SB 4.28.18 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

लोकान्तरं गतवति मय्यनाथा कुटुम्बिनी । वर्तिष्यते कथं त्वेषा बालकाननुशोचती ॥ १८ ॥

Verse text

lokāntaraṁ gatavati mayy anāthā kuṭumbinī vartiṣyate kathaṁ tv eṣā bālakān anuśocatī

Synonyms

loka — antaram — into a different life ; gatavati mayi — when I am gone ; anāthā — bereft of husband ; kuṭumbinī — surrounded by all family members ; vartiṣyate — will exist ; katham — how ; tu — then ; eṣā — this woman ; bālakān — children ; anuśocatī — lamenting about .

Translation

King Puraṣjana was anxiously thinking, “Alas, my wife is encumbered by so many children. When I pass from this body, how will she be able to maintain all these family members? Alas, she will be greatly harassed by thoughts of family maintenance.”

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

When I go to another world, how will my wife, without a husband, lamenting for her children, continue to exist?

Purport

All these thoughts of one’s wife indicate that the King was overly engrossed with the thoughts of woman. Generally a chaste woman becomes a very obedient wife. This causes a husband to become attached to his wife, and consequently he thinks of his wife very much at the time of death. This is a very dangerous situation, as is evident from the life of King Puraṣjana. If one thinks of his wife instead of Kṛṣṇa at the time of death, he will certainly not return home, back to Godhead, but will be forced to accept the body of a woman and thus begin another chapter of material existence.