So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was not an ordinary person. He was mahā-bhāgavata. Mahīṁ mahā-bhāgavataḥ śaśāsa, ruled over, a great devotee. It does not mean a great devotee is simply engaged in chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. No. A great devotee may be the chief of the executive function of the state. He can become. That is required. Not that only mahā-bhāgavata required in church or temples. No. Mahā-bhāgavata required also as the head of the chief executive function. That is also required. Otherwise how people will be happy? Every field, there must be mahā-bhāgavata. So my Guru Mahārāja used to say that when we shall see that the high-court judges are devotees of Kṛṣṇa, then our preaching will be somewhat forward. So that is the aim of Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, that everyone, at least those who are ruling, those who are on the executive function, they must be all mahā-bhāgavata. Under them everything should be ruled. Then people will be happy. Because they will never do anything unjustly. Their only desire is... Mahā-bhāgavata is how to give relief to the suffering humanity. That is mahā-bhāgavata. So Parīkṣit Mahārāja was mahā-bhāgavata, and therefore he was entrusted to rule over, not an ordinary man.
Yathā hi sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ. Here is another important word. So yathā, as he was foretold, sūtyā. Sūtyā means in the maternity condition, maternity home or maternity room, sūtyā. Still, the system is current in India that when a lady is going to give birth to a child, she is offered a separate room where the child will take birth and all taken care. Nowadays they are sending in the hospital. That is another thing. But the system is when the delivery is imminent, then one room is selected. That is called sūtikā-ghara, or sūtikā room. That is referred here, sūtyā, means, sūtyā, as soon as the child is born, sūtyā, in that maternity room, immediately, abhijāta-kovidāḥ... Abhijāta-kovidāḥ means... Kovidāḥ means expert learned scholars, and abhijāta, they will immediately make horoscope and tell about this newly born child, what is going to happen in his life in future. That is called astrologer. It is called jāta-karma, reformation.
There are ten kinds of reformation. The first reformation is garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Garbhādhāna-saṁskāra means when the father is going to give birth to a child, it is not a secret affair. It is open affair. "Now this is the good, auspicious day, and today the father will implant the seed of the son in the womb of the mother." There is great function. That is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. And there are witnesses, all the brāhmaṇas, that "This day, such and such time, this king or this person has begotten this child." Just like when the child is born, it is recorded in the government book, similarly, when one is going to give birth to a child, that is also recorded. That is called garbhādhāna-saṁskāra. Not that like cats and dogs in secrecy we have sexual intercourse, and if there is pregnancy, give some contraceptive pill or kill the child. Oh, how rascal and animals have been introduced in the human society. Just see. Here the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra, a child has to be born. How it will be nice? When the mentality of the father and mother is completely Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so that when there will be sexual intercourse, the mentality of the child will be Kṛṣṇa conscious. This is the garbhādhāna-saṁskāra.
So as before giving birth there is a reformation ceremony, similarly, immediately child is born, there is another reformation ceremony that is called jāta-karma. Jāta-karma means immediately learned scholar, brāhmaṇas, astrologer, will come and they will make the horoscope of the child. So here it is said, yathā hi sūtyām abhijāta-kovidāḥ samādiśan. As they foretold, that "This child will be hero like this, he will be like this, like this..." That are described in the Bhāgavatam. And it was also said at that time that "This child will die, being cursed by a brāhmaṇa." That was also foretold. It is still, such kind of astrology there in India. They will speak what you were in your last birth and what you are now, and what you will be in your next birth. That is astrology. So still there are Bhṛgu-saṁhitā. Anyone go, and you simply give them your exact time of birth, then they will make immediately horoscope, immediately. Still there is. As I told you that in my horoscope it was declared that after seventieth year, I shall go to foreign countries and I shall establish many temples. In my horoscope that is. Now I see it is coming practically. You see? So that is horoscope.
So these abhijāta-kovidāḥ, expert astrologers, whatever they predicted, everything was performed by Mahārāja Parīkṣit. Samādiśan vipra mahad-guṇas tathā. So all the high qualities... Mahārāja Parīkṣit was in his childhood play, he was worshiping Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Deity. Childhood play. Just like our children, some of them they are worshiping Jagannātha. This is required. From the very childhood. Our Prahlāda Mahārāja therefore says, kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha, durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma (SB 7.6.1). Just like I began that this human form of life is the only opportunity to become free from this material entanglement, to become perfect. So it is the duty of the father, it is the duty of the guru, it is the duty of the king, government, to give all opportunities, that "No more birth. This is the last birth. Now you go back to home, back to Godhead." That is government. No more again coming as cats and dogs and trees. And if we do not do that, then again we enter into the cycle of birth and death. This is the risk.
So this civilization is so risky that people are not being given the real right that human being has the right to understand God and to make his relationship reestablished and go to home, back to Godhead, back to home. That is the real facility to the people. The program should be made like that, that the human life may not be missed. That is government. Therefore a mahā-bhāgavata, a great devotee, advanced devotee, should be on the head of the executive function. That is the idea of Vedic civilization.