Text 34] Lord Viṣṇu's Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena
811
pūjito 'nugrhītvainaṁ gantuṁ cakre 'cyuto matim
maitreyaḥ uvāca —the great sage Maitreya continued to speak;  iti —thus;  vainyasya —of the son of King Vena (Pṛthu Mahārāja);  rāja-ṛṣeḥ —of the saintly King;  pratinandya —appreciating;  artha-vat vacaḥ —the prayers, which were full of meaning;  pūjitaḥ —being worshiped;  anugrhītvā —sufficiently benedicting;  enam —King Pṛthu;  gantum —to go from that place;  cakre —made up;  acyutaḥ —the infallible Lord;  matim —His mind.
TRANSLATION
The great saint Maitreya told Vidura: The Supreme Personality of God-head amply appreciated the meaningful prayers of Mahārāja Pṛthu. Thus, after being properly worshiped by the King, the Lord benedicted him and decided to depart.
PURPORT
Most important in this verse are the words  pratinandyārthavad vacaḥ , which indicate that the Lord appreciated the very meaningful prayers of the King. When a devotee prays to the Lord, it is not to ask for material benefits but to ask the Lord for His favor; he prays that he may be engaged in the service of the Lord's lotus feet birth after birth. Lord Caitanya therefore uses the words  mama janmani janmani , which mean “birth after birth,” because a devotee is not even interested in stopping the repetition of birth. The Lord and the devotee appear in this material world birth after birth, but such births are transcendental. In the Fourth Chapter of  Bhagavad-gītā  the Lord informed Arjuna that both He and Arjuna had undergone many, many births previously, but the Lord remembered everything about them whereas Arjuna had forgotten. The Lord and His confidential devotees appear many times to fulfill the Lord's mission, but since such births are transcendental, they are not accompanied by the miserable conditions of material birth, and they are therefore called  divya , transcendental.
One must understand the transcendental birth of the Lord and the devotee. The purpose of the Lord's taking birth is to establish devotional service, which is the perfect system of religion, and the purpose of the birth of a devotee is to broadcast the same system of religion, or the  bhakti  cult, all over the world. Pṛthu Mahārāja was an incarnation of the power of the Lord to spread the  bhakti  cult, and the Lord blessed him to remain