Text 15] Maharaja Rahigana Meets Jada Bharata 355

ground with his head at the lotus feet of Jada Bharata in such a way
that he might be excused for his insulting words against the great
brahmana. He then prayed as follows.

PURPORT
In Bhagavad-gita (4.2) Lord Krsna says:

evam parampara-praptam
imam rajarsayo viduh
sa kaleneha mahata
yogo nastah parantapa

“This supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic
succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course
of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is ap-
pears to be lost.”

Through the disciplic succession the royal order was on the same plat-
form as great saintly persons (rdja-rsis). Formerly they could understand
the philosophy of life and knew how to train the citizens to come to the
same standard. In other words, they knew how to deliver the citizens
from the entanglement of birth and death. When Maharaja Dasaratha
ruled Ayodhya, the great sage Visvamitra once came to him to take away
Lord Ramacandra and Laksmana to the forest to kill a demon. When the
saintly person Visvamitra came to the court of Maharaja Dasaratha, the
King, in order to receive the saintly person, asked him, athistam yat tat
punar-janma-jaydya. He asked the sage whether everything was going
on well in his endeavor to conquer the repetition of birth and death. The
whole process of Vedic civilization is based on this point. We must know
how to conquer the repetition of birth and death. Maharaja Rahagana
also knew the purpose of life; therefore when Jada Bharata put the
philosophy of life before him, he immediately appreciated it. This is the
foundation of Vedic society. Learned scholars, brahmanas, saintly per-
sons and sages who were fully aware of the Vedic purpose advised the
royal order how to benefit the general masses, and by their cooperation.
the general masses were benefited. Therefore everything was successful.
Maharaja Rahigana attained this perfection of understanding the value
