Devanagari
पृथुरुवाच
वरान्विभो त्वद्वरदेश्वराद् बुध:
कथं वृणीते गुणविक्रियात्मनाम् ।
ये नारकाणामपि सन्ति देहिनां
तानीश कैवल्यपते वृणे न च ॥ २३ ॥
Verse text
pṛthur uvāca
varān vibho tvad varadeśvarād budhaḥ
kathaṁ vṛṇīte guṇa-vikriyātmanām
ye nārakāṇām api santi dehināṁ
tān īśa kaivalya-pate vṛṇe na ca
Synonyms
pṛthuḥ uvāca
—
Pṛthu Mahārāja said
;
varān
—
benedictions
;
vibho
—
my dear Supreme Lord
;
tvat
—
from You
;
vara
—
da — īśvarāt — from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the highest of the bestowers of benedictions
;
budhaḥ
—
a learned person
;
katham
—
how
;
vṛṇīte
—
could ask for
;
guṇa
—
vikriyā — bewildered by the modes of material nature
;
ātmanām
—
of the living entities
;
ye
—
which
;
nārakāṇām
—
of the living entities living in hell
;
api
—
also
;
santi
—
exist
;
dehinām
—
of the embodied
;
tān
—
all those
;
īśa
—
O Supreme Lord
;
kaivalya
—
pate — O bestower of merging in the existence of the Lord
;
vṛṇe
—
I ask for
;
na
—
not
;
ca
—
also .
Translation
My dear Lord, You are the best of the demigods who can offer benedictions. Why, therefore, should any learned person ask You for benedictions meant for living entities bewildered by the modes of nature? Such benedictions are available automatically, even in the lives of living entities suffering in hellish conditions. My dear Lord, You can certainly bestow merging into Your existence, but I do not wish to have such a benediction.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Pṛthu said: O Lord! How can an intelligent person ask for benedictions from you, the Lord who gives all benedictions? O Lord of liberation! I do not ask for those benedictions which exist for people in hellish existence, with minds which are a transformation of the guṇas.
Pṛthu replies to the Lord’s request to ask for a boon. How can an intelligent person ask? A foolish person will ask for material boons. Asking for Svarga and such things are the boons of the materialists with minds created by transformation of the guṇas. O Lord of kaivalya! Even the person desiring liberation does not ask for these boons. How can I accept them, since I cannot tolerate the name of liberation? (Even liberation is unattractive, what to speak of material enjoyment!)
Purport
There are different kinds of benedictions according to a person’s demands. For
karmīs
the best benediction is promotion to the higher planetary systems, where the duration of life is very long and the standard of living and happiness is very high. There are others, namely
jṣānīs
and
yogīs,
who want the benediction of merging into the existence of the Lord. This is called
kaivalya.
The Lord is therefore addressed as
kaivalya-pati,
the master or Lord of the benediction known as
kaivalya.
But devotees receive a different type of benediction from the Lord. Devotees are anxious neither for the heavenly planets nor for merging into the existence of the Lord. According to devotees,
kaivalya,
or merging into the existence of the Lord, is considered as good as hell. The word
naraka
means “hell.” Similarly, everyone who exists in this material world is called
nāraka
because this material existence itself is known as a hellish condition of life. Pṛthu Mahārāja, however, expressed that he was interested neither in the benediction desired by the
karmīs
nor that desired by the
jṣānīs
and
yogīs.
Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī Prabhu, a great devotee of Lord Caitanya, described that
kaivalya
is no better than a hellish condition of life, and as for the delights of the heavenly planets, they are factually will-o’-the-wisps, or phantasmagoria. They are not wanted by devotees. Devotees do not even care for the positions held by Lord Brahmā or Lord Śiva, nor does a devotee desire to become equal with Lord Viṣṇu. As a pure devotee of the Lord, Pṛthu Mahārāja made his position very clear.