Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 4.20.24

na kāmaye nātha tad apy ahaḿ kvacin

na yatra yuṣmac-caraṇāmbujāsavaḥ

mahattamāntar-hṛdayān mukha-cyuto

vidhatsva karṇāyutam eṣa me varaḥ

SYNONYMS

na — not; kāmaye — do I desire; nātha — O master; tat — that; api — even; aham — I; kvacit — at any time; na — not; yatra — where; yuṣmat — Your; caraṇa-ambuja — of the lotus feet; āsavaḥ — the nectarean beverage; mahat-tama — of the great devotees; antaḥ-hṛdayāt — from the core of the heart; mukha — from the mouths; cyutaḥ — being delivered; vidhatsva — give; karṇa — ears; ayutam — one million; eṣaḥ — this; me — my; varaḥ — benediction.

TRANSLATION

My dear Lord, I therefore do not wish to have the benediction of merging into Your existence, a benediction in which there is no existence of the nectarean beverage of Your lotus feet. I want the benediction of at least one million ears, for thus I may be able to hear about the glories of Your lotus feet from the mouths of Your pure devotees.

PURPORT

In the previous verse Mahārāja Pṛthu addressed the Lord as kaivalya-pati, the master of the liberation of merging into His existence. This does not mean that he was anxious for kaivalya liberation. That is made clear in this verse: "My dear Lord, I do not want such a benediction." Mahārāja Pṛthu wanted to have a million ears to hear the glories of the lotus feet of the Lord. He specifically mentioned that the glories of the Lord should emanate from the mouths of pure devotees, who speak from the cores of their hearts. It is stated in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.1.3), śuka-mukhād amṛta-drava-saḿyutam: the nectar of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam became more relishable because it emanated from the mouth of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī. One might think that these glories of the Lord can be heard from anywhere, from the mouths of either devotees or nondevotees, but here it is specifically mentioned that the glories of the Lord must emanate from the mouths of pure devotees. Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī has strictly prohibited hearing from the mouth of a nondevotee. There are many professional reciters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam who speak the narrations very ornamentally, but a pure devotee does not like to hear from them because such glorification of the Lord is simply a vibration of material sound. But when heard from the mouth of a pure devotee, glorification of the Lord is immediately effective.

The words satāḿ prasańgān mama vīrya-saḿvidaḥ (Bhāg. 3.25.25) mean that glorification of the Lord is potent when uttered from the mouth of a pure devotee. The Lord has innumerable devotees all over the universe, and they have been glorifying the Lord since time immemorial and for an unlimited time. But still they cannot completely finish enumerating the glories of the Lord. Pṛthu Mahārāja therefore wanted innumerable ears, as Rūpa Gosvāmī also desired to have millions of ears and millions of tongues to chant and hear the glorification of the Lord. In other words, if our ears are always engaged in hearing the glorification of the Lord, there will be no scope for hearing the Māyāvāda philosophy, which is doom to spiritual progress. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that if anyone hears from a Māyāvādī philosopher preaching about the activities of the Lord, even if it is a description from the Vedic literature, he is ultimately doomed. By hearing such Māyāvāda philosophy one cannot come to the destination of spiritual perfection of life.

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