SB 10.3.34 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

वर्षवातातपहिमघर्मकालगुणाननु । सहमानौ श्वासरोधविनिर्धूतमनोमलौ ॥ ३४ ॥ शीर्णपर्णानिलाहारावुपशान्तेन चेतसा । मत्त: कामानभीप्सन्तौ मदाराधनमीहतु: ॥ ३५ ॥

Verse text

varṣa-vātātapa-hima- gharma-kāla-guṇān anu sahamānau śvāsa-rodha- vinirdhūta-mano-malau śīrṇa-parṇānilāhārāv upaśāntena cetasā mattaḥ kāmān abhīpsantau mad-ārādhanam īhatuḥ

Synonyms

varṣa — the rain ; vāta — strong wind ; ātapa — strong sunshine ; hima — severe cold ; gharma — heat ; kāla — guṇān anu — according to seasonal changes ; sahamānau — by enduring ; śvāsa — rodha — by practicing yoga, controlling the breath ; vinirdhūta — the dirty things accumulated in the mind were completely washed away ; manaḥ — malau — the mind became clean, free from material contamination ; śīrṇa — rejected, dry ; parṇa — leaves from the trees ; anila — and air ; āhārau — eating ; upaśāntena — peaceful ; cetasā — with a fully controlled mind ; mattaḥ — from Me ; kāmān abhīpsantau — desiring to beg some benediction ; mat — My ; ārādhanam — worship ; īhatuḥ — you both executed .

Translation

My dear father and mother, you endured rain, wind, strong sun, scorching heat and severe cold, suffering all sorts of inconvenience according to different seasons. By practicing prāṇāyāma to control the air within the body through yoga, and by eating only air and dry leaves fallen from the trees, you cleansed from your minds all dirty things. In this way, desiring a benediction from Me, you worshiped Me with peaceful minds.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

My dear father and mother, you endured rain, wind, strong sun, scorching heat and severe cold, suffering all sorts of inconvenience according to different seasons. By practicing prāṇāyāma to control the air within the body through yoga, and by eating only air and dry leaves fallen from the trees, you cleansed from your minds all dirty things. In this way, desiring a benediction from Me, you worshiped Me with peaceful minds. KB 10.3.34-35 “By practicing the breathing exercises of the yoga system, both you and your husband could tolerate all the influences of the material laws: the rainy season, the onslaught of the wind, and the scorching heat of the sunshine. You also executed all religious principles. In this way you were able to cleanse your heart and control the influences of the material laws. In executing your austerity, you used to eat only the leaves of the trees which fell to the ground. Then with a steady mind and controlled sex drive, you worshiped Me, desiring some wonderful benediction from Me.

Purport

Vasudeva and Devakī did not obtain the Supreme Personality of Godhead as their son very easily, nor does the Supreme Godhead accept merely anyone as His father and mother. Here we can see how Vasudeva and Devakī obtained Kṛṣṇa as their eternal son. In our own lives, we are meant to follow the principles indicated herewith for getting good children. Of course, it is not possible for everyone to get Kṛṣṇa as his son, but at least one can get very good sons and daughters for the benefit of human society. In Bhagavad-gītā it is said that if human beings do not follow the spiritual way of life, there will be an increase of varṇa-saṅkara population, population begotten like cats and dogs, and the entire world will become like hell. Not practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness but simply encouraging artificial means to check the population will be futile; the population will increase, and it will consist of varṇa-saṅkara, unwanted progeny. It is better to teach people how to beget children not like hogs and dogs, but in controlled life. Human life is meant not for becoming a hog or dog, but for tapo divyam, transcendental austerity. Everyone should be taught to undergo austerity, tapasya. Although it may not be possible to undergo tapasya like that of Pṛśni and Sutapā, the śāstra has given an opportunity for a method of tapasya very easy to perform — the saṅkīrtana movement. One cannot expect to undergo tapasya to get Kṛṣṇa as one’s child, yet simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra ( kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya ), one can become so pure that one becomes free from all the contamination of this material world ( mukta-saṅgaḥ ) and goes back home, back to Godhead ( paraṁ vrajet ). The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, therefore, is teaching people not to adopt artificial means of happiness, but to take the real path of happiness as prescribed in the śāstra — the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra — and become perfect in every aspect of material existence.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

atapah means burning due to the sun’s rays. Gharma means heat.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

Two verses describe their austerities. They continuously (anu) tolerated the qualities of the seasons—rain, wind, sun, snow and heat. Ātapa refers to staying under the direct summer sun. Gharma means heat. Or ātapa means the autumn sun and gharma means the summer sun. They performed prāṇāyāma. First, impurities of the mind were generally washed away. Whatever impurities remained they were completely (ni) washed away so that they were not aware of any of them. Then they were most completely purified (vi) by destruction of the most subtle desires. By this increasingly effective purification, one can understand their extreme determination. They developed most steady minds (upaśāntena cetasā). This however means that they became fixed in the Lord, for it is said śamo man-niṣṭatā buddheḥ: śama means fixing the mind in me. (SB 11.19.36) They desired happiness from producing offspring (prajā-sarge) from getting the Lord as their son (mattaḥ). In verse 38, it will be said “You prayed for a son similar to me.”