Site menu
Chapter 18: Prithu Mahârâja Milks
the Earth
(1) Maitreya said: 'After mother earth thus had
offered King Prithu prayers, his lips were still
trembling
of anger. She in fear then managed to come to her senses and spoke
again: (2) 'Please pacify your anger o King, understand
that what I said, I've said as someone who as an intelligent person,
just like a bumblebee, gathers the essence from everywhere. (3) By the great sages who realized the truth methods were
found and applied for the common people to have a better life in this
world as
well as the next. (4) For
anyone
who
fully
follows the
principles that are traditionally taught to the inexperienced who live
by their faith, it is very easy to enjoy what was aimed at. (5) He who in neglect [of the traditions] not knowing the facts engages
on his own initiative, will in pursuing his goals see himself fail again and again. (6) O
King, all the herbs and seeds that in
the past were created by Lord Brahmâ and are cherished by me, we
see now in the hands of irresponsible people who have no respect for
the spiritual practice. (7) Not being taken care of and neglected by local rulers
like
your goodness, I have for this world that has fallen into thievery,
hidden all the herbs and seeds that are needed for the offerings. (8)
Because of being hidden
within me for such a long time those herbs and seeds
have deteriorated and thus your Majesty should take them out the way it
is prescribed. (9-10) O hero, arrange for a calf of mine,
from my affection for it I will, if you also arrange for a milking pot
and a milkman, fulfill all your desires for milk for each of you. I
will as well, o mighty-armed one, o protector of the living beings,
provide for the food you wanted for feeding yourself, if you so desire. (11)
You will also have to engage in leveling me, the earth, o King, so that
the waters that fell from the sky by the mercy of the godhead, outside
of the rainy season have not flown away o mighty one.'
(12) Thinking
of
the
pleasing
and
good
words
of
the
earth,
the
king wisely
set himself with a calf to the task and obtained thus milking, all
grains and
herbs. (13) Everywhere
else other men of intelligence
also took out the essence and
likewise cared [for a calf] to
milk from Prithu's planet earth whatever they wanted. (14) O good one, the sages milking the goddess
with their senses [as the milking pot], produced, by dint of
sage Brihaspati as the calf, milk in the pure form of Vedic hymns. (15) Producing from Indra, the king of heaven, as
the calf, the godly milked into a golden pot the nectar
of the milk of mental power and the strength of the body and the
senses. (16) The
sons of Diti,
the enemies of God, produced with Prahlâda as the calf, with
the
most important
[devotee] among the godless, the milk of fermented and
distilled beverages in an iron pot.
(17) The singers and denizens of heaven
produced with him who was named Vis'vâvasu as the calf, into a
vessel in the form of a lotus the milk of sweet music and beauty. (18) The
most fortunate demigods responsible for the funeral rites, with great
faith produced with Aryamâ from the realm of the
ancestors the milk of the offerings of food into an
unbaked earthen pot. (19) The
perfected ones and the scholars and such [Vidyâdharas] appointing Kapila as the calf and with the ether
[as the milking pot] produced the knowledge of
proceeding at will with yogic
mystic powers [siddhis]. (20) Others endowed with
magical and mystical powers [the Kimpurushas] produced with Maya [a
demon] as
the calf and with concentration [or dhârana as the
milking pot] the milk of the wondrous ability of
making the body invisible. (21)
The descendants of Kuvera,
the
demons, ghosts and witches [respectively the Yakshas, Râkshasas,
Bhûtas and Pis'âcas] who are all habituated to eating meat,
with Lord S'iva's incarnation Rudra [Bhûtanâtha]
as the calf, milked out a beverage made of blood in a pot of skulls. (22)
So also the snakes with and
without hoods, the scorpions and the constrictor snakes, produced with
Takshaka,
their chief, as the calf, the milk of poison in the pot of the
snake pit. (23-24) The four-legged creatures
produced with the bull
carrier
of Lord S'iva [Nandi] as the calf from the green grasses their milk in the pot of
the
wilderness. The other sharp toothed animals, the predators, with the
lion as their calf milked out the flesh of other beings and the birds with Garuda
as their calf produced in the pot of their own body the milk of the moving [insects and
worms] and nonmoving living beings [the plants and grasses]. (25) With
the banyan tree as their calf the different trees produced milk in the
form of their juices while the hills and mountains with the Himalayas
as the calf produced the various
minerals of their peaks. (26)
With
the leaders as the calves and with each his own
specific milking pot thus from the planet Earth ruled by
King Prithu the milk was produced of
everything that one
needed.
(27) O chief of the Kurus, milking the earth with the different calfs, pots and milkers, thus by Prithu and the others following his example, the milk was obtained of all the different forms of food needed to sustain the living entities. (28) King Prithu, being very pleased with all desirables produced as milk, full of affection thereafter treated the planet earth as if she was his own daughter. (29) The emperor, the mighty son of Vena, with the power of his bow had broken up all the hilltops of the entire earth and thus had leveled [cultivated] her almost completely. (30-31) And so the Supreme Lord present on this earth as the son of Vena was as a father to the citizens in employing them and preparing at different locations for numbers of suitable dwellings according to the need: villages, cities, settlements and forts of different kinds as also habitations for the milkmen, pens for livestock, camps, mines, agricultural towns and mountain hamlets. (32) Before Prithu there was on this earth certainly never this kind of planning of towns and villages; one used to live everywhere unrestricted as one liked.'
