Devanagari
स्वप्नायितं नृपसुखं परतन्त्रमीश
शश्वद्भयेन मृतकेन धुरं वहाम: ।
हित्वा तदात्मनि सुखं त्वदनीहलभ्यं
क्लिश्यामहेऽतिकृपणास्तव माययेह ॥ २८ ॥
Verse text
svapnāyitaṁ nṛpa-sukhaṁ para-tantram īśa
śaśvad-bhayena mṛtakena dhuraṁ vahāmaḥ
hitvā tad ātmani sukhaṁ tvad-anīha-labhyaṁ
kliśyāmahe ’ti-kṛpaṇās tava māyayeha
Synonyms
svapnāyitam
—
like a dream
;
nṛpa
—
of kings
;
sukham
—
the happiness
;
para
—
tantram — conditional
;
īśa
—
O Lord
;
śaśvat
—
perpetually
;
bhayena
—
full of fear
;
mṛtakena
—
with this corpse
;
dhuram
—
burden
;
vahāmaḥ
—
we carry
;
hitvā
—
rejecting
;
tat
—
that
;
ātmani
—
within the self
;
sukham
—
happiness
;
tvat
—
done for You
;
anīha
—
by selfless works
;
labhyam
—
to be obtained
;
kliśyāmahe
—
we suffer
;
ati
—
extremely
;
kṛpaṇāḥ
—
wretched
;
tava
—
Your
;
māyayā
—
with the illusory energy
;
iha
—
in this world .
Translation
O Lord, with this corpselike body, always full of fear, we bear the burden of the relative happiness of kings, which is just like a dream. Thus we have rejected the real happiness of the soul, which comes by rendering selfless service to You. Being so very wretched, we simply suffer in this life under the spell of Your illusory energy.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O Lord, with this corpselike body, always full of fear, we bear the burden of the relative happiness of kings, which is just like a dream. Thus we have rejected the real happiness of the soul, which comes by rendering selfless service to You. Being so very wretched, we simply suffer in this life under the spell of Your illusory energy.
KB 10.70.28-29
“ ‘… but we have heard from revealed scriptures that anyone who surrenders unto Your lotus feet is immediately immune to the reactions of sinful life. We therefore offer ourselves wholeheartedly unto Your shelter, and we hope that Your Lordship will now give us full protection. We have now come to the real conclusion of our lives. Our kingly positions were nothing but the reward of our past pious activities, just as our suffering imprisonment by Jarāsandha is the result of our past impious activities. We realize now that the reactions of both pious and impious activities are temporary and that we can never be happy in this conditioned life. The material body is awarded to us by the modes of material nature, and on account of this we are full of anxieties. The material condition of life simply involves bearing the burden of this dead body. As a result of fruitive activities, we have thus been subjected to being beasts of burden for these bodies, and, being forced by conditioned life, we have given up the pleasing life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Now we realize that we are the most foolish persons. We have been entangled in the network of material reactions due to our ignorance. We have therefore come to the shelter of Your lotus feet, which can immediately eradicate all the results of fruitive action and thus free us from the contamination of material pains and pleasures.
“ ‘Dear Lord, because we are now surrendered souls at Your lotus feet, You can give us relief from the entrapment of fruitive action made possible by Jarāsandha. Dear Lord, it is known to You that Jarāsandha possesses the power of ten thousand elephants, and with this power he has imprisoned us, just as a lion hypnotizes a flock of sheep.
Purport
After expressing their doubts in the previous verse, the kings herein admit that actually they are suffering because of their own foolishness, having given up the eternal happiness of the soul in exchange for the temporary, conditional happiness of a so-called kingly position. Most people make a similar mistake, desiring wealth, power, prestige, aristocratic family and so on, in exchange for their own soul. The kings admit that they have fallen under the spell of the Lord’s illusory energy and have mistaken the tremendous anxiety of political leadership for happiness.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
"Then are you my devotees or my enemies?"
"We are not either. We are jivas engulfed in the material world who have surrendered to you." That is the import of this verse.
Our happiness, thinking ourselves kings, dependent on ministers, friends and troops, is temporary like a dream. Actually, we are carrying a great burden from intense endeavors at alliance and war, with our corpse like bodies filled with constant fear. It is unfortunate that we did not previously become desireless and take shelter of you. We gave up that happiness which is famous because of the praises of the saintly persons, not condemned by them like our kingly happiness, which is yourself, not dependent on others, coming from you alone, not from gross material objects, obtained by your selfless devotees (aniha labhya), not by those full of lust. Therefore we suffer.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Even today we have not completely given up māyā. Having lost our intelligence (ati-kṛpaṇāḥ) by your māyā, we suffer, because we carry the burden of this body which is like an unconscious corpse. Not only do we suffer by carrying this corpse, but we suffer by constant fear of sickness and time, which are like ghosts and spirits haunting us. “Why do you carry this burden?” It gives happiness of a king. We do not reject that burden even now because we want to attain the position of a king. This is to be condemned. And this happiness is not real since it is like a dream, not substantial. And it is filled with misery. Having a kingdom is dependent on many factors. That would be alright if there was no other great happiness that could be attained. We have given up the highest happiness which is testified in all the scriptures. This happiness is not dependent on other things since it manifests on its own within the ātmā. It can be attained from you by your devotees.
Purport (Sanatana Goswami)
Our happiness is like a dream, temporary and illusory. It is without happiness. The body by which we try to enjoy ends up giving suffering with constant sickness. We carry our burden with constant fear, from sickness etc. (śaśvat bhayena), ascertaining death, detestable like death. In either case there is suffering in living. O Lord! We belong to you.
Giving up the happiness which is attained by your mercy, the happiness of realizing you in truth, or meditating on you, we suffer in saṁsāra (iha). We experience plenty of suffering because we have become most foolish (ati-kṛpaṇāḥ) by your insurmountable māyā.
Or we carry the burden of happiness of enjoying as kings. We have given up the indescribable happiness in the heart or our svarūpa, derived from your lotus feet and suffer in this world, which is ornamented by your appearance. Or not only from Jarāsandha, but by your māyā we always suffering. Or do we make Jarāsandha suffer through our suffering? We always suffer because of our faults.