Shloka 5
Praise of Digging Wells and Building Water-Reservoirs
The Merit of Water-Works
मेघे वर्षति खाते च जायंते ये तु शीकराः । तावद्वर्षसहस्राणि दिवमश्नाति मानवः
meghe varṣati khāte ca jāyaṃte ye tu śīkarāḥ | tāvadvarṣasahasrāṇi divamaśnāti mānavaḥ
Sebanyak percik-tetes yang timbul ketika awan hujan menumpahkan air dan menghantam tanah, sebanyak itu pula ribuan tahun seorang manusia menikmati surga.
Unspecified (context-dependent within Adhyaya 57; commonly part of a narrator-to-inquirer dialogue in the Padma Purāṇa)
Primary Rasa: adbhuta
Secondary Rasa: shanta
Sandhi Resolution Notes: तावद्वर्षसहस्राणि → तावत् वर्षसहस्राणि; दिवमश्नाति → दिवम् अश्नाति
FAQs
It expresses a karmic result (puṇya-phala): a meritorious act yields a long enjoyment of heaven, described through a vivid numerical metaphor—counting rain-spray droplets as a measure of duration.
Rain droplets are innumerable and immediate to observe; the image functions as a poetic way to indicate an immense, hard-to-count reward—“as many as the droplets, so many thousand years.”
This specific verse frames results in terms of merit and heavenly enjoyment (svarga). In the broader Padma Purāṇa, such merit-based passages often coexist with (and are sometimes contrasted against) bhakti-focused teachings elsewhere.