Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.28.30

tasyām sa janayām cakra

ātmajām asitekshanām

yavīyasah sapta sutān

sapta dravida-bhūbhritah

SYNONYMS

tasyām — through her; sah — the King; janayām cakre — begot; ātmajām — daughter; asita — blue or black; īkshanām — whose eyes; yavīyasah — younger, very powerful; sapta — seven; sutān — sons; sapta — seven; dravida — province of Dravida, or South India; bhū — of the land; bhritah — kings.

TRANSLATION

King Malayadhvaja fathered one daughter, who had very black eyes. He also had seven sons, who later became rulers of that tract of land known as Dravida. Thus there were seven kings in that land.

PURPORT

King Malayadhvaja was a great devotee, and after he married the daughter of King Vidarbha, he gave her one nice daughter, whose eyes were black. Figuratively this means that the daughter of King Malayadhvaja was also bestowed with devotional service, for her eyes were always fixed on Krishna. A devotee has no vision in his life other than Krishna. The seven sons are the seven processes of devotional service — hearing, chanting, remembering, offering worship, offering prayers, rendering transcendental loving service and serving the lotus feet of the Lord. Of the nine types of devotional service, only seven were immediately given. The balance — friendship and surrendering everything — were to be developed later. In other words, devotional service is divided into two categories — namely vidhi-mārga and rāga-mārga. The process of becoming friends with the Lord and sacrificing everything for Him belongs to the category of rāga-mārga, the stage of developed devotional service. For the neophyte, the important processes are those of hearing and chanting (śravanam kīrtanam), remembering Krishna, worshiping the Deity in the temple, offering prayers and always engaging in the service of the Lord, and worshiping the lotus feet of the Lord.

The word yavīyasah indicates that these processes are very powerful. After a devotee engages in the processes of śravanam kīrtanam vishnoh smaranam pāda-sevanam/ arcanam vandanam dāsyam [SB 7.5.23], and is able to secure these processes, he can later become a devotee capable of rendering spontaneous devotional service — namely sakhyam and ātma-nivedanam. Generally the great ācāryas who preach devotional service all over the world belong to the category of sakhyam ātma-nivedanam. A neophyte devotee cannot actually become a preacher. The neophyte is advised to execute devotional service in the seven other fields (śravanam kīrtanam, etc.). If one can successfully execute the preliminary seven items, he can in the future be situated on the platform of sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.

The specific mention of Dravida-deśa refers to the five Dravida-deśas in South India. All are very strong in rendering the preliminary devotional processes (śravanam kīrtanam). Some great ācāryas, like Rāmānujācārya and Madhvācārya, also came from Dravida-deśa and became great preachers. They were all situated on the platform of sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.

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