move you have been gripping as "most dear," and decide together what akiṣcana looks like for your household.
  • Stop teaching your children that security comes from accumulation; show them today, by one concrete choice, that it comes from dependence on Kṛṣṇa.
senior
  • Begin actively giving away — not willing, giving — items, accounts, and responsibilities you have held for decades, and notice which ones your heart still calls priyatama.
  • Speak openly with your children about death and inheritance, refusing the modern habit of using silence to preserve a feeling of ownership you no longer truly have.
  • Mentor one younger devotee by showing them, through your loosening grip, what akiṣcana looks like in a body that is visibly preparing to leave.
Common Pitfalls
  • Mistaking akiṣcana for outward poverty and renouncing objects while inwardly clutching status, relationships, or reputation.
  • Using this verse to justify neglecting dependents, framing irresponsibility as detachment.
  • Renouncing one attachment only to transfer the same possessive grip onto sādhana, guru, or community.
Discussion Prompts
  • Each share one thing you currently call "most dear" — then together examine whether the attachment is already producing duḥkha, even now.
  • Where do householders and renunciants legitimately differ on what akiṣcana means in practice, and where do they pretend to differ to avoid the verse?
  • Is unlimited happiness in this verse a present taste or a future reward — and what changes in your day depending on the answer?
Role Play

A student has just inherited a family home with deep sentimental value and is being pressured by relatives to keep it, sell it, or convert it into a temple. Two classmates play the relatives, one plays the student, and one plays a senior devotee applying SB 11.9.1 — the group must work out what akiṣcana actually requires here, not in the abstract.

Objections & Responses
  • Attachment to loved ones is what makes us human — calling it the source of misery sounds cold and life-denying.
    The brāhmaṇa is not denying love; he is naming a mechanism. Whatever we treat as priyatama, we also fear losing, and that fear is already duḥkha operating inside the love. Gauḍīya teaching does not erase relationships; it reorients them around Kṛṣṇa so that love stops generating bondage and starts generating service.
  • If owning nothing brings unlimited happiness, why did Prabhupāda build temples, presses, and institutions?
    Akiṣcana is not the absence of objects but the absence of proprietorship. Prabhupāda handled vast resources while claiming none as his own — everything was Kṛṣṇa's, and he was the servant managing it. The verse targets the inner posture of mine-ness, not the outward fact of stewardship.
📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io

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