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sah—he; raja—the King; mahisim—the Queen; rajan—O King; su-snatam—nicely bathed; rucira-ananam—attractive face; krta-svasti-ayanam—dressed with auspicious garments and ornaments; trptam—satisfied; abhyanandat—he welcomed; upagatam—approached.

The Queen took her bath and dressed herself nicely with all auspicious garments and ornaments. After taking food and becoming completely satisfied, she returned to the King. Upon seeing her beautifully decorated attractive face, the King welcomed her with all devotion.

A woman is generally accustomed to dress herself nicely with fine garments and decorative ornaments. She may even sometimes wear flowers in her hair. Women especially dress themselves up in the evening because the husband comes home in the evening after working hard all day. It is the duty of the wife to dress herself up very nicely so that when her husband returns home he becomes attracted by her dress and cleanliness and thus becomes satisfied. In other words, the wife is the inspiration of all good intelligence. Upon seeing one’s wife dressed nicely, one can think very soberly about family business. When a person is too anxious about family affairs, he cannot discharge his family duties nicely. A wife is therefore supposed to be an inspiration and should keep the husband’s intelligence in good order so that they can combinedly prosecute the affairs of family life without impediment.

SB4.27.3

TEXT 3

tayopagudhah parirabdha-kandharo

raho ’numantrair apakrsta-cetanah

na kala-ramho bubudhe duratyayam

diva niseti pramada-parigrahah

taya—by the Queen; upagudhah—was embraced; parirabdha—embraced; kandharah—shoulders; rahah—in a solitary place; anumantraih—by joking words; apakrsta-cetanah—having degraded consciousness; na—not; kala-ramhah—the passing of time; bubudhe—was aware of; duratyayam—impossible to overcome; diva—day; nisa—night; iti—thus; pramada—by the woman; parigrahah—captivated.

Queen Puranjani embraced the King, and the King also responded by embracing her shoulders. In this way, in a solitary place, they enjoyed joking words. Thus King Puranjana became very much captivated by his beautiful wife and deviated from his good sense. He forgot that the passing of days and nights meant that his span of life was being reduced without profit.

The word pramada in this verse is very significant. A beautiful wife is certainly enlivening to her husband, but at the same time is the cause of degradation. The word pramada means “enlivening” as well as “maddening.” Generally a householder does not take the passing of days and nights very seriously. A person in ignorance takes it as the usual course that days come, and after the days, the nights come. This is the law of material nature. But a man in ignorance does not know that when the sun rises early in the morning it begins to take away the balance of his life. Thus day after day the span of one’s life is reduced, and forgetting the duty of human life, the foolish man simply remains in the company of his wife and enjoys her in a secluded place. Such a condition is called apakrsta-cetana, or degraded consciousness. Human consciousness should be used for elevation to Krsna consciousness. But when a person is too much attracted to his wife and family affairs, he does not take Krsna consciousness very seriously. He thus becomes degraded, not knowing that he cannot buy back even a second of his life in return for millions of dollars. The greatest loss in life is passing time without understanding Krsna. Every moment of our lives should be utilized properly, and the proper use of life is to increase devotional service to the Lord. Without devotional service to the Lord, the activities of life become simply a waste of time. Srama eva hi kevalam. Simply by becoming “dutiful” we do not make any profit in life. As confirmed in Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.2.8):

dharmah svanusthitah pumsam
visvaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratim
srama eva hi kevalam

If, after performing one’s occupational duty very perfectly, one does not make progress in Krsna consciousness, it should be understood that he has simply wasted his time in valueless labor.

SB4.27.4

TEXT 4

sayana unnaddha-mado maha-mana

maharha-talpe mahisi-bhujopadhih

tam eva viro manute param yatas

tamo-’bhibhuto na nijam param ca yat

sayanah—lying down; unnaddha-madah—increasingly illusioned; maha-manah—advanced in consciousness; maha-arha-talpe—on a valuable bedstead; mahisi—of the Queen; bhuja—arms; upadhih—pillow; tam—her; eva—certainly; virah—the hero; manute—he considered; param—the goal of life; yatah—from which; tamah—by ignorance; abhibhutah—overwhelmed; na—not; nijam—his actual self; param—the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ca—and; yat—what.

In this way, increasingly overwhelmed by illusion, King Puranjana, although advanced in consciousness, remained always lying down with his head on the pillow of his wife’s arms. In this way he considered woman to be his ultimate life and soul. Becoming thus overwhelmed by the mode of ignorance, he could not understand the meaning of self-realization, of his self or of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Human life is meant for self-realization. First of all one has to realize his own self, which is described in this verse as nijam. Then he has to understand or realize the Supersoul, or Paramatma, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. However, when one becomes too much materially attached, he takes a woman to be everything. This is the basic principle of material attachment. In such a condition, one cannot realize his own self or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In Srimad-Bhagavatam (5.5.2) it is therefore said: mahat-sevam dvaram ahur vimuktes tamo-dvaram yositam sangi-sangam. If one associates with mahatmas, or devotees, his path of liberation is opened. But if one becomes too much attached to women or to persons who are also attached to women—that is, attached to women directly or indirectly—he opens the tamo-dvaram, the door to the darkest region of hellish life.

King Puranjana was a great soul, highly intellectual and possessed of advanced consciousness, but due to his being too much addicted to women, his whole consciousness was covered. In the modern age the consciousness of people is too much covered by wine, women and flesh. Consequently, people are completely unable to make any progress in self-realization. The first step of self-realization is to know oneself as spirit soul apart from the body. In the second stage of self-realization, one comes to know that every soul, every individual living entity, is part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, Paramatma, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (15.7):

mamaivamso jiva-loke
jiva-bhutah sanatanah
manah-sasthanindriyani
prakrti-sthani karsati

“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.”

All living entities are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Unfortunately, in this present civilization both men and women are allowed to be attracted to one another from the very beginning of life, and because of this they are completely unable to come to the platform of self-realization. They do not know that without self-realization they suffer the greatest loss in the human form of life. Thinking of a woman always within one’s heart is tantamount to lying down with a woman on a valuable bedstead. The heart is the bedstead, and it is the most valuable bedstead. When a man thinks of women and money, he lies down and rests on the arms of his beloved woman or wife. In this way he overindulges in sex life and thus becomes unfit for self-realization.

ksanardham iva rajendra

vyatikrantam navam vayah

taya—with her; evam—in this way; ramamanasya—enjoying; kama—full of lust; kasmala—sinful; cetasah—his heart; ksana-ardham—in half a moment; iva—like; raja-indra—O King; vyatikrantam—expired; navam—new; vayah—life.

My dear King Pracinabarhisat, in this way King Puranjana, with his heart full of lust and sinful reactions, began to enjoy sex with his wife, and in this way his new life and youth expired in half a moment.

Srila Govinda dasa Thakura has sung:

ei-dhana, yauvana, putra, parijana,
ithe ki ache paratiti re
kamala-dala-jala, jivana talamala,
bhaja hum hari-pada niti re

In this verse Srila Govinda dasa actually says that there is no bliss in the enjoyment of youthful life. In youth a person becomes very lusty to enjoy all kinds of sense objects. The sense objects are form, taste, smell, touch and sound. The modern scientific method, or advancement of scientific civilization, encourages the enjoyment of these five senses. The younger generation is very pleased to see a beautiful form, to hear radio messages of material news and sense gratificatory songs, to smell nice scents, nice flowers, and to touch the soft body or breasts of a young woman and gradually touch the sex organs. All of this is also very pleasing to the animals; therefore in human society there are restrictions in the enjoyment of the five sense objects. If one does not follow, he becomes exactly like an animal.

Thus in this verse it is specifically stated, kama-kasmala-cetasah: the consciousness of King Puranjana was polluted by lusty desires and sinful activities. In the previous verse it is stated that Puranjana, although advanced in consciousness, lay down on a very soft bed with his wife. This indicates that he indulged too much in sex. The words navam vayah are also significant in this verse. They indicate the period of youth from age sixteen to thirty. These thirteen or fifteen years of life are years in which one can very strongly enjoy the senses. When one comes to this age he thinks that life will go on and that he will simply continue enjoying his senses, but, “Time and tide wait for no man.” The span of youth expires very quickly. One who wastes his life simply by committing sinful activities in youth immediately becomes disappointed and disillusioned when the brief period of youth is over. The material enjoyments of youth are especially pleasing to a person who has no spiritual training. If one is trained only according to the bodily conception of life, he simply leads a disappointed life because bodily sense enjoyment finishes within forty years or so. After forty years, one simply leads a disillusioned life because he has no spiritual knowledge. For such a person, the expiration of youth occurs in half a moment. Thus King Puranjana’s pleasure, which he took in lying down with his wife, expired very quickly.

Kama-kasmala-cetasah also indicates that unrestricted sense enjoyment is not allowed in the human form of life by the laws of nature. If one enjoys his senses unrestrictedly, he leads a sinful life. The animals do not violate the laws of nature. For example, the sex impulse in animals is very strong during certain months of the year. The lion is very powerful. He is a flesh-eater and is very strong, but he enjoys sex only once in a year. Similarly, according to religious injunctions a man is restricted to enjoy sex only once in a month, after the menstrual period of the wife, and if the wife is pregnant, he is not allowed sex life at all. That is the law for human beings. A man is allowed to keep more than one wife because he cannot enjoy sex when the wife is pregnant. If he wants to enjoy sex at such a time, he may go to another wife who is not pregnant. These are laws mentioned in the Manu-samhita and other scriptures.

These laws and scriptures are meant for human beings. As such, if one violates these laws, he becomes sinful. The conclusion is that unrestricted sense enjoyment means sinful activities. Illicit sex is sex that violates the laws given in the scriptures. When one violates the laws of the scriptures, or the Vedas, he commits sinful activities. One who is engaged in sinful activities cannot change his consciousness. Our real function is to change our consciousness from kasmala, sinful consciousness, to Krsna, the supreme pure. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan [Bg. 10.12]), Krsna is the supreme pure, and if we change our consciousness from material enjoyment to Krsna, we become purified. This is the process recommended by Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu as the process of ceto-darpana-marjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12], cleansing the mirror of the heart.

SB4.27.6

TEXT 6

tasyam ajanayat putran

puranjanyam puranjanah

satany ekadasa virad

ayuso ’rdham athatyagat

tasyam—within her; ajanayat—he begot; putran—sons; puranjanyam—in Puranjani; puranjanah—King Puranjana; satani—hundreds; ekadasa—eleven; virat—O King; ayusah—of life; ardham—half; atha—in this way; atyagat—he passed.

The great sage Narada then addressed King Pracinabarhisat: O one whose life-span is great [virat], in this way King Puranjana begot 1,100 sons within the womb of his wife, Puranjani. However, in this business he passed away half of his life-span.

In this verse there are several significant words, the first of which are ekadasa satani. Puranjana had begotten 1,100 sons within the womb of his wife, and thus passed away half of his life. Actually every man follows a similar process. If one lives for one hundred years at the utmost, in his family life he simply begets children up to the age of fifty. Unfortunately at the present moment people do not live even a hundred years; nonetheless they beget children up to the age of sixty. Another point is that formerly people used to beget one hundred to two hundred sons and daughters. As will be evident from the next verse, King Puranjana not only begot 1,100 sons but also 110 daughters. At the present moment no one can produce such huge quantities of children. Instead, mankind is very busy checking the increase of population by contraceptive methods.

We do not find in Vedic literatures that they ever used contraceptive methods, although they were begetting hundreds of children. Checking population by contraceptive method is another sinful activity, but in this age of Kali people have become so sinful that they do not care for the resultant reactions of their sinful lives. King Puranjana lay down with his wife, Puranjani, and begot a large number of children, and there is no mention in these verses that he used contraceptive methods. According to the Vedic scriptures the contraceptive method should be restraint in sex life. It is not that one should indulge in unrestricted sex life and avoid children by using some method to check pregnancy. If a man is in good consciousness, he consults with his religious wife, and as a result of this consultation, with intelligence, one advances in his ability to estimate the value of life. In other words, if one is fortunate enough to have a good, conscientious wife, he can decide by mutual consultation that human life is meant for advancing in Krsna consciousness and not for begetting a large number of children. Children are called parinama, or by-products, and when one consults his good intelligence he can see that his by-products should be the expansion of his Krsna consciousness.

SB4.27.7

TEXT 7

duhitrr dasottara-satam

pitr-matr-yasaskarih

silaudarya-gunopetah

pauranjanyah praja-pate

duhitrh—daughters; dasa-uttara—ten more than; satam—one hundred; pitr—like the father; matr—and mother; yasaskarih—glorified; sila—good behavior; audarya—magnanimity; guna—good qualities; upetah—possessed of; pauranjanyah—daughters of Puranjana; praja-pate—O Prajapati.

O Prajapati, King Pracinabarhisat, in this way King Puranjana also begot 110 daughters. All of these were equally glorified like the father and mother. Their behavior was gentle, and they possessed magnanimity and other good qualities.

Children begotten under the rules and regulations of the scriptures generally become as good as the father and mother, but children born illegitimately mainly become varna-sankara. The varna-sankara population is irresponsible to the family, community and even to themselves. Formerly the varna-sankara population was checked by the observation of the reformatory method called garbhadhana-samskara, a child-begetting religious ceremony. In this verse we find that although King Puranjana had begotten so many children, they were not varna-sankara. All of them were good, well-behaved children, and they had good qualities like their father and mother.

Even though we may produce many good children, our desire for sex that is beyond the prescribed method is to be considered sinful. Too much enjoyment of any of the senses (not only sex) results in sinful activities. Therefore one has to become a svami or gosvami at the end of his life. One may beget children up to the age of fifty, but after fifty, one must stop begetting children and should accept the vanaprastha order. In this way he must leave home and then become a sannyasi. A sannyasi’s title is svami or gosvami, which means that he completely refrains from sense enjoyment. One should not accept the sannyasa order whimsically; he must be fully confident that he can restrain his desires for sense gratification. King Puranjana’s family life was, of course, very happy. As mentioned in these verses, he begot 1,100 sons and 110 daughters. Everyone desires to have more sons than daughters, and since the number of daughters was less than the number of sons, it appears that King Puranjana’s family life was very comfortable and pleasing.

SB4.27.8

TEXT 8

sa pancala-patih putran

pitr-vamsa-vivardhanan

daraih samyojayam asa

duhitrh sadrsair varaih

sah—he; pancala-patih—the King of Pancala; putran—sons; pitr-vamsa—paternal family; vivardhanan—increasing; daraih—with wives; samyojayam asa—married; duhitrh—daughters; sadrsaih—qualified; varaih—with husbands.

After this, King Puranjana, King of the Pancala country, in order to increase the descendants of his paternal family, married his sons with qualified wives and married his daughters with qualified husbands.

According to the Vedic system, everyone should marry. One has to accept a wife because a wife will produce children, and the children in their turn will offer foodstuffs and funeral ceremonies so that the forefathers, wherever they may live, will be made happy. The offering of oblations in the name of Lord Visnu is called pindodaka, and it is necessary that the descendants of a family offer pinda to the forefathers.

Not only was Puranjana, the King of Pancala, satisfied in his own sex life, but he arranged for the sex life of his 1,100 sons and 110 daughters. In this way one can elevate an aristocratic family to the platform of a dynasty. It is significant in this verse that Puranjana got both sons and daughters married. It is the duty of a father and mother to arrange for the marriage of their sons and daughters. That is the obligation in Vedic society. Sons and daughters should not be allowed freedom to intermingle with the opposite sex unless they are married. This Vedic social organization is very good in that it stops the promulgation of illicit sex life, or varna-sankara, which appears under different names in this present day. Unfortunately in this age although the father and mother are anxious to get their children married, the children refuse to get married by the arrangement of the parents. Consequently, the number of varna-sankara has increased throughout the world under different names.

SB4.27.9

TEXT 9

putranam cabhavan putra

ekaikasya satam satam

yair vai pauranjano vamsah

pancalesu samedhitah

putranam—of the sons; ca—also; abhavan—were produced; putrah—sons; eka-ekasya—of each one; satam—hundred; satam—hundred; yaih—by whom; vai—certainly; pauranjanah—of King Puranjana; vamsah—family; pancalesu—in the land of Pancala; samedhitah—greatly increased.

Of these many sons, each produced hundreds and hundreds of grandsons. In this way the whole city of Pancala became overcrowded by these sons and grandsons of King Puranjana.