Shloka 20
The Fall of Purañjana and the Supersoul as the Eternal Friend
Purañjana-Upākhyāna Culmination
प्रबोधयति माविज्ञं व्युषिते शोककर्शिता । वर्त्मैतद् गृहमेधीयं वीरसूरपि नेष्यति ॥ २० ॥
prabodhayati māvijñaṁ vyuṣite śoka-karśitā vartmaitad gṛha-medhīyaṁ vīra-sūr api neṣyati
King Purañjana kept thinking: “When I was bewildered, she would awaken me with wise counsel; when I was away from home, she would waste away in grief. Though she is the mother of many heroic sons, I still fear she will not be able to bear the burden of household duties.”
At the time of death King Purañjana was thinking of his wife, and this is called polluted consciousness. As Lord Kṛṣṇa explains in Bhagavad-gītā (15.7) :
FAQs
This verse says that the gṛhamedhī path binds one through attachment and lamentation—so powerful that even a heroic person becomes carried away by it.
In the Purañjana allegory, her attempt to awaken him depicts the conditioned soul’s blindness at death—clinging to the body and relationships even when life has already departed.
Cultivate remembrance of the soul and devotion to Bhagavān alongside duties, so that relationships and responsibilities do not become sources of bondage and overwhelming grief.