Devanagari
जलौकसां जले यद्वन्महान्तोऽदन्त्यणीयस: ।
दुर्बलान्बलिनो राजन्महान्तो बलिनो मिथ: ॥ २५ ॥
एवं बलिष्ठैर्यदुभिर्महद्भिरितरान् विभु: ।
यदून्यदुभिरन्योन्यं भूभारान् सञ्जहार ह ॥ २६ ॥
Verse text
jalaukasāṁ jale yadvan
mahānto ’danty aṇīyasaḥ
durbalān balino rājan
mahānto balino mithaḥ
evaṁ baliṣṭhair yadubhir
mahadbhir itarān vibhuḥ
yadūn yadubhir anyonyaṁ
bhū-bhārān saṣjahāra ha
Synonyms
jalaukasām
—
of the aquatics
;
jale
—
in the water
;
yadvat
—
as it is
;
mahāntaḥ
—
the larger one
;
adanti
—
swallows
;
aṇīyasaḥ
—
smaller ones
;
durbalān
—
the weak
;
balinaḥ
—
the stronger
;
rājan
—
O King
;
mahāntaḥ
—
the strongest
;
balinaḥ
—
less strong
;
mithaḥ
—
in a duel
;
evam
—
thus
;
baliṣṭhaiḥ
—
by the strongest
;
yadubhiḥ
—
by the descendants of Yadu
;
mahadbhiḥ
—
one who has greater strength
;
itarān
—
the common ones
;
vibhuḥ
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
yadūn
—
all the Yadus
;
yadubhiḥ
—
by the Yadus
;
anyonyam
—
among one another
;
bhū
—
bhārān — the burden of the world
;
saṣjahāra
—
has unloaded
;
ha
—
in the past .
Translation
O King, as in the ocean the bigger and stronger aquatics swallow up the smaller and weaker ones, so also the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to lighten the burden of the earth, has engaged the stronger Yadu to kill the weaker, and the bigger Yadu to kill the smaller.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Lord in this way destroyed the Yadus, who became a burden on the earth, with strong Yadus killing other great Yadus.
Purport
In the material world the struggle for existence and survival of the fittest are laws because in the material world there is disparity between conditioned souls due to everyone’s desire to lord it over the material resources. This very mentality of lording it over the material nature is the root cause of conditioned life. And to give facility to such imitation lords, the illusory energy of the Lord has created a disparity between conditioned living beings by creating the stronger and the weaker in every species of life. The mentality of lording it over the material nature and the creation has naturally created a disparity and therefore the law of struggle for existence. In the spiritual world there is no such disparity, nor is there such a struggle for existence. In the spiritual world there is no struggle for existence because everyone there exists eternally. There is no disparity because everyone wants to render service to the Supreme Lord, and no one wants to imitate the Lord in becoming the beneficiary. The Lord, being creator of everything, including the living beings, factually is the proprietor and enjoyer of everything that be, but in the material world, by the spell of
māyā,
or illusion, this eternal relation with the Supreme Personality of Godhead is forgotten, and so the living being is conditioned under the law of struggle for existence and survival of the fittest.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
It is said there that the Lord destroyed the Yadus who became a burden on the earth. This perception was created by the Lord for Arjuna and others. The cause is explained at the end of the Eleventh Canto. Arjuna here says that the Yadus became a burden on the earth, but actually they were the ornaments for the earth. That is because the Yadus were eternal associates of the Lord. Just as a woman does not feel that her ornaments are a weight, so the earth did not feel the weight of the Yadus. Even the devatās who had appeared in the Yadu family cannot be said to be a burden since they also were without rajas and tamas. Therefore the destruction was a means of having the devatās and the eternal associates return to their appropriate destinations. The Lord himself makes reference to the burden:
kiyān bhuvo ’yaṁ kṣapitoru-bhāro
yad droṇa-bhīṣmārjuna-bhīma-mūlaiḥ
aṣṭādaśākṣauhiṇiko mad-aṁśair
āste balaṁ durviṣahaṁ yadūnām
The burden of the earth caused by the eighteen akṣauhinis formed by Droṇa, Bhīṣma, Arjuna and Bhīma has only been slightly reduced. The intolerable strength of the Yadus remains because of my portions such as Pradyumna. SB 3.3.14