Text 33
sa saṁrāḍ loka-pālākhyam
aiśvaryam adhirāṭ śriyam
cakraṁ cāskhalitaṁ prāṇān
mṛṣety upararāma ha
saḥ — he (Mahārāja Bharata); saṁrāṭ — the emperor; loka-pāla-ākhyam — known as the ruler of all the lokas, or planets; aiśvaryam — such opulences; adhirāṭ — thoroughly in power; śriyam — kingdom; cakram — soldiers or orders; ca — and; askhalitam — without failure; prāṇān — life or sons and family; mṛṣā — all false; iti — thus; upararāma — ceased to enjoy; ha — in the past.
As the ruler of the entire universe, Emperor Bharata had the opulences of a great kingdom and unconquerable soldiers. His sons and family had seemed to him to be his entire life. But finally he thought of all this as an impediment to spiritual advancement, and therefore he ceased from enjoying it.
Mahārāja Bharata had incomparable opulence in sovereignty, soldiers, sons, daughters and everything for material enjoyment, but when he realized that all such material opulences were useless for spiritual advancement, he retired from material enjoyment. The Vedic civilization enjoins that after a certain age, following in the footsteps of Mahārāja Bharata, one should cease to enjoy material opulences and should take the order of vānaprastha.