Bhagavatam study 60 1.12.12-20 The carrier of the dynasty was to the glory of the dynasty

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.12.12, Chapter 2, 12th Parikshit. tathah sarva-guṇa-darke, sānukula-graho daye, jagye vamśidharha-pāṇḍor, bhūya-pāṇḍor iva ujasā tathah, thereafter, sarva-guṇa-darke.
Sarva-guṇa, all good characteristics or signs, this refers to the signs in the constellation, the astrological comments. Darke, when all the good signs had manifested at that time. sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, sānukula-graho daye, s sān is considered to be the eldest son usually, is considered to be the person who carries on the dynasty.
And in this case, Abhimanyu had already passed away, so his son Parīkṣit was going to be the heir, the person who was going to inherit. So that’s why he’s called as Vamśidhara. So one of Krishna’s name is Vamśidhara, one who carries the flute, but this is Vamśidhara.
Vamśidhara means one who carries the dynasty, one who makes sure that dynasty moves on. So that person had Pandur, he appeared, he was going to carry on the dynasty from Pandu onwards. So, of course, you could say after Pandu there was Yudhiṣṭhira and there’s one generation where there was no heir.
And then there is Yudhiṣṭhira. But the point is, Pandu was a prominent king for Yudhiṣṭhira, his father-in-law. And that’s why it’s mentioned here that Yudhiṣṭhira felt that I had been serving him.
And now the kingdom which had been entrusted by me, entrusted to me, is now going to go on to this young boy, this small child, who is right now a child, Bhūya Pāṇḍuri Bhaujasā. Bhūya Pāṇḍaur, again he would appear to be like Pandu. Pandu, before he retired, had been an extremely powerful king.
In fact, he had actually led the Kuru army and had subordinated the whole world practically. And he had got tributes, chariots and chariots. It was a huge procession of chariots filled with the tributes that he had got from various parts of the world after his conquest.
And Bhishma had been so delighted and so proud to see the achievements of the king of the dynasty. And I had lavishly blessed him. So here it’s mentioned that.
So he would just be like Pandu once again. It was as if Pandu itself had come. In many dynasties, the idea is there that an old ancestor was departed.
He has come back again. My grandfather has come back as a son or something like that, as a grandson or whatever. But he is not exactly like that.
They’re not saying Pandu has come back. Pandu has ascended to the higher worlds. Here it is mentioned that he has come back.
And again, like Pandu, somebody has come back who is very powerful. So Sudha Goswami here is narrating things primarily from the perspective of Yudhishthira. Whenever they write novels or any stories, there are different perspectives from which things can be told.
Say, if there is a small h and a h, a hero and a heroine. Sometimes the story is told from the perspective of the hero, sometimes from the perspective of the heroine. So earlier, Sudha Goswami was narrating from the perspective of Parikshit, the infant in the womb.
Who is this person? Who is this person? He was examining. And now Sudha Goswami has shifted it and he is narrating it from the perspective of Yudhishthira. And So at that time, On the birth of Parikshit, Yudhishthira became Pritamana, became satisfied, became jubilant.
Normally in any family, when a child appears, everybody becomes jubilant. That’s the very nature of when a new life comes into this world, brings joy, brings celebration. I want to speak of a new life who is going to be the heir of a dynasty, who is eventually going to be the protector of the kingdom.
And the birth of a child is now a matter of great celebration, especially after all the destruction that had happened recently with the war taking place and the whole generation of so many generations of various warriors being destroyed. And the entire, practically the entire generation of their children, Abhimanyu and the five sons of Draupadi through the five Pandavas, they had all been killed. And thus, what was left was that they had no young life in their family.
So for Yudhishthira, it was like a grandchild. It was not like he was a Parikshit of the grandchild. And naturally, after so much death and destruction, when a new life is born in the family, Yudhishthira was delighted.
So then, Now naturally, whenever a child is born, there are rituals performed to invoke auspiciousness for that child. And that was done over here with Dhaumya and Krupacharya. Dhaumya was the family priest and Krupacharya, although he had been a martial teacher, an assistant of Drona when Drona had his military academy.
He was like Drona. Kripa and Drona were both Brahmins. And now Kripa also reverted to his Brahminical vocation and thus led by these two prominent Brahmanas, Dhaumya and Kripa.
The various rituals that are expected at the time of birth of a child to invoke auspiciousness and blessings on that child, they were all performed. So, Jatakam Karyam, Jatakam Karyam. Jata is born, Janma, that comes, the same root comes.
So after birth, Karyam. Karyam means that which Karyamas, that which had to be performed, they were performed. Vachaitvacha Mangalam.
And one way of invoking auspiciousness, Mangalam, is by Vachaitva, by reciting the Vedas, by having a recitation of sacred hymns. So, when a child is born, quite often, there is so much joy and there is a desire to give the best of everything to the child. At the same time, it is understood that there are some things in our control which you can provide directly, but there is much that is not in control.
You know, a child may fall sick, a child may have some accident. So many things can go wrong. And parents, no matter how protective, how careful they may be, they always know that they can’t do everything possible to protect their child.
They themselves can’t do it. So that’s why it is the nature of parental affection that parents pray and perform ceremonies for invoking higher powers for protecting their child. And because Parikshit did not have a father, so Yudhishthir, as his leading grandfather, he took the responsibility for ensuring that all the necessary rituals were properly performed.
And in this way, the auspiciousness was invoked. Text 14. Hiranyam gaam mahim gramaan, hastya ashwaan rupa tirvaraan, pradhaat swannam chavit prebhya, prajaatirtha satirtha ved.
So Hiranyam gaam. So cow, horse, gold, cows, land, mahim gramaan, even villages, hastya ashwaan, elephants, horses, rupa tirvaraan. So the king gave as varaan, as reward, as dakshina, as gifts, pradhaat swannam.
Pradhaat, he gave as daan, swannam, good food, chavit prebhya, unto the brahmanas. Prajaatirtha satirtha ved, prajaatirtha, on the birth of a son in the family. Satirtha ved, tirtha ved.
So now tirtha usually is used to refer to, say, going to a holy place. That’s considered tirtha. But tirtha can generically refer also to any holy activity.
In this context, it refers to the holy activity of giving charity. So on the occasion of a son being born, the holy activity had to be done. So the person who knew what kind of, what are the appropriate ceremonies to be performed, what are the kind of appropriate kind of charities to be given.
So just as earlier, Bhishma was referred to as dharmavit. So in a similar mood, Dharmaraj Yudhishthira is referred to here as tirthavit. One who knew what kind of rituals and ceremonies are to be performed and thus he gave charity.
Now, in every culture, there are certain items which are of universal value. The value may go across, cut across cultures and in other cultures or in different cultures, there may be different things that are valued. So in the culture of those times, cows, elephants, horses, these are considered immensely precious.
A cow gives so much milk and a cow brings auspiciousness just by her presence. Serving a cow itself brings lots of piety and horses and elephants are majestic, can be majestic carriages. So these were the standard ways in which wealth was measured.
It’s like if we go to a wealthy person’s house, then we may or if people go to a wealthy person’s house, they may see what kind of car they have and their car is also a measure of their wealth, car is an indicator of their prestige. And just as we might consider a car as a marker of wealth and therefore a car is similarly in those times. Now for us, a horse might just seem to be a horse.
It’s like for a person who is not into cars, a car is just a thing for moving. But there are such a wide variety of cars, some cars we might just get for a very operational price and some cars might be phenomenally expensive and it all varies depending on the kind of facilities that they have. Similarly, horses can also be of a very wide pedigree and some horses are just for functional purposes for riding.
Some horses can be prize horses who can ride at phenomenal speeds and who can be trained in various ways, who may be majestic to look at. So similar variety can be there also in elephants. So here the wealth which Maharaj Yudhishthir gave in charity, the point is that he gave lots and lots of wealth in charity.
He was strangely trying to negotiate with the priest, the priest demands, give me this much donation. He says no, no, not this much, we’ll give this much and then the two haggle and then they come to a mutually agreeable amount of donation. Now Yudhishthir when he was giving charity was giving it lavishly, profusely and in a variety of ways.
Thus the joy of his heart at having got the heir for the dynasty was overflowing in the profuse charity that he was giving at that time. Text 15 tam uchur brahmanas tuṣṭam rājānāṁ praśvāyānvitam eṣeha asmin prajātantau pūrūṇāṁ paura varṣabhām tam uchur, at that time they said, watch a singular, uchur is plural. Brahmanas are satisfied with the charity that they had received and then they spoke.
rājānāṁ praśvāyānvitam They, under the king who had obliged them by giving profusely charity, they spoke to him. eṣeha asmin prajātantau This person who was a descendant in their line and pūrūṇāṁ paura varṣabhām pūrūṇāṁ, they said, this is going to be an illustrious descendant in your dynasty. So paura varṣabhām, paura varṣabhām refers to, in the Puru dynasty, he was a prominent king.
He was at that time the leader of the Purus. So they spoke to him. Oh, you were the leader of the dynasty.
He is a glorious person who is now coming in your dynasty. So what they spoke is mentioned in the next verse onwards. daivēnā pratighātena ghatena śukle samsthām upeyuśi rāto’o anugrahārthāya viṣṇūnā prabha viṣṇunā daivēnā pratighātena So that, by the arrangement of destiny, by some higher power, by supernatural power, as Prabhupāda translated, apratighātena, that which could not have been countered, that which could not have been resisted, śukle samsthām upeyuśi śukle, this boy is white, spotless, this pure boy, this glorious boy, that which had come by a higher supernatural power, that weapon, samsthām, for destruction, upeyuśi, which was discharged, sent towards him, rāto’o anugrahārthāya rāto’o, it had been sent for destruction, but he was restored, he survived, anugrahārthāya, for the sake of doing anugrahā, out of mercy, viṣṇūnā prabha viṣṇunā viṣṇunā So viṣṇu, viṣṇu and prabha viṣṇu, these are two alliterative words which are used in the last line, again a beautiful poetic ornament.
So prabha viṣṇu is a name of the supreme and it comes at various places, it comes in famous compilations of the names of the supreme and the point of reference is that the, not only poetic ornament, so one who is the protector, the developer, so in the Bhagavad Gita 13.17 also this name comes, avibhaktam ca bhūteṣu, avibhaktam ca bhūteṣu, vibhaktam eva ca sthitaṁ, bhūta-bhartruchita-jīgīyaṁ graśiṣṇu prabha viṣṇu ca. So that absolute being is the maintainer of all, he is the destroyer of all, he is the generator of all. So prabha viṣṇu, there is one who is the developer or the grower of everything.
So Jāmali Brahma, Viṣṇu Mahesh are considered to be the creator, maintainers and destroyers, which is true, of course, in terms of the administrative function that they perform, but ultimately it is the transcendental Lord, one Lord who is manifesting in these different ways. So in some situations, in the Bhagavatam many times the prayers are offered to the Supreme, it is said that you are the ultimate creator, maintainer and destroyer of all. So now a child is born and the child is going to grow.
So that Lord who is the maintainer of all living beings, that Lord had appeared and had protected Parikshit from the danger of the Brahmaśīs, from the weapon that had been discharged by Ashwatthama. So all accounts of Parikshit start with this extraordinary pastime that had happened before his birth also. And again, here also the Brāhmaṇas when referring to him, they also talk about, they address this particular point right in the beginning when they state his illustrious pre-birth Leela and they are not just telling this pastime, they are going to speak something more based on that pastime.
And what they are going to say more, that is what is now mentioned in the next verse 17. tasmān nāṁ nā viṣṇurāta iti loke bhaviṣyati na sandeho mahābhāga mahābhāgato mahān tasmān nāṁ nā viṣṇurāta Because he was protected by Viṣṇu who manifested in the moon for saving him, so he will be known as Viṣṇurāta. Viṣṇurāta means one who is protected by Viṣṇu, one who is absorbed in Viṣṇu, one who is devoted to Viṣṇu.
iti loke bhaviṣyati He will be known by this name in future, bhaviṣyati, he will become famous by this name. na sandeho mahābhāga There is no doubt that he is a great soul, mahābhāga, he is a greatly fortunate soul To receive Krishna’s blessings in any form is glorious and to receive his blessings right during the period of gestation itself and not just blessings, personal presence, that makes one immensely fortunate, mahābhāga mahābhāgato mahān So here again there is poetic alliteration of the word maha three times mahābhāgo, mahābhāga, mahābhāgato, mahān, mahā, mahāmā comes three times and mahābhāgato, so bhāgata is a great devotee of the Lord, mahābhāgato is among the greatest devotees of the Lord, mahān So he will be greatly fortunate and he will be greatly devoted, he will be ornamented with many great qualities So the point is that it’s not just that he will be known as Vishnurātha, he will also be, he will be also devoted to the Supreme śrī rājo vāca apya eṣa vamsān rājarṣīn puṇya-ślokān mahātmanahā anuvartitā svidhyasasa sādhu-vādena sattamahā So the brāhmaṇas have spoken this to Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira and now Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira is speaking śrī rājo vāca, what does he say? apya eṣa vamsān rājarṣīn This child who is going to be born in this dynasty of rājarṣīs, of vamsān, of saintly kings, of royal sages, rājarṣīs He is appearing in Yudhiṣṭhira’s dynasty and will he be a worthy member of this dynasty? That’s what is the question and find of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira puṇya-ślokān mahātmanahā puṇya-ślokān Will he be virtuous? Will he be pious? Mahātmanahā There have been many great souls in this dynasty and of course Mahātmana here in this context is referring to the brāhmaṇas All great souls, please tell me, will he be virtuous? anuvartitā svidhyasasa anuvartitā, will he follow in their great footsteps, whatever great achievements they have done, will he also do similar achievements? sādhu-vādena sattva-mahā sādhu-vādena sattva-mahā So, will he act wonderfully and does he really glorify the dynasty in which he has appeared? That is a major concern of people who are actually in this world and who need, especially those who are in major dynasties Sometimes if a son is born in a dynasty and that son acts in very inglorious ways then that son becomes a source of great distress for the family but if the son becomes devoted, then the son becomes devoted in a wonderful way and that adds to the pride of the family. So both ways it is talked about over here that, you know, he has been born in a glorious dynasty, so will he be a worthy carrier of this great dynasty? So we see that Yudhishthira Maharaj sees himself as a caretaker.
He doesn’t just say that, oh, he is going to be my son or my grandson. Is he going to spread my name? Is he going to increase my glory? He doesn’t think in those terms at all. He thinks of himself as a part of a great dynasty and what he feels is that the name of this dynasty is going to be in this child’s hands.
So is he going to act in a virtuous way? Is he going to act in a glorious way? So he sees himself as a caretaker in service of the past kings of his ancestors and thus he asks that, will he carry on the legacy of these ancestors? So, Brahmana uchu partha prajayit saakshat. Ichhvakur iva manavah brahmanya sathya sandhashya ramo dasharathir yatha. The Brahmanas are lavishly glorifying Pariksit and they do so by comparing his qualities with the qualities of various great people from the past.
And thus it is said that partha prajayit saakshat. Partha, now partha normally refers to Arjuna, but actually partha simply means the son of Prutha and Yudhishthira is also the son of Prutha. In fact, he is the eldest son of Prutha.
So here partha refers to Yudhishthira. Partha prajayit saakshat. Among those who are the maintainers of one’s family, one’s citizens, one’s subjects.
Ichhvakur iva manavah. He will be just like Ichhvakur, the son of Manu. Now Ichhvakur is considered to be a very illustrious king.
In fact, he is considered to be such an illustrious king that he is seen as often the founder of or one of the founders of a prominent dynasty in Indian history, world history at large. And thus he took care of his citizens in a very exemplary way. And here it is said that Parikshit will also take care of citizens in a similarly illustrious way.
Brahmanya sathya sandhashya. And brahmanya, brahmanya means in living according to brahmanical principles and especially sathya sandhashya, of being true to one’s words. He will be just like Ramodasha Thiryatha.
He will be like Dashrathnamnum Ram. Ram once gave a word and he went to the forest. Although he had full claim to the kingdom and he was about to be coronated as the king, but suddenly he was dispossessed and exiled and without the protest, with full dignity and gallantness, he just left.
So he kept his word no matter what happened. So that is how it is said to be wonderfully. Here also it is said that he just kept his, he was going to keep his words in that honourable way.
Text 20. In terms of giving shelter, of giving the charity of shelter, of protection to those who surrender. The king Shibi, who was of the kingdom, who belonged to the kingdom of Ushinara.
So just as Shibi gave shelter, similarly Parikshit will also give shelter. Maharaj Shibi’s story comes later in the Bhagavatam and it said that how for protecting, protecting some birds that had come into his kingdom, a bird that was chased by another predator bird, Maharaj Shibi was ready to cut off his own flesh equivalent to the weight of that bird. And the birds seemed to grow heavier and heavier and Shibi Maharaj was eventually ready to cut off his own body.
And then the birds, both the prey bird and the predator bird, both were revealed to be the great Devatas. And thus Maharaj Shibi, and they blessed Maharaj Shibi. So Indra had taken the form of a hunter and Agni had taken the form of a pigeon.
Indra had taken the form of a pigeon hunter, that is an eagle. And Agni had taken the form of a pigeon. In many of these places where Parikshit is being compared to, compared to those of the, compared to past kings, so Prabhupada gives a brief bio of those kings.
And similarly Yashovithanithasvanam, in terms of expanding the name of the family, he will be just like Daushyanti, so Dushyanta was a great king, his son was Bharata. And Yajivanam, so Yajivanam refers to one who performed many sacrifices. So it’s mentioned that he will, so Daushyanti or Bharata was famous and similarly he will also be famous.
So now in different times, depending on the culture present, what will make a person famous, that may vary. So if the activities that bring fame are activities that are virtuous, then people who desire fame will be inspired towards virtue. But in a culture where activities that are often, are not so virtual, that are impious, if they bring fame, then people are inspired to do those infamous activities.
And that’s why it is important that a culture have the proper standards for guiding people towards the proper frame of reference the culture needs to have so that people will know how to, what kind of actions to choose. So it is here, in the Vedic culture it was that if people would do some virtuous activities like fire sacrifices, that’s how they would be considered glorious. And here it is said that Parikshit Maharaj would perform abundantly glorious activity that would expand the fame just as Dushyanti had expanded the fame.
Thank you.