34 verses
Maitreya said: Glorified by the reciters, Pṛthu then satisfied them with gifts after worshipping and glorifying them.
He respected the leading brāhmaṇas, the other castes, his servants, ministers, priests, city people, countrymen, tradesmen and employees.
Śreṇīḥ refers to sellers of oil and betel and others. Prākṛtīḥ means employed persons. He respected them all, saying sweetly, Blessings to you! If I protect you, I will be serving you.
Vidura said: Why did the cow, who takes many forms, whom Pṛthu milked, take the form of the earth? Who was the calf and what was the milk pot?
How did Pṛthu make the uneven earth flat? Why did Indra steal the sacrificial horse?
O brāhmaṇa! After obtaining knowledge and realization from Sanat-kumāra, the great knower of Brahman, what destination did the saintly king receive?
bhaktāya me 'nuraktāya tava cādhokṣajasya ca vaktum arhasi yo 'duhyad vainya-rūpeṇa gām imām
You should speak to me, attached to hearing, devoted to you and the Lord and you, concerning the person who milked the earth in the form of Pṛthu, and also other pure, famous topics related to the previous birth of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa.
Aduhyat should be adhok.
Sūta said: Maitreya, pleased, inspired about topics of the Lord by Vidura, praised Vidura and then spoke.
Maitreya said: O Vidura! When Pṛthu was requested by the citizens to be the protector and enthroned by the brāhmaṇas, the citizens approached him with thin bodies at a time when the earth was without food and addressed him.
The citizens engaged him as King, saying You are the protector.
tan no bhavān īhatu rātave 'nnaṁ kṣudhārditānāṁ naradeva-deva yāvan na naḍkṣyāmaha ujjhitorjā vārtā-patis tvaṁ kila loka-pālaḥ
O King! We are suffering from the digestive fire like trees burning inside. Today we have taken shelter of you, worthy as a shelter, who have been created as our master and are our means of livelihood. O King! Therefore try to give food to us, since we are suffering from hunger, so that we do not die from lack of food. You are the protector of the people, the giver of livelihood.
You have been created (sādhitaḥ) by the churning of the brāhmaṇas. Therefore (tat) try (īhatu) to give (rātave) food to us. And you should not delay. Give us food so we do not die. Ujjhita ūrjāḥ means without food. You give us the means of livelihood (vārtā-patiḥ).
Maitreya said: O Vidura! Hearing the miserable lamentation the citizens, Pṛthu thought for a long time and then discovered the reason.
Having discerned the cause with his intelligence, he became as angry as Śiva, and, taking up his bow, he aimed an arrow at the earth.
He discerned, Though I was made King, I will use the fourth method (punishment) against the earth, who is hiding the seeds. Bhūmeḥ means at the earth.
Seeing the King with his raised bow, the earth trembled greatly and taking the form of a cow, ran away in fear, like a deer pursued by a hunter.
The earth was like a deer followed by (drutā) a hunter.
With red eyes, angry Pṛthu then chased the cow, aiming his arrow with his bow wherever she fled.
Tad means then.
The sacred cow, fleeing everywhere on earth and heaven and in between, saw the King behind her at all places with his raised bow.
She fled in heaven and earth (rodasi) and between them, in the antarikṣa. She saw Pṛthu with raised weapon behind her (anu).
Just as fearful men cannot escape death, she could not escape Pṛthu anywhere in the universe. She then turned to him with a distressed heart.
She faced Pṛthu (nivavṛte).
She said the King: O knower of dharma! Affectionate to the surrendered! Since you are engaged in protecting the living beings, save me also.
Why do you want to kill a wretched, sinless creature? How could one who is considered a knower of dharma kill a woman?
Ahaniṣyat stands for haniṣyati.
People never beat even sinful women. O King! What to speak of a person like you who are merciful and affectionate to the wretched!
If you break me, a strong boat in which all beings are situated, how will you keep these citizens and yourself afloat in the water?
Breaking this strong boat, how will you hold up the beings in the water? If I die, then everything will sink in the Garbodhaka Ocean.
Pṛthu said: O earth, holder of wealth! I will kill you, who are disobeying my orders. You accepted your share in the sacrifice, but did not bestow wealth to us!
In the sacrifice (barhiṣi) you, as a devatā, accepted your share. You did not give wealth etc. (vasu).
Daily, you eat grass but do not make your udder full of milk. Punishment of such an offender is not unsuitable.
As a cow you eat grass but you do not fill the udder or give (dogdhi) milk. Duh is used to mean full as in I am full in my desires among men. For such an offender (tasyām) punishment is suitable.
Disobeying men, you foolishly do not release the seeds of plants previously created by Brahmā, which are contained within you.
I will quell the lamentation of the people suffering from hunger by your flesh, when I cut you to pieces with my arrows.
Medasā means by flesh.
When a king kills a man, woman or eunuch who is only self-interested, low and merciless to other beings, it is not killing.
You have said that I cannot kill a woman. This is the answer. Killing a person mad with ego (ātma-sambhāvanaḥ), who has no mercy, is not killing.
Pulverizing this false, proud, infatuated cow by my arrows, I will support the citizens by my mystic power.
How can you kill a cow? How can you feed them cow meat? You are not a real cow. You are fake cow (māyā-gām). You have said How will you hold them up in the water? Tilaśaḥ means making you into fine particles the size of sesame seeds.
With folded hands, the trembling earth, bowing down, spoke to angry Pṛthu, who was like death personified.
The earth said: I offer respects to the Supreme Person, who expands as many forms by material energy, composed of the guṇas as the universal form. I offer respects to you who are understood to be completely free of the waves of saṁsāra created by bodies, senses and sense devatās, when a person realizes your spiritual energy.
I offer respects to you who have many bodies like mine, made of (vinyasta) matter, because you are composed of the guṇas (gunātmane). mahītalaṁ taj-jaghanaṁ: the earth is the hip of the universal form. (SB 2.1.27) Then how can I kill you, your body? As long as one does not realize your svarūpa-śakti, then he will see only your material energy, our bodies. By realizing your svarūpa-śakti however, you are understood to be completely free of the waves of saṁsāra created by bodies, senses and sense devatās.
yāvan na jāyeta parāvaresmin viśveśvare draṣṭari bhakti-yogaḥ |
tāvat sthavīyaḥ puruṣasya rūpaṁ kriyāvasāne prayataḥ smareta ||
As long as meditation on the Lord and the witness of all beings, superior to even Brahmā, which has bhakti as an element, does not manifest, one should remember the gross universal form after performing necessary rites of karma-yoga. SB 2.2.14
amunī bhagavad-rūpe mayā te hy anuvarṇite |
ubhe api na gṛhṇanti māyā-sṛṣṭe vipaścitaḥ ||
The wise do not accept these two forms of the Lord described by me since they are composed of matter. SB 2.10.35
The independent Lord who has created me as the shelter of living entities, as the support for the various bodies in the guṇas, has come to kill me with raised weapons. Other than you, who can be my shelter?
If that is so, then according to your own words, I have no attachment for you. Thus I can kill you. Earth answers with this verse. One should not kill the creeper which has been planted by ones own hand. Thus you have created me and should not kill me. And I also assist you. I am the shelter for the jīvas. In me (yataḥ) there is a protection of the four types of living beings (born from embryos, eggs, perspiration, and earth.) Svarāṭ means independent.
How can he who is dedicated to dharma, who has created in the beginning all moving and non-moving beings by his inconceivable energy under his control, who is eager to protect by the same energy, desire to kill me?
The world is made by me and destroyed by me. That is true, but now since you are engaged in maintaining things, you should not kill me.
The plan of the Lord, who carries out primary creation and engages others in secondary creation, who is one through himself and is many through māyā, cannot be understood by people whose minds are bewildered by his unconquerable māyā.
You are saying that I am irreligious. No, not at all! But your powers are hard to understand. Akṛtātmabhiḥ means by persons with bewildered minds. The Lord who carried out primary creation has made Brahmā carry out secondary creation (akārayat). He is one alone, and many by māyā (parataḥ).
I offer respects the Supreme Lord, the creator, to you who carry out for the benefit of your devotees the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe by your energies of ahaḍkāra, intelligence, bodies, senses and sense devatās. I offer respects to you who possess great but mutually contrary energies.
Therefore I offer respects to the possessor of inconceivable energy. He carries out creation with his energies composed of bodies, senses and devatās (dravya-kriyā-kāraka), intelligence (cetana) and ego (ātmabhiḥ) for the needs of his devotees (anuruṇaddhi). He has great (samunnaddha) and contrary (niruddha) energies. He has preserving and destroying energies, both of which are strong. You are the master who can maintain and destroy. According to your desire, do so. I offer respects to you.
O Lord! You, in the form of a boar, lifted from the water below Rasātala this universe, which is me, consisting of elements, senses and mind, and which was created by you.
She invokes his mercy upon herself by letting the Lord remember his previous actions in two verses.
Desiring to protect the progeny situated in me, a boat on the water, you lifted me up. You have now become Pṛthu, a figure of courage, and desire to kill me for milk with sharp arrows.
The Lord, holder of the earth, the boar avatāra, desired to protect the citizens situated in me, the form of a boat, on top of (upasthe) water, you who were my husband, now desire to kill me for milk. The meaning is this. Your progeny were my children, situated in my lap, and I constantly nourish them with milk. Seeing their evil ways at this time, I, as a mother, teaching them good character, have become angry, and do not supply milk. You, the master of the house, now punish me.
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Your desire is not known to persons like the wives or son of the devatās, whose minds are bewildered by ignorance arising from various bodies we assume in this world, but who have surrendered to you. I offer respects to he who brings fame to persons celebrated for charity.
Though the wives of the devatās or their sons and servants may believe you will kill me, I do not believe that you will. Your desire is not understood by persons like wives, sons or servants of the devatās, who wander around by the Lords ignorance (māyayā) in the bodies of devatās, men and animals (guṇa), but have take shelter of your feet (citta-vartmabhiḥ). I offer respects to he who bring fame to the persons renowned for charity. If you are not merciful to me, then the fame of charitable persons will be gone.
Thus ends the commentary on the Seventeenth Chapter of the Fourth Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
In the Seventeenth Chapter, when starving people begged him for food, Pṛthu catches the earth, who had seized everything, and in fright, the earth praises Pṛthu. Chandayām āsa means he satisfied them.