SB 1.15.17
Devanāgarī
सौत्ये वृत: कुमतिनात्मद ईश्वरो मे यत्पादपद्ममभवाय भजन्ति भव्या: । मां श्रान्तवाहमरयो रथिनो भुविष्ठं न प्राहरन् यदनुभावनिरस्तचित्ता: ॥ १७ ॥
Text
sautye vṛtaḥ kumatinātmada īśvaro me yat-pāda-padmam abhavāya bhajanti bhavyāḥ māṁ śrānta-vāham arayo rathino bhuvi-ṣṭhaṁ na prāharan yad-anubhāva-nirasta-cittāḥ
Synonyms
sautye—regarding a chariot driver;vṛtaḥ—engaged;kumatinā—by bad consciousness;ātma-daḥ—one who delivers;īśvaraḥ—the Supreme Lord;me—my;yat—whose;pāda-padmam—lotus feet;abhavāya—in the matter of salvation;bhajanti—do render service;bhavyāḥ—the intelligent class of men;mām—unto me;śrānta—thirsty;vāham—my horses;arayaḥ—the enemies;rathinaḥ—a great general;bhuvi-ṣṭham—while standing on the ground;na—did not;prāharan—attack;yat—whose;anubhāva—mercy;nirasta—being absent;cittāḥ—mind.
Translation
It was by His mercy only that my enemies neglected to kill me when I descended from my chariot to get water for my thirsty horses. And it was due to my lack of esteem for my Lord that I dared engage Him as my chariot driver, for He is worshiped and offered services by the best men to attain salvation.
Purport
In the warfield, scarcity of water is a well-known fact. Water is very rare there, and both the animals and men, working strenuously on the warfield, constantly require water to quench their thirst. Especially wounded soldiers and generals feel very thirsty at the time of death, and it sometimes so happens that simply for want of water one has to die unavoidably. But such scarcity of water was solved in the Battle of Kurukṣetra by means of boring the ground. By God’s grace, water can be easily obtained from any place if there is facility for boring the ground. The modern system works on the same principle of boring the ground, but modern engineers are still unable to dig immediately wherever necessary. It appears, however, from the history as far back as the days of the Pāṇḍavas, that big generals like Arjuna could at once supply water even to the horses, and what to speak of men, by drawing water from underneath the hard ground simply by penetrating the stratum with a sharp arrow, a method still unknown to the modern scientists.
