Shloka 17
Purañjana Goes Hunting — The Chariot of the Body, Violence of Passion, and Return to Conjugal Bondage
रामा ऊचु: नरनाथ न जानीमस्त्वत्प्रिया यद्वयवस्यति । भूतले निरवस्तारे शयानां पश्य शत्रुहन् ॥ १७ ॥
rāmā ūcuḥ nara-nātha na jānīmas tvat-priyā yad vyavasyati bhūtale niravastāre śayānāṁ paśya śatru-han
All the women said: “O lord of the citizens, we do not know why your beloved queen has taken up such a condition. O slayer of enemies, please look—she lies upon the bare earth without any bedding. We cannot understand why she acts this way.”
When a person is devoid of devotional service, or viṣṇu-bhakti, he takes to many sinful activities. King Purañjana left home, neglected his own wife and engaged himself in killing animals. This is the position of all materialistic men. They do not care for a married chaste wife. They take the wife only as an instrument for sense enjoyment, not as a means for devotional service. To have unrestricted sex life, the karmīs work very hard. They have concluded that the best course is to have sex with any woman and simply pay the price for her, as though she were a mercantile commodity. Thus they engage their energy in working very hard for such material acquisitions. Such materialistic people have lost their good intelligence. They must search out their intelligence within the heart. A person who does not have a chaste wife accepted by religious principles always has a bewildered intelligence.
FAQs
It signals distress and emotional urgency—Rāmā’s condition is meant to draw the king’s attention, illustrating how worldly relationships can strongly pull the consciousness.
Within the narrative and its allegory, she alerts the king that his beloved is acting in a troubling way, prompting him to respond—showing how attachment and domestic emotions direct one’s decisions.
It reminds us to notice how emotional dependence and relationship-drama can control our choices; bhakti encourages steadiness, compassionate responsibility, and inner detachment while serving loved ones.