Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 7.10.18

śrī-bhagavān uvāca

trih-saptabhih pitā pūtah

pitribhih saha te 'nagha

yat sādho 'sya kule jāto

bhavān vai kula-pāvanah

SYNONYMS

śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; trih-saptabhih — seven multiplied by three (that is to say, twenty-one); pitā — father; pūtah — purified; pitribhih — with your forefathers; saha — all together; te — your; anagha — O most sinless personality (Prahlāda Mahārāja); yat — because; sādho — O great saintly person; asya — of this person; kule — in the dynasty; jātah — took birth; bhavān — you; vai — indeed; kula-pāvanah — the purifier of the whole dynasty.

TRANSLATION

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear Prahlāda, O most pure, O great saintly person, your father has been purified, along with twenty-one forefathers in your family. Because you were born in this family, the entire dynasty has been purified.

PURPORT

The word trih-saptabhih means seven multiplied by three. In one's family one can count back four or five generations — to one's great-grandfather or even one's great-grandfather's father — but since the Lord mentions twenty-one forefathers, this indicates that the benediction expands to other families also. Before the present family in which one has taken birth, one must have been born in other families. Thus when a Vaishnava takes birth in a family, by the grace of the Lord he purifies not only that family but also the families of his previous births.

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