Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 5.18.15

ketumāle 'pi bhagavān kāmadeva-svarūpeṇa lakṣmyāḥ priya-cikīrṣayā prajāpater duhitṝṇāḿ putrāṇāḿ tad-varṣa-patīnāḿ puruṣāyuṣāho-rātra-parisańkhyānānāḿ yāsāḿ garbhā mahā-puruṣa-mahāstra-tejasodvejita-manasāḿ vidhvastā vyasavaḥ saḿvatsarānte vinipatanti

SYNONYMS

ketumāle — in the tract of land known as Ketumāla-varṣa; api — also; bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu; kāmadeva-svarūpeṇa — in the form of Kāmadeva (Cupid or Pradyumna); lakṣmyāḥ — of the goddess of fortune; priya-cikīrṣayā — with a desire to bring about the satisfaction; prajāpateḥ — of Prajāpati; duhitṝṇām — of the daughters; putrāṇām — of the sons; tat-varṣa-patīnām — the ruler of that land; puruṣa-āyuṣā — in a human lifetime (about one hundred years); ahaḥ-rātra — the days and nights; parisańkhyānānām — which equal in number; yāsām — of whom (the daughters); garbhāḥ — fetuses; mahā-puruṣa — of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; mahā-astra — of the great weapon (the disc); tejasā — by the effulgence; udvejita-manasām — whose minds are agitated; vidhvastāḥ — ruined; vyasavaḥ — dead; saḿvatsara-ante — at the end of the year; vinipatanti — fall down.

TRANSLATION

Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: In the tract of land called Ketumāla-varṣa, Lord Viṣṇu lives in the form of Kāmadeva, only for the satisfaction of His devotees. These include Lakṣmījī [the goddess of fortune], the Prajāpati Saḿvatsara and all of Saḿvatsara's sons and daughters. The daughters of Prajāpati are considered the controlling deities of the nights, and his sons are considered the controllers of the days. The Prajāpati's offspring number 36,000, one for each day and each night in the lifetime of a human being. At the end of each year, the Prajāpati's daughters become very agitated upon seeing the extremely effulgent disc of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and thus they all suffer miscarriages.

PURPORT

This Kāmadeva, who appears as Kṛṣṇa's son named Pradyumna, is viṣṇu-tattva. How this is so is explained by Madhvācārya, who quotes from the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa: kāmadeva-sthitaḿ viṣṇum upāste. Although this Kāmadeva is viṣṇu-tattva, His body is not spiritual but material. Lord Viṣṇu as Pradyumna or Kāmadeva accepts a material body, but He still acts spiritually. It does not make any difference whether He accepts a spiritual or a material body; He can act spiritually in any condition of existence. Māyāvādī philosophers regard even Lord Kṛṣṇa's body as material, but their opinions cannot impede the spiritual activity of the Lord.

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