TEXT 37
apy adya nas tvam sva-krtehita prabho
jihasasi svit suhrdo 'nujivinah
yesam na canyad bhavatah padambujat
parayanam rajasu yojitamhasam
SYNONYMS
apiif; adyatoday; nahus; tvamYou; sva-krtaself-executed; ihitaall duties; prabhoO my Lord; jihasasigiving up; svitpossibly; suhrdahintimate friends; anujivinahliving at the mercy of; yesamof whom; nanor; caand; anyatanyone else; bhavatahYour; pada-ambujatfrom the lotus feet; parayanamdependent; rajasuunto the kings; yojitaengaged in; amhasamenmity.
TRANSLATION
O my Lord, You have executed all duties Yourself. Are you leaving us today, though we are completely dependent on Your mercy and have no one else to protect us, now when all kings are at enmity with us?
PURPORT
The Pandavas are most fortunate because with all good luck they were entirely dependent on the mercy of the Lord. In the material world, to be dependent on the mercy of someone else is the utmost sign of misfortune, but in the case of our transcendental relation with the Lord, it is the most fortunate case when we can live completely dependent on Him. The material disease is due to thinking of becoming independent of everything. But the cruel material nature does not allow us to become independent. The false attempt to become independent of the stringent laws of nature is known as material advancement of experimental knowledge. The whole material world is moving on this false attempt of becoming independent of the laws of nature. Beginning from Ravana, who wanted to prepare a direct staircase to the planets of heaven, down to the present age, they are trying to overcome the laws of nature. They are trying now to approach distant planetary systems by electronic mechanical power. But the highest goal of human civilization is to work hard under the guidance of the Lord and become completely dependent on Him. The highest achievement of perfect civilization is to work with valor but at the same time depend completely on the Lord. The Pandavas were the ideal executors of this standard of civilization. Undoubtedly they were completely dependent on the good will of Lord Sri Krsna, but they were not idle parasites of the Lord. They were all highly qualified both by personal character and by physical activities. Still they always looked for the mercy of the Lord because they knew that every living being is dependent by constitutional position. The perfection of life is, therefore, to become dependent on the will of the Lord, instead of becoming falsely independent in the material world. Those who try to become falsely independent of the Lord are called anatha, or without any guardian, whereas those who are completely dependent on the will of the Lord are called sanatha, or those having someone to protect them. Therefore we must try to be sanatha so that we can always be protected from the unfavorable condition of material existence. By the deluding power of the external material nature we forget that the material condition of life is the most undesirable perplexity. The Bhagavad-gita therefore directs us (7.19) that after many, many births one fortunate person becomes aware of the fact that Vasudeva is all in all and that the best way of leading one's life is to surrender unto Him completely. That is the sign of a mahatma. All the members of the Pandava family were mahatmas in household life. Maharaja Yudhisthira was the head of these mahatmas, and Queen Kuntidevi was the mother. The lessons of the Bhagavad-gita and all the Puranas, specifically the Bhagavata Purana, are therefore inevitably connected with the history of the Pandava mahatmas. For them, separation from the Lord was just like the separation of a fish from water. Srimati Kuntidevi, therefore, felt such separation like a thunderbolt, and the whole prayer of the Queen is to try to persuade the Lord to stay with them. After the Battle of Kuruksetra, although the inimical kings were killed, their sons and grandsons were still there to deal with the Pandavas. It is not only the Pandavas who were put into the condition of enmity, but all of us are always in such a condition, and the best way of living is to become completely dependent on the will of the Lord and thereby overcome all difficulties of material existence.

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