Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.12.16

daivenapratighatena

sukle samstham upeyushi

rato vo 'nugraharthaya

vishnuna prabhavishnuna

SYNONYMS

daivena -- by supernatural power; apratighatena -- by what is irresistible; sukle -- unto the pure; samstham -- destruction; upeyushi -- having been enforced; ratah -- restored; vah -- for you; anugraha-arthaya -- for the sake of obliging; vishnuna -- by the all-pervasive Lord; prabhavishnuna -- by the all-powerful.

TRANSLATION

The brahmanas said: This spotless son has been restored by the all-powerful and all-pervasive Lord Vishnu, the Personality of Godhead, in order to oblige you. He was saved when he was doomed to be destroyed by an irresistible supernatural weapon.

PURPORT

The child Parikshit was saved by the all-powerful and all-pervasive Vishnu (Lord Krishna) for two reasons. The first reason is that the child in the womb of his mother was spotless due to his being a pure devotee of the Lord. The second reason is that the child was the only surviving male descendant of Puru, the pious forefather of the virtuous King Yudhishthira. The Lord wants to continue the line of pious kings to rule over the earth as His representatives for the actual progress of a peaceful and prosperous life. After the Battle of Kurukshetra, even up to the next generation of Maharaja Yudhishthira was annihilated, and there were none who could generate another son in the great royal family. Maharaja Parikshit, the son of Abhimanyu, was the only surviving heir apparent in the family, and by the irresistible supernatural brahmastra weapon of Asvatthama, he was forced to be annihilated. Lord Krishna is described herein as Vishnu, and this is also significant. Lord Krishna, the original Personality of Godhead, does the work of protection and annihilation in His capacity of Vishnu. Lord Vishnu is the plenary expansion of Lord Krishna. The all-pervasive activities of the Lord are executed by Him in His Vishnu feature. Child Parikshit is described here as spotlessly white because he is an unalloyed devotee of the Lord. Such unalloyed devotees of the Lord appear on the earth just to execute the mission of the Lord. The Lord desires the conditioned souls hovering in the material creation to be reclaimed to go back home, back to Godhead, and thus He helps them by preparing the transcendental literatures like the Vedas, by sending missionaries of saints and sages and by deputing His representative, the spiritual master. Such transcendental literatures, missionaries and representatives of the Lord are spotlessly white because the contamination of the material qualities cannot even touch them. They are always protected by the Lord when they are threatened with annihilation. Such foolish threats are made by the gross materialists. The brahmastra, which was thrown by Asvatthama at the child Parikshit, was certainly supernaturally powerful, and nothing of the material world could resist its force of penetration. But the all-powerful Lord, who is present everywhere, within and without, could counteract it by His all-powerful potency just to save a bona fide servant of the Lord and descendant of another devotee, Maharaja Yudhishthira, who was always obliged by the Lord by His causeless mercy.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness