27 verses
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Yayāti, enjoying in this way and attached to woman, then considered he had been cheated, and, becoming disgusted, narrated the following story to his beloved wife.
O daughter of Śukrācārya! Please listen as I narrate the history of a householder like me, for whom the wise who live in the forest lament.
Hear the story of a person who acted like me, a householder, for whom those living in the forest lament.
While wandering in the forest, looking for food, a he-goat by chance approached a well, in which he saw a she-goat who had fallen their under the control of karma.
The goat refers to Yayāti. The forest is saṁsāra. The female goat is material happiness represented by Devayānī.
After planning how to get the she-goat out of the well, the lusty he-goat dug up the earth on the well's edge with the point of his horns and made a path for her.
Digging up earth with the tips of his horns at the edge of the well, he produced a path by which she could get out.
pīvānaṁ śmaśrulaṁ preṣṭhaṁ mīòhvāṁsaṁ yābha-kovidam sa eko 'javṛṣas tāsāṁ bahvīnāṁ rati-vardhanaḥ reme kāma-graha-grasta ātmānaṁ nāvabudhyata
Getting out of the well, the she-goat with attractive hips desired to accept him as her husband. When she did so, many other she-goats also desired him as their husband because he was big and had a nice mustache and beard, had abundant semen, and was expert at sexual intercourse. Haunted by the ghost of lust, the one hero among the he-goats, increasing his desire among many she-goats, engaged in erotic activities and naturally forgot his spiritual commitment.
Many she-goats who desired a lover (such as Śarmiṣṭhā) had a desire for him. Miòhvāṁsaṁ means one who impregnates semen. He was expert in sex life (yābha-kovidam).
When the she-goat who had fallen into the well saw her beloved goat engaged in sexual affairs with another she-goat, she could not tolerate the goat's activities.
Ajānyayā means another goat. This is an irregular formation of a compound. The goat who had fallen in the well refers to Devayānī.
Giving up the goat who was cruel, who was temporary friend pretending to be friend, interested in his own enjoyment, she returned to her master in grief.
The master is Śukrācārya. Referring to him as svāmī is a fault that should be overlooked. Pāṇini says svāmin īśvaraḥ (2.3.39) svāmī means controller. Thus svāmī does not only refer to a husband. Or svāminam can refer to her husband. She rejected him and left in grief.
The he-goat, who was subservient to his wife, in misery followed the she-goat on the road and tried his best to flatter her, but he could not satisfy her.
Iòividākāram means the language of goats. Sandhitum means to please.
The she-goat went to the residence of a brāhmaṇa who was the maintainer of another she-goat, and that brāhmaṇa angrily cut off the he-goat's dangling testicles. But at the he-goat's request, the expert brāhmaṇa later rejoined them.
The brāhmaṇa was Śukrācārya. He was the husband of another she-goat, his wife. He cut off his testicles. This means he made him incapable of enjoyment by giving him old age. Then, being pleased, he put them back as before for giving sexual enjoyment. He gave him youth in exchange for his old age. Yogavit means expert.
My dear wife! When the he-goat had his testicles restored, he was not able to be satisfied by his enjoyment with the she-goat he had rescued from the well, for many, many years, even till now.
Instead of kūpa-labdhayā another version has kāma-labdhayā. Over a along period of time, though he enjoyed, he was not satisfied.
O my dear wife with beautiful eyebrows! In a similar manner, I am a miser, controlled by love for you. Bewildered by your māyā, I do not know the self.
I am bewildered by your māyā. I, the jīva, am bewildered by ignorance.
A person who is controlled by lust cannot satisfy his mind with anything in the world-, whether it is rice, barley and other food grains, gold, animals or women.
But you, the king, have everything. How can you be miserable, when you enjoy with happiness from so many sense objects? For one stricken by lust, nothing satisfies. Being stricken with lust is the cause of not being full satisfied.
As fire increases more and more by supplying oblations, lust can never be pacified by enjoyment.
Whatever amount of lust you have, let it be satisfied by additional enjoyment! For you with great wealth, all the objects of enjoyment like women, garlands and sandalwood are small things. Kṛṣṇa-vartmā means fire. Unsatisfied desire means constant sorrow. Satisfied desire alone is happiness.
When a person does not show hatred to even his enemies, then all directions are filled with happiness for that person who sees all beings with equal vision.
The remarkable quality of satisfied desire is described. When one does not show hatred (amaḍgalam) to other beings, even those who hate you, to those who do not show respect to but rather, disrespect you, all directions are blissful for the person who considers equally those who criticize or praise you. Sukhamayāḥ should be sukhamayyaḥ.
Desire is difficult to give up for the unintelligent. Desire is not depleted even for persons who have reached old age. The person desiring good even for his enemies should quickly give up desire, the cause of misery.
Even time, which destroys everything, does not destroy desire. Or the verse shows the means of pacifying desire even though it is difficult to do so. Desire is not given up even by persons who have attained old age (jīryatah). He who desires good even for his enemies (śarma-kāmaḥ) should give up desire.
One should not allow oneself to sit together with one's own mother, sister or daughter. The strong senses pull even the man of knowledge.
Desire for women is controlled by proper conduct. Proper conduct is shown. Aviviktāsanaḥ means a person who sits on the seat. The senses draw even the man with knowledge.
Though I have spent a full one thousand years enjoying, my desire to enjoy such pleasure increases daily.
I am an example showing that even time does not rid a person of attachment to enjoyment.
Therefore, giving up all these desires and fixing my mind on the Lord, and being free from dualities and false identity, I shall wander in the forest with the animals.
Then how should one become relieved of desire? One should concentrate the mind on the form and qualities of the Lord. One cannot meditate on something without form. Brahman in this case must mean Brahman with form. Later it is said that Yayāti achieved the Lord. Till this time I have been your play animal, dancing in the yard of our house. Now, I will dance with the kṛṣṇa-sāra deer, absorbed in the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa.
Seeing the Supreme Lord, and thus having understood the temporary nature of material enjoyment either seen or heard, a person gives up that enjoyment and does not speak about it. He knows that meditating on enjoyment produces rebirth and destruction of spiritual consciousness.
It is possible to give up thinking of material enjoyment by contemplating the truth when one achieves maturity in meditation on the Supreme Lord. He who sees the Lord by meditation (ātmā-dṛk), thus understanding the tastelessness of material happiness, either seen or heard, since it is improper, does not constantly meditate on those objects (anudhyāyet), does not enjoy those objects. He knows (vidvān) that meditating on material objects (tatra) will produce saṁsāra and destruction spiritual consciousness.
After speaking in this way to his wife, King Yayāti, who was now free from all material desires, gave his youth to Pūru, and accepted his own old age.
King Yayāti made Druhyu the ruler of the southeast, Yadu the ruler of the south, Turvasu the ruler of the west, and Anu the ruler of the north.
Yayāti enthroned his youngest son, Pūru, as the emperor of the earth and the proprietor of all its riches, and he placed all the other sons, who were older than Pūru, under Pūru's control. Then he went to the forest.
He enthroned Pūru as the most worthy (arhattamam) of the wealth (viśām) of the whole world.
In a moment Yayāti became indifferent to the six senses which had been attached to enjoyment for many years, just as a bird, on growing wings, is not dependent on the nest.
He gave up in a moment the six senses which were completely attached to sense objects for many years. He became indifferent to them. He was not dependent on his senses, just as a bird, on growing wings, is not dependent on the nest.
Yayāti, free of all material association by realization of the Lord and purified of the three guṇas, became famous, having attained spiritual body in the Lords abode.
He had been purified of the subtle body made of the three guṇas. He was famous, and attained the position of an associate of the Lord with prema (bhāgavatīm gatim), situated in the abode of the Lord.
When Devayānī heard Mahārāja Yayāti's story of the he-goat and she-goat, she understood that this story, which was presented as if a joke between husband and wife out of affection, was a censure of herself.
She understood that the story of the goat was actually a censure of herself. It was told as a joke between husband and wife out of bewildering affection. O Devayānī! You have completely repaid me for mercifully lifting you from the well, for I have fallen into the blind well of material enjoyment for so long. Devayānī understood that this what Yayāti was saying.
sarvatra saḍgam utsṛjya svapnaupamyena bhārgavī kṛṣṇe manaḥ samāveśya vyadhunol liḍgam ātmanaḥ
Understanding that association of friends, created by the Lords māyā, was like going to a water hole, she gave up that association completely, and concentrating her mind on Kṛṣṇa, gave up the subtle body covering the soul.
Prabhoḥ means of the Lord.
I offer respects to you, the supreme Lord Vāsudeva, residing in all living entities. I offer respects to the great Lord who is peaceful.
By what practice does one absorb the mind in Kṛṣṇa? One does this by offering respects, by meditation and chanting. When Ambarīṣa was the emperor of the seven islands, it is understood that Yayāti was the ruler of Bhārata-varṣa.1 Ambarīṣa is the eighth in the line of Brahmā, Marīci, Kaśyapa, Viavasvān, Śrāddhadeva, Naghava, Nābhāga and Ambarīṣa. Yayāti was eighth in the line of Brahmā, Atri, Candra, Budha, Purūrava, Ayu, Mahuṣa and Yayāti. Because of the influence of Ambarīṣa, Yayāti, who was absorbed in material enjoyment, developed great devotion. Because of Yayātis association, Devayānī also developed great devotion. When the dynasty from the sun and moon begin simultaneously and when the emperors of the sun dynasty rule the seven islands, the kings of the moon dynasty rule Bhārata-varṣa. When the members of the moon dynasty become emperors of the seven islands, then the members of the sun dynasty become the kings of Bhārata-varṣa. This is how the sovereignty of the dynasties of the sun and moon operate.
Thus ends the commentary on the Nineteenth Chapter of the Ninth Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
In the Nineteenth Chapter, King Yayāti compares himself to a goat, becomes detached and attains Kṛṣṇa. His wife absorbs her mind in Kṛṣṇa and gives up her body. Kāmān ācaran means he enjoyed. Apahnavam means he was cheated.