Text 34] Lord Visnu’s Appearance in the Sacrificial Arena 811
pujito ‘nugrhitvainam
gantum cakre ’cyuto matim

maitreyah uvaca—the great sage Maitreya continued to speak; iti—thus;
vainyasya—of the son of King Vena (Prthu Maharaja); raja-rseh—of the
saintly King; pratinandya—appreciating; artha-vat vacah—the prayers,
which were full of meaning; piijitah—being worshiped; anugrhitvud—
sufficiently benedicting; enam—King Prthu; gantum—to go from that
place; cakre—made up; acyutah—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 Maharaja Prthu. 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 pratinandyarthavad vacah,
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-gita the Lord informed Arjuna that both He and Arjuna had
undergone many, many births previously, but the Lord remembered every-
thing about them whereas Arjuna had forgotten. The Lord and His con-
fidential 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 devo-
tee. 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. Prthu Maharaja was an incarnation of the power
of the Lord to spread the bhakti cult, and the Lord blessed him to remain
