Verse Text
58. atha ūrjādaro, yathā pādme—
yathā dāmodaro bhakta-vatsalo vidito janaiḥ |
tasyāyaṁ tādṛśo māsaḥ svalpam apy uru-kārakaḥ ||221||
Translation
Observing Ūrja-vrata (verse 90), from the Padma Purāṇa: Just as men know that Dāmodara is affectionate to His devotee, the Dāmodara month is also affectionate to the devotee. Even a little service performed during that month yields great results.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Just as Dāmodara is known to be affectionate to the devotees, similarly the month of Dāmodara is affectionate, and yields great results for a little service. Taking the excuse of the little service as some sort of huge debt, the month generously wipes out the debt with great rewards. In the phrase svalpam apy uru-kārakaḥ, the use of accusative case instead of genitive case is poetic license. Where there is a little service, it can produce huge results. The word kārakaḥ can be taken as kāram. With verbs expressing possibility, kāram can have the meaning of an infinitive form (there is a possibility to produce). Thus, the phrase uru-kārakaḥ can mean “is able to produce great benefits.” [Note: Pāṇini 3.4.12] The month of Dāmodara called Kārtika month, being very affectionate to the devotees, is able to produce great benefits even by only a little service.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
The month is affectionate just as Dāmodara is affectionate. Thus, a little service to Dāmodara becomes multiplied if performed during that month. Uru-kāraka means a person (in this case the month) who accepts something very small and makes it big, like a person who feels extremely indebted and performs great actions for another person. Similarly, His month, called Kārtika month, gives great benefit. It takes what is meager and makes it significant. Svalpam uru-kārakaḥ means “The month of Dāmodara is a future giver of huge results for a little service.” The formation of svalpam uru-kārakaḥ (instead of svalpasya in genitive case with uru-kārakaḥ) is according to the rule akenor bhaviṣyad-ādhamarṇyayoḥ: genitive case is forbidden for words related to verbal nouns ending in aka (kārakaḥ) or in which denote futurity or indebtedness. (Pāṇini 2.3.70)
Purport (Nectar of Devotion)
Performing Devotional Service in Kārttika
One of the most important of these ceremonial functions is called Ūrja-vrata. Ūrja-vrata is observed in the month of Kārttika (October-November); especially in Vṛndāvana, there is a specific program for temple worship of the Lord in His Dāmodara form. “Dāmodara” refers to Kṛṣṇa’s being bound with rope by His mother, Yaśodā. It is said that just as Lord Dāmodara is very dear to His devotees, so the month known as Dāmodara or Kārttika is also very dear to them.