CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Dynasty of Bharata
This Twenty-first Chapter describes the dynasty born from Mahārāja Bharata, the son of Mahārāja Duṣmanta, and it also describes the glories of Rantideva, Ajamīḍha and others.
The son of Bharadvāja was Manyu, and Manyu's sons were Bṛhatkṣatra, Jaya, Mahāvīrya, Nara and Garga. Of these five, Nara had a son named Saṅkṛti, who had two sons, named Guru and Rantideva. As an exalted devotee, Rantideva saw every living entity in relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore he completely engaged his mind, his words and his very self in the service of the Supreme Lord and His devotees. Rantideva was so exalted that he would sometimes give away his own food in charity, and he and his family would fast. Once, after Rantideva spent forty-eight days fasting, not even drinking water, excellent food made with ghee was brought to him, but when he was about to eat it a  brāhmaṇa  guest appeared. Rantideva, therefore, did not eat the food, but instead immediately offered a portion of it to the  brāhmaṇa . When the  brāhmaṇa  left and Rantideva was just about to eat the remnants of the food, a  śūdra  appeared. Rantideva therefore divided the remnants between the  śūdra  and himself. Again, when he was just about to eat the remnants of the food, another guest appeared. Rantideva therefore gave the rest of the food to the new guest and was about to content himself with drinking the water to quench his thirst, but this also was precluded, for a thirsty guest came and Rantideva gave him the water. This was all ordained by the Supreme Personality of Godhead just to glorify His devotee and show how tolerant a devotee is in rendering service to the Lord. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, being extremely pleased with Rantideva, entrusted him with very confidential service. The special power to render the most confidential service is entrusted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to a pure devotee, not to ordinary devotees.
Garga, the son of Bharadvāja, had a son named Śini, and Śini's son was Gārgya. Although Gārgya was a  kṣatriya  by birth, his sons became
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