Text 7
indro viśaṅkya mama dhāma jighṛkṣatīti
kāmaṁ nyayuṅkta sa-gaṇaṁ sa badary-upākhyam
gatvāpsaro-gaṇa-vasanta-sumanda-vātaiḥ
strī-prekṣaṇeṣubhir avidhyad atan-mahi-jñaḥ
indraḥ — Lord Indra; viśaṅkya — fearing; mama — my; dhāma — kingdom; jighṛkṣati — He wants to devour; iti — thinking thus; kāmam — Cupid; nyayuṅkta — he engaged; sa-gaṇam — with his associates; saḥ — he (Cupid); badarī-upākhyam — to the āśrama named Badarikā; gatvā — going; apsaraḥ-gaṇa — with the heavenly society girls; vasanta — the spring season; su-manda-vātaiḥ — and the gentle breezes; strī-prekṣaṇa — (consisting of) the glances of women; iṣubhiḥ — with his arrows; avidhyat — attempted to pierce; atat-mahi-jñaḥ — not knowing His greatness.
King Indra became fearful, thinking that Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi would become very powerful by His severe penances and seize Indra’s heavenly kingdom. Thus Indra, not knowing the transcendental glories of the incarnation of the Lord, sent Cupid and his associates to the Lord’s residence in Badarikāśrama. As the charming breezes of spring created a most sensuous atmosphere, Cupid himself attacked the Lord with arrows in the form of the irresistible glances of beautiful women.
This verse and the following nine verses illustrate the Personality of Godhead’s opulence of supreme renunciation. The word atan-mahi-jñaḥ, “not understanding the glories of the Lord,” indicates that King Indra was placing the Personality of Godhead on the same level as he himself, considering the Lord an ordinary enjoyer who would be attracted by mundane sex life. Indra’s plot to cause the falldown of Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi could not affect the Lord, but it reveals the shortsightedness of Indra himself. Because Indra is attached to his heavenly kingdom, he took it for granted that the Supreme Lord was performing austerities to acquire such flickering phantasmagoria as the kingdom of heaven (tridaśa-pūr ākāśa-puṣpāyate).