Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 4 Chapter 30 Verse 3

Canto 4: Creation of the Fourth Order | Chapter 30: The Activities of the Pracetās

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.30.3

maitreya uvāca

pracetaso 'ntar udadhau

pitur ādeśa-kāriṇaḥ

japa-yajñena tapasā

purañjanam atoṣayan

SYNONYMS

maitreyaḥ uvāca — Maitreya said; pracetasaḥ — the Pracetās; antaḥ — within; udadhau — the sea; pituḥ — of their father; ādeśa-kāriṇaḥ — the order carriers; japa-yajñena — by chanting mantras; tapasā — under severe austerities; puram-janam — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; atoṣayan — satisfied.

TRANSLATION

The great sage Maitreya said: The sons of King Prācīnabarhi, known as the Pracetās, underwent severe austerities within the seawater to carry out the order of their father. By chanting and repeating the mantras given by Lord Śiva, they were able to satisfy Lord Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

PURPORT

One can offer prayers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead directly, but if one repeats the prayers offered by great devotees like Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā, or if one follows in the footsteps of great personalities, one can please the Supreme Personality of Godhead very easily. For instance, we sometimes chant this mantra of Brahma-saḿhitā (5.29):

cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-

lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam

lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaḿ

govindam ādi-puruṣaḿ tam ahaḿ bhajāmi

"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, the first progenitor, who is tending the cows, yielding all desires, in abodes built with spiritual gems and surrounded by millions of purpose trees. He is always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of lakṣmīs, or gopīs." Because this prayer was offered by Lord Brahmā, we follow him by reciting this prayer. That is the easiest way to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The pure devotee never attempts to reach the Supreme Lord directly. The most important way to worship the Lord is to go through the disciplic succession of devotees. The prayers offered by Lord Śiva to the Supreme Personality of Godhead were thus repeated by the Pracetās, who were thus very successful in pleasing the Supreme Lord.

Here the Supreme Personality of Godhead is described as purañjana. According to Madhvācārya, the living entity is called purañjana because he has become an inhabitant of this material world, and under the influence of the three modes of material nature, he is forced to live within it. The Supreme Personality of Godhead creates this material world (pura), and He also enters within it. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham. The Lord enters within the heart of the living entity and within the atom; therefore both the living entity and the Lord are called purañjana. One purañjana, the living entity, is subordinate to the supreme purañjana; therefore the duty of the subordinate purañjana is to satisfy the supreme purañjana. That is devotional service. Lord Rudra, or Lord Śiva, is the original ācārya of the Vaiṣṇava sampradāya called the Rudra-sampradāya. Rudra-gītena indicates that under the disciplic succession of Lord Rudra, the Pracetās achieved spiritual success.

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