Text 10]
Conversation Between Nārada and Vyāsa
287
TRANSLATION
Once upon a time, my poor mother, when going out one night to milk a cow, was bitten on the leg by a serpent, influenced by supreme time.
PURPORT
That is the way of dragging a sincere soul nearer to God. The poor boy was being looked after only by his affectionate mother, and yet the mother was taken from the world by the supreme will in order to put him completely at the mercy of the Lord.
TEXT 10
तदा तदहमीशस्य भक्तानां शमभीष्मतः । अनुग्रहं मन्यमानः प्रातिष्ठं दिशमुत्तराम् ॥१०॥
tadā tad aham īśasya bhaktānām śam abhīpsataḥ anugraham manyamānaḥ prātiṣṭham diśam uttarām
tadā—at that time; tat—that; aham—I; īśasya—of the Lord; bhaktānām—of the devotees; śam—mercy; abhīpsataḥ—desiring; anugraham—special benediction; manyamānaḥ—thinking in that way; prātiṣṭham—departed; diśam uttarām—in the northern direction.
TRANSLATION
I took this as the special mercy of the Lord, who always desires benediction for His devotees, and so thinking, I started for the north.
PURPORT
Confidential devotees of the Lord see in every step a benedictory direction of the Lord. What is considered to be an odd or difficult moment in the mundane sense is accepted as special mercy of the Lord. Mundane prosperity is a kind of material fever, and by the grace of the Lord the temperature of this material fever is gradually diminished, and spiritual health is obtained step by step. Mundane people misunderstand it.