Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 106: Bharata Persists in His Request
Text 2.106.15
पितुर्हि यदतिक्रान्तं पुत्रो यः साधु मन्यते।
तदपत्यं मतं लोके विपरीतमतोऽन्यथा॥
pitur hi yad atikrāntaṁ putro yaḥ sādhu manyate
tad apatyaṁ mataṁ loke viparītam ato ’nyathā
pituḥ hi = his father’s; yat atikrāntam = transgression; putraḥ = a son; yaḥ = who; sādhu = undoing; manyate = considers; tat apatyam = his apatya; matam = is honored as; loke = in this world; viparītam ataḥ anyathā = the converse is the opposite of this.
In this world, a son who considers undoing his father’s transgression is honored as his apatya. The converse is the opposite of this.1
1 “The converse is the opposite of this”: A son who does not consider undoing his father’s transgression is not considered his apatya.
Apatya refers to a son who prevents his father from degradation.
NOTE. A good example of an apatya is Mahārāja Pṛthu. His father was Veṇa who became a cruel despotic tyrant. After some sages cursed Veṇa and killed him, Pṛthu appeared from Veṇa’s body by special arrangement. As an emblem of true kṣatriya-dharma, King Pṛthu became the exact opposite of Veṇa, thus undoing the scriptural transgressions of Veṇa. By this, Veṇa was delivered from a hellish condition of life as noted in the following text of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.21.46.
putreṇa jayate lokān iti satyavatī śrutiḥ
brahma-daṇḍa-hataḥ pāpo yad veno ’tyatarat tamaḥ
“They all declared that the Vedic conclusion that one can conquer the heavenly planets by the action of a putra, or son, was fulfilled, for the most sinful Vena, who had been killed by the curse of the brāhmaṇas, was now delivered from the darkest region of hellish life by his son, Mahārāja Pṛthu.”
PURPORT. According to the Vedic version, there is a hellish planet called Put, and one who delivers a person from there is called putra. The purpose of marriage, therefore, is to have a putra, or son who is able to deliver his father, even if the father falls down to the hellish condition of Put. Mahārāja Pṛthu’s father, Vena, was a most sinful person and was therefore cursed to death by the brāhmaṇas. Now all the great saintly persons, sages and brāhmaṇas present in the meeting, after hearing from Mahārāja Pṛthu about his great mission in life, became convinced that the statement of the Vedas had been fully proved. The purpose of accepting a wife in religious marriage, as sanctioned in the Vedas, is to have a putra, a son qualified to deliver his father from the darkest region of hellish life. Marriage is not intended for sense gratification but for getting a son fully qualified to deliver his father. But if a son is raised to become an unqualified demon, how can he deliver his father from hellish life? It is therefore the duty of a father to become a Vaiṣṇava and raise his children to become Vaiṣṇavas; then even if by chance the father falls into a hellish life in his next birth, such a son can deliver him, as Mahārāja Pṛthu delivered his father.