Devanagari
तन्माशु जहि वैकुण्ठ पाप्मानं मृगलुब्धकम् ।
यथा पुनरहं त्वेवं न कुर्यां सदतिक्रमम् ॥ ३७ ॥
Verse text
tan māśu jahi vaikuṇṭha
pāpmānaṁ mṛga-lubdhakam
yathā punar ahaṁ tv evaṁ
na kuryāṁ sad-atikramam
Synonyms
tat
—
therefore
;
mā
—
me
;
āśu
—
quickly
;
jahi
—
please kill
;
vaikuṇṭha
—
O Lord of Vaikuṇṭha
;
pāpmānam
—
the sinful
;
mṛga
—
lubdhakam — hunter of deer
;
yathā
—
so that
;
punaḥ
—
again
;
aham
—
I
;
tu
—
indeed
;
evam
—
thus
;
na kuryām
—
may not do
;
sat
—
against saintly persons
;
atikramam
—
transgression .
Translation
Therefore, O Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, please kill this sinful hunter of animals immediately so he may not again commit such offenses against saintly persons.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Therefore, O Lord of Vaikuṇṭha, please kill this sinful hunter of animals immediately so he may not again commit such offenses against saintly persons.
“Fortunately, I have no pain in my foot. But you, with intention of violence, shot the arrow.” In response, the hunter speaks this verse. Therefore, please kill me immediately.
The following description was previously given:
teṣāṁ maireya-doṣeṇa viṣamīkṛta-cetasām
nimlocati ravāv āsīd veṇūnām iva mardanam
As the sun was setting, with consciousness distorted by intoxication of liquor, they destroyed each other, just as bamboos by mutual friction start a fire and destroy the whole forest.
bhagavān svātma-māyāyā gatiṁ tām avalokya saḥ
sarasvatīm upaspṛśya vṛkṣa-mūlam upāviśat
Seeing this action of his māyā, Kṛṣṇa, sipping the water of the Sarasvatī River, sat down under a tree. SB 3.4.2-3
According to the Third Canto, when the sun was setting and the Yadus had killed each other in battle, the Lord sat down on the bank of the Sarasvatī River. Then the hunter approached to kill a deer. But this is not possible. If 560,000,000 Yadus were suddenly killed in battle at that place, there would be a river of blood and great confusion of noise. How would it be possible for the hunter to arrive there to kill a deer? How would a deer, fearful in nature, remain in that place? Therefore this killing of the Yadus was actually false. However, the Lord made Arjuna and others believe it, in order to increase the prema in karunā-rasa of his devotees like Yudhiṣṭhira and to make them give up this world. And for others, he did this to increase the wrong philosophy so that dharma would be stifled. Actually, after the devatās had drunk wine and disappeared, the hunter came to that place which was without sound and people. (The battle was an illusion.)
Purport
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that the fratricidal battle of the Yadu dynasty and the hunter’s attack upon Lord Kṛṣṇa are clearly activities of the Lord’s internal potency for the purpose of fulfilling the Lord’s pastime desires. According to the evidence, the quarrel among the members of the Yadu dynasty occurred at sunset; then the Lord sat down on the bank of the Sarasvatī River. It is stated that a hunter then arrived with the intention of killing a deer, but it is highly unlikely
—
when more than 560 million warriors had just been killed in a great uproarious battle and the place had been flooded with blood and strewn with corpses — that a simple hunter would somehow come along trying to kill a deer. Since deer are by nature fearful and timid, how could any deer possibly be on the scene of such a huge battle, and how could a hunter calmly go about his business in the midst of such carnage? Therefore, the withdrawal of the Yadu dynasty and Lord Kṛṣṇa’s own disappearance from this earth were not material historical events; they were instead a display of the Lord’s internal potency for the purpose of winding up His manifest pastimes on earth.