Radha Krishna - Chapter 16: King Prithu Extolled

(1) Maitreya said: 'The professional reciters, content about hearing the king speak these nectarine words, praised him therefore according to the instructions of the sages: (2) 'We are at a loss to describe in full the glories of you who as the foremost godhead has descended out of your own mercy. Despite of the fact that you appeared from the body of Vena, your glories bewilder the minds of the foremost speakers. (3) Nevertheless we will, in accord with what the wise have told us to do, try to put the name of King Prithu, [of you who are] famed for being a partial incarnation of Lord Vishnu, in the sweetest words. Encouraged in our attention for the liberality and praiseworthiness of your activities, we shall do our best to sing your praises. (4) This king will as the best defender of the faith incite the entire world to follow dutifully. Apart from being the protector of the regulative principles of human nature he is also the chastiser of all who act against them. (5) He is the one and only who carries all the forms of all local deities within himself. Based upon that justice each and everyone high and low in due course of time will receive his proper share and prosper therefrom. (6) All the riches this king exacts will by him in due course of time be equally distributed over all living beings, just like the all-powerful sun god distributes his rays. (7) He as the king will take up the duty of mother earth to be always kind to the aggrieved and tolerant towards the people who trample her face. (8) As easy as Indra answers with rain when there is a shortage of water and the living entities have to suffer, that divine man of God, this embodiment of the Lord, will protect the citizens. (9) The whole world will thrive on the glances and bright smiles of his beautiful and affectionate moonlike face.

(10) The policies of this king are unseen, his actions are confidential and secret, his accomplishments are hidden and there is no limit to his treasury. His soul, as the only reservoir of all good qualities, will be covered just as it is with [the position of] Varuna, the king of the seas. (11) Born from Vena like fire from firewood, he is difficult to approach and unbearable [for his enemies]. When one approaches him he stays at a distance. No one can defeat him. (12) He as the neutral witness oversees the activities inside as well as outside of all living beings, just [as inseparable] as the life breath is of all the embodied beings. (13) Walking the path of righteousness, he will not think of punishing the son of his enemy when he is not to be punished, nevertheless he will punish his own son if he deserves it. (14) Like the sun god shining his light everywhere, the circle of the influence of Prithu will unimpeded remain the most powerful up to Mânasa mountain [the arctic region]. (15) The entire world will be pleased by his personal activities and will therefore call him 'the King Happy to the Mind of the Citizens'. (16) Firm in his determination and always truthful, he in favor of the brahminical and of service to the elderly, is the one of respect and the caring parent for the afflicted with whom all living beings seek their shelter. (17) He is as respectful towards other women as he is towards his mother, unto his own wife he is like the other half of his body, unto the citizens he is like an affectionate father and he is a servant unto those who preach the word of God. (18) All who are embodied are as dear to him as himself, he increases the pleasure of his friends and he intimately associates with those who are free from attachment. This king is the hand chastising the wicked. (19) He who is unmistakably the unchanging Supreme Lord over the three worlds, descended as a partial [s'aktyâves'a] expansion of the Supersoul. He regards [the false security of confiding in] the variegatedness of matter as meaningless, for such a notion is born from nescience. (20) From the earliest light of day over the hills on, he as the king of the world, uniquely heroic will protect the globe as the master of all gods of men. From his victorious chariot upholding the bow, he will be all around from the south [to the north] like the sun passing [every year from south to north in the celestial sky]. (21) For certain all kings of all places will present themselves before him. With the locally worshiped deities the wives of these kings will consider him the Original King who wields the weapon of his disc in defense of his [His] reputation. (22) He will milk the earth whom one knows in the form of a cow, as an extraordinary king and progenitor [the Prajâpati] he will provide facilities for the populace and for a pastime he will simply by the pointed ends of his bow level the mountains by breaking them apart in preparing the earth [for agriculture], just like Indra, the king of heaven did [hitting the mountains with his thunderbolt]. (23) When he vibrating his bow of horn like a lion keeping his tail high personally travels the earth, he invincible in battle will drive all warmongers everywhere into retreat. (24) The moment this king will have performed a hundred as'vamedha [horse] sacrifices at the source of the Sarasvatî river, his horse during the last of the hundred sacrifices there will be stolen away by Lord Indra. (25) He will meet the worshipable Sanat-kumâra alone in the garden of his palace and will, with his devotion being of worship, achieve the uncontaminated, transcendental knowledge by which the Spirit of the Absolute Truth is enjoyed. (26) He will hear about the reputation far and wide of his chivalry as Prithu, the king of supreme power, being put in so many words in the form of songs and narrations. (27) Conquering [his opponents] everywhere with no one checking him he will, by the grace of his own prowess, uproot the miseries of the citizens. He will be glorified as the greatest soul by the leaders of the godly and the godless and become the lord of the world.'