Text 10] Dhruva Maharaja Goes Back to Godhead 499

TRANSLATION

As long as he remained at home, Dhruva Maharaja performed many great
ceremonial sacrifices in order to please the enjoyer of all sacrifices, the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. Prescribed ceremonial sacrifices are
especially meant to please Lord Visnu, who is the objective of all such
sacrifices and who awards the resultant benedictions.

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gita (Bg.3.9) it is said, yajnarthat karmano ‘nyatra loko ’yam
karma-bandhanah: one should act or work only in order to please the
Supreme Lord, otherwise he becomes entangled in the resultant reactions.
According to the four divisions of varna and asrama, ksatriyas and vaisyas
are especially advised to perform great ceremonial sacrifices and to dis-
tribute their accumulated money very liberally. Dhruva Maharaja, as a
king and ideal ksatriya, performed many such sacrifices, giving very
liberally in charity. Ksatriyas and vaisyas are supposed to earn their money
and accumulate great riches. Sometimes they do it by acting sinfully.
Ksatriyas are meant to rule over a country; Dhruva Maharaja, for example,
in the course of ruling, had to fight and kill many Yakgas. Such action is
necessary for ksatriyas. A ksatriya should not be a coward, and he should
not be nonviolent; to rule over the country he has to act violently.

Ksatriyas and the vaisyas are therefore especially advised to give in
charity at least fifty percent of their accumulated wealth. In Bhagavad-
gita it is recommended that even though one enters the renounced order of
life, he still cannot give up the performance of yajfia, dana, and tapasya.
They are never to be given up. Tapasya is meant for the renounced order
of life; those who are retired from worldly activities should perform
tapasya, penances and austerities. Those who are in the material world,
the ksatriyas and the vaisyas, must give in charity. Brahmacaris, in the
beginning of their lives, should perform different kinds of yajfias.

Dhruva Maharaja, as an ideal king, practically emptied his treasury by
giving in charity. A king is not meant to simply realize taxes from the
citizens and accumulate wealth to spend in sense gratification. World
monarchy has failed ever since kings began to satisfy their personal senses
with the taxes accumulated from the citizens. Of course, whether the
system is monarchy or democracy, the same corruption is still going on.
At the present moment there are different parties in the democratic gov-
ernment, but everyone is busy trying to keep their posts or trying to keep
their political party in power. They have very little time to think of the
welfare of the citizens, whom they oppress with heavy taxes in the form of
