SB 11.9.3 — FolioCorpus

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.9.3

న మే మానాపమానౌ స్తో న చిన్తా గేహపుత్రిణామ్ । ఆత్మక్రీడ ఆత్మరతిర్విచరామీహ బాలవత్ ॥ ౩ ॥

na me mānāpamānau sto

[na me maanaapamaanau sto]

na cintā geha-putriṇām

[na chintaa geha-putrinaam]

ātma-krīḍa ātma-ratir

[aatma-kreeda aatma-ratir]

vicarāmīha bāla-vat

[vicharaameeha baala-vat]

Word-for-word

na — not me — in me māna — honor apamānau — dishonor staḥ — exist na — there is not cintā — anxiety geha — of those who have a home putriṇām — and children ātma — by the self krīḍaḥ — sporting ātma — in the self alone ratiḥ — enjoying vicarāmi — I wander iha — in this world bāla-vat — like a child.

Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)

na me mānāpamānau sto

not

in me

māna

honor

apamānau

dishonor

staḥ

exist

na cintā geha-putriṇām

there is not

cintā

anxiety

geha

of those who have a home

putriṇām

and children

ātma-krīḍa ātma-ratir

ātma

by the self

krīḍaḥ

sporting

ātma

in the self alone

ratiḥ

enjoying

vicarāmīha bāla-vat

vicarāmi

I wander

iha

in this world

bāla-vat

like a child.

In family life, the parents are always in anxiety about their home, children and reputation. But I have nothing to do with these things. I do not worry at all about any family, and I do not care about honor and dishonor. I enjoy only the life of the soul, and I find love on the spiritual platform. Thus I wander the earth like a child.

Gauḍīya Ācāryas

Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya

Translation

I do not care for honor or dishonor. I do not worry about house or children. I sport and enjoy in the ātmā and wander in this world like a child. He explains what he learned from a child.

Personal Guidance

Free from anxiety over home, children, and reputation, the avadhūta wanders absorbed in the self, finding love on the spiritual platform — childlike, not childish.

Practical Applications

Name today the single household worry — a child's grade, a repair bill, a slight to your reputation — that has hijacked your inner life, and consciously hand it to Kṛṣṇa before acting on it.
Notice the next time you adjust a decision to protect your standing in others' eyes, and ask whether you would make the same choice if no one would ever know.
Take fifteen minutes today to sit, chant, or read alone with no productive outcome — practice the ātma-rati the verse describes, even briefly.

Reflection Questions

Which of my daily anxieties — home, children, reputation — am I secretly proud of, treating it as proof that I am a responsible person rather than a bewildered one?
What would 'wandering like a child' actually look like inside my current duties, and where am I confusing childlike absorption in the self with childish escape from responsibility?

For Each Age Group

youth

Pick one social-media metric — likes, followers, a group chat's approval — and go a full day without checking it, watching how often the urge to check returns.
Before your next exam or interview, write down what you fear losing if it goes badly, and notice how much of that fear is about reputation rather than the work itself.
When a friend group pressures you toward a choice you would not make alone, practice saying no without crafting a face-saving excuse — let the small dishonor stand.

householder

Identify the one family worry that is currently running you — a child's future, a parent's health, a financial decision — and bring it explicitly into your morning sādhana instead of letting it run beneath it.
When you next catch yourself making a parenting or career decision primarily to look good to relatives or peers, pause and reframe it around the actual welfare of the souls involved.
Schedule one weekly hour that is not for the family, not for work, and not for productivity — only for hearing, chanting, or reading about Kṛṣṇa, as a small enactment of ātma-rati within householder life.

senior

Choose one possession, role, or title you have been quietly clinging to as part of your identity, and begin loosening your grip on it this week — verbally hand it to someone younger.
When grandchildren or adult children disappoint your expectations, practice receiving the news as Kṛṣṇa's arrangement rather than as a verdict on your life's work.
Spend time mentoring a younger devotee or family member with no agenda of being remembered for it — let the service itself be the reward, in the spirit of ātma-krīḍa.

Common Pitfalls

Quoting this verse to justify neglecting one's family or work, when the speaker is a renunciant whose stage authorizes that freedom and yours may not.
Imagining 'no anxiety about reputation' means becoming deliberately offensive or careless, rather than simply unhooked from praise and blame.
Reducing ātma-krīḍa and ātma-rati to a vague inner peace, severed from Kṛṣṇa, as if the verse endorsed an impersonal self-absorption.

Discussion Prompts

Share one concrete anxiety about home, children, or reputation that you would not want to release even if you could — and examine together why it feels sacred.
Where in your life do you mistake worry for love, treating constant anxiety about family as evidence of devotion rather than as bewilderment?
If a householder cannot simply imitate this avadhūta's freedom, what is the honest householder version of 'I have nothing to do with these things'?

Role Play

One student plays a householder whose adult child has just made a life choice that will embarrass the family socially; another plays a senior godbrother who quotes this verse. The householder must press back honestly — 'Easy for you to say' — and the godbrother must respond without flattening the householder's real duties or trivializing the verse.

Objections & Responses

This sounds like spiritual bypassing — a license to abandon one's family and call it transcendence.
The speaker here is a renunciant whose āśrama permits this stance; for a householder the same verse is medicine, not mandate. It does not ask you to leave your family, but to stop letting anxiety about them eclipse your relationship with Kṛṣṇa, so that your service to them becomes cleaner, not absent.
Indifference to honor and dishonor is dangerous in modern life — reputation protects livelihood, relationships, and the people who depend on me.
The verse does not forbid prudence; it forbids inner dependence on mānāpamāna as the measure of your worth. You can guard your professional standing and still refuse to let praise inflate you or criticism crush you — that inner freedom is precisely what makes your outer responsibility trustworthy.

📝 My note

Source: vedabase.io