24 verses
Mahārāja Parīkṣit said: O brāhmaṇa! I wish to know the rules of the puṁsavana rite you mentioned, by which Viṣṇu is pleased.
niśamya marutāṁ janma brāhmaṇān anumantrya ca snātvā śukla-datī śukle vasītālaḍkṛtāmbare pūjayet prātarāśāt prāg bhagavantaṁ śriyā saha
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: On the first day of the bright fortnight of the month of Agrahāyaṇa [November-December],1 with permission of her husband, a woman should begin this vow, which fulfils all desires. The woman should hear the story of the Maruts birth, and, under the instructions of brāhmaṇas, after cleaning her teeth, bathing, and wearing white cloth and ornaments, should worship Lord Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī before taking breakfast.
Mārgaśire means in the month of mārgaśīrṣa, Āditaḥ means on the first day of the waxing moon.
O Lord, complete in your desires! I offer my respectful obeisances unto you, the independent Lord, the master of great wealth, the giver of all perfections.
Alam te namaḥ astu means May I offer plentiful respect to you. The devatās depend on their servants to accomplish their own powers, but you do not. That is expressed in this verse. Therefore you are called independent (nirapekṣāya) because you are endowed with all great powers by your very nature. You are full in your desires. How will I please you by my offerings? You are the master of great wealth. How can I possibly please you by offering houses, gardens, elephants, servants, singing, dancing, drums, instruments and chanting of the Vedas? You are the giver of Svarga, liberation and prema (sakala-siddhaye). How can I please you by offering karma, jñāna, yoga or bhakti sādhana.
Just as you are endowed with mercy, by which your powers are hidden, so you are situated as the Supreme Lord, worthy of worship, by being endowed with the śakti of Mahā-lakṣmī, the śakti of independence, the śakti of wealth, all strength and other qualities.
By your mercy, everything happens. Just as you are endowed with mercy, you are the Lord because of being endowed with other powers. The meaning is this. You are served (juṣṭaḥ) by your kṛpā-śakti. You wait for the tulasī leaf offered by the devotee. Thus you are not independent. You ask the devotee Please give me something to eat, because I am hungry today. Thus you are not full in your desires. You say to a devotee in his dream, My house and garden are worn out. Where will I play? Thus you are without wealth. Though you have all powers of yoga, bound by the ropes of prema of the devotee, you cannot go anywhere. Thus you do not have all siddhis. By your power as Mahā-lakṣmī (bhūtyā), by your power of complete independence (tejasā), by your power of great wealth (mahimnā), by your strength (ojasā), and all other qualities (such as having all your statements come true), you remain independent and full in your own desires in this world. You alone are the Supreme Lord, the master worthy of worship.
O wife of Lord Viṣṇu! O internal energy of Lord Viṣṇu, possessing his qualities! O goddess of fortune! Please be kind to me. O mother of the world! I offer my respectful obeisances unto you.
I offer respects to Viṣṇu, full in six powers, to the supreme person, the final authority, husband of Lakṣmī. I offer gifts along with great wealth. Daily one should call the Lord, using this Viṣṇu mantra, and offer arghya, foot water, ācamana, bathing water, garments, sacred thread, ornaments, scents, flowers, incense, lamps, and gifts with great attention.
The mantra used in worship is mentioned in the verse.
One should chant the following mantra while offering twelve oblations consisting of the remnants from the worship of Viṣṇu into the fire: oṁ namo bhagavate mahā-puruṣāya mahāvibhūti-pataye svāhā.
Haviḥ-śeṣam means remnants from the worship of Viṣṇu.
If one desires all wealth, one should daily worship with devotion Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī, the bestowers of blessings and fulfillers of desires.
One should offer obeisances on the earth to the Lord with a mind humbled by bhakti. One should chant the above mantra ten times. Then one should chant the following prayer.
You two are the lords of the universe, the supreme cause of the universe. Lakṣmī is also prakṛti or māyā-śakti, difficult to understand and hard to overcome.
You are the master of Lakṣmī. You are the Supreme Person. You are all sacrifices personified. Lakṣmī is the secular activity of the sacrifice and the worship performed in meditation, whereas you are the enjoyer of the worship.
Ijyā refers to the contemplation of the activities that a man performs in preparation for a sacrifice. Kriyā refers to activities in the sacrifice not restricted to persons initiated into sacrifice
Lakṣmī is the reservoir of all qualities, whereas you manifest and enjoy all these qualities. You live as the soul of all living entities, and the goddess of fortune is the form of their bodies, senses and minds. You are the revealer of names and forms and the shelter and the support of names and forms.
Pratyayaḥ means the revealer of the names and forms. You are also the support (apāśrayaḥ) of the names and forms.
You are both the supreme rulers and benedictors of the three worlds. O Uttamaśloka! May my desires be fulfilled!
Offering prayers to Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī according to the process mentioned above, one should then remove old articles. After offering them ācamana, one should worship them again.
Tan niḥsārya means removing old offerings.
Thereafter, with devotion and humility, one should offer prayers. After smelling the remnants of the food offered, one should again worship the Lord.
Accepting her husband as the representative of the Supreme Lord, the wife should worship him with unalloyed devotion by offering him what was offered to the Lord. The husband, being very pleased, should execute all actions high and low for his wife.
Between the husband and wife, one of them is sufficient to execute this devotional service. If the wife is unable to execute this process, the husband should carefully do so.
Between the husband and wife, either of them can do the rites.
udvāsya devaṁ sve dhāmni tan-niveditam agrataḥ adyād ātma-viśuddhy-arthaṁ sarva-kāma-samṛddhaye
One should execute the vow for Viṣṇu and should not deviate from it for any reason. With devotion, one should daily worship women with living husbands and brāhmaṇas by means of garlands, scents, food and ornaments used in the worship. Fixed in the rules of worship, placing the Lord to rest, one should divide the offerings to the Lord and then eat, for purifying the mind in order to fulfill ones desires.
Na vihanyāt means one should not break the vow. Agrataḥ means dividing up the remnants properly. The ablative can be used to express a missing participle.
The chaste wife, after passing one year doing this worship, should fast on the full-moon day in the month of Kārttika [October-November].
Carame ahani means the full moon.2
Svo bhūte means early the next morning. Pāka-yajña-vidhānena means according the rules for cooking rice for the full moon observances.
When satisfied brāhmaṇas bestow their blessings, he should devotedly offer them obeisances with his head, and with their permission he should take the remnants.
Offering to the guru first, with controlled speech he should take his meal with friends, and then give his wife the remnants of the cooked rice which will ensure good progeny and very good fortune.
Śeṣam suprajaṣtvam susaubhagam means food remnants which will produce a good son and very good fortune. Or the last sentence can be taken as a separate sentence: May she have a good son and good fortune!
If this vow is observed according to the rules, even in this life a man will be able to achieve all the benedictions he desires from the Lord. A wife who performs this vow will receive good fortune, wealth, sons, a long-living husband, a good reputation and a good home.
The woman will obtain a husband who lives (jīva-patim).
vinded virūpā virujā vimucyate ya āmayāvīndriya-kalya-deham etat paṭhann abhyudaye ca karmaṇy ananta-tṛptiḥ pitṛ-devatānām
tuṣṭāḥ prayacchanti samasta-kāmān
homāvasāne huta-bhuk śrī-hariś ca
rājan mahan marutāṁ janma puṇyaṁ
diter vrataṁ cābhihitaṁ mahat te
If an unmarried girl observes this vow, she will get a good husband. Woman who has no husband or son can be promoted to the spiritual world. A woman whose children have died after birth can get a child with a long life and also possess wealth. A woman who is unfortunate will become fortunate and an ugly woman will become beautiful. A diseased man can gain relief from special diseases and obtain a body with functioning senses. If one recites this narration during the śrāddha ceremony, the devatās and inhabitants of Pitṛloka will be extremely pleased. The devatās, Pitṛs and Viṣṇu, being pleased, will bestow upon him all desires.
O King Parīkṣit! I have completely described the great vow of Diti and the great, virtuous birth of the Maruts.
Avīrā means a woman without a husband or sons. A woman whose son has died will have a son who lives and also become wealth. A man who is diseased will be freed of the particular disease and receive a body capable of using the senses. Abhyudaye means at śrāddha ceremony. They and Viṣṇu (huta-bhuk) will also be pleased (tuṣṭāḥ).
The commentary Śārātha-darśinī on Nineteenth Chapter of the Sixth Canto has been completed to give pleasure to the hearts of the devotees in accordance with the views of the ācāryas. The devotees, flowing with mercy, continuously chanting the names of Kṛṣṇa, should tolerate my chattering, though I am approaching death, having been destroyed by fever from the three doṣas. I have completed the commentary on the Sixth Canto on the ninth lunar day of the waxing moon of Vaiśakha month, on Wednesday, at the base of a desire tree moist with drops of water from the waves of the shining Yamunā River.
In the Nineteenth chapter, on being asked by the King, Śukadeva describes in detail the puṁsavana vow, which destroys cruelty in the heart and pleases Viṣṇu.
I wish to know the rules (this word is omitted but should be supplied) of the vow.