SB 12.5.10

SB 12.5.10

Devanagari

चोदितो विप्रवाक्येन न त्वां धक्ष्यति तक्षक: । मृत्यवो नोपधक्ष्यन्ति मृत्यूनां मृत्युमीश्वरम् ॥ १० ॥

Verse text

codito vipra-vākyena na tvāṁ dhakṣyati takṣakaḥ mṛtyavo nopadhakṣyanti mṛtyūnāṁ mṛtyum īśvaram

Synonyms

coditaḥ sent ; vipra vākyena — by the words of the brāhmaṇa ; na not ; tvām you ; dhakṣyati will burn ; takṣakaḥ the snake-bird Takṣaka ; mṛtyavaḥ the agents of death personified ; na upadhakṣyanti cannot burn ; mṛtyūnām of these causes of death ; mṛtyum the very death ; īśvaram the master of the self .

Translation

The snake-bird Takṣaka, sent by the curse of the brāhmaṇa, will not burn your true self. The agents of death will never burn such a master of the self as you, for you have already conquered all dangers on your path back to Godhead.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The snake-bird Takṣaka, sent by the curse of the brāhmaṇa, will not burn your true self. The agents of death will never burn you who are capable of killing the servants of death. Takṣaka will not burn you--the ātmā, different from your body. What to speak of Takṣaka, even death personified will not burn you. The esoteric meaning is as follows. You are independent of the body (īśvaram) since you are liberated from upādhis and you are the destroyer (mṛtyum) of obstacles to bhakti (mṛtyunām). Coming to you, the curse of the brāhmaṇa and other obstacles to bhakti will be destroyed.

Purport

Real death is the covering of one’s eternal Kṛṣṇa consciousness. For the soul, material illusion is just like death, but Parīkṣit Mahārāja had already destroyed all those dangers that threaten one’s spiritual life, such as lust, envy and fear. Śukadeva Gosvāmī here congratulates the great saintly king, who, as a pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa homeward bound to the spiritual sky, was far beyond the reach of death.