Radha Krishna - Chapter 5: Durvâsâ Saved: the Cakra-prayers of Ambarîsha

Chapter 5: Durvâsâ Saved: the Cakra-prayers of Ambarîsha

(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'Durvâsâ ['the difficulty of residing'] who being harassed by the cakra thus was instructed by the Lord, approached Ambarîsha and clasped sorrowfully his lotus feet. (2) Seeing him thus engaged in touching his feet Ambarîsha felt ashamed and therefore offered, most embarrassed as he was in his mercy, prayers to the [disc] weapon of the Lord [see also 6.8: 23]. (3) Ambarîsha said: 'You are the fire, the supreme power of the sun and the moon. You are the master of all the luminaries, the waters, the earth, the sky, the air and the senses and their objects. (4) Oh direct presence and auspicious vision [or Sudars'ana], you with your thousands of spokes I offer my obeisances oh love of the Infallible One. You are the defeat of all weapons, please be favorable unto this brahmin oh ruler of the world. (5) You are the dharma, the original nature and the religion, you are the reality and the truth, you are the sacrifice and the enjoyer of the sacrifice who maintains the worlds. You are the soul of all and the prowess of the Transcendental Supreme Personality. (6) All my respects for you, the auspicious center of spin, the measure for the complete of nature who are like a fire of destruction to the unenlightened ones who lack in pious conduct. You, the keeper of the three worlds with a wonderful effulgence, are of a supreme goodness and act as fast as the mind I try to voice. (7) By your strength which carries all religiousness, the darkness is dissipated and all directions are illumined. Your glories are unsurpassable for the great personalities oh master of speech, your manifestation comprises all things manifest and unmanifest, superior and lower. (8) When you are sent to the fighters of the Daityas and Dânavas by the Transcendental Personality oh indefatigable one, you, staying on the battlefield, never tire to sever their arms and bellies, necks, thighs and legs. (9) You oh protector of the universe, are engaged by the all-powerful Wielder of the Mace [Lord Vishnu] to defeat the wicked ones. Please be so good and have mercy with this scholar and therewith also have mercy with us and our dynasty! (10) If there is charity, if the worship of the deity and the duties are properly performed and if our dynasty is blessed by the scholars, may this brahmin then be free from having to burn [with you]? (11) When the one Supreme Lord, the reservoir of all qualities is satisfied about us, may then from His love as the true self of all living beings, this twice-born soul be spared from the fire?'

(12) S'rî S'uka said: 'When the disc weapon of the Lord named Sudars'ana thus was being prayed to by the king, it because of his petitioning stopped to haress the scholar from all sides. (13) Durvâsâ, being freed from the heat of the fire of the weapon, most contented then praised the king, that ruler of the earth, with the best wishes. (14) Durvâsâ said: 'What a greatness I may witness today of the servants of the Eternal One. Despite of the wrong I perpetrated, you oh King, have prayed for my welfare! (15) What indeed would be too difficult or impossible to forsake, for those saintly, great souls, who managed to achieve the leader Hari, the Supreme Lord of the Devotees? (16) By simply hearing the holy name of Him whose lotus feet are the holy places [the temples etc.], a person becomes purified. What else would there remain for devotees to engage in? (17) Oh King, by what you did in response to my offenses you, by being so very kind, have favored me very much and thus saved my life!'

(18) The King had been fasting when Durvâsâ returned and, wishing to please him, approached his feet and fed him sumptuously. (19) After having eaten from the different foodstuffs that, catering to every taste, were offered with the greatest care, he thus fully being satisfied said to the king: 'Please join and eat with me' and thus proved his respect. (20) [He continued:] 'I'm very happy with your mercy. Seeing you, a pure devotee with his intelligence fixed upon the Lord and touching your feet, talking to you and enjoying your hospitality, I am much obliged. (21) The purity of the things you've done will for ever be sung by the women of heaven; the world will never tire to sing the glory of your supreme virtue!'

(22) S'rî S'uka continued: 'Durvâsâ thus glorifying the king took, being satisfied in all respects, permission to leave that place. Ascending to heaven he reached the abode of Brahmâ where ulterior motives have no place. (23) With the great muni not returning a whole year passed in which the king wishing to see him again, had restricted himself to drinking water only. (24) Upon Durvâsâ's return Ambarîsha offered him the best food that was available and would befit a brahmin. Upon seeing how the sage had been released from the sin, he understood that he also owed his strength to his devotion to the Supreme One [see also B.G. 6: 47]. (25) Thus being blessed with all good qualities the king was of devotion to the Supersoul, the Supreme Spirit and to Vâsudeva with the many duties he observed, actions from which [one realizes that] the higher you climb the deeper you fall [compare 6.17: 28].'

(26) S'rî S'uka said: 'Ambarîsha, as the wisest one, divided his kingdom among his equally qualified sons, entered the forest to fix his mind upon the True Self of Vâsudeva and thus vanquished the waves [the gunas] of the ocean of matter. (27) Either by praising and reading this pious story or by regularly meditating on it one becomes a devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (28) By the mercy of Lord Vishnu everyone who hears about the character of this great soul Ambarîsha will find liberation through his devotion.'