Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.20.5

aṣṭau māsān nipītaḿ yad

bhūmyāś coda-mayaḿ vasu

sva-gobhir moktum ārebhe

parjanyaḥ kāla āgate

SYNONYMS

aṣṭau — eight; māsān — during months; nipītam — drunk; yat — which: bhūmyāḥ — of the earth; ca — and; uda-mayam — consisting of water; vasu — the wealth; sva-gobhiḥ — by his own rays; moktum — to release; ārebhe — began; parjanyaḥ — the sun; kāle — the proper time; āgate — when it arrived.

TRANSLATION

With its rays, the sun had for eight months drunk up the earth's wealth in the form of water. Now that the proper time had arrived, the sun began releasing this accumulated wealth.

PURPORT

The ācāryas compare the sun's evaporating the earth's wealth of water to a king's collecting taxes. In Volume One, Chapter Twenty, of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this analogy as follows: "Clouds are accumulated water drawn from the land by the sunshine. Continually for eight months the sun evaporates all kinds of water from the surface of the globe, and this water is accumulated in the shape of clouds, which are distributed as water when there is need. Similarly, a government exacts various taxes from the citizens, which the citizens are able to pay by their different material activities: agriculture, trade and industry. Thus the government can also exact taxes in the form of income tax and sales tax. This is compared to the sun drawing water from the earth. When there is again need of water on the surface of the globe, the same sunshine converts the water into clouds and distributes it all over the globe. Similarly, the taxes collected by the government must be distributed to the people as educational work, public work, sanitation work and so on. This is essential for a good government. The government should not simply exact taxes for useless squandering; the tax collection should be utilized for the public welfare of the state."

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