King Parīkshit said: My lord, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, you have elaborately described all the periods of the various Manus and, within those periods, the wonderful activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has unlimited potency. I am fortunate to have heard all of this from you.
Satyavrata, the saintly king of Dravidadeśa who received spiritual knowledge at the end of the last millennium by the grace of the Supreme, later became Vaivasvata Manu, the son of Vivasvān, in the next manvantara [period of Manu]. I have received this knowledge from you. I also understand that such kings as Ikshvāku were his sons, as you have already explained.
O greatly fortunate Śukadeva Gosvāmī, O great brāhmana, kindly describe to us separately the dynasties and characteristics of all those kings, for we are always eager to hear such topics from you.
Kindly tell us about the abilities of all the celebrated kings born in the dynasty of Vaivasvata Manu, including those who have already passed, those who may appear in the future, and those who exist at present.
Sūta Gosvāmī said: When Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the greatest knower of religious principles, was thus requested by Mahārāja Parīkshit in the assembly of all the scholars learned in Vedic knowledge, he then proceeded to speak.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: O King, subduer of your enemies, now hear from me in great detail about the dynasty of Manu. I shall explain as much as possible, although one could not say everything about it, even in hundreds of years.
The transcendental Supreme Person, the Supersoul of all living entities, who are in different statuses of life, high and low, existed at the end of the millennium, when neither this manifested cosmos nor anything else but Him existed.
Taking the proper position from which to describe the dynasty of Manu, Śukadeva Gosvāmī begins by saying that when the entire world is inundated, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead exists, and nothing else. Śukadeva Gosvāmī will now describe how the Lord creates other things, one after another.
O King Parīkshit, from the navel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead was generated a golden lotus, on which the four-faced Lord Brahmā took his birth.
From the mind of Lord Brahmā, Marīci took birth, from the semen of Marīci, Kaśyapa appeared, and from Kaśyapa, by the womb of Daksha’s daughter Aditi, Vivasvān took birth.
O King, best of the Bhārata dynasty, from Vivasvān, by the womb of Samjñā, Śrāddhadeva Manu was born. Śrāddhadeva Manu, having conquered his senses, begot ten sons in the womb of his wife, Śraddhā. The names of these sons were Ikshvāku, Nriga, Śaryāti, Dishta, Dhrishta, Karūshaka, Narishyanta, Prishadhra, Nabhaga and Kavi.
Manu at first had no sons. Therefore, in order to get a son for him, the great saint Vasishtha, who was very powerful in spiritual knowledge, performed a sacrifice to satisfy the demigods Mitra and Varuna.
During that sacrifice, Śraddhā, Manu’s wife, who was observing the vow of subsisting only by drinking milk, approached the priest offering the sacrifice, offered obeisances to him and begged for a daughter.
Told by the chief priest “Now offer oblations,” the person in charge of oblations took clarified butter to offer. He then remembered the request of Manu’s wife and performed the sacrifice while chanting the word “vashat.”
Manu had begun that sacrifice for the sake of getting a son, but because the priest was diverted by the request of Manu’s wife, a daughter named Ilā was born. Upon seeing the daughter, Manu was not very satisfied. Thus he spoke to his guru, Vasishtha, as follows.
Because Manu had no issue, he was pleased at the birth of the child, even though a daughter, and gave her the name Ilā. Later, however, he was not very satisfied to see the daughter instead of a son. Because he had no issue, he was certainly very glad at the birth of Ilā, but his pleasure was temporary.
My lord, all of you are expert in chanting the Vedic mantras. How then has the result been opposite to the one desired? This is a matter for lamentation. There should not have been such a reversal of the results of the Vedic mantras.
In this age, the performance of yajña has been forbidden because no one can properly chant the Vedic mantras. If Vedic mantras are chanted properly, the desire for which a sacrifice is performed must be successful. Therefore the Hare Krishna chant is called the mahā-mantra, the great, exalted mantra above all other Vedic mantras, because simply chanting the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra brings so many beneficial effects. As explained by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu (Śikshāshtaka 1):
“Glory to the Śrī Krishna sankīrtana, which cleanses the heart of all the dust accumulated for years and extinguishes the fire of conditional life, of repeated birth and death. This sankīrtana movement is the prime benediction for humanity at large because it spreads the rays of the benediction moon. It is the life of all transcendental knowledge. It increases the ocean of transcendental bliss, and it enables us to fully taste the nectar for which we are always anxious.”
Therefore, the best performance of yajña given to us is the sankīrtana-yajña. Yajñaih sankīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasah (Bhāg. 11.5.32). Those who are intelligent take advantage of the greatest yajña in this age by chanting the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra in congregation. When the Hare Krishna mantra is chanted by many men together, the chanting is called sankīrtana, and as a result of such a yajña there will be clouds in the sky (yajñād bhavati parjanyah). In these days of drought, people can gain relief from scarcity of rain and food by the simple method of the Hare Krishna yajña. Indeed, this can relieve all of human society. At present there are droughts throughout Europe and America, and people are suffering, but if people take this Krishna consciousness movement seriously, if they stop their sinful activities and chant the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra, all their problems will be solved without difficulty. In other processes of yajña there are difficulties because there are no learned scholars who can chant the mantras perfectly well, nor is it possible to secure the ingredients to perform the yajña. Because human society is poverty-stricken and men are devoid of Vedic knowledge and the power to chant the Vedic mantras, the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra is the only shelter. People should be intelligent enough to chant it. Yajñaih sankīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasah. Those whose brains are dull cannot understand this chanting, nor can they take to it.
You are all self-controlled, well balanced in mind, and aware of the Absolute Truth. And because of austerities and penances you are completely cleansed of all material contamination. Your words, like those of the demigods, are never baffled. Then how is it possible that your determination has failed?
We have learned from many Vedic literatures that a benediction or curse given by the demigods never proves false. By performing austerities and penances, by controlling the senses and mind, and by achieving full knowledge of the Absolute Truth, one is fully cleansed of material contamination. Then one’s words and blessings, like those of the demigods, are never a failure.
The most powerful great-grandfather Vasishtha, after hearing these words of Manu, understood the discrepancy on the part of the priest. Thus he spoke as follows to the son of the sun-god.
This discrepancy in the objective is due to your priest’s deviation from the original purpose. However, by my own prowess I shall give you a good son.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King Parīkshit, after the most famous and powerful Vasishtha made this decision, he offered prayers to the Supreme Person, Vishnu, to transform Ilā into a male.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the supreme controller, being pleased with Vasishtha, gave him the benediction he desired. Thus Ilā was transformed into a very fine male named Sudyumna.
O King Parīkshit, that hero Sudyumna, accompanied by a few ministers and associates and riding on a horse brought from Sindhupradeśa, once went into the forest to hunt. He wore armor and was decorated with bows and arrows, and he was very beautiful. While following the animals and killing them, he reached the northern part of the forest.
There in the north, at the bottom of Mount Meru, is a forest known as Sukumāra where Lord Śiva always enjoys with Umā. Sudyumna entered that forest.
O King Parīkshit, as soon as Sudyumna, who was expert in subduing enemies, entered the forest, he saw himself transformed into a female and his horse transformed into a mare.
When his followers also saw their identities transformed and their sex reversed, they were all very morose and just looked at one another.
Mahārāja Parīkshit said: O most powerful brāhmana, why was this place so empowered, and who made it so powerful? Kindly answer this question, for I am very eager to hear about this.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī answered: Great saintly persons who strictly observed the spiritual rules and regulations and whose own effulgence dissipated all the darkness of all directions once came to see Lord Śiva in that forest.
When the goddess Ambikā saw the great saintly persons, she was very much ashamed because at that time she was naked. She immediately got up from the lap of her husband and tried to cover her breast.
Seeing Lord Śiva and Pārvatī engaged in sexual affairs, all the great saintly persons immediately desisted from going further and departed for the āśrama of Nara-Nārāyana.
Thereupon, just to please his wife, Lord Śiva said, “Any male entering this place shall immediately become a female!”
Since that time, no male had entered that forest. But now King Sudyumna, having been transformed into a female, began to walk with his associates from one forest to another.
In Bhagavad-gītā (2.22) it is said:
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
The body is just like a dress, and here this is proved. Sudyumna and his associates were all male, which means that their souls were covered by male dress, but now they became female, which means that their dress was changed. The soul, however, remains the same. It is said that by modern medical treatment a male can be transformed into a female, and a female into a male. The body, however, has no connection with the soul. The body can be changed, either in this life or the next. Therefore, one who has knowledge of the soul and how the soul transmigrates from one body to another does not pay attention to the body, which is nothing but a covering dress. Panditāh sama-darśinah. Such a person sees the soul, which is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. Therefore he is a sama-darśī, a learned person.
Sudyumna had been transformed into the best of beautiful women who excite sexual desire and was surrounded by other women. Upon seeing this beautiful woman loitering near his āśrama, Budha, the son of the moon, immediately desired to enjoy her.
The beautiful woman also desired to accept Budha, the son of the king of the moon, as her husband. Thus Budha begot in her womb a son named Purūravā.
I heard from reliable sources that King Sudyumna, the son of Manu, having thus achieved femininity, remembered his familial spiritual master, Vasishtha.
Upon seeing Sudyumna’s deplorable condition, Vasishtha was very much aggrieved. Desiring for Sudyumna to regain his maleness, Vasishtha again began to worship Lord Śankara [Śiva].
O King Parīkshit, Lord Śiva was pleased with Vasishtha. Therefore, to satisfy him and to keep his own word to Pārvatī, Lord Śiva said to that saintly person, “Your disciple Sudyumna may remain a male for one month and a female for the next. In this way he may rule the world as he likes.”
The word gotrajah is significant in this connection. Brāhmanas generally act as spiritual masters of two dynasties. One is their disciplic succession, and the other is the dynasty born of their semen. Both descendants belong to the same gotra, or dynasty. In the Vedic system we sometimes find that both brāhmanas and kshatriyas and even vaiśyas come in the disciplic succession of the same rishis. Because the gotra and dynasty are one, there is no difference between the disciples and the family born of the semen. The same system still prevails in Indian society, especially in regard to marriage, for which the gotra is calculated. Here the word gotrajah refers to those born in the same dynasty, whether they be disciples or members of the family.
Thus being favored by the spiritual master, according to the words of Lord Śiva, Sudyumna regained his desired maleness every alternate month and in this way ruled the kingdom, although the citizens were not satisfied with this.
The citizens could understand that the king was transformed into a female every alternate month and therefore could not discharge his royal duty. Consequently they were not very satisfied.
O King, Sudyumna had three very pious sons, named Utkala, Gaya and Vimala, who became the kings of the Dakshinā-patha.
Thereafter, when the time was ripe, when Sudyumna, the king of the world, was sufficiently old, he delivered the entire kingdom to his son Purūravā and entered the forest.
According to the Vedic system, one within the institution of varna and āśrama must leave his family life after he reaches fifty years of age (pañcāśordhvam vanam vrajet). Thus Sudyumna followed the prescribed regulations of varnāśrama by leaving the kingdom and going to the forest to complete his spiritual life.