SB 4.23.25

SB 4.23.25

Devanagari

देव्य ऊचु: अहो इयं वधूर्धन्या या चैवं भूभुजां पतिम् । सर्वात्मना पतिं भेजे यज्ञेशं श्रीर्वधूरिव ॥ २५ ॥

Verse text

devya ūcuḥ aho iyaṁ vadhūr dhanyā yā caivaṁ bhū-bhujāṁ patim sarvātmanā patiṁ bheje yajṣeśaṁ śrīr vadhūr iva

Synonyms

devyaḥ ūcuḥ the wives of the demigods said ; aho alas ; iyam this ; vadhūḥ the wife ; dhanyā most glorious ; who ; ca also ; evam as ; bhū of the world ; bhujām of all the kings ; patim the king ; sarva ātmanā — with full understanding ; patim unto the husband ; bheje worshiped ; yajṣa īśam — unto Lord Viṣṇu ; śrīḥ the goddess of fortune ; vadhūḥ wife ; iva like .

Translation

The wives of the demigods said: All glories to Queen Arci! We can see that this queen of the great King Pṛthu, the emperor of all the kings of the world, has served her husband with mind, speech and body exactly as the goddess of fortune serves the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Yajṣeśa, or Viṣṇu.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The wives of the devatās said: Oh, she is most fortunate! She worshipped her husband, King of kings, with her whole soul, just as Lakṣmī worships Viṣṇu.

Purport

In this verse the words yajṣeśaṁ śrīr vadhūr iva indicate that Queen Arci served her husband just as the goddess of fortune serves the Supreme Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu. We can observe that even in the history of this world, when Lord Kṛṣṇa, the supreme Viṣṇu, was ruling over Dvārakā, Queen Rukmiṇī, who was the chief of all Kṛṣṇa’s queens, used to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa personally in spite of having many hundreds of maidservants to assist her. Similarly, the goddess of fortune in the Vaikuṇṭha planets also serves Nārāyaṇa personally, although there are many thousands of devotees prepared to serve the Lord. This practice is also followed by the wives of the demigods, and in days past the wives of men also followed this same principle. In Vedic civilization the husband and wife were not separated by such man-made laws as divorce. We should understand the necessity for maintaining family life in human society and should thus abolish this artificial law known as divorce. The husband and wife should live in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and follow in the footsteps of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa-Rukmiṇī. In this way peace and harmony can be possible within this world.