SB 4.17.6-7
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXTS 6-7
- yac cānyad api kṛṣṇasya
- bhavān bhagavataḥ prabhoḥ
- śravaḥ suśravasaḥ puṇyaṁ
- pūrva-deha-kathāśrayam
- bhaktāya me 'nuraktāya
- tava cādhokṣajasya ca
- vaktum arhasi yo 'duhyad
- vainya-rūpeṇa gām imām
SYNONYMS
yat — which; ca — and; anyat — other; api — certainly; kṛṣṇasya — of Kṛṣṇa; bhavān — your good self; bhagavataḥ — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; prabhoḥ — powerful; śravaḥ — glorious activities; su-śravasaḥ — who is very pleasing to hear about; puṇyam — pious; pūrva-deha — of His previous incarnation; kathā-āśrayam — connected with the narration; bhaktāya — unto the devotee; me — to me; anuraktāya — very much attentive; tava — of you; ca — and; adhokṣajasya — of the Lord, who is known as Adhokṣaja; ca — also; vaktum arhasi — please narrate; yaḥ — one who; aduhyat — milked; vainya-rūpeṇa — in the form of the son of King Vena; gām — cow, earth; imām — this.
TRANSLATION
Pṛthu Mahārāja was a powerful incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa's potencies; consequently any narration concerning his activities is surely very pleasing to hear, and it produces all good fortune. As far as I am concerned, I am always your devotee as well as a devotee of the Lord, who is known as Adhokṣaja. Please therefore narrate all the stories of King Pṛthu, who, in the form of the son of King Vena, milked the cow-shaped earth.
PURPORT
Lord Kṛṣṇa is also known as avatārī, which means, "one from whom all the incarnations emanate." In Bhagavad-gītā (BG 10.8) Lord Kṛṣṇa says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: "I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me." Thus Lord Kṛṣṇa is the origin of everyone's appearance. As far as this material world is concerned, Lord Brahmā, Lord Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva are all emanations from Kṛṣṇa. These three incarnations of Kṛṣṇa are called guṇa-avatāras. The material world is governed by three material modes of nature, and Lord Viṣṇu, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva respectively take charge of the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Mahārāja Pṛthu is also an incarnation of those qualities of Lord Kṛṣṇa by which one rules over conditioned souls.
In this verse the word adhokṣaja, meaning "beyond the perception of the material senses," is very significant. No one can perceive the Supreme Personality of Godhead by mental speculation; therefore a person with a poor fund of knowledge cannot understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Since one can form only an impersonal idea on the strength of one's material senses, the Lord is known as Adhokṣaja.