Devanagari
हित्वा गृहान् सुतान् भोगान् वैदर्भी मदिरेक्षणा ।
अन्वधावत पाण्ड्येशं ज्योत्स्नेव रजनीकरम् ॥ ३४ ॥
Verse text
hitvā gṛhān sutān bhogān
vaidarbhī madirekṣaṇā
anvadhāvata pāṇḍyeśaṁ
jyotsneva rajanī-karam
Synonyms
hitvā
—
giving up
;
gṛhān
—
home
;
sutān
—
children
;
bhogān
—
material happiness
;
vaidarbhī
—
the daughter of King Vidarbha
;
madira
—
īkṣaṇā — with enchanting eyes
;
anvadhāvata
—
followed
;
pāṇḍya
—
īśam — King Malayadhvaja
;
jyotsnā iva
—
like the moonshine
;
rajanī
—
karam — the moon .
Translation
Just as the moonshine follows the moon at night, immediately after King Malayadhvaja departed for Kulācala, his devoted wife, whose eyes were very enchanting, followed him, giving up all homely happiness, despite family and children.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Giving up he house, sons and enjoyments, the daughter of King Vidarbha with attractive eyes followed her husband, just as moon light follows the moon.
Just as the wife serves the husband by rejecting enjoyment, the disciple engages in service to guru by hearing and chanting, giving no regard even to solitary places (grhān) which could give rise to the bliss of prema (bhogān), in order to attain with ease the perfection of all goals by serving guru. This is the teaching in this verse. Mad means exciting. Irā means message or the Vedas. Her glance was always in the Veda, which gave joy, since the Vedas say that service to guru is the highest. Jīva Gosvāmī says that madira means the Lord who gives joy. She had a glance always in the form of the Lord who gives joy. The meaning according to the story is that she had ever-youthful glances in her eyes.
Purport
Just as in the
vānaprastha
stage the wife follows the husband, similarly when the spiritual master retires for
nirjana-bhajana,
some of his advanced devotees follow him and engage in his personal service. In other words, those who are very fond of family life should come forward in the service of the spiritual master and abandon so-called happiness afforded by society, friendship and love. A verse by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his
Gurv-aṣṭaka
is significant in this regard:
yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādaḥ.
A disciple should always remember that by serving the spiritual master he can easily advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. All the scriptures recommend that it is by pleasing the spiritual master and serving him directly that one can attain the highest perfectional stage of devotional service.
The word
madirekṣaṇā
is also significant in this verse. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has explained in his
Sandarbha
that the word
madira
means “intoxicating.” If one’s eyes become intoxicated upon seeing the Deity, he may be called
madirekṣaṇa.
Queen Vaidarbhī’s eyes were very enchanting, just as one’s eyes are
madirekṣaṇa
when engaged in seeing the temple Deity. Unless one is an advanced devotee, he cannot fix his eyes on the Deity in the temple.