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ŚB 10.62.9

Devanagari

इत्युक्त: कुमतिर्हृष्ट: स्वगृहं प्राविशन्नृप ।
प्रतीक्षन् गिरिशादेशं स्ववीर्यनशनं कुधी: ॥ ९ ॥

Text

ity uktaḥ kumatir hṛṣṭaḥ
sva-gṛhaṁ prāviśan nṛpa
pratīkṣan giriśādeśaṁ
sva-vīrya-naśanam kudhīḥ

Synonyms

iti — thus; uktaḥ — spoken to; ku-matiḥ — foolish; hṛṣṭaḥ — delighted; sva — his own; gṛham — home; prāviśat — entered; nṛpa — O King (Parīkṣit); pratīkṣan — waiting for; giriśa — of Lord Śiva; ādeśam — prediction; sva-vīrya — of his prowess; naśanam — the destruction; ku-dhīḥ — unintelligent.

Translation

Thus advised, unintelligent Bāṇāsura was delighted. The fool then went home, O King, to wait for that which Lord Giriśa had predicted: the destruction of his prowess.

Purport

Here Bāṇāsura is described as ku-dhī (“having bad intelligence”) and ku-mati (“foolish”) because he completely misunderstood the actual situation. This demon was so arrogant that he was convinced no one could defeat him. He was delighted to hear that someone as powerful as Lord Śiva would come to fight with him and satisfy his itching for battle. Even though Śiva had said that this person would break Bāṇa’s flag and destroy his prowess, the demon was too foolish to take this statement seriously and eagerly awaited the fight.

At the present moment materialistic people are delighted by the many unprecedented facilities for sense gratification. Although it is clear that death, both individual and collective, is quickly approaching them, modern sense gratifiers are oblivious to their inevitable destruction. As stated in the Bhāgavatam (2.1.4), paśyann api na paśyati: Even though their imminent destruction is apparent, they are too blind to see it, being intoxicated by sex enjoyment and family attachment. Similarly, Bāṇāsura was intoxicated with his material prowess and could not believe that he was about to be cut down to size.