SB 1.15.17 (1965)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 17
Soutyeh vritah kumatina atmada Iswaro me Yad padapadmam abhavaya bhajanti bhbyah. Mam sranta vaham arayo rathinam bhubistam Na praharan yadanubhava nirasta chittah.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Soutyeh—in the matter of a chariot driver, Vritah—engaged, Kumatina—by bad consciousness, Atmada—one who delivers, Iswara—the Supreme Lord, Me—mine, Yad—whose, Padapdmam—lotus feet, Abhavaya—in the matter of salvation, Bhajanti—do render service, Bhavyah—the intelligent class of men, Mam—unto me, Sranta—thirsty, Vaham—my horses, Arayo—the enemies, Rathinam—a great general, Bhubistam—while standing on the ground, Na—did not, Praharan—attack, Yad—whose, Anubhava—mercy, Nirasta—being absent, Chitta—mind.
TRANSLATION
It is by His mercy only that my enemies were unmindful to kill me at a time when I got down from my chariot to bore water for my thirsty horses and it was due to my ill estimation of my Supreme Lord that I dared to engage Him as my chariot driver although He is worshipped and offered services by the best men for attaining salvation.
PURPORT
The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna is the object of worship both by impersonalists as well as the Devotees of the Lord. The impersonalists worship His glowing effulgence emanating from His transcendental body of eternal form, bliss and knowledge and the Devotees worship Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who are below even than the impersonalists consider Him as one of the great historical personalities. The Lord however descends to attract all by his specific transcendental pastimes and as such He plays the part of the most perfect Master, Friend, Son and Lover. His transcendental relation with Arjuna was in the humour of friendship and the Lord therefore played the part of a perfect friend as He did it with His parents lovers and wives. While playing such perfect way of transcendental relation, the devotee forgets, by the internal potency of the Lord, that his friend or son is the Supreme Personality of Godhead although sometimes such devotee is bewildered by the acts of the Lord. After departure of the Lord, Arjuna is conscious about his great friend but there was no mistake on the part of Arjuna or any ill-estimation of the Lord by Arjuna. Such atmosphere was needed by the superior will of the Lord and the best intelligent man may be attracted by such transcendental acting of the Lord with His pure unalloyed devotee like Arjuna.
In the war field scarcity of water is an well known fact. Water is very rare there although both the animal and man working strenuously in the war-field require constantly water for quenching thirst. Especially wounded soldiers and generals feel too much thirsty at the time of death and it sometimes so happens that simply for want of water one has to die unavoidably. But such scarcity of water was solved in the battle of Kurukhetra by means of boring the ground at once. By God's grace water can be easily obtained from any place if there is facility for boring the ground. Modern tubewell system is the same principle of boring the ground but modern engineers are still unable to dig up immediately a tubewell wherever necessary. It appears however from the history of olden days as far back as the days of the Pandavas, big generals like Arjuna could at once supply water even to the horses and what to speak of human beings by drawing water from underneath the hard ground simply by penetrating the stratum with a sharp arrow enforced by a method still unknown to the modern scientists.