Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.19.5

atho vihāyemam amum ca lokam

vimarśitau heyatayā purastāt

krishnāńghri-sevām adhimanyamāna

upāviśat prāyam amartya-nadyām

SYNONYMS

atho — thus; vihāya — giving up; imam — this; amum — and the next; ca — also; lokam — planets; vimarśitau — all of them being judged; heyatayā — because of inferiority; purastāt — hereinbefore; krishna-ańghri — the lotus feet of the Lord, Śrī Krishna; sevām — transcendental loving service; adhimanyamānah — one who thinks of the greatest of all achievements; upāviśat — sat down firmly; prāyam — for fasting; amartya-nadyām — on the bank of the transcendental river (the Ganges or the Yamunā).

TRANSLATION

Mahārāja Parīkshit sat down firmly on the banks of the Ganges to concentrate his mind in Krishna consciousness, rejecting all other practices of self-realization, because transcendental loving service to Krishna is the greatest achievement, superseding all other methods.

PURPORT

For a devotee like Mahārāja Parīkshit, none of the material planets, even the topmost Brahmaloka, is as desirable as Goloka Vrindāvana, the abode of Lord Śrī Krishna, the primeval Lord and original Personality of Godhead. This earth is one of the innumerable material planets within the universe, and there are innumerable universes also within the compass of the mahat-tattva. The devotees are told by the Lord and His representatives, the spiritual masters or ācāryas, that not one of the planets within all the innumerable universes is suitable for the residential purposes of a devotee. The devotee always desires to go back home, back to Godhead, just to become one of the associates of the Lord in the capacity of servitor, friend, parent or conjugal lover of the Lord, either in one of the innumerable Vaikuntha planets or in Goloka Vrindāvana, the planet of Lord Śrī Krishna. All these planets are eternally situated in the spiritual sky, the paravyoma, which is on the other side of the Causal Ocean within the mahat-tattva. Mahārāja Parīkshit was already aware of all this information due to his accumulated piety and birth in a high family of devotees, Vaishnavas, and thus he was not at all interested in the material planets. Modern scientists are very eager to reach the moon by material arrangements, but they cannot conceive of the highest planet of this universe. But a devotee like Mahārāja Parīkshit does not care a fig for the moon or, for that matter, any of the material planets. So when he was assured of his death on a fixed date, he became more determined in the transcendental loving service of Lord Krishna by complete fasting on the bank of the transcendental River Yamunā, which flows down by the capital of Hastināpura (in the Delhi state). Both the Ganges and the Yamunā are amartyā (transcendental) rivers, and Yamunā is still more sanctified for the following reasons.

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