Devanagari
तदा विश्वेश्वर: क्रुद्धो भगवाल्लोकभावन: ।
हनिष्यत्यवतीर्यासौ यथाद्रीन् शतपर्वधृक् ॥ ४१ ॥
Verse text
tadā viśveśvaraḥ kruddho
bhagavāl loka-bhāvanaḥ
haniṣyaty avatīryāsau
yathādrīn śataparva-dhṛk
Synonyms
tadā
—
at that time
;
viśva
—
īśvaraḥ — the Lord of the universe
;
kruddhaḥ
—
in great anger
;
bhagavān
—
the Supreme Personality of Godhead
;
loka
—
bhāvanaḥ — desiring the welfare of the people in general
;
haniṣyati
—
will kill
;
avatīrya
—
descending Himself
;
asau
—
He
;
yathā
—
as if
;
adrīn
—
the mountains
;
śata
—
parva — dhṛk — the controller of the thunderbolt (Indra) .
Translation
At that time the Lord of the universe, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the well-wisher of all living entities, will descend and kill them, just as Indra smashes the mountains with his thunderbolts.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
When the sinless, powerless living entities are killed by these sons, when women are imprisoned by them, and when the great souls become angry, the Supreme Lord of the universe, promoting the world’s welfare, will appear in this world and kill him just as Indra strikes a mountain with his thunderbolt.
How long will they live? Please listen. The words of the verse 40 should all be put in the locative case. Śataparva-dhṛk means holder of the thunderbolt, Indra.
Purport
As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(4.8)
, the Lord descends as an incarnation to deliver the devotees and kill the miscreants. The Lord of the universe and of everything would appear to kill the sons of Diti because of their offending the devotees of the Lord. There are many agents of the Lord, such as Indra, Candra, Varuṇa, and Goddess Durgā, or Kālī, who can chastise any formidable miscreants in the world. The example of mountains being smashed by a thunderbolt is very appropriate. The mountain is considered the most strongly built body within the universe, yet it can be easily smashed by the arrangement of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Personality of Godhead does not need to descend in order to kill any strongly built body; He comes down just for the sake of His devotees. Everyone is subject to the miseries offered by material nature, but because the activities of miscreants, such as killing innocent people and animals or torturing women, are harmful to everyone and are therefore a source of pain for the devotees, the Lord comes down. He descends only to give relief to His ardent devotees. The killing of the miscreant by the Lord is also the mercy of the Lord towards the miscreant, although apparently the Lord takes the side of the devotee. Since the Lord is absolute, there is no difference between His activities of killing the miscreants and favoring the devotees.