Å›rÄ«-uddhava uvÄca
vidhiÅ› ca pratiá¹£edhaÅ› ca
nigamo hīśvarasya te
aveká¹£ate 'raviṇá¸Äká¹£a
guṇaá¹ doá¹£aá¹ ca karmaṇÄm
Å›rÄ«-uddhavaḥ uvÄca - ÅšrÄ« Uddhava said; vidhiḥ - positive injunction; ca - also; pratiá¹£edhaḥ - prohibitive injunction; ca - and; nigamaḥ - the Vedic literature; hi - indeed; Ä«Å›varasya - of the Lord; te - of You; aveká¹£ate - focuses upon; araviṇá¸a-aká¹£a - O lotus-eyed one; guṇam - good or pious qualities; doá¹£am - bad or sinful qualities; ca - also; karmaṇÄm - of activities.
Śrī Uddhava said: My dear lotus-eyed Kṛṣṇa, You are the Supreme Lord, and thus the Vedic literatures, consisting of positive and negative injunctions, constitute Your order. Such literatures focus upon the good and bad qualities of work.
At the end of the previous chapter, Lord Kṛṣṇa stated, guṇa-doá¹£a-dṛśir doá¹£o guṇas tÅ«bhaya-varjitaḥ: “Focusing upon material piety and sin is itself a discrepancy, since actual piety means to transcend both of them.†ŚrÄ« Uddhava now pursues this point so that Lord Kṛṣṇa will give a more elaborate explanation of this difficult subject matter. ÅšrÄ« Uddhava here states that the Vedic literatures, which constitute the laws of God, deal with piety and sin; therefore, it must be clarified how one transcends activities recommended in the Vedas. According to ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura, Uddhava suddenly understood Lord Kṛṣṇa’s purpose in the words He had just spoken, and to induce the Lord to elaborate upon this interesting point Uddhava outwardly challenged the Lord’s statement.
