Devanagari
कच्चिद्वरूथाधिपतिर्यदूनां
प्रद्युम्न आस्ते सुखमङ्ग वीर: ।
यं रुक्मिणी भगवतोऽभिलेभे
आराध्य विप्रान् स्मरमादिसर्गे ॥ २८ ॥
Verse text
kaccid varūthādhipatir yadūnāṁ
pradyumna āste sukham aṅga vīraḥ
yaṁ rukmiṇī bhagavato ’bhilebhe
ārādhya viprān smaram ādi-sarge
Synonyms
kaccit
—
whether
;
varūtha
—
of the military
;
adhipatiḥ
—
commander in chief
;
yadūnām
—
of the Yadus
;
pradyumnaḥ
—
the son of Kṛṣṇa named Pradyumna
;
āste
—
is
;
sukham
—
happy
;
aṅga
—
O Uddhava
;
vīraḥ
—
the great warrior
;
yam
—
whom
;
rukmiṇī
—
the wife of Kṛṣṇa named Rukmiṇī
;
bhagavataḥ
—
from the Personality of Godhead
;
abhilebhe
—
got as a prize
;
ārādhya
—
pleasing
;
viprān
—
brāhmaṇas
;
smaram
—
Cupid (Kāmadeva)
;
ādi
—
sarge — in his previous life .
Translation
O Uddhava, please tell me, How is Pradyumna, the commander in chief of the Yadus, who was Cupid in a former life? Rukmiṇī bore him as her son from Lord Kṛṣṇa, by the grace of brāhmaṇas whom she pleased.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O Uddhava! How is the brave Pradyumna, commander of the Yadus whom Rukmiṇī obtained from the Lord after worshiping the brāhmaṇas, and who was Cupid in his previous birth.
Because of his emotions, Vidura does not ask this question in proper order (since he was younger). The leader of the troops (varuthādhipatiḥ) was in his previous birth Kāmadeva (smaram). Since Kāmadeva is a devatā and Pradyumna is acting as a human, the statement is meant as praise. However the real truth is different. Kāmadeva is Pradyumna’s vibhūti or expansion. Later in the text also, many expansions are described as equal to the Lord in telling various stories. For instance Vasudeva and Devakī are identified with Pṛśnī and Sutapā by the Lord himself. Tvam eva pūrva-sarge ’bhūḥ pṛśniḥ svāyambhuve sati: you were previously Pṛśni in Svāyambhuva’s time. (SB 10.32) This however is stated only to create astonishment within the human pastimes. Similarly in the present verse, the statement that previously Pradyumna was Kāmadeva and in verse 30 the statement that Jāmbavatī performed austerities to get Kārtikeya as her son cannot be taken literally since Jāmbavatī and Rukmiṇī are the svarūpa-śakti of the Lord, and do not need to perform sādhana to get devatās as their sons.
Purport
According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, Smara (Cupid, or Kāmadeva) is one of the eternal associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī has explained this very elaborately in his treatise
Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha.