Text 67] Dhruva Maharaja Returns Home 431
atmanam ca pravayasam
akalayya visam patih
vanam viraktah pratisthad
vimrsann atmano gatim

atmanam—himself; ca—also; pravayasam—advanced in age; akalayya—
considering; visdm patih—King Uttanapada; vanam—to the forest; viraktah—
detached; pratis{hat—departed; vimysan—deliberating on; atmanah—of the
self; gatim—salvation.

TRANSLATION

After considering his advanced age and deliberating on the welfare of
his spiritual self, King Uttanapada detached himself from worldly aifairs
and entered the forest.

PURPORT

This is the sign of a rajarsi. King Uttanapada was very opulent and was
Emperor of the world, and these attachments were certainly very great.
Modern politicians are not as great as kings like Maharaja Uttanapada,
but because they get some political power for some days, they become so
much attached to their positions that they never retire unless they are re-
moved from their posts by cruel death or killed by some opposing political
party. It is within our experience that the politicians in India do not quit
their positions until death. This was not the practice in olden days, as it is
evident from the behavior of King Uttanapada. Immediately after installing
his worthy son Dhruva Maharaja on the throne, he left his home and palace.
There are hundreds and thousands of instances like this in which kings, in
their mature age, would give up their kingdoms and go to the forest to
practice austerity. Practice of austerity is the main business of human life.
As Maharaja Dhruva practiced austerity in his early age, similarly his father,
Maharaja Uttanapada, in his old age, also practiced austerity in the forest.
It is, however, not possible in modern days to give up one’s home and go to
the forest to practice austerity, but if people of all ages would take shelter
of the Krsna consciousness movement and practice the simple austerities
of no illicit sex, no intoxication, no gambling and no meat eating, and
chant the Hare Krsna mantra regularly (sixteen rounds), by this practical
method it would be a very easy task to get salvation from this material
world.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fourth Canto, Ninth
Chapter, of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, entitled “Dhruva Maharaja Returns
Home.”
