Text-01-02
SB 12.1.01-02
sri-suka uvaca
yo ’ntyah purañjayo nama
bhavisyo barahadrathah
tasyamatyas tu sunako
hatva svaminam atma-jam
pradyota-samjñam rajanam
karta yat-palakah sutah
visakhayupas tat-putro
bhavita rajakas tatah
Translation:
Sukadeva Gosvami said: The last king mentioned in our previous enumeration of the future rulers of the Magadha dynasty was Purañjaya, who will take birth as the descendant of Brhadratha. Purañjaya’s minister Sunaka will assassinate the king and install his own son, Pradyota, on the throne. The son of Pradyota will be Palaka, his son will be Visakhayupa, and his son will be Rajaka.
Purport:
The vicious political intrigue described here is symptomatic of the Age of Kali. In the Ninth Canto of this work, Sukadeva Gosvami describes how the great rulers of men descended from two royal dynasties, that of the sun and that of the moon. The Ninth Canto’s description of Lord Ramacandra, a most famous incarnation of God, occurs in this genealogical narration, and at the end of the Ninth Canto Sukadeva describes the forefathers of Lord Krsna and Lord Balarama. Finally, the appearance of Lord Krsna and that of Lord Balarama are mentioned within the context of the narration of the moon dynasty.
The Tenth Canto is devoted exclusively to a description of Lord Krsna’s childhood pastimes in Vrndavana, His teenage activities in Mathura and His adult activities in Dvaraka. The famous epic Mahabharata also describes the events of this period, focusing upon the five Pandava brothers and their activities in relation with Lord Krsna and other leading historical figures, such as Bhisma, Dhrtarastra, Dronacarya and Vidura. Within the Mahabharata is Bhagavad-gita, in which Lord Krsna is declared to be the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Srimad-Bhagavatam, of which we are presently translating the twelfth and final canto, is considered a more advanced literature than the Mahabharata because throughout the entire work Lord Sri Krsna, the Absolute Truth and supreme source of all existence, is directly, centrally and irrefutably revealed. In fact, the First Canto of the Bhagavatam describes how Sri Vyasadeva composed this great work because he was dissatisfied with his rather sporadic glorification of Lord Krsna in the Mahabharata.
Although Srimad-Bhagavatam narrates the histories of many royal dynasties and the lives of innumerable kings, not until the description of the present age, the Age of Kali, do we find a minister assassinating his own king and installing his son on the throne. This incident resembles Dhrtarastra’s attempt to assassinate the Pandavas and crown his son Duryodhana king. As the Mahabharata describes, Lord Krsna thwarted this attempt, but with the departure of the Lord for the spiritual sky, the Age of Kali became fully manifested, ushering in political assassination within one’s own house as a standard technique.