Shloka 2
The Sūtas Foretell the Glories and Future Deeds of King Pṛthu
नालं वयं ते महिमानुवर्णने यो देववर्योऽवततार मायया । वेनाङ्गजातस्य च पौरुषाणि ते वाचस्पतीनामपि बभ्रमुर्धिय: ॥ २ ॥
nālaṁ vayaṁ te mahimānuvarṇane yo deva-varyo ’vatatāra māyayā venāṅga-jātasya ca pauruṣāṇi te vācas-patīnām api babhramur dhiyaḥ
The sūtas said: O King, you are a direct incarnation of the Supreme Lord, Śrī Viṣṇu, descended to this earth by His causeless mercy. Therefore we are not able to describe Your greatness as it truly is. Though You have appeared through the body of King Vena, even Brahmā, the demigods, and the greatest orators cannot precisely recount the glory of Your deeds.
In this verse the word māyayā means “by your causeless mercy.” The Māyāvādī philosophers explain the word māyā as meaning “illusion” or “falseness.” However, there is another meaning of māyā — that is, “causeless mercy.” There are two kinds of māyā: yoga-māyā and mahā-māyā. Mahā-māyā is an expansion of yoga-māyā, and both these māyās are different expressions of the Lord’s internal potencies. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord appears through His internal potencies ( ātma-māyayā ). We should therefore reject the Māyāvāda explanation that the Lord appears in a body given by the external potency, the material energy. The Lord and His incarnation are fully independent and can appear anywhere and everywhere by virtue of the internal potency. Although born out of the so-called dead body of King Vena, King Pṛthu was still an incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by the Lord’s internal potency. The Lord can appear in any family. Sometimes He appears as a fish incarnation ( matsya-avatāra ) or a boar incarnation ( varāha-avatāra ). Thus the Lord is completely free and independent to appear anywhere and everywhere by His internal potency. It is stated that Ananta, an incarnation of the Lord who has unlimited mouths, cannot reach the end of His glorification of the Lord, although Ananta has been describing the Lord since time immemorial. So what to speak of demigods like Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and others? It is said that the Lord is śiva-viriñci-nutam — always worshiped by demigods like Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā. If the demigods cannot find adequate language to express the glories of the Lord, then what to speak of others? Consequently reciters like the sūta and māgadha felt inadequate to speak about King Pṛthu.
FAQs
This verse says that even expert speakers become mentally bewildered when trying to describe the full greatness and heroic deeds of Pṛthu, because his glory is extraordinary and rooted in divine descent.
In the narrative, Pṛthu is recognized as an empowered incarnation (śaktyāveśa) who manifests to restore righteous rule; the sages therefore speak of his appearance as a divine descent accomplished by the Lord’s own potency.
It encourages humility: recognize that true greatness—especially divine or saintly greatness—cannot be reduced to mere rhetoric, and approach sacred subjects with reverence, careful speech, and a service attitude.