Daśaślokī 1
Sourceज्ञान-स्वरूपं च हरेर् अधीनं शरीर-संयोग-वियोग-योग्यम् । अणुं हि जीवं प्रतिदेह-भिन्नं ज्ञातृत्ववन्तं यद् अनन्तम् आहुः
jñāna-svarūpaṃ ca harer adhīnaṃ śarīra-saṃyoga-viyoga-yogyam | aṇuṃ hi jīvaṃ pratideha-bhinnaṃ jñātṛtvavantaṃ yad anantam āhuḥ
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
The soul, whose nature is knowledge, dependent on Hari, fit for joining and parting from bodies; atomic, distinct in each body, knowing, declared infinite in number.
The Soul, Knowing and Atomic
The Daśaślokī begins where every Vedānta begins, with the soul. But Nimbārka does not say the soul is Brahman straightforwardly; nor does he say the soul is a separate substance. He says the soul is dependent on Hari, fit to enter and leave bodies, atomic in size, distinct in each body, and infinite in number.
This is the first move of svābhāvika-bhedābheda: the soul is real, the soul is many, the soul is small, and the soul belongs to the Lord. The relationship is not one of identity, not one of separation, but of inherent simultaneous difference and non-difference.
Daśaślokī 2
Sourceअनादि-माया-परियुक्त-रूपं त्व् एनं विदुर् वै भगवत्-प्रसादात् । मुक्तं च बद्धं किल बद्ध-मुक्तं प्रभेद-बाहुल्यम् अथापि बोध्यम्
anādi-māyā-pariyukta-rūpaṃ tv enaṃ vidur vai bhagavat-prasādāt | muktaṃ ca baddhaṃ kila baddha-muktaṃ prabheda-bāhulyam athāpi bodhyam
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
The soul is wrapped in beginningless māyā; only by the Lord's grace is its true nature known. Three kinds are to be understood: the eternally free, the bound, and the once-bound-now-free; with many further sub-divisions.
The Three Kinds of Souls
Three kinds of souls. The nitya-mukta, never bound, the eternal companions of the Lord in his abode. The baddha, bound now, walking the world in forgetting. The baddha-mukta, once bound and now free, the saint who has crossed.
And one more secret: the true nature of the soul is known only by the Lord's grace. Not by argument, not by yogic effort alone. The Vedānta of Nimbārka is not a system that the mind constructs and verifies. It is a vision that grace permits.
Daśaślokī 3
Sourceअप्राकृतं प्राकृत-रूपकं च काल-स्वरूपं तद् अचेतनं मतम् । माया-प्रधानादि-पद-प्रवाच्यं शुक्लादि-भेदाश् च समेऽपि तत्र
aprākṛtaṃ prākṛta-rūpakaṃ ca kāla-svarūpaṃ tad acetanaṃ matam | māyā-pradhānādi-pada-pravācyaṃ śuklādi-bhedāś ca same'pi tatra
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
The non-sentient is held to be of three sorts: the non-prākṛtic substance of the eternal abode, the prākṛtic stuff of this world, and time. Even within prakṛti the divisions of white, red, and dark are present.
Matter, Time, and the Threefold Acit
There are two kinds of insentient: the prākṛtic, which is this world's matter under māyā; and the aprākṛtic, which is the substance of the Lord's eternal abode. Goloka is real but not made of the stuff this world is made of.
And then there is time. Time is its own category in Nimbārka. It is not part of prakṛti, not part of the soul, not part of the Lord. Time is a third thing the Lord arranges. Sattva, rajas, tamas, the three guṇas, hold even within prakṛti, even when prakṛti is in equipoise.
Daśaślokī 4
Sourceस्वभावतोऽपास्त-समस्त-दोषम् अशेष-कल्याण-गुणैक-राशिम् । व्यूहाङ्गिनं ब्रह्म परं वरेण्यं ध्यायेम कृष्णं कमलेक्षणं हरिम्
svabhāvato'pāsta-samasta-doṣam aśeṣa-kalyāṇa-guṇaika-rāśim | vyūhāṅginaṃ brahma paraṃ vareṇyaṃ dhyāyema kṛṣṇaṃ kamalekṣaṇaṃ harim
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
By his very nature free of every fault, the sole repository of all auspicious qualities, the possessor of the four vyūhas, the supreme Brahman, most worthy of worship. Let us meditate on Krishna, the lotus-eyed Hari.
The Meditation on Krishna
And here, in the fourth verse, Nimbārka turns from the soul to the Worshipped. He does not begin a separate treatise. He simply moves the gaze. The same hand that named the soul atomic now points and says: meditate on Krishna.
dhyāyema kṛṣṇaṃ kamalekṣaṇaṃ harim. Let us meditate on Krishna, the lotus-eyed Hari. The first-person plural is the Vedāntic invitation: not 'one ought to meditate' but 'let us', the speaker including himself among those who must do this.
Daśaślokī 5
Sourceअङ्गे तु वामे वृषभानुजां मुदा विराजमानाम् अनुरूप-सौभगाम् । सखी-सहस्रैः परिसेवितां सदा स्मरेम देवीं सकलेष्ट-काम-दाम्
aṅge tu vāme vṛṣabhānujāṃ mudā virājamānām anurūpa-saubhagām | sakhī-sahasraiḥ parisevitāṃ sadā smarema devīṃ sakaleṣṭa-kāma-dām
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
And let us ever remember the Goddess, the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu, joyously resplendent on his left side, of beauty matching his, attended by thousands of sakhīs, granting every cherished desire.
The Meditation on Rādhā
This is the verse. This is why the Nimbārka tradition holds the Daśaślokī so dearly, and why every Vraja-rasika of every other lineage receives it with reverence. In one of the oldest Sanskrit texts of any sampradāya, before the Goswāmīs of Vrindavan, before Hit Harivaṁśa, before Vallabha, Nimbārka has placed Rādhā by name on Krishna's left side, attended by thousands of sakhīs, and asked us to remember her always.
vṛṣabhānu-jām, daughter of Vṛṣabhānu. anurūpa-saubhagām, of matching beauty. sakhī-sahasraiḥ parisevitām, served by thousands of friends. sadā smarema, ever may we remember. The Yugala-siddhānta is here in eight half-lines. The supreme worship is not of Krishna alone, not of Rādhā alone, but of the divine couple, never separated, never disjoined.
Daśaślokī 6
Sourceउपासनीयं नितरां जनैः सदा प्रहाणयेऽज्ञान-तमोऽनुवृत्तेः । सनन्दनाद्यैर् मुनिभिस् तथोक्तं श्री-नारदायाखिल-तत्त्व-साक्षिणे
upāsanīyaṃ nitarāṃ janaiḥ sadā prahāṇaye'jñāna-tamo'nuvṛtteḥ | sanandanādyair munibhis tathoktaṃ śrī-nāradāyākhila-tattva-sākṣiṇe
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
This Yugala is supremely to be worshipped by all, ever, for the dispelling of the long-running darkness of ignorance, as was indeed declared by Sanandana and the other sages to Śrī Nārada, the witness of every truth.
The Worship and the Witnesses
The verse names the lineage. Sanandana, one of the four Kumāras, declared this teaching to Nārada. Nārada is described as akhila-tattva-sākṣin, the witness of every truth, and from him the teaching descends. The Daśaślokī is not Nimbārka's invention. It is what he received.
And the purpose is named: prahāṇaye 'jñāna-tamo-anuvṛtteḥ, for the destruction of the entrenched darkness of ignorance. This is why we worship. Not for boon, not for power, but for the lifting of the long forgetting.
Daśaślokī 7
Sourceसर्वं हि विज्ञानम् अतो यथार्थकं श्रुति-स्मृतिभ्यो निखिलस्य वस्तुनः । ब्रह्मात्मकत्वाद् इति वेदविन्-मतं त्रिरूपतापि श्रुति-सूत्र-साधिता
sarvaṃ hi vijñānam ato yathārthakaṃ śruti-smṛtibhyo nikhilasya vastunaḥ | brahmātmakatvād iti vedavin-mataṃ trirūpatāpi śruti-sūtra-sādhitā
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
All cognitions are accordingly true to their object, since by śruti and smṛti every object whatever has Brahman as its self. Such is the view of the Veda-knowers; and the threefold form is established by śruti and the sūtras.
The Real World, the Threefold Truth
Here Nimbārka draws his line against the Advaita of Śaṅkara. For Śaṅkara the world is mithyā, real only as appearance. For Nimbārka the world is yathārthaka, true to its object, real because it has Brahman as its self. Bhedābheda does not require the world to be unreal in order for Brahman to be supreme.
tri-rūpatā, the threefold form. Brahman, soul, and matter are the three real categories of being, simultaneously different and non-different from one another. Nimbārka claims this is what śruti and the sūtras themselves establish, and he was prepared to argue it line by line in the Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha.
Daśaślokī 8
Sourceनान्या गतिः कृष्ण-पदारविन्दात् सन्दृश्यते ब्रह्म-शिवादि-वन्दितात् । भक्तेच्छयोपात्त-सुचिन्त्य-विग्रहाद् अचिन्त्य-शक्तेर् अविचिन्त्य-साशयात्
nānyā gatiḥ kṛṣṇa-padāravindāt sandṛśyate brahma-śivādi-vanditāt | bhaktecchayopātta-sucintya-vigrahād acintya-śakter avicintya-sāśayāt
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
No refuge is seen apart from Krishna's lotus feet, venerated by Brahmā, Śiva, and the others. In response to the devotee's longing, He assumes a form fit for loving contemplation; His power is inconceivable, and His intention lies beyond thought.
No Refuge But His Lotus Feet
Krishna is the refuge. Brahmā and Śiva and all the gods bow to him. The lotus feet are not a metaphor for some abstract principle. They are the place where the heart goes, and there is no other place.
bhaktecchayopātta-sucintya-vigrahāt. His form is assumed in response to the longing of devotees and becomes accessible to loving contemplation. acintya-śaktiḥ: His power exceeds thought. avicintya-sāśayaḥ: His intention cannot be circumscribed by thought. This edition follows the 1972-based Gaudiya Grantha Mandira witness and the Nimbark Parishad control at this formerly disputed reading.
Textual note: verse 8 reads avicintya-sāśayāt in both retained controls. The earlier guide reading acintya-saṃśrayāt has been superseded.
Daśaślokī 9
Sourceकृपास्य दैन्यादि-युजि प्रजायते यया भवेत् प्रेम-विशेष-लक्षणा । भक्तिर् ह्य् अनन्याधिपतेर् महात्मनः सा चोत्तमा साधन-रूपिकापरा
kṛpāsya dainyādi-yuji prajāyate yayā bhavet prema-viśeṣa-lakṣaṇā | bhaktir hy ananyādhipater mahātmanaḥ sā cottamā sādhana-rūpikāparā
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
His grace arises in one endowed with humility and the like; from that grace arises bhakti, marked by a special form of love, for the Great One whose master is none. Bhakti is twofold: the supreme, and the practiced or instrumental.
Grace, Humility, and the Two Bhaktis
The order matters. First humility, then grace, then bhakti. Not the other way round. The seeker who waits for inspiration before being humble has the order wrong; the humble heart is what grace already chose.
And bhakti is twofold. There is sādhana-bhakti, the practiced form, the daily discipline of remembrance. And there is parā-bhakti, the supreme form, the love that is not chosen but received. The first prepares the soil. The second is the crop.
Daśaślokī 10
Sourceउपास्य-रूपं तद्-उपासकस्य च कृपा-फलं भक्ति-रसस् ततः परम् । विरोधिनो रूपम् अथैतद् आप्तेर् ज्ञेया इमेऽर्था अपि पञ्च साधुभिः
upāsya-rūpaṃ tad-upāsakasya ca kṛpā-phalaṃ bhakti-rasas tataḥ param | virodhino rūpam athaitad āpter jñeyā ime'rthā api pañca sādhubhiḥ
English translation
Fresh editorial translation from the Gaudiya Grantha Mandira Daśaślokī witness authority
These five truths are to be known by the wise: the form of the Worshipped, the form of the worshipper, the fruit of grace, the rasa of bhakti beyond it, and the nature of the obstacles to attaining him.
The Five Truths
The whole Daśaślokī gathers itself in the tenth verse and names what the wise must know. The Worshipped: Rādhā-Krishna. The worshipper: the soul, atomic, dependent, longing. The fruit of grace: bhakti. The rasa beyond bhakti: the supreme love that is its own taste. And the virodhins, the obstacles, the long darkness that ignorance keeps in the heart.
Five truths. Ten verses. The whole Yugala-siddhānta in a length you can recite at a single sitting. The Goswāmīs of Vrindavan inherited Nimbārka's framework and made it more elaborate; the Rādhāvallabhīs intensified its Rādhā-side; the Pushtimārga developed it differently. But every Vraja sampradāya has read this work and felt the family resemblance.