Devanagari
अध्यात्मपारोक्ष्यमिदं मयाधिगतमद्भुतम् ।
एवं स्त्रियाश्रम: पुंसश्छिन्नोऽमुत्र च संशय: ॥ ८५ ॥
Verse text
adhyātma-pārokṣyam idaṁ
mayādhigatam adbhutam
evaṁ striyāśramaḥ puṁsaś
chinno ’mutra ca saṁśayaḥ
Synonyms
adhyātma
—
spiritual
;
pārokṣyam
—
described by authority
;
idam
—
this
;
mayā
—
by me
;
adhigatam
—
heard
;
adbhutam
—
wonderful
;
evam
—
thus
;
striyā
—
with a wife
;
āśramaḥ
—
shelter
;
puṁsaḥ
—
of the living entity
;
chinnaḥ
—
finished
;
amutra
—
about life after death
;
ca
—
also
;
saṁśayaḥ
—
doubt .
Translation
The allegory of King Puraṣjana, described herein according to authority, was heard by me from my spiritual master, and it is full of spiritual knowledge. If one can understand the purpose of this allegory, he will certainly be relieved from the bodily conception and will clearly understand life after death. Although one may not understand what transmigration of the soul actually is, one can fully understand it by studying this narration.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
I have studied this astounding spiritual allegory. By doing this, I am free from ahaṅkāra and doubts concerning how one experiences karma in the next life.
Striyāśramaḥ means the shelter of intelligence, ahaṅkāra. Or taken literally according to the story, it means association with women. Doubts about how one enjoy results of karma in the next life are also destroyed.
Thus ends the commentary on the Twenty-ninth Chapter of the Fourth Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.
Chapter Thirty
The Pracetās End their Austerity
Purport
The word
striyā,
meaning “along with the wife,” is significant. The male and female living together constitute the sum and substance of material existence. The attraction between male and female in this material world is very strong. In all species of life the attraction between male and female is the basic principle of existence. The same principle of intermingling is also in human society, but is in a regulative form. Material existence means living together as male and female and being attracted by one another. However, when one fully understands spiritual life, his attraction for the opposite sex is completely vanquished. By such attraction one becomes overly attached to this material world. It is a hard knot within the heart:
puṁsaḥ striyā mithunī-bhāvam etaṁ
tayor mitho hṛdaya-granthim āhuḥ
ato gṛha-kṣetra-sutāpta-vittair
janasya moho ’yam ahaṁ mameti
(
Bhāg.
5.5.8
)
Everyone comes to this material world attracted to sense gratification, and the hard knot of sense gratification is the attraction between male and female. By this attraction one becomes overly attached to the material world in terms of
gṛha-kṣetra-suta-āpta-vitta
— that is, home, land, children, friends, money and so forth. Thus one becomes entangled in the bodily conception of “I” and “mine.” However, if one understands the story of King Puraṣjana and understands how, by sexual attraction, Puraṣjana became a female in his next life, one will also understand the process of transmigration.
SPECIAL NOTE: According to Vijayadhvaja Tīrtha, who belongs to the Madhvācārya
sampradāya,
the first two of the following verses appear after verse 45 of this chapter, and the remaining two verses appear after verse 79.