SB 11.13.4 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

आगमोऽप: प्रजा देश: काल: कर्म च जन्म च । ध्यानं मन्त्रोऽथ संस्कारो दशैते गुणहेतव: ॥ ४ ॥

Verse text

āgamo ’paḥ prajā deśaḥ kālaḥ karma ca janma ca dhyānaṁ mantro ’tha saṁskāro daśaite guṇa-hetavaḥ

Synonyms

āgamaḥ — religious scriptures ; apaḥ — water ; prajāḥ — association with people in general or one’s children ; deśaḥ — place ; kālaḥ — time ; karma — activities ; ca — also ; janma — birth ; ca — also ; dhyānam — meditation ; mantraḥ — chanting of mantras ; atha — and ; saṁskāraḥ — rituals for purification ; daśa — ten ; ete — these ; guṇa — of the modes of nature ; hetavaḥ — causes .

Translation

According to the quality of religious scriptures, water, one’s association with one’s children or with people in general, the particular place, the time, activities, birth, meditation, chanting of mantras, and purificatory rituals, the modes of nature become differently prominent.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The guṇas produce three varieties of scriptures, water, population, place, time, action, birth, meditation, mantra and saṁskāras. By use of sattvika items, sattva becomes prominent. Two verses now explain sattvika items. Āgamaḥ means scriptures. Apaḥ means āpaḥ, water. Prajāḥ means people. These ten items are produced by the three guṇas (guṇa-hetavaḥ). Thus scriptures and other items come in three varieties: sattva, rajas and tamas.

Purport

The ten items mentioned above possess superior and inferior qualities and are thus identified as being in goodness, passion or ignorance. One can increase the mode of goodness by selecting religious scriptures in goodness, pure water, friendship with other persons in goodness, and so on. One should scrupulously avoid any of these ten items that may be polluted by an inferior mode of nature.