Study a Verse

• Sometimes a great personality like Śukrācārya cannot neglect sons and daughters, for sons and daughters are by nature dependent on their father and the father has affection for them.
• Although Śukrācārya knew that the quarrel between Devayānī and Śarmiṣṭhā was childish, as Devayānī’s father he had to side with his daughter.
• He plainly admitted that although he should not have asked the King for mercy for his daughter, because of affection he could not avoid doing so.

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

Insatiable desire → Renunciation. Exhausted enjoyment generates insight.

Chapters 18–19 of Canto 9: Yayāti's craving and liberation. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 18: King Yayāti Regains His Youth

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

Vṛṣaparvā, however, satisfied Śukrācārya by offering Śarmiṣṭhā as Devayānī’s maidservant. Thus Śarmiṣṭhā, as the maidservant of Devayānī, also went to the house of Devayānī’s husband.