Canto 3: The Status QuoChapter 23: Devahūti's Lamentation

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.23.36-37

sa tāḿ kṛta-mala-snānāḿ

vibhrājantīm apūrvavat

ātmano bibhratīḿ rūpaḿ

saḿvīta-rucira-stanīm

vidyādharī-sahasreṇa

sevyamānāḿ suvāsasam

jāta-bhāvo vimānaḿ tad

ārohayad amitra-han

SYNONYMS

saḥ — the sage; tām — her (Devahūti); kṛta-mala-snānām — bathed clean; vibhrājantīm — shining forth; apūrva-vat — unprecedentedly; ātmanaḥ — her own; bibhratīm — possessing; rūpam — beauty; saḿvīta — girded; rucira — charming; stanīm — with breasts; vidyādharī — of Gandharva girls; sahasreṇa — by a thousand; sevyamānām — being waited upon; su-vāsasam — dressed in excellent robes; jāta-bhāvaḥ — struck with fondness; vimānam — airplane like a mansion; tat — that; ārohayathe put her on board; amitra-hanO destroyer of the enemy.

TRANSLATION

The sage could see that Devahūti had washed herself clean and was shining forth as though no longer his former wife. She had regained her own original beauty as the daughter of a prince. Dressed in excellent robes, her charming breasts duly girded, she was waited upon by a thousand Gandharva girls. O destroyer of the enemy, his fondness for her grew, and he placed her on the aerial mansion.

PURPORT

Before her marriage, when Devahūti was brought by her parents before the sage Kardama, she was the perfectly beautiful princess, and Kardama Muni remembered her former beauty. But after her marriage, when she was engaged in the service of Kardama Muni, she neglected to care for her body like a princess, since there was no means for such care; her husband was living in a cottage, and since she was always engaged in serving him, her royal beauty disappeared, and she became just like an ordinary maidservant. Now, after being bathed by the Gandharva girls by the order of Kardama Muni's yogic power, she regained her beauty, and Kardama Muni felt attracted to the beauty she had shown before the marriage. The real beauty of a young woman is her breasts. When Kardama Muni saw the breasts of his wife so nicely decorated, increasing her beauty many times, he was attracted, even though he was a great sage. Śrīpāda Śańkarācārya has therefore warned the transcendentalists that one who is after transcendental realization should not be attracted by the raised breasts of a woman because they are nothing but an interaction of fat and blood within the body.

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