Devanagari
यद्यसंहृत्य दृप्तानां यदूनां विपुलं कुलम् ।
गन्तास्म्यनेन लोकोऽयमुद्वेलेन विनङ्क्ष्यति ॥ ३० ॥
Verse text
yady asaṁhṛtya dṛptānāṁ
yadūnāṁ vipulaṁ kulam
gantāsmy anena loko ’yam
udvelena vinaṅkṣyati
Synonyms
yadi
—
if
;
asaṁhṛtya
—
without withdrawing
;
dṛptānām
—
of the overly proud
;
yadūnām
—
Yadus
;
vipulam
—
the vast
;
kulam
—
dynasty
;
gantā asmi
—
I go
;
anena
—
for that reason
;
lokaḥ
—
the world
;
ayam
—
this
;
udvelena
—
by the overflow (of the Yadus)
;
vinaṅkṣyati
—
will be destroyed .
Translation
If I were to leave this world without withdrawing the overly proud members of the Yadu dynasty, the whole world would be destroyed by the deluge of their unlimited expansion.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
If I were to leave this world without withdrawing the overly proud members of the Yadu dynasty, the whole world would be destroyed by the deluge of their unlimited expansion.
The Yadus have strong pride as my servants (dṛptānām). They are compared to the ocean which overruns the shore (udvelena). Though the earth planet does not consider my associates the Yadus, who follow dharma, to be a burden on the earth, I, the master of the earth, should remove this weight from the earth, just as the husband removes the ornaments of his wife who is heavy with ornaments. Though a person can easily bear the weight of something strongly desired, he cannot easily bear the weight if it is too heavy. If a greedy merchant suddenly obtains a pile of gold, he will find it difficult to bear the weight. Earth could not even bear the weight of Kṛṣṇa:
sva-nigamam apahāya mat-pratijṣām
ṛtam adhikartum avapluto rathasthaḥ |
dhṛta-ratha-caraṇo ’bhyayāc caladgur
harir iva hantum ibhaṁ gatottarīyaḥ ||
Giving up his own promise not to fight, and making my vow to make him fight come true, Kṛṣṇa, situated on the chariot, quickly got down and holding the wheel of a chariot, ran towards me, like a lion coming to kill an elephant, while the earth shook and his top cloth fell to the ground. SB 1.9.36
Purport
Just as a tidal wave overwhelms the boundary of the shore and wreaks havoc on innocent people, similarly, there was imminent danger that the powerful Yadu dynasty might expand beyond all boundaries of social and political control. The members of the Yadu dynasty had become proud because of their apparent familial relationship with the Personality of Godhead. Although they were very religious and devoted to brahminical culture, they had become, as indicated by the word
dṛptānām,
affected by pride due to their relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Furthermore, due to their intense love for Kṛṣṇa, they would certainly feel such intense separation after the Lord’s departure to the spiritual world that they would become maddened and thus become an unbearable burden on the earth. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has pointed out, however, that the earth herself, due to attachment for Kṛṣṇa, would never consider Kṛṣṇa’s own family members to be anything but a welcome burden. Still, Kṛṣṇa wanted to remove this burden. The example is given that for the pleasure of her husband a beautiful young wife may decorate herself with many golden ornaments. These ornaments constitute a painful burden for the delicate wife, but although she is willing to bear this burden, the loving husband removes the ornaments for the pleasure of his wife. So the Lord, desiring to apply the wisdom of “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” took precautions to remove from the earth the burden of the Yadu dynasty.