Text 8] The Descendants of King Mandhata 223
possessions, claiming them as a contribution of daksind. Vasistha,
however, did not like this, and therefore a fight arose between Vasistha
and Visvamitra. The fighting became so severe that each of them cursed
the other. One of them said, ““May you become a bird,” and the other
said, ““May you become a duck.” Thus both of them became birds and
continued fighting for many years because of Hariscandra. We can see
that such a great mystic yogi as Saubhari became a victim of sense grati-
fication, and such great sages as Vasistha and Visvamitra became birds.
This is the material world. Abrahma-bhuvanal lokaéh punar dvartino
‘yuna. Within this material world, or within this universe, however ele-
vated one may be in material qualities, one must suffer the conditions of
birth, death, old age and disease (janma-mrtyu-jard-vyadhi). Therefore
Krsna says that this material world is simply miserable (duhkhdlayam
asasvatam). The Bhagavatam says, padarn padarn yad vipadam: at
every step here there is danger. Therefore, because the Krsna conscious-
ness movement provides the opportunity for the human being to get out
of this material world simply by chanting the Hare Krsna mantra, this
movement is the greatest benediction in human society.
TEXT 8
ASAT TTT ATTAITAA |
TO WOT Alea: FAL A ATA WAT I< Il
so ‘napatyo visannatma
ndradasyopadesatah
varunam Saranam yatah
putro me jayatam prabho

sah—that Hariscandra; anapatyah—being without a son; visanna-
atmé —therefore very morose; ndradasya—of Narada; upadesatah—by
the advice; varunam—unto Varuna; Saranam ydtah—took shelter;
putrah—a son; me—of me; jayatam—let there be born; prabho—O my
lord.

TRANSLATION

Hariscandra had no son and was therefore extremely morose.

Once, therefore, following the advice of Narada, he took shelter of
