Text 27
takṣakād ātmano mṛtyuṁ
dvija-putropasarjitāt
prapatsyata upaśrutya
mukta-saṅgaḥ padaṁ hareḥ
takṣakāt — by the snakebird; ātmanaḥ — of his personal self; mṛtyum — death; dvija-putra — the son of a brāhmaṇa; upasarjitāt — being sent by; prapatsyate — having taken shelter of; upaśrutya — after hearing; mukta-saṅgaḥ — freed from all attachment; padam — position; hareḥ — of the Lord.
After hearing about his death, which will be caused by the bite of a snakebird sent by a son of a brāhmaṇa, he will get himself freed from all material attachment and surrender unto the Personality of Godhead, taking shelter of Him.
Material attachment and taking shelter of the lotus feet of the Lord go ill together. Material attachment means ignorance of transcendental happiness under the shelter of the Lord. Devotional service to the Lord, while existing in the material world, is a way to practice one’s transcendental relation with the Lord, and when it is matured, one gets completely free from all material attachment and becomes competent to go back home, back to Godhead. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, being especially attached to the Lord from the beginning of his body in the womb of his mother, was continuously under the shelter of the Lord, and the so-called warning of his death within seven days from the date of the curse by the brāhmaṇa’s son was a boon to him to enable him to prepare himself to go back home, back to Godhead. Since he was always protected by the Lord, he could have avoided the effect of such a curse by the grace of the Lord, but he did not take such undue advantage for nothing. Rather, he made the best use of a bad bargain. For seven days continuously he heard Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the right source, and thus he got shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord by that opportunity.