1322 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 4, Ch. 28
TRANSLATION

King Malayadhvaja fathered one daughter, who had very black eyes. He
also had seven sons, who later became rulers of that tract of land known
as Dravida. Thus there were seven kings in that land.

PURPORT

King Malayadhvaja was a great devotee, and after he married the daughter
of King Vidarbha, he gave her one nice daughter, whose eyes were black.
Figuratively this means that the daughter of King Malayadhvaja was
bestowed also with devotional service, for her eyes were always fixed on
Krsna. A devotee has no vision in his life other than Krsna. The seven
sons are the seven processes of devotional service—hearing, chanting,
remembering, offering worship, offering prayers, rendering transcendental
loving service and serving the lotus feet of the Lord. Of the nine types of
devotional service, only seven were immediately given. The balance—
friendship and surrendering everything—were to be developed later. In
other words, devotional service is divided into two categories—namely
vidhi-marga and raga-marga. The process of becoming friends with the Lord
and sacrificing everything for Him belong to the category of raga-marga,
the stage of developed devotional service. For the neophyte, the important
processes are those of hearing and chanting (Sravanam kirtanam),
remembering Krsna, worshiping the Deity in the temple, offering prayers
and always engaging in the service of the Lord, and worshiping the lotus
feet of the Lord.

The word yaviyasah indicates that these processes are very powerful.
After a devotee engages in the processes of sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada-sevanam arcanam vandanam dasyam, and is able to secure
these processes, he can later become a devotee capable of rendering
spontaneous devotional service—namely sakhyam and Gtma-nivedanam.
Generally the great Gcaryas who preach devotional service all over the
world belong to the category of sakhyam atma-nivedanam. A neophyte
devotee cannot actually become a preacher. The neophyte is advised to
execute devotional service in the seven other fields (Sravanam kirtanam,
etc.). If one can successfully execute the preliminary seven items, he can
in the future be situated on the platform of sakhyam atma-nivedanam.

The specific mention of Dravida-desa refers to the five Dravida-desgas
in south India. All are very strong in rendering the preliminary devotional
processes (Sravanarh kirtanam). Some great acaryas, like Ramanujacarya
and Madhvacarya, also came from Dravida-dega and became great preachers.
These were all situated on the platform of sakhyam dtma-nivedanam.
