The vicious attack of time (Srimad Bhagavatam #70)

Every conditioned soul lives in a fort that is being constantly attacked by a powerful enemy, the irresistible force of time, which no one can stop. It is just a matter of time until the city falls.

Jul 27, 2025

Every conditioned soul lives in a fort that is being constantly attacked by a powerful enemy, the irresistible force of time, which no one can stop. It is just a matter of time until the city falls, but still, Purañjana, the conditioned soul, continued to simply enjoy life together with the senses and desires, without caring for the future. Just like Purañjana, materialists prefer to ignore death until the last moment, believing that somehow or other, they will be able to avoid it. When the time comes, they are surprised.

Just as a king collects taxes and thus enjoys life, we use the facilities of the body. There are billions of cells and other living entities in a human body, and they all perform their respective duties for the maintenance of the body. When we use this body to practice devotional service, they are all benefited, but when we misuse it for sinful activities, we have to face responsibility. We may think that it is our body and therefore we can do anything we want, but it is not like that. This attitude is similar to a king who just plunders the citizens instead of performing his duties.

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The vicious attack of time

Purañjana regrets his mistakes: The next two verses, after Purañjana addressed the ladies of the palace, describe his regret when he finally encountered his neglected intelligence, desiring to return to his spiritual practice after his lapses:

"The great sage Nārada continued: My dear King Prācīnabarhi, as soon as King Purañjana saw his Queen lying on the ground, appearing like a mendicant, he immediately became bewildered. The King, with aggrieved mind, began to speak to his wife with very pleasing words. Although he was filled with regret and tried to pacify her, he could not see any symptom of anger caused by love within the heart of his beloved wife." (SB 4.26.18-19)

When we neglect our Krsna conscious intelligence, we fall into sinful activities, just as the description of Purañjana hunting in the forest. When we realize this, we become repentant, and this allows us to admit our mistakes and return to the proper path. As Prabhupada emphasizes: "The King very much regretted having left his Queen and having gone to the forest to execute sinful activities. When a person regrets his sinful activities, the abandoning of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and good intelligence, his path of deliverance from the path of material clutches is opened."

The next verse describes Purañjana flattering the Queen, touching her feet, embracing her, and so on. This submissive attitude of the King is compared by Prabhupada with a repentant devotee approaching the spiritual master in an attitude of service:

"One has to awaken his Kṛṣṇa consciousness by first regretting his past deeds. Just as King Purañjana began to flatter his Queen, one should, by deliberate consideration, raise himself to the platform of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. To attain such an end, one must touch the lotus feet of the spiritual master. Kṛṣṇa consciousness cannot be achieved by self-endeavor. One must therefore approach a self-realized, Kṛṣṇa conscious person and touch his lotus feet."
"By sincerely rendering service to a bona fide spiritual master, one begins his spiritual life in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Touching the lotus feet of a spiritual master means giving up one’s false prestige and unnecessarily puffed-up position in the material world."

Excessive pride leads us to rely on our material intelligence, which has already been described as being insufficient to free us from material sorrow. Only when this pride is replaced by a humble attitude can we approach the spiritual master in the right attitude and enquire about Krsna Consciousness. It is not possible for anyone to come to the platform of Krsna Consciousness by mere mental speculation. We must surrender to the spiritual master in humility.

Text 21 reveals that the Queen was angry with Purañjana and thus was behaving in that way to punish him. However, he accepted this as deserved, due to his mistakes, and was thus eager to reconcile with her.

"King Purañjana said: My dear beautiful wife, when a master accepts a servant as his own man, but does not punish him for his offenses, the servant must be considered unfortunate." (SB 4.26.21)

This is compared to the attitude of a devotee who faces reverses in life. All of us committed many mistakes and sinful activities before practicing Krsna Consciousness, and probably also after starting. Therefore, when some unpleasant situation appears, we should accept it in the same humble attitude, seeing it as the mercy of the Lord, who has given us a token punishment to make us free from our karmic debts. As Prabhupada explains: "This verse states that the devotee accepts a reversal of his position in life as a benediction by the Lord and consequently offers the Lord more obeisances and prayers, thinking that the punishment is due to his past misdeeds and that the Lord is punishing him very mildly."

In text 23, Purañjana praises the beauty of his wife:

"My dear wife, your teeth are very beautifully set, and your attractive features make you appear very thoughtful. Kindly give up your anger, be merciful upon me, and please smile upon me with loving attachment. When I see a smile on your beautiful face, and when I see your hair, which is as beautiful as the color blue, and see your raised nose and hear your sweet talk, you will become more beautiful to me and thus attract me and oblige me. You are my most respected mistress." (SB 4.26.23)

However, in text 25, he describes that although so beautiful, now she looks dejected, and is thus anxious to revive her original beauty:

"My dear wife, until this day I have never seen your face without tilaka decorations, nor have I seen you so morose and without luster or affection. Nor have I seen your two nice breasts wet with tears from your eyes. Nor have I ever before seen your lips, which are ordinarily as red as the bimba fruit, without their reddish hue." (SB 4.23.25)

The beautiful features of the Queen are compared to our original Krsna Consciousness. However, due to our material attachments and sinful activities, these beautiful devotional sentiments to the Lord are currently covered and discolored. When our consciousness and intelligence are deprived of thoughts about Kṛṣṇa, they become lusterless, and we can't derive any real benefit.

We should thus be anxious to revive our Krsna Consciousness, just as Purañjana is anxious to see again the beauty of the Queen. As Prabhupada explains, "When one returns to his original Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he actually becomes steady, and his life becomes successful."

King Purañjana also asks if someone had offended the Queen, and prepares to punish him by all means:

"O hero’s wife, kindly tell me if someone has offended you. I am prepared to give such a person punishment as long as he does not belong to the brāhmaṇa caste. But for the servant of Muraripu [Kṛṣṇa], I excuse no one within or beyond these three worlds. No one can freely move after offending you, for I am prepared to punish him." (SB 2.26.24)

This intolerant attitude is an illustration of how intolerant we should be with any hostile or offensive thoughts directed at any sincere Vaishnava, since such offenses can have a lasting effect on our spiritual practice. As Prabhupada concludes: "One’s pure intelligence, or pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness, becomes polluted by material activities. Pure consciousness can be revived by the process of sacrifice, charity, pious activities, etc., but when one pollutes his Kṛṣṇa consciousness by offending a brāhmaṇa or a Vaiṣṇava, it is very difficult to revive."

The vicious attack of time that destroys the body (chapter 4.27)

After the conclusion of chapter 4.26, the purports of Prabhupada merge again with the main narration, with Purañjana returning to his previous life of sense gratification, although sugar-coated in mundane piety. This description is very well connected with the life of Prācīnabarhi, who, although externally following the recommendations of the scriptures, completely missed their ultimate purpose, and can also be connected with the story of a devotee who tries to cultivate his Krsna Consciousness for some time, but later gives it up and returns to a materialistic life. In both cases, the description will match the description in the next chapters of Purañjana receiving a new body in an exalted family.

One may question how the description of Purañjana approaching a spiritual master and practicing Krsna consciousness given by Prabhupada in his purport connects with the description of Purañjana going to hell later on, especially considering that later, in the 6th canto, we hear the description of Ajāmila being saved by just chanting once the name of Lord Viṣnu.

The point about Purañjana is that although he adopted the process of devotional service at a certain point in his life, approaching a spiritual master, etc., he fell back into his materialistic life after a short time and continued to practice sinful activities, becoming again addicted to sex life and so on. This trajectory is similar to the life of Ajāmila, who also practiced Krsna consciousness in his youth, but later forgot everything due to his association with the prostitute. There are, however, two crucial differences. The first is that Ajāmila practiced Krsna consciousness on a much higher level than Purañjana. His practice was not casual: he was seriously following the regulative principles and worshiping the deity for many years. His fall was also mainly accidental, a young man being seduced by a woman of dubious character. Because of these two factors, the Lord made a transcendental arrangement to make him name his youngest son as Narāyana, so he would be chanting the holy name and, especially, chant the name of the Lord inoffensively at the time of death, which instantly purified him of a life of sin and made him eligible to the rescued by the Viṣṇudutas.

Purañjana, on the other hand, never attained an advanced stage of devotional practice. He approached a spiritual master in a moment of bewilderment, after a spree of meat eating and woman-hunting, and heard spiritual instructions, but after recovering from it, he again became absorbed in sense enjoyment, associating with his material intelligence (the Queen), forgetting everything else. Crucially, he never came back to his practice, and didn't remember Krsna at the time of death.

It's true that simply chanting the holy names once, one can destroy all his sinful activities, but this applies only for one who chants inoffensively. Another point is that chanting the holy names frees us from our past activities, but if we return to a life of sin, new karma accumulates and we are eligible to be punished for it, especially if we stop our practice, as in the case of Purañjana. This makes the point that we should be serious in our practice. Human life is a life of responsibility. We have lots of facilities, but we have to answer for our choices.

Still, even though he ended up going to hell to pay for his mistakes, Purañjana took his next birth in a very exalted family and had the opportunity of continuing his devotional practice, exactly as Krsna promises in the Bhagavad-gītā (śucīnāṁ śrīmatāṁ gehe, yoga-bhraṣṭo ’bhijāyate). This shows how even a lapse devotee is in a much better position than an ordinary materialist.

Purañjana becomes too attracted to family life

Family life is recommended in the scriptures because it offers us a foundation for our spiritual practice, where we have space to develop our material activities and fulfill our desires and ambitions to a certain extent, but at the same time continue to progress in spiritual life. Family life, however, is not a solution in itself. It demands a continuous effort in the direction of cultivating transcendental knowledge and developing our Krsna Consciousness. When this effort is abandoned, we can very easily fall into the trap of materialistic life, even if externally still following basic rules and regulations. That's the trap of pious materialistic life, from which Nārada Muni was so anxious to rescue King Prācīnabarhi from.

Prabhupada puts this into the context of the allegory of Purañjana in his purport to text 4.27.1: "By coming home, taking his bath, eating nice foodstuffs, getting refreshed and searching out his wife, King Purañjana came to his good consciousness in his family life. In other words, a systematic family life as enjoined in the Vedas is better than an irresponsible sinful life. If a husband and wife combine together in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and live together peacefully, that is very nice. However, if a husband becomes too much attracted by his wife and forgets his duty in life, the implications of materialistic life will again resume."

He then continues: "Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has therefore recommended, anāsaktasya viṣayān (Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.2.255). Without being attached by sex, the husband and wife may live together for the advancement of spiritual life. The husband should engage in devotional service, and the wife should be faithful and religious according to the Vedic injunctions. Such a combination is very good. However, if the husband becomes too much attracted to the wife due to sex, the position becomes very dangerous."

He makes the point that in family life, it is the duty of the husband to satisfy the material needs of the wife for clothes, ornaments, children, etc., but at the same time engage her in Krsna Consciousness. When these basic necessities are satisfied, family life can be peaceful, and the man can thus have a stable foundation to pursue his spiritual practice, balancing it with his material duties. However, as Prabhupada puts it, "if the man becomes attracted to the woman simply for sex enjoyment, then family life becomes abominable."

As we can see, family life is a balancing act, where on the one hand one has to take care of material needs and provide for one's family, but on the other hand should not lose track of the goal of life.

Family life can be understood as a stepping stone, or as a ladder to get out of a sinful, promiscuous life devoid of responsibility, and keep oneself on a platform of piety. However, as the story of Purañjana teaches us, a mere life of material piety devoid of Krsna Consciousness is not sufficient. To go somewhere, we need to avoid being caught in the illusion of materialistic life. For a man, the trap is to become too attracted to sexual life, or, on the other extreme, to neglect his family duties; and for a woman the trap is to become too attracted to material processions, social status and other aspects of materialistic life, and use her husband to obtain these things instead of assisting him in the development of his Krsna Consciousness. A good wife is called dharma-patnī, because she assists the husband in his spiritual practice, creating an auspicious situation where both can advance.

If both are successful, their family life can become like Vaikuṇṭha. Otherwise, if a man becomes too attracted to sexual life, becoming absorbed in simply satisfying the whims of a materialistic wife, or if a woman becomes too much involved in her own material ambitions and forgets the goal of life, family life can easily be converted into a prison where we simply waste our precious human life without achieving neither material happiness we hoped for, nor the spiritual advancement we could have made otherwise.

As Prabhupada concludes: "The conclusion is that a household life is better than a sinful life devoid of responsibility, but if in the household life the husband becomes subordinate to the wife, involvement in materialistic life again becomes prominent. In this way a man’s material bondage becomes enhanced. Because of this, according to the Vedic system, after a certain age a man is recommended to abandon his family life for the stages of vānaprastha and sannyāsa."

The narration thus continues:

"The Queen took her bath and dressed herself nicely with all auspicious garments and ornaments. After taking food and becoming completely satisfied, she returned to the King. Upon seeing her beautifully decorated attractive face, the King welcomed her with all devotion." (SB 4.27.2)

After Purañjana returned home and reconciled with his wife, it is described that she bathed and decorated herself to satisfy him. Prabhupada connects this with a good wife dressing herself well, to keep her husband happy, helping him thus to fulfill his family duties. This comes from the idea of dovetailing our natural propensities with beneficial activities. If a woman has the desire to dress up well, she should do it for her husband or for the Lord. As Prabhupada explains:

"It is the duty of the wife to dress herself up very nicely so that when her husband returns home he becomes attracted by her dress and cleanliness and thus becomes satisfied. In other words, the wife is the inspiration of all good intelligence. Upon seeing one’s wife dressed nicely, one can think very soberly about family business. When a person is too anxious about family affairs, he cannot discharge his family duties nicely. A wife is therefore supposed to be an inspiration and should keep the husband’s intelligence in good order so that they can combinedly prosecute the affairs of family life without impediment."

As previously discussed, there is nothing wrong with a couple having affection for each other. Sex life is also expected, as well as everything else connected with a peaceful life at home. The point is that all of this must be combined with the development of Krsna Consciousness. Purañjana, however, became excessively captivated, and thus his time on the planet quickly passed. As it is described:

"My dear King Prācīnabarhiṣat, in this way King Purañjana, with his heart full of lust and sinful reactions, began to enjoy sex with his wife, and in this way his new life and youth expired in half a moment." (SB 4.27.5)

In his purport to text 4.27.3, Prabhupada makes a series of sobering points: "Human consciousness should be used for elevation to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But when a person is too much attracted to his wife and family affairs, he does not take Kṛṣṇa consciousness very seriously. He thus becomes degraded, not knowing that he cannot buy back even a second of his life in return for millions of dollars. The greatest loss in life is passing time without understanding Kṛṣṇa. Every moment of our lives should be utilized properly, and the proper use of life is to increase devotional service to the Lord. Without devotional service to the Lord, the activities of life become simply a waste of time (śrama eva hi kevalam). Simply by becoming “dutiful” we do not make any profit in life. If after performing one’s occupational duty very perfectly one does not make progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it should be understood that he has simply wasted his time in valueless labor."

Multiplying the material desires

During this process of enjoyment of family life, King Purañjana begot 1,100 sons and in this way exhausted half of his lifespan. On top of that, he also begot 110 daughters, and then became busy organizing the marriages of all these descendants. Each of these sons then produced hundreds of grandchildren, completely overcrowding the city.

The city of Pañcāla (pañcāla-deśa) mentioned in the verses means the material body, and the sons, daughters, and grandchildren are the actions and reactions the soul accumulates during one's life. Anyone engaged in materialistic life accumulates a great stock of karmic reactions (both pious and impious) that carry us from one material body to the other. As long as the desire for sense gratification remains, there is no end for this process.

Apart from leading us to perform actions that bind us to the material world, material desires also plunder our money and other resources, forcing us to spend money, time, attention, etc., in activities that don't bring us any benefit. Together with the human body, we receive a certain amount of resources (intelligence, time, physical energy, etc.) which should be used for Krsna. If, however, we allow our material desires to plunder them, we miss our opportunity of becoming free from material entanglement.

"These sons and grandsons were virtually plunderers of King Purañjana’s riches, including his home, treasury, servants, secretaries and all other paraphernalia. Purañjana’s attachment for these things was very deep-rooted." (SB 4.27.10)

Another meaning of this verse, explored by Prabhupada in his purport, is the living entity, begetting children on his wife, children who become materialistic due to the lack of proper spiritual education. To satisfy such mundane children, a man has to spend all his riches. One thus has to work hard all his life, often engaging in questionable activities to accumulate some extra money, just to see everything being taken away by his children and grandchildren, leaving him with just the karmic reactions.

As Prabhupada mentions in his purport: "As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (5.29), bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: the real proprietor of all wealth is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the actual enjoyer. So-called earners of money are those who simply know tricks by which they can take away God’s money under the guise of business and industry. After accumulating this money, they enjoy seeing it plundered by their sons and grandsons. This is the materialistic way of life."

Yet another meaning is that material life is based on expanding one's domains. One way to do that is to produce a great family, having many sons and grandsons, and give them all material facilities, so they can also expand, elevating the family all the way to the platform of a dynasty. By this, one may aim to change the world, putting his name in history, guarantee his stay in pitṛloka by the ritual offerings of so many descendants, and so on. This trace is present both amongst materialists who follow the Vedas and the one's who don't. Prabhupada explores this meaning in his purport to text eleven:

"Generally the karmīs, who are attached to increasing descendants, have to perform so many sacrifices and worship so many demigods for future generations and satisfy so many leaders, politicians, philosophers and scientists to make things go on properly for future generations. The so-called scientists are very eager to see that future generations will live very comfortably, and as such they are trying to find different means of generating energy to drive locomotives, cars, airplanes and so on. Now they are exhausting the petroleum supply."

Instead, we should aim to train our children to be good devotees of the Lord. This is the most beneficial education and the most beneficial gift for society. Once one becomes a sincere devotee, anything he or she may need is automatically supplied by the Lord.

At this point, Nārada finally reveals to the king that the allegory of Purañjana is nothing more than his own history of following the Vedic path while at the same time completely missing the purpose of the scriptures. If Nārada were to come to the king directly, telling him to stop performing sacrifices, he would not hear him, arguing that he was just following the scriptures. Therefore, Nārada opted to speak indirectly, through an allegory, to make the king hear first. This is also an important lesson for us, since studying the scriptures independently or under a materialistic teacher is no guarantee of obtaining proper understanding. To understand the deep meaning of the scriptures, we need to receive the conclusions from a self-realized soul.

"The great sage Nārada continued: My dear King Prācīnabarhiṣat, like you King Purañjana also became implicated in so many desires. Thus he worshiped demigods, forefathers and social leaders with various sacrifices which were all very ghastly because they were inspired by the desire to kill animals." (SB 4.27.11)

Prācīnabarhi was already at the same point in life as Purañjana in the text. He had already enjoyed most of his life, begot a number of children, accumulated a great volume of both pious merits and sinful reactions, and so on. Nārada now discloses his future if he continues on the same path:

"Thus King Purañjana, being attached to fruitive activities [karma-kāṇḍīya] as well as kith and kin, and being obsessed with polluted consciousness, eventually arrived at that point not very much liked by those who are overly attached to material things." (SB 4.27.12)

For a devotee of Krsna, death is not a very terrifying thing, because it just marks a new stage in one's devotional service to the Lord. For a materialist, however, death is "apriya" (not very much liked) because it means being separated from everything they are attached to, and having to face an uncertain destiny.

Not only death itself, but the whole process of old age is painful for a materialist. The senses, the very instruments he uses to enjoy this world, lose their power, the body gives him trouble, and his memory and intelligence gradually fade. Still, a materialist always tries to delay the inevitable and is never ready to face death. On the other hand, one who renounces sense gratification becomes immortal.

The allegory then moves to the description of the attack of Caṇḍavega and his soldiers on pañcāla-deśa, the city of Purañjana:

"O King! In Gandharvaloka there is a king named Caṇḍavega. Under him there are 360 very powerful Gandharva soldiers. Along with Caṇḍavega were as many female Gandharvīs as there were soldiers, and all of them repetitively plundered all the paraphernalia for sense enjoyment.
When King Gandharva-rāja [Caṇḍavega] and his followers began to plunder the city of Purañjana, a snake with five hoods began to defend the city. The five-hooded serpent, the superintendent and protector of the city of King Purañjana, fought with the Gandharvas for one hundred years. He fought alone, with all of them, although they numbered 720." (SB 4.27.13-16)

Caṇḍavega in the allegory represents time. The name means "very swiftly passing away", an allegorical name for time that passes so quickly. The 360 Gandharva soldiers represent the days, and the 360 Gandharvī soldiers the nights. Together, these 720 soldiers attack the city of the body, which is defended by the five-hooded serpent, the vital airs. This attack starts at the time of birth and ends only with the complete destruction of the body. Initially, the serpent can valiantly protect the city, but as time passes, its strength diminishes, and time starts to take its toll.

Their plundering of the paraphernalia for sense enjoyment describes how all the senses lose their strength with the passage of time, making the body, which during youth offered so many possibilities for sense enjoyment, a source of unlimited discomfort in old age. Apart from that, with the passage of time, all the objects and machines we use to enjoy life wear out and break.

Prabhupada explains that "Mirages and other illusory things are sometimes called Gandharvas. Our losing our life span is taken as advancement of age. This imperceptible passing away of the days of life is figuratively referred to in this verse as Gandharvas. As explained in later verses, such Gandharvas are both male and female. This indicates that both men and women lose their life span imperceptibly by the force of time, which is herein described as Caṇḍavega."

"Because he had to fight alone with so many soldiers, all of whom were great warriors, the serpent with five hoods became very weak. Seeing that his most intimate friend was weakening, King Purañjana and his friends and citizens living within the city all became very anxious.
King Purañjana collected taxes in the city known as Pañcāla and thus was able to engage in sexual indulgence. Being completely under the control of women, he could not understand that his life was passing away and that he was reaching the point of death." (SB 4.27.17-18)

Every conditioned soul lives in a fort that is being constantly attacked by powerful enemies. Gandharvas are celestial warriors, much more powerful than ordinary human beings. This illustrates the irresistible force of time, which no one can stop. The city was being precariously defended by the serpent, fighting alone against all the 720 celestial warriors. It was just a matter of time until the city would fall, but still, Purañjana, the conditioned soul, continued to simply enjoy life together with the senses and desires, without caring for the future. Just like Purañjana, materialists prefer to ignore death until the last moment, believing that somehow or other, they will be able to avoid it. When the time comes, they are surprised.

A new treat to the materialistic life of Purañjana

As if the attack of time was not enough, Kālakanyā, Bhaya, and Prajvāra also prepared to attack the body and deliver the final blow.

Kālakanyā (or Jarā) is the personification of old age, the daughter of time. Of course, no one welcomes old age; therefore, she was not being able to find a husband. Nārada Muni describes that she traveled all over the three worlds in search of a husband, but no one wanted to accept her. She approached even Nārada himself, even though he was an avowed Brahmacārī, and when he rejected her company, she became angry and then cursed him to not be able to stay in one place for a long time. Later, Nārada also received a similar curse from Daksa.

This episode of Nārada Muni also illustrates another point, which is that by resisting sex attraction, one can avoid the miseries of old age, just as Nārada, who is forever young. On the other hand, by surrendering to lust, a man has his life shortened and has to face many miseries in old age. As Prabhupada explains: "Those who are too much sexually addicted become victims of jarā, and very soon their life span is shortened. Without utilizing the human form of life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the victims of jarā die very soon in this world."

Of course, we can see that even advanced devotees become old and eventually also leave their bodies, but, as Prabhupada explains in his purport to text 24, the experience of a devotee is very different. A devotee may apparently become old, but he doesn't become defeated by old age like a common man. On the opposite, we can see pure devotees working as energetically as a young person even when 70 or 80 years old, just as Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī writing the Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta, or Srila Prabhupada spreading Krsna Consciousness and writing his books. Jarā thus doesn't make a devotee fearful. On the opposite, old age makes a devotee fearless, understanding that he is close to going back home, back to Godhead.

Back to the description, after being so rejected, Kālakanyā, under the instruction of Nārada, approached Bhaya (fear), who is described as the King of the Yavanas (Yavana-rāja). The Yavanas are barbarians who are fierce warriors. They don't follow the Vedic culture and therefore have no concept of higher morals. One who is attacked by them can expect no mercy. The description of Bhaya as the king of the Yavanas reinforces the image of fear in the mind.

Bhaya could also have refused her, just like others, but because of the order of Nārada Muni, he decided to give her shelter somehow, and use her power for some higher purpose. He decided thus to marry her to his brother Prajvāra (the high fever that precedes death), and in this way, the trio of fear, old age, and terminal fever that attack one at the end of life was formed. The serpent of the vital airs, already exhausted by the fight against the Gandharvas, was bound to be finally defeated by these powerful enemies.

Later in the description, Nārada reveals that Bhaya or Yavana-rāja is no one less than Mṛtyuḥ, or death personified, who is in turn the servant of Yamarāja. The city of Purañjana is thus first attacked by time, then by old age, and finally smashed by fever and death itself.

In his purport to text 27, Prabhupada reveals the deeper meaning of this description: "Actually the supreme controller is the Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and everyone is His servant. Yavana-rāja, the King of the Yavanas, was also a servant of Kṛṣṇa. Consequently, he wanted to execute the purpose of Kṛṣṇa through the agency of Kālakanyā. Although Kālakanyā means invalidity or old age, Yavana-rāja wanted to serve Kṛṣṇa by introducing Kālakanyā everywhere. Thus a sane person, by attaining old age, will become fearful of death. Foolish people engage in material activities as if they will live forever and enjoy material advancement, but actually there is no material advancement. Under illusion people think that material opulence will save them, but although there has been much advancement in material science, the problems of human society — birth, death, old age and disease — are still unsolved. Nonetheless foolish scientists are thinking that they have advanced materially. When Kālakanyā, the invalidity of old age, attacks them, they become fearful of death, if they are sane. Those who are insane simply do not care for death, nor do they know what is going to happen after death. They are under the wrong impression that after death there is no life, and consequently they act very irresponsibly in this life and enjoy unrestricted sense gratification. For an intelligent person, the appearance of old age is an impetus to spiritual life. People naturally fear impending death. The King of the Yavanas tried to utilize Kālakanyā for this purpose."

In this way, death personified uses Kālakanyā to make people afraid, so they may come to their senses and prepare for the next life. However, as we can practically see, most choose to ignore the warning signs, and instead of turning to Krsna Consciousness, try to mask the symptoms of old age with cosmetics, plastic surgery, weight-lifting, and so on, and in this way become even more attracted to the same path of sense gratification they pursued during their young lives. Purañjana also followed this path, and the results are described in the 28th chapter.

Marrying Kālakanyā to his brother, Yavana-rāja ordered:

"This world is a product of fruitive activities. Therefore you may imperceptibly attack people in general. Helped by my soldiers, you can kill them without opposition.
The King of the yavanas continued: Here is my brother Prajvāra. I now accept you as my sister. I shall employ both of you, as well as my dangerous soldiers, to act imperceptibly within this world." (SB 4.27.29-30)

One could ask how Mṛtyuḥ can be a servant of the Lord if, on his purport to text 4.27.30, Prabhupada mentions that he married Kālakanyā to his brother and thus accepted her as his sister, thinking of having illicit sex with her, as sometimes yavanas and mlecchas do not hesitate to have sex with their sisters. This becomes especially challenging when on text 4.29.22 Prabhupada mentions that "Yavaneśvara is the emblem of death, Yamarāja".

In the allegory, the figure of Yavana-rāja represents both Mṛtyuḥ (death) and Yamaraja, since both are closely related. Despite being born in the dynasty of irreligion (SB 4.8.4) Mṛtyuḥ is a fateful servant of Yamaraja, assisting him in killing the sinful, so they can be taken by the Yamadūtas and brought to Yamaraja for punishment. In the Ramayana (Uttara-kāṇḍa 7.22), it is even described that Mṛtyuḥ fought on the side of Yamaraja against Rāvaṇa when he attacked the hellish planets. Because they are so closely related, they are often collapsed into one for simplicity. Srila Sridhara Swami, for example, is succinct in his commentary, mentioning simply that "mṛtyur yamarājo ’tra yavanapateḥ padavācya" (Here, mṛtyuḥ is Yamaraja, he is the Lord of the yavanas mentioned in the text), and Prabhupada follows the same line in his purport to SB 4.29.22, focusing on explaining the allegory, instead of secondary details. On his purport to SB 4.28.65, however, Prabhupada confirms that Yavana-raja, or Mṛtyuḥ is the servant of Yamarāja. He is sometimes refereed as Yamaraja in the sense of being his servant and representative.

Both Kālakanyā and Prajvāra (old age and terminal fever) are also servants of Yamaraja, who also assist him in bringing the sinful to justice. Superficially, they may appear to also attack devotees, but in this case the effect is very different. They bring materialists close to death, while in the case of devotees, they bring them close to Krsna.

Yavana-rāja, on the other hand is a character in the allegory, depicted as the king of the sinful yavanas and thus sharing their bad habits. This is how the idea of death is introduced in the allegory, as an invading army of barbarians that overwhelms the defenses of the city, plundering everything and razing it to the ground, a description tailored to inspire fear. Although Yavana-rāja represents the servant of Yamaraja in the allegory, the sinful habits attributed to him don't apply to the Lord of the Yamadūtas, just as the material intelligence is not literally a beautiful woman, the body is not literally a city, and so on.

If you have questions on this lesson, you can post them below. I will be answering for one week, until the next lesson is published.

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