278
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 2, Ch. 6]
bāhavaḥ —arms:  loka-pālānām —of the governing deities of planets, the demigods;  prāyaśaḥ —almost always;  kṣema-karmaṇām —of those who are leaders and protectors of the general mass.
TRANSLATION
The Lord's arms are the productive fields for the great demigods and other leaders of the living entities who protect the general mass.
PURPORT
This important verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is corroborated and nicely explained in the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 10.41-42) as follows:
yad yad vibhūtimat sattvaṁ śrīmad ūrjitam eva vā tat tad evāvagaccha tvaṁ mama tejo 'ṁśa-sambhavam athavā bahunaitena kim jñātena tavārjuna viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat
There are many powerful kings, leaders, learned scholars, scientists, artists, engineers, inventors, excavators, archeologists, industrialists, politicians, economists, business magnates, and many more powerful deities or demigods like Brahmā, Śiva, Indra, Candra, Sūrya, Varuṇa, Marut, etc., who are all protecting the interest of the universal affairs of maintenance, in different positions, and all of them are different powerful parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the father of all living entities. They are placed in different high and low positions according to their desires or aspirations. Some of them, as particularly mentioned above, are specifically endowed with powers by the will of the Lord. A sane person must know for certain that a living being, however powerful he may be, is neither absolute nor independent. All living beings must accept the origin of their specific power as mentioned in this verse. And if they act accordingly, then simply by discharging their respective occupational duties, they can achieve the highest perfection of life, namely eternal life, complete knowledge and inexhaustible blessings. As long as the powerful men of the world do not accept the origin of their respective powers, namely the Personality of Godhead, the actions of  māyā  or illusion will continue to act. The actions of  māyā  and illusion are such that a powerful person, misled by the illusory material energy, wrongly