Chapter Four
Ambarisa Maharaja Offended by Durvasa Muni
1. Sukadeva Gosvami said: The son of Nabhaga named Nabhaga lived for a long time at the place of his spiritual master. Therefore, his brothers thought that he was not going to become a grhastha and would not return. Consequently, without providing a share for him, they divided the property of their father among themselves. When Nabhaga returned from the place of his spiritual master, they gave him their father as his share.
2. Nabhaga inquired, “My dear brothers, what have you given to me as my share of our father’s property?” His elder brothers answered, “We have kept our father as your share.” But when Nabhaga went to his father and said, “My dear father, my elder brothers have given you as my share of property,” the father replied, “My dear son, do not rely upon their cheating words. I am not your property.”
3. Nabhaga’s father said: All the descendants of Angira are now going to perform a great sacrifice, but although they are very intelligent, on every sixth day they will be bewildered in performing sacrifice and will make mistakes in their daily duties.
4-5. Nabhaga’s father continued: “Go to those great souls and describe two Vedic hymns pertaining to Vaisvadeva. When the great sages have completed the sacrifice and are going to the heavenly planets, they will give you the remnants of the money they have received from the sacrifice. Therefore, go there immediately.” Thus Nabhaga acted exactly according to the advice of his father, and the great sages of the Angira dynasty gave him all their wealth and then went to the heavenly planets.
6. Thereafter, while Nabhaga was accepting the riches, a black-looking person from the north came to him and said, “All the wealth from this sacrificial arena belongs to me.”
7. Nabhaga then said, “These riches belong to me. The great saintly persons have delivered them to me.” When Nabhaga said this, the black-looking person replied, “Let us go to your father and ask him to settle our disagreement.” In accordance with this, Nabhaga inquired from his father.
8. The father of Nabhaga said: Whatever the great sages sacrificed in the arena of the Daksa-yajna, they offered to Lord Siva as his share. Therefore, everything in the sacrificial arena certainly belongs to Lord Siva.
9. Thereupon, after offering obeisances to Lord Siva, Nabhaga said: O worshipable lord, everything in this arena of sacrifice is yours. This is the assertion of my father. Now, with great respect, I bow my head before you, begging your mercy.
10. Lord Siva said: Whatever your father has said is the truth, and you also are speaking the same truth. Therefore, I, who know the Vedic mantras, shall explain transcendental knowledge to you.
11. Lord Siva said, “Now you may take all the wealth remaining from the sacrifice, for I give it to you.” After saying this, Lord Siva, who is most adherent to the religious principles, disappeared from that place.
12. If one hears and chants or remembers this narration in the morning and evening with great attention, he certainly becomes learned, experienced in understanding the Vedic hymns, and expert in self-realization.
13. From Nabhaga, Maharaja Ambarisa took birth. Maharaja Ambarisa was an exalted devotee, celebrated for his great merits. Although he was cursed by an infallible brahmana, the curse could not touch him.
14. King Pariksit inquired: O great personality, Maharaja Ambarisa was certainly most exalted and meritorious in character. I wish to hear about him. How surprising it is that the curse of a brahmana, which is insurmountable, could not act upon him.
15-16. Sukadeva Gosvami said: Maharaja Ambarisa, the most fortunate personality, achieved the rule of the entire world, consisting of seven islands, and achieved inexhaustible, unlimited opulence and prosperity on earth. Although such a position is rarely obtained, Maharaja Ambarisa did not care for it at all, for he knew very well that all such opulence is material. Like that which is imagined in a dream, such opulence will ultimately be destroyed. The King knew that any nondevotee who attains such opulence merges increasingly into material nature’s mode of darkness.
17. Maharaja Ambarisa was a great devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vasudeva, and of the saintly persons who are the Lord’s devotees. Because of this devotion, he thought of the entire universe as being as insignificant as a piece of stone.
18-20. Maharaja Ambarisa always engaged his mind in meditating upon the lotus feet of Krishna, his words in describing the glories of the Lord, his hands in cleansing the Lord’s temple, and his ears in hearing the words spoken by Krishna or about Krishna. He engaged his eyes in seeing the Deity of Krishna, Krishna’s temples and Krishna’s places like Mathura and Vrndavana, he engaged his sense of touch in touching the bodies of the Lord’s devotees, he engaged his sense of smell in smelling the fragrance of tulasi offered to the Lord, and he engaged his tongue in tasting the Lord’s prasada. He engaged his legs in walking to the holy places and temples of the Lord, his head in bowing down before the Lord, and all his desires in serving the Lord, twenty-four hours a day. Indeed, Maharaja Ambarisa never desired anything for his own sense gratification. He engaged all his senses in devotional service, in various engagements related to the Lord. This is the way to increase attachment for the Lord and be completely free from all material desires.
21. In performing his prescribed duties as king, Maharaja Ambarisa always offered the results of his royal activities to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna, who is the enjoyer of everything and is beyond the perception of material senses. He certainly took advice from brahmanas who were faithful devotees of the Lord, and thus he ruled the planet earth without difficulty.
22. In desert countries where there flowed the River Sarasvati, Maharaja Ambarisa performed great sacrifices like the asvamedha-yajna and thus satisfied the master of all yajnas, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such sacrifices were performed with great opulence and suitable paraphernalia and with contributions of daksina to the brahmanas, who were supervised by great personalities like Vasistha, Asita and Gautama, representing the king, the performer of the sacrifices.
23. In the sacrifice arranged by Maharaja Ambarisa, the members of the assembly and the priests [especially hota, udgata, brahma and adhvaryu] were gorgeously dressed, and they all looked exactly like demigods. They eagerly saw to the proper performance of the yajna.
24. The citizens of the state of Maharaja Ambarisa were accustomed to chanting and hearing about the glorious activities of the Personality of Godhead. Thus they never aspired to be elevated to the heavenly planets, which are extremely dear even to the demigods.
25. Those who are saturated with the transcendental happiness of rendering service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead are uninterested even in the achievements of great mystics, for such achievements do not enhance the transcendental bliss felt by a devotee who always thinks of Krishna within the core of his heart.
26. The king of this planet, Maharaja Ambarisa, thus performed devotional service to the Lord and in this endeavor practiced severe austerity. Always satisfying the Supreme Personality of Godhead by his constitutional activities, he gradually gave up all material desires.
27. Maharaja Ambarisa gave up all attachment to household affairs, wives, children, friends and relatives, to the best of powerful elephants, to beautiful chariots, carts, horses and inexhaustible jewels, and to ornaments, garments and an inexhaustible treasury. He gave up attachment to all of them, regarding them as temporary and material.
28. Being very pleased by the unalloyed devotion of Maharaja Ambarisa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead gave the King His disc, which is fearful to enemies and which always protects the devotee from enemies and adversities.
29. To worship Lord Krishna, Maharaja Ambarisa, along with his queen, who was equally qualified, observed the vow of Ekadasi and Dvadasi for one year.
30. In the month of Kartika, after observing that vow for one year, after observing a fast for three nights and after bathing in the Yamuna, Maharaja Ambarisa worshiped the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, in Madhuvana.
