After reaching the shore of the ocean of milk, the demigods worshiped the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Vishnu, the master of the whole universe, the supreme God of all gods, who provides for everyone and diminishes everyone’s suffering. With great attention, they worshiped Lord Vishnu, who lies on the ocean of milk, by reciting the Vedic mantras known as the Purusha–sukta.
PURPORT
The demigods, such as Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, King Indra, Candra and Surya, are all subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Aside from the demigods, even in human society there are many influential personalities supervising various businesses or establishments. Lord Vishnu, however, is the God of gods (paramesvara). He is parama–purusha, the Supreme Being, Paramatma. As confirmed in the Brahma–samhita (5.1), isvarahparamahkrishnah sac-cid-ananda–vigrahah: “Krishna, known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body.” No one is equal to or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore He is described here by many words: jagannatha, deva–deva, vrishakapi and purusha. The supremacy of LordVishnu is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (10.12) in this statement by Arjuna:
Mother earth assumed the form of a cow. Very much distressed, with tears in her eyes, she appeared before Lord Brahma and told him about her misfortune.
Thereafter, having heard of the distress of mother earth, Lord Brahma, with mother earth, Lord Siva and all the other demigods, approached the shore of the ocean of milk.
PURPORT
After Lord Brahma understood the precarious condition of the earth, he first visited the demigods headed by Lord Indra, who are in charge of the various affairs of this universe, and Lord Siva, who is responsible for annihilation. Both maintenance and annihilation go on perpetually, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (4.8), paritranayasadhunamvinasayacadushkritam. Those who are obedient to the laws of God are protected by different servants and demigods, whereas those who are undesirable are vanquished by Lord Siva. Lord Brahma first met all the demigods, including Lord Siva. Then, along with mother earth, they went to the shore of the ocean of milk, where Lord Vishnu lies on a white island, Svetadvipa.
By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.
PURPORT
Here is the remedy for eliminating all inauspicious things within the heart which are considered to be obstacles in the path of self-realization. The remedy is the association of the Bhagavatas. There are two types of Bhagavatas, namely the book Bhagavata and the devotee Bhagavata. Both the Bhagavatas are competent remedies, and both of them or either of them can be good enough to eliminate the obstacles. A devotee Bhagavata is as good as the book Bhagavatabecause the devotee Bhagavata leads his life in terms of the book Bhagavata and the book Bhagavata is full of information about the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees, who are also Bhagavatas. Bhagavata book and person are identical.
The devotee Bhagavata is a direct representative of Bhagavan, the Personality of Godhead. So by pleasing the devotee Bhagavata one can receive the benefit of the book Bhagavata. Human reason fails to understand how by serving the devotee Bhagavata or the book Bhagavata one gets gradual promotion on the path of devotion. But actually these are facts explained by Srila Naradadeva, who happened to be a maidservant’s son in his previous life. The maidservant was engaged in the menial service of the sages, and thus he also came into contact with them. And simply by associating with them and accepting the remnants of foodstuff left by the sages, the son of the maidservant got the chance to become the great devotee and personality Srila Naradadeva. These are the miraculous effects of the association of Bhagavatas. And to understand these effects practically, it should be noted that by such sincere association of the Bhagavatas one is sure to receive transcendental knowledge very easily, with the result that he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord. The more progress is made in devotional service under the guidance of the Bhagavatas, the more one becomes fixed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. The messages of the book Bhagavata, therefore, have to be received from the devotee Bhagavata, and the combination of these two Bhagavatas will help the neophyte devotee to make progress on and on.
SB 9.12.9: All these kings in the dynasty of Ikshvaku have passed away. Now please listen as I describe the kings who will be born in the future. From Brihadbala will come Brihadrana.
SB 9.12.10: The son of Brihadrana will be Urukriya, who will have a son named Vatsavriddha. Vatsavriddha will have a son named Prativyoma, and Prativyoma will have a son named Bhanu, from whom Divaka, a great commander of soldiers, will take birth.
SB 9.12.11: Thereafter, from Divaka will come a son named Sahadeva, and from Sahadeva a great hero named Brihadasva. From Brihadasva will come Bhanuman, and from Bhanuman will come Pratikasva. The son of Pratikasva will be Supratika.
SB 9.12.12: Thereafter, from Supratika will come Marudeva; from Marudeva, Sunakshatra; from Sunakshatra, Pushkara; and from Pushkara, Antariksha. The son of Antariksha will be Sutapa, and his son will be Amitrajit.
SB 9.12.13: From Amitrajit will come a son named Brihadraja, from Brihadraja will come Barhi, and from Barhi will come Kritanjaya. The son of Kritanjaya will be known as Rananjaya, and from him will come a son named Sanjaya.
SB 9.12.15: From Kshudraka will come Ranaka, from Ranaka will come Suratha, and from Suratha will come Sumitra, ending the dynasty. This is a description of the dynasty of Brihadbala.
SB 9.12.16: The last king in the dynasty of Ikshvaku will be Sumitra; after Sumitra there will be no more sons in the dynasty of the sun-god, and thus the dynasty will end.
This chapter describes the dynasty in which the great and learned scholar Janaka was born. This is the dynasty of MaharajaNimi, who is said to have been the son of Ikshvaku.
When MaharajaNimi began performing great sacrifices, he appointed Vasishtha to be chief priest, but Vasishtha refused, for he had already agreed to be priest in performing a yajna for Lord Indra. Vasishtha therefore requested MaharajaNimi to wait until Lord Indra‘s sacrifice was finished, but MaharajaNimi did not wait. He thought, “Life is very short, so there is no need to wait.” He therefore appointed another priest to perform the yajna. Vasishtha was very angry at King Nimi and cursed him, saying, “May your body fall down.” Cursed in that way, MaharajaNimi also became very angry, and he retaliated by saying, “May your body also fall down.” As a result of this cursing and countercursing, both of them died. After this incident, Vasishtha took birth again, begotten by Mitra and Varuna, who were agitated by Urvasi.
The priests who were engaged in the sacrifice for King Nimi preserved Nimi‘s body in fragrant chemicals. When the sacrifice was over, the priests prayed for Nimi‘s life to all the demigods who had come to the arena of yajna, but MaharajaNimi refused to take birth again in a material body because he considered the material body obnoxious. The great sages then churned Nimi‘s body, and as a result of this churning, Janaka was born.
The son of Janaka was Udavasu, and the son of Udavasu was Nandivardhana. The son of Nandivardhana was Suketu, and his descendants continued as follows: Devarata, Brihadratha, Mahavirya, Sudhriti, Dhrishtaketu, Haryasva, Maru, Pratipaka, Kritaratha, Devamidha, Visruta, Mahadhriti, Kritirata, Maharoma, Svarnaroma, Hrasvaroma and Siradhvaja. All these sons appeared in the dynasty one after another. From Siradhvaja, mother Sitadevi was born. Siradhvaja’s son was Kusadhvaja, and the son of Kusadhvaja was Dharmadhvaja. The sons of Dharmadhvaja were Kritadhvaja and Mitadhvaja. The son of Kritadhvaja was Kesidhvaja, and the son of Mitadhvaja was Khandikya. Kesidhvaja was a self-realized soul, and his son was Bhanuman, whose descendants were as follows: Satadyumna, Suci, Sanadvaja, Urjaketu, Aja, Purujit, Arishtanemi, Srutayu, Suparsvaka, Citraratha, Kshemadhi, Samaratha, Satyaratha, Upaguru, Upagupta, Vasvananta, Yuyudha, Subhashana, Sruta, Jaya, Vijaya, Rita, Sunaka, Vitahavya, Dhriti, Bahulasva, Kriti and Mahavasi. All of these sons were great self-controlled personalities. This completes the list of the entire dynasty.
SB 9.13.2: “I shall return here after finishing the yajna for Indra. Kindly wait for me until then.” MaharajaNimi remained silent, and Vasishtha began to perform the sacrifice for Lord Indra.
SB 9.13.3: MaharajaNimi, being a self-realized soul, considered that this life is flickering. Therefore, instead of waiting long for Vasishtha, he began performing the sacrifice with other priests.
PURPORT
Canakya Pandita says, sariramkshana-vidhvamsi kalpanta-sthayino gunah: “The duration of one’s life in the material world may end at any moment, but if within this life one does something worthy, that qualification is depicted in history eternally.” Here is a great personality, MaharajaNimi, who knew this fact. In the human form of life one should perform activities in such a way that at the end he goes back home, back to Godhead. This is self-realization.