Study a Verse

• 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.
• 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.
• Therefore he is a sama-darśī, a learned person.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Each link is a verse the purport itself quotes, or a purport elsewhere that quotes this verse, shown with the purport's own words.

Change → Acceptance. The instability of worldly identities is a recurring premise.

Chapters 1–3 of Canto 9: Dynastic origins and domestic transformations. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 1: King Sudyumna Becomes a Woman

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

At the foot of the mountain Sumeru there is a forest named Sukumāra, and as soon as they entered that forest, they were all transformed into women. When Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī about the reason for this transformation, Śukadeva Gosvāmī described how Sudyumna, being transformed into a woman, accepted Budha, the son of the moon, as her husband and had a son named Purūravā.