Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.9.5
క్వచిత్ కుమారీ త్వాత్మానం వృణానాన్ గృహమాగతాన్ ।
స్వయం తానర్హయామాస క్వాపి యాతేషు బన్ధుషు ॥ ౫ ॥
kvacit kumārī tv ātmānaṁ
[kvachit kumaaree tv aatmaanam]
vṛṇānān gṛham āgatān
[vrinaanaan griham aagataan]
svayaṁ tān arhayām āsa
[svayam taan arhayaam aasa]
kvāpi yāteṣu bandhuṣu
[kvaapi yaateshu bandhushu]
Word-for-word
kvacit
—
once
kumārī
—
a young girl
tu
—
indeed
ātmānam
—
herself
vṛṇānān
—
desiring as a wife
gṛham
—
to the house
āgatān
—
arrived
svayam
—
herself
tān
—
those men
arhayām āsa
—
received with great hospitality
kva api
—
to another place
yāteṣu
—
when they had gone
bandhuṣu
—
all her relatives.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
kvacit kumārī tv ātmānaṁ
kvacit
once
kumārī
a young girl
tu
indeed
ātmānam
herself
vṛṇānān gṛham āgatān
vṛṇānān
desiring as a wife
gṛham
to the house
āgatān
arrived
svayaṁ tān arhayām āsa
svayam
herself
tān
those men
arhayām āsa
received with great hospitality
kvāpi yāteṣu bandhuṣu
kva api
to another place
yāteṣu
when they had gone
bandhuṣu
all her relatives.
Once a marriageable young girl was alone in her house because her parents and relatives had gone that day to another place. At that time a few men arrived at the house, specifically desiring to marry her. She received them with all hospitality.
Gauḍīya Ācāryas
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura
Gauḍīya
Translation
Once a marriageable young girl was alone in her house because her parents and relatives had gone that day to another place. At that time a few men arrived at the house, specifically desiring to marry her. She received them with all hospitality.
The story of what he learned from the young girl is now narrated. Coming out of the house with covered body, she welcomed them by offering seats of kuśa grass and water while her father and mother were absent.
Related lectures
Personal Guidance
An avadhūta learns from a young girl: even hospitality and good action can betray hidden self-interest unless the heart is single-pointed on Kṛṣṇa.
Practical Applications
- Before any act of generosity today, pause and check whether the giving is for the guest or for the image you want to project.
- Practice one quiet act of service no one else will see, so the work is offered to Kṛṣṇa and not to onlookers.
- Refuse to over-explain or advertise your sādhana; let the morning's japa and reading remain between you and Him.
Reflection Questions
- Where in my day am I performing dharma well outwardly while privately hoping to be chosen, praised, or pursued?
- What would my service look like if no one — not even a future spouse, employer, or saṅga — were ever going to find out?
For Each Age Group
youth
- Notice the moment in a group chat or class when you say the noble thing partly because you know who is watching — and quietly redo the same act later when no one is.
- When you are alone in your room with your phone, treat that solitude as the real test of your sādhana, not your public posts about it.
- Refuse to let attraction — to a person, a brand, a friend group — quietly steer choices you tell yourself are about duty or kindness.
householder
- Before hosting guests, colleagues, or in-laws, name to Kṛṣṇa whose approval you are actually fishing for, and offer the evening to Him before the doorbell rings.
- When your spouse or children are away and you are alone with your devices, work, or wallet, treat that hour as the most honest mirror of your bhakti.
- In family decisions about money or matchmaking, separate sva-dharma from the silent calculations of advantage, and choose the part that would survive Kṛṣṇa's gaze.
senior
- When younger relatives or students come seeking your time, give it for their soul's benefit and not for the comfort of being needed.
- Use long stretches of solitude — early mornings, quiet afternoons — to audit which attachments are loosening and which are merely hiding.
- Mentor others toward Kṛṣṇa, not toward yourself, so that your legacy is their bhakti and not their memory of you.
Common Pitfalls
- Reading the verse as a rule about gender or hospitality and missing that the lesson is about the mind's mixed motives in any solitary moment.
- Concluding that interaction with the world is the problem, rather than the hidden ahaṅkāra and viṣaya-attraction the interaction exposes.
- Using the example to justify avoiding people and duties, when the avadhūta's point is inner reform, not outward withdrawal.
Discussion Prompts
- Share a recent moment when you did the right thing and only later noticed a secondary motive — what did that motive reveal about your sādhana?
- Is it possible to perform sva-dharma in a mixed company without one's mind being colonized by viṣaya? Where do you and your partner disagree?
- The avadhūta watches a girl and learns vairāgya — what does this teach us about where guidance actually comes from, and how comfortable are we with that?
Role Play
One student plays a sincere devotee who has just hosted guests and received warm praise for it; the other plays a senior practitioner who gently probes whether the hospitality was for the guests, for Kṛṣṇa, or for the host's own reputation. Run the conversation for five minutes, then swap roles.
Objections & Responses
- This verse seems to blame the girl for being hospitable — isn't that an outdated, even unfair, framing?
The avadhūta is not blaming her; he is using a publicly visible situation to expose a universal pattern in the conditioned mind. The teaching is on himself, and through him on us — the hospitality is praiseworthy, but the verses that follow show how easily the senses ambush even a careful person when one is alone with viṣaya. - Why should I take spiritual instruction from watching a stranger's domestic scene? That feels like projection, not philosophy.
The Bhāgavata's avadhūta sees Kṛṣṇa's hand arranging every encounter as a teacher. To a surrendered eye, the world is not raw data to project on but a curriculum the Lord has personally set; we are being trained to read it that way, not to invent meaning where none exists.
My note
Source: vedabase.io