← Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1962)

Chapter 16: How Parikshit Received The Age of Kali

Verse 18 of 26
SB 1.16.18

dharmaḥ padaikena caran vicchāyām upalabhya gām pṛcchati smāśru-vadanāṁ vivatsām iva mātaram

Synonyms

dharmaḥThe Personality of religious principle; padaleg; ekenaby one only; caranwandering; vicchāyāmovertaken by the shadow of grief; upalabhyahaving met; gāmthe cow; pṛcchatiasking; smawith; aśru-vadanāmwith tears on face; vivatsāmone who has lost her offspring; ivalike; mātaramthe mother.

Translation

The Personality of religious principle Dharma in the form of a bull was wandering. And he met the Personality of earth in the form of a cow who appeared to be aggrieved like a mother who had lost her child and thus she looked with tears on her face. She lost the beauty of her bodily feature and thus Dharma asked the earth as follows.

Purport

Bull is the emblem of moral principle and the cow is the representative of the earth. When the bull and the cow are happy in joyful mood it is to be understood that the people of the world are also happy and are in joyful mood. The reason is that the bull helps production of grains in the agricultural field and the cow delivers milk the miracle of aggregate food values. Thehuman society therefore maintains, these two important animals very carefully so that they can wander every where in cheerfulness. But at the present moment in this age of Kali both the bull and the cow are now meant for being slaughtered and eaten up as foodstuff by a class of men who do not know what is the Brahminical culture. The bull and the cow can be protected for the good of all human society simply by spreading the Brahminical culture is the topmost perfeetion of all cultural affairs because by advancement of such culture only morale of the society is properly maintained where by peace and prosperity of the society attained without any extraneous effort for them. When Brahminical culture deteriorates the picture is televisioned by the above description of the cow and bull and the resultant action is prominent by the following symptoms.

Verse 18 of 26
Prabhupāda Says