Text 44
ye ye bhū-patayo rājan
bhuñjate bhuvam ojasā
kālena te kṛtāḥ sarve
kathā-mātrāḥ kathāsu ca
ye ye — whatever; bhū-patayaḥ — kings; rājan — O King Parīkṣit; bhuñjate — enjoy; bhuvam — the world; ojasā — with their power; kālena — by the force of time; te — they; kṛtāḥ — have been made; sarve — all; kathā-mātrāḥ — mere accounts; kathāsu — in various histories; ca — and.
My dear King Parīkṣit, all these kings who tried to enjoy the earth by their strength were reduced by the force of time to nothing more than historical accounts.
The word rājan, “O King,” is significant in this verse. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was preparing to give up his body and go back home, back to Godhead, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, his most merciful spiritual master, devastated any possible attachment that he might have to the position of king by showing the ultimate insignificance of such a position. By the causeless mercy of the spiritual master one is prepared to go back home, back to Godhead. The spiritual master teaches one to relax one’s strong grip on material illusion and leave the kingdom of māyā behind. Although Śukadeva Gosvāmī speaks very bluntly within this chapter about the so-called glory of the material world, he is exhibiting the causeless mercy of the spiritual master, who takes his surrendered disciple back to the kingdom of Godhead, Vaikuṇṭha.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Twelfth Canto, Second Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Symptoms of Kali-yuga.”