Bhagavatapurana 10.55
English (machine translation) 10.55
- Language
- English
Contents
10.55.1
Śrī Śuka said:
Kāma, who is a portion of Vāsudeva and was previously burned by the anger of Rudra,
turned to Him again to obtain a physical body.
10.55.2
He alone was born of the daughter of Vidarbha, originating from the seed of Kṛṣṇa,
renowned as Pradyumna, not inferior to his father in any respect.
10.55.3
The shape-shifting Śambara, kidnapping the infant before he was ten days old,
knowing him to be his enemy, cast him into the ocean and went home.
10.55.4
A powerful fish swallowed him, and that fish, along with others,
was enclosed in a great net and caught by fishermen.
10.55.5
The fishermen brought it as a present to Śambara;
the cooks, carrying the wondrous fish to the kitchen, sliced it open with a cleaver.
10.55.6
Seeing a male child in its belly, they presented him to Māyāvatī;
Nārada told everything to her whose mind was bewildered:
the child's true identity, his birth, and his placement within the belly of the fish.
10.55.7
And she was indeed the wife of Kāma, renowned by the name Rati,
awaiting the bodily manifestation of her husband whose body had been burned away.
10.55.8
Appointed by Śambara to prepare the cooked dishes and rice,
recognizing the infant to be Kāmadeva, she then showered love upon the child.
10.55.9
In not very long a time, that son of Kṛṣṇa attained mature youth,
and he aroused erotic longing in the women who gazed upon him.
10.55.10
Seeing that husband of hers with eyes long as lotus petals, with long arms, the handsomest in the mortal world,
Rati, with bashful smiles and arched eyebrows, lovingly approached him, my dear, with amorous gestures.
10.55.11
The Lord, the son of Kṛṣṇa, said to her: "Mother, your attitude is improper;
transgressing the role of a mother, you act like a woman in love."
10.55.12
Rati said:
"You are the son of Nārāyaṇa, abducted from home by Śambara;
I am your rightful wife, Rati, and you, O Lord, are Kāma.
10.55.13
This demon Śambara threw you into the sea before you were ten days old;
a fish swallowed you, and from its belly you arrived here, O Lord.
10.55.14
Slay this your enemy, unassailable and unconquerable,
who knows a hundred illusions, using illusions such as the deluding art.
10.55.15
Your mother laments like an osprey whose young are lost,
distressed with love for her son, wretched like a grieving cow bereft of her calf."
10.55.16
Having spoken thus, Māyāvatī bestowed the science upon the great-souled Pradyumna,
the supreme magical art that destroys all magical illusions.
10.55.17
He approached Śambara and challenged him to combat,
taunting him with intolerable insults and provoking a quarrel.
10.55.18
Insulted by his harsh words like a snake struck by a foot,
he came forth, mace in hand, his eyes red with fury.
10.55.19
Whirling his mace with force at the great-souled Pradyumna
and hurling it, he roared a roar harsh like the crash of a thunderbolt.
10.55.20
Knocking aside that flying mace with his own mace, the Lord Pradyumna,
enraged at his foe, hurled his own mace, O king.
10.55.21
Resorting to the demoniac illusion taught by Maya,
the demon, flying through the sky, released a shower of weapons upon the son of Kṛṣṇa.
10.55.22
Afflicted by the rain of weapons, the great chariot warrior, son of Rukmiṇī, [employed]
the great science consisting of pure sattva, which crushes all illusions.
10.55.23
Then the demon employed hundreds of Guhyaka, Gandharva,
Paiśāca, snake, and Rākṣasa illusions; the son of Kṛṣṇa dispersed them all.
10.55.24
Drawing a sharp sword, with vigor he severed the head of Śambara,
adorned with a crown and earrings, and bearing a red beard, from his body.
10.55.25
Showered with heaps of flowers by the sky-dwellers who praised him,
he was carried through the sky to his city by his wife who moves through the air.
10.55.26
He entered the splendid inner chambers crowded with hundreds of women, O king,
with his wife, dropping from the sky like a raincloud with lightning.
10.55.27
Seeing him dark like a raincloud, clad in yellow silk robes,
with long arms, reddish eyes, a beautiful smile, and an attractive face,
10.55.28
his lotus-face well-adorned with locks of black curly hair,
the women, mistaking him for Kṛṣṇa, felt bashful and hid themselves here and there.
10.55.29
Slowly discerning him by slight differences,
the women, delighted and thoroughly amazed, approached that jewel of a man with his wife.
10.55.30
Then the dark-eyed lady of Vidarbha, sweet of speech,
remembered her lost son, her breasts flowing with milk out of love:
10.55.31
"Who indeed is this lapis lazuli among men, or to whom does this lotus-eyed youth belong?
By whom was he carried in the womb, or who is this woman won by him?
10.55.32
My own son too was lost, who was taken from the maternity room,
matching this one in age and form, if he lives anywhere.
10.55.33
How has he obtained this likeness in form to the Wielder of the Śārṅga Bow,
in shape, limbs, gait, voice, smile, and glances?
10.55.34
Or surely he must be that very child who was carried in my womb; / for my affection toward him is overwhelming, and my left arm trembles.
10.55.35
While the princess of Vidarbha was thus deliberating, the son of Devakī, / He of highest renown, arrived together with Devakī and Ānakadundubhi.
10.55.36
Although the Lord, Janārdana, knew the whole matter, He remained silent; / Nārada then recounted everything, beginning with the abduction by Śambara.
10.55.37
Hearing of that great wonder, the women of Kṛṣṇa's inner quarters / joyfully welcomed him who had been lost for many years, as if returned from death.
10.55.38
Devakī, Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, and likewise the women, / embraced the married couple, and Rukmiṇī, too, was filled with joy.
10.55.39
Hearing that the lost Pradyumna had returned, the inhabitants of Dvārakā / exclaimed: 'Oh, by good fortune the boy has come back as if from death!'
10.55.39.p1
Indeed, that his mothers repeatedly experienced feelings fit for their own lord because he was identical in form to his father, their emotion rising in secret,
10.55.40
is certainly no wonder, when Kāma, the very image of the reflection of the dwelling of Ramā, was present before their eyes; how much more so, then, other women!
10.55.40.p1
[…]
Translations (1)
- The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English
Linked texts (1)
- Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit