Marisa

Expressions researched:
"Marisa" |"daughter of Kandu" |"daughter of Pramloca" |"wife of the Pracetas"

SB Canto 4

SB 4.30.13, Translation:

O sons of King Prācīnabarhiṣat, the heavenly society girl named Pramlocā kept the lotus-eyed daughter of Kaṇḍu in the care of the forest trees. Then she went back to the heavenly planet. This daughter was born by the coupling of the Apsarā named Pramlocā with the sage Kaṇḍu.

SB 4.30.15, Translation and Purport:

Since all of you are very much obedient to My orders, I ask you to immediately marry that girl, who is so well qualified with beauty and good qualities. According to the order of your father, create progeny through her.

The Pracetās not only were great devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but were very obedient to the orders of their father. Therefore the Lord asked them to marry the daughter of Pramlocā.

SB 4.30.47, Translation and Purport:

The remaining trees, being very much afraid of the Pracetās, immediately delivered their daughter at the advice of Lord Brahmā.

The daughter of the trees is referred to in text 13 of this chapter. This daughter was born of Kaṇḍu and Pramlocā. The society girl Pramlocā, after giving birth to the child, immediately left for the heavenly kingdom. While the child was crying, the king of the moon took compassion upon her and saved her by putting his finger into her mouth. This child was cared for by the trees, and when she grew up, by the order of Lord Brahmā, she was delivered to the Pracetās as their wife. The name of the girl was Māriṣā, as the next verse will explain. It was the predominating deity of the trees that delivered the daughter. In this connection, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī Prabhupāda states, vṛkṣāḥ tad-adhiṣṭhātṛ-devatāḥ: "The 'trees' means the controlling deity of those trees." In Vedic literatures we find that there is a controlling deity of the water; similarly, there is a controlling deity of the trees. The Pracetās were engaged in burning all the trees to ashes, and they considered the trees their enemies. To pacify the Pracetās, the predominating deity of the trees, under the advice of Lord Brahmā, delivered the daughter Māriṣā.

SB 4.30.48, Translation and Purport:

Following the order of Lord Brahmā, all the Pracetās accepted the girl as their wife. From the womb of this girl, the son of Lord Brahmā named Dakṣa took birth. Dakṣa had to take birth from the womb of Māriṣā due to his disobeying and disrespecting Lord Mahādeva (Śiva). Consequently he had to give up his body twice.

In this connection the word mahad-avajñānāt is significant. King Dakṣa was the son of Lord Brahmā; therefore in a previous birth he was a brāhmaṇa, but because of his behaving like a non-brāhmaṇa (abrāhmaṇa) by insulting or disrespecting Lord Mahādeva, he had to take birth within the semen of a kṣatriya. That is to say, he became the son of the Pracetās. Not only that, but because of his disrespecting Lord Śiva, he had to undergo the tribulation of taking birth from within the womb of a woman. In the Dakṣa-yajña arena, he was once killed by Lord Śiva's servant, Vīrabhadra. Because that was not sufficient, he again took birth, from the womb of Māriṣā. At the end of the Dakṣa-yajña and the disastrous incidents there, Dakṣa offered his prayer to Lord Śiva. Although he had to give up his body and take birth from the womb of a woman impregnated by the semen of a kṣatriya, he received all opulence by the grace of Lord Śiva. These are the subtle laws of material nature. Unfortunately, people in this modern age do not know how these laws are working. Having no knowledge of the eternity of the spirit soul and its transmigration, the population of the present age is in the greatest ignorance. Because of this, it is said in Bhāgavatam (1.1.10): mandāḥ sumanda-matayo manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ. The total population in this age of Kali-yuga is very bad, lazy, unfortunate and disturbed by material conditions.

SB Canto 6

SB 6.4.15, Translation:

There is no need to burn these poor trees any longer. Let whatever trees still remain be happy. Indeed, you should also be happy. Now, here is a beautiful, well-qualified girl named Māriṣā, who was raised by the trees as their daughter. You may accept this beautiful girl as your wife.

SB 6.4.17, Translation and Purport:

In the womb of that girl the Pracetās all begot a son named Dakṣa, who filled the three worlds with living entities.

Dakṣa was first born during the reign of Svāyambhuva Manu, but because of offending Lord Śiva he was punished by having the head of a goat substituted for his own head. Thus insulted, he had to give up that body, and in the sixth manvantara, called the Cākṣuṣa manvantara, he was born of the womb of Māriṣā as Dakṣa. In this connection Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura quotes this verse:

cākṣuṣe tv antare prāpte

prāk-sarge kāla-vidrute

yaḥ sasarja prajā iṣṭāḥ

sa dakṣo daiva-coditaḥ

"His previous body had been destroyed, but he, the same Dakṣa, inspired by the supreme will, created all the desired living entities in the Cākṣuṣa manvantara." (SB 4.30.49) Thus Dakṣa regained his previous opulence and again begot thousands and millions of children to fill the three worlds.