Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.20.6

taḍidvanto mahā-meghāś

caṇḍa -śvasana -vepitāḥ

prīṇanaḿ jīvanaḿ hy asya

mumucuḥ karuṇā iva

SYNONYMS

taḍit-vantaḥ — displaying lightning; mahā-meghāḥ — the great clouds; caṇḍa — fierce; śvasana — by the wind; vepitāḥ — shaken; prīṇanam — the gratification; jīvanam — their life (their water); hi — indeed; asya — of this world; mumucuḥ — they released; karuṇāḥ — merciful personalities; iva — just as.

TRANSLATION

Flashing with lightning, great clouds were shaken and swept about by fierce winds. Just like merciful persons, the clouds gave their lives for the pleasure of this world.

PURPORT

Just as great, compassionate personalities sometimes give their lives or wealth for the happiness of society, the rain clouds poured down their rain upon the parched earth. Although the clouds were thus dissipated, they freely provided rainfall for the happiness of the earth.

In Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments as follows on this verse: "During the rainy season, there are strong winds blustering all over the country and carrying clouds from one place to another to distribute water. When water is urgently needed after the summer season, the clouds are just like a rich man who, in times of need, distributes his money even by exhausting his whole treasury. So the clouds exhaust themselves by distributing water all over the surface of the globe.

"Then Mahārāja Daśaratha, the father of Lord Rāmacandra, used to fight with his enemies, it was said that he approached them just like a farmer uprooting unnecessary plants and trees. And when there was need of giving charity, he used to distribute money exactly as the cloud distributes rain. The distribution of rain by clouds is so sumptuous that it is compared to the distribution of wealth by a great, munificent person. The clouds' downpour is so sufficient that the rains even fall on rocks and hills and on the oceans and seas, where there is no need for water. A cloud is like a charitable person who opens his treasury for distribution and does not discriminate whether the charity is needed or not. He gives in charity openhandedly."

Metaphorically speaking, the lightning in rain clouds is the light by which they see the distressed condition of the earth, and the blowing winds are their heavy breathing, such as that found in a distressed person. Distressed to see the condition of the earth, the clouds tremble in the wind like a compassionate person. Thus they pour down their rain.

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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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Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
Dravida dasa Brahmacari