ऋतुसन्धौ मुण्डयेन्मुण्डमात्रं नाधो नाक्षं जातु शिखां न वापयेत् । चतुरो मासान्ध्रुवशीलतः स्यात्स यावत्सुप्तोऽन्तरात्मा पुरुषो विश्वरूपः । अन्यानथाष्टौ पुनरुत्थितेऽस्मिन्स्वकर्मलिप्सुर्विहरेद्वा वसेद्वा
ṛtusandhau muṇḍayenmuṇḍamātraṃ nādho nākṣaṃ jātu śikhāṃ na vāpayet | caturo māsāndhruvaśīlataḥ syātsa yāvatsupto'ntarātmā puruṣo viśvarūpaḥ | anyānathāṣṭau punarutthite'sminsvakarmalipsurviharedvā vasedvā
"At the junction of the seasons let him shave only the head — never the lower parts or the armpits; the tuft let him not shave. For four months let him be of firm character, while the inner self, Puruṣa of all forms, sleeps; but for the other eight, when He has risen again, let him wander or dwell [in one place], as he desires his own work."
dc92817067f9 · 发布于 2026年8月12日 05:00:00 UTC
可用语言RUEN用方向键翻颂
This concerns cāturmāsya, "the four-month period": the rainy season, when wanderers do not travel. This custom is most ancient and is found among Buddhists and Jains no less than here; its basis is simple and understood by everyone: in the rains the roads are impassable, and the earth is full of small creatures one cannot help but trample. It is worth noting how this is explained in the verse: yāvat supto'ntarātmā puruṣo viśva-rūpaḥ, "while the inner self, Puruṣa of all forms, sleeps."
That is, the rainy season is the time of the Lord's sleep; and the human code is fitted to this sleep. This conception is fundamental in Vaiṣṇava practice and is alive to this day: the four months are called cāturmāsya, and they begin with śayana-ekādaśī, "the eleventh day of lying down," and end with utthāna-ekādaśī, "the eleventh day of rising." The present verse uses the very same words: supta, "sleeping," and punar utthite, "when risen again."
It is worth voicing what is curious here. The human code is set by the state of the Lord, not by human convenience; that is, time is marked out not economically but relationally. And this, to my mind, is a precise description of how a religious calendar differs from every other: it is not about us.
Let us add the qualification about the tuft: śikhāṃ na vāpayet, "let him not shave the tuft" — the fourth mention in this book; its insistence can no longer be considered accidental.