Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 12.5.2

tvaḿ tu rājan mariṣyeti

paśu-buddhim imāḿ jahi

na jātaḥ prāg abhūto 'dya

deha-vat tvaḿ na nańkṣyasi

SYNONYMS

tvam — you; tu — but; rājan — O King; mariṣye — I am about to die; iti — thus thinking; paśu-buddhim — animalistic mentality; imām — this; jahi — give up; na — not; jātaḥ — born; prāk — previously; abhūtaḥ — nonexistent; adya — today; deha-vat — like the body; tvam — you; na nańkṣyasi — will not be destroyed.

TRANSLATION

O King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking, "I am going lo die." Unlike the body, you have not taken birth. There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and you are not about to be destroyed.

PURPORT

At the end of the First Canto (1.19.15) King Parīkṣit stated:

taḿ mopajātaḿ pratiyantu viprā

gańgā ca devī dhṛta-cittam īśe

dvijopasṛṣṭaḥ kuhakas takṣako vā

daśatv alaḿ gāyata viṣṇu-gāthāḥ

"O brāhmaṇas, just accept me as a completely surrendered soul, and let mother Ganges, the representative of the Lord, also accept me in that way, for I have already taken the lotus feet of the Lord into my heart. Let the snake-bird — or whatever magical thing the brāhmaṇa created — bite me at once. I only desire that you all continue singing the deeds of Lord Viṣṇu."

Even before hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, King Parīkṣit was a mahā-bhāgavata, a great and pure devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. There was actually no animalistic fear of death within the King, but for our sake Śukadeva Gosvāmī is speaking very strongly to his disciple, just as Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks strongly to Arjuna in Bhagavad-gītā.

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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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