Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 3 Verses 34-35

Canto 10: The Summum Bonum | Chapter 3: The Birth of Lord Kṛṣṇa

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.3.34-35

varṣa-vātātapa-hima-

gharma-kāla-guṇān anu

sahamānau śvāsa-rodha-

vinirdhūta-mano-malau

śīrṇa-parṇānilāhārāv

upaśāntena cetasā

mattaḥ kāmān abhīpsantau

mad-ārādhanam īhatuḥ

SYNONYMS

varṣa — the rain; vāta — strong wind; ātapa — strong sunshine; hima — severe cold; gharma — heat; kāla-guṇān anu — according to seasonal changes; sahamānau — by enduring; śvāsa-rodha — by practicing yoga, controlling the breath; vinirdhūta — the dirty things accumulated in the mind were completely washed away; manaḥ-malau — the mind became clean, free from material contamination; śīrṇa — rejected, dry; parṇa — leaves from the trees; anila — and air; āhārau — eating; upaśāntena — peaceful; cetasā — with a fully controlled mind; mattaḥ — from Me; kāmān abhīpsantau — desiring to beg some benediction; mat — My; ārādhanam — worship; īhatuḥ — you both executed.

TRANSLATION

My dear father and mother, you endured rain, wind, strong sun, scorching heat and severe cold, suffering all sorts of inconvenience according to different seasons. By practicing prāṇāyāma to control the air within the body through yoga, and by eating only air and dry leaves fallen from the trees, you cleansed from your minds all dirty things. In this way, desiring a benediction from Me, you worshiped Me with peaceful minds.

PURPORT

Vasudeva and Devakī did not obtain the Supreme Personality of Godhead as their son very easily, nor does the Supreme Godhead accept merely anyone as His father and mother. Here we can see how Vasudeva and Devakī obtained Kṛṣṇa as their eternal son. In our own lives, we are meant to follow the principles indicated herewith for getting good children. Of course, it is not possible for everyone to get Kṛṣṇa as his son, but at least one can get very good sons and daughters for the benefit of human society. In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that if human beings do not follow the spiritual way of life, there will be an increase of varṇa-sańkara population, population begotten like cats and dogs, and the entire world will become like hell. Not practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness but simply encouraging artificial means to check the population will be futile; the population will increase, and it will consist of varṇa-sańkara, unwanted progeny. It is better to teach people how to beget children not like hogs and dogs, but in controlled life.

Human life is meant not for becoming a hog or dog, but for tapo divyam, transcendental austerity. Everyone should be taught to undergo austerity, tapasya. Although it may not be possible to undergo tapasya like that of Pṛśni and Sutapā, the śāstra has given an opportunity for a method of tapasya very easy to perform — the sańkīrtana movement. One cannot expect to undergo tapasya to get Kṛṣṇa as one's child, yet simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra (kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya), one can become so pure that one becomes free from all the contamination of this material world (mukta-sańgaḥ) and goes back home, back to Godhead (paraḿ vrajet). The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, therefore, is teaching people not to adopt artificial means of happiness, but to take the real path of happiness as prescribed in the śāstra — the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra — and become perfect in every aspect of material existence.

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