Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 7 Chapter 10 Verse 13

Canto 7: The Science of God | Chapter 10: Prahlāda, the Best Among Exalted Devotees

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.10.13

bhogena puṇyaḿ kuśalena pāpaḿ

kalevaraḿ kāla-javena hitvā

kīrtiḿ viśuddhāḿ sura-loka-gītāḿ

vitāya mām eṣyasi mukta-bandhaḥ

SYNONYMS

bhogena — by feelings of material happiness; puṇyam — pious activities or their results; kuśalena — by acting piously (devotional service is the best of all pious activities); pāpam — all kinds of reactions to impious activities; kalevaram — the material body; kāla-javena — by the most powerful time factor; hitvā — giving up; kīrtim — reputation; viśuddhām — transcendental or fully purified; sura-loka-gītām — praised even in the heavenly planets; vitāya — spreading all through the universe; mām — unto Me; eṣyasi — you will come back; mukta-bandhaḥ — being liberated from all bondage.

TRANSLATION

My dear Prahlāda, while you are in this material world you will exhaust all the reactions of pious activity by feeling happiness, and by acting piously you will neutralize impious activity. Because of the powerful time factor, you will give up your body, but the glories of your activities will be sung in the upper planetary systems, and being fully freed from all bondage, you will return home, back to Godhead.

PURPORT

Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says: evaḿ prahlādasyāḿśena sādhana-siddhatvaḿ nitya-siddhatvaḿ ca nāradādivaj jñeyam. There are two classes of devotees — the sādhana-siddha and the nitya-siddha. Prahlāda Mahārāja is a mixed siddha; that is, he is perfect partly because of executing devotional service and partly because of eternal perfection. Thus he is compared to such devotees as Nārada. Formerly, Nārada Muni was the son of a maidservant, and therefore in his next birth he attained perfection (sādhana-siddhi) because of having executed devotional service. Yet he is also a nitya-siddha because he never forgets the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

The word kuśalena is very important. One should live in the material world very expertly. The material world is known as the world of duality because one sometimes has to act impiously and sometimes has to act piously. Although one does not want to act impiously, the world is so fashioned that there is always danger (padaḿ padaḿ yad vipadām). Thus even when performing devotional service a devotee has to create many enemies. Prahlāda Mahārāja himself had experience of this, for even his father became his enemy. A devotee should expertly manage to think always of the Supreme Lord so that the reactions of suffering cannot touch him. This is the expert management of pāpa-puṇya — pious and impious activities. An exalted devotee like Prahlāda Mahārāja is jīvan-mukta; he is liberated even in this very life in the material body.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness