Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam

SB 9.13 Summary

SB 9.13.1: Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: After beginning sacrifices, Mahārāja Nimi, the son of Ikshvāku, requested the great sage Vasishtha to take the post of chief priest. At that time, Vasishtha replied, "My dear Mahārāja Nimi, I have already accepted the same post in a sacrifice begun by Lord Indra.

SB 9.13.2: "I shall return here after finishing the yajña for Indra. Kindly wait for me until then." Mahārāja Nimi remained silent, and Vasishtha began to perform the sacrifice for Lord Indra.

SB 9.13.3: Mahārāja Nimi, being a self-realized soul, considered that this life is flickering. Therefore, instead of waiting long for Vasishtha, he began performing the sacrifice with other priests.

SB 9.13.4: After completing the sacrificial performance for King Indra, the spiritual master Vasishtha returned and found that his disciple Mahārāja Nimi had disobeyed his instructions. Thus Vasishtha cursed him, saying, "May the material body of Nimi, who considers himself learned, immediately fall."

SB 9.13.5: For unnecessarily cursing him when he had committed no offense, Mahārāja Nimi countercursed his spiritual master. "For the sake of getting contributions from the King of heaven," he said, "you have lost your religious intelligence. Therefore I pronounce this curse: your body also will fall."

SB 9.13.6: After saying this, Mahārāja Nimi, who was expert in the science of spiritual knowledge, gave up his body. Vasishtha, the great-grandfather, gave up his body also, but through the semen discharged by Mitra and Varuna when they saw Urvaśī, he was born again.

SB 9.13.7: During the performance of the yajña, the body relinquished by Mahārāja Nimi was preserved in fragrant substances, and at the end of the Satra-yāga the great saints and brāhmanas made the following request to all the demigods assembled there.

SB 9.13.8: "If you are satisfied with this sacrifice and if you are actually able to do so, kindly bring Mahārāja Nimi back to life in this body." The demigods said yes to this request by the sages, but Mahārāja Nimi said, "Please do not imprison me again in a material body."

SB 9.13.9: Mahārāja Nimi continued: Māyāvādīs generally want freedom from accepting a material body because they fear having to give it up again. But devotees whose intelligence is always filled with the service of the Lord are unafraid. Indeed, they take advantage of the body to render transcendental loving service.

SB 9.13.10: I do not wish to accept a material body, for such a body is the source of all distress, lamentation and fear, everywhere in the universe, just as it is for a fish in the water, which lives always in anxiety because of fear of death.

SB 9.13.11: The demigods said: Let Mahārāja Nimi live without a material body. Let him live in a spiritual body as a personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and, according to his desire, let him be manifest or unmanifest to common materially embodied people.

SB 9.13.12: Thereafter, to save the people from the danger of an unregulated government, the sages churned Mahārāja Nimi's material body, from which, as a result, a son was born.

SB 9.13.13: Because he was born in an unusual way, the son was called Janaka, and because he was born from the dead body of his father, he was known as Vaideha. Because he was born from the churning of his father's material body, he was known as Mithila, and because he constructed a city as King Mithila, the city was called Mithilā.

SB 9.13.14: O King Parīkshit, from Mithila came a son named Udāvasu; from Udāvasu, Nandivardhana; from Nandivardhana, Suketu; and from Suketu, Devarāta.

SB 9.13.15: From Devarāta came a son named Brihadratha and from Brihadratha a son named Mahāvīrya, who became the father of Sudhriti. The son of Sudhriti was known as Dhrishtaketu, and from Dhrishtaketu came Haryaśva. From Haryaśva came a son named Maru.

SB 9.13.16: The son of Maru was Pratīpaka, and the son of Pratīpaka was Kritaratha. From Kritaratha came Devamīdha; from Devamīdha, Viśruta; and from Viśruta, Mahādhriti.

SB 9.13.17: From Mahādhriti was born a son named Kritirāta, from Kritirāta was born Mahāromā, from Mahāromā came a son named Svarnaromā, and from Svarnaromā came Hrasvaromā.

SB 9.13.18: From Hrasvaromā came a son named Śīradhvaja [also called Janaka]. When Śīradhvaja was plowing a field, from the front of his plow [śīra] appeared a daughter named Sītādevī, who later became the wife of Lord Rāmacandra. Thus he was known as Śīradhvaja.

SB 9.13.19: The son of Śīradhvaja was Kuśadhvaja, and the son of Kuśadhvaja was King Dharmadhvaja, who had two sons, namely Kritadhvaja and Mitadhvaja.

SB 9.13.20-21: O Mahārāja Parīkshit, the son of Kritadhvaja was Keśidhvaja, and the son of Mitadhvaja was Khāndikya. The son of Kritadhvaja was expert in spiritual knowledge, and the son of Mitadhvaja was expert in Vedic ritualistic ceremonies. Khāndikya fled in fear of Keśidhvaja. The son of Keśidhvaja was Bhānumān, and the son of Bhānumān was Śatadyumna.

SB 9.13.22: The son of Śatadyumna was named Śuci. From Śuci, Sanadvāja was born, and from Sanadvāja came a son named Ūrjaketu. The son of Ūrjaketu was Aja, and the son of Aja was Purujit.

SB 9.13.23: The son of Purujit was Arishtanemi, and his son was Śrutāyu. Śrutāyu begot a son named Supārśvaka, and Supārśvaka begot Citraratha. The son of Citraratha was Kshemādhi, who became the king of Mithilā.

SB 9.13.24: The son of Kshemādhi was Samaratha, and his son was Satyaratha. The son of Satyaratha was Upaguru, and the son of Upaguru was Upagupta, a partial expansion of the fire-god.

SB 9.13.25: The son of Upagupta was Vasvananta, the son of Vasvananta was Yuyudha, the son of Yuyudha was Subhāshana, and the son of Subhāshana was Śruta. The son of Śruta was Jaya, from whom there came Vijaya. The son of Vijaya was Rita.

SB 9.13.26: The son of Rita was Śunaka, the son of Śunaka was Vītahavya, the son of Vītahavya was Dhriti, and the son of Dhriti was Bahulāśva. The son of Bahulāśva was Kriti, and his son was Mahāvaśī.

SB 9.13.27: Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King Parīkshit, all the kings of the dynasty of Mithila were completely in knowledge of their spiritual identity. Therefore, even though staying at home, they were liberated from the duality of material existence.

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