आदौ कृतयुगे वर्णो नृणां हंस इति स्मृत: । कृतकृत्या: प्रजा जात्या तस्मात् कृतयुगं विदु: ॥ १० ॥
ādau kṛta-yuge varṇo nṛṇāṁ haṁsa iti smṛtaḥ kṛta-kṛtyāḥ prajā jātyā tasmāt kṛta-yugaṁ viduḥ
- ādau
- in the beginning (of the millennium)
- kṛta-yuge
- in the Satya-yuga, or age of truth
- varṇaḥ
- the social class
- nṛṇām
- of human beings
- haṁsaḥ
- named haṁsa
- iti
- thus
- smṛtaḥ
- well known
- kṛta-kṛtyāḥ
- perfect in the execution of duties by complete surrender to the Supreme Lord
- prajāḥ
- the citizens
- jātyā
- automatically by birth
- tasmāt
- therefore
- kṛta-yugam
- Kṛta-yuga, or the age in which all duties are fulfilled
- viduḥ
- was thus known by the learned
In the beginning, in Satya-yuga, there is only one social class, called haṁsa, to which all human beings belong. In that age all people are unalloyed devotees of the Lord from birth, and thus learned scholars call this first age Kṛta-yuga, or the age in which all religious duties are perfectly fulfilled.