Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.20.21

pītvāpaḥ pādapāḥ padbhir

āsan nānātma-mūrtayaḥ

prāk kṣāmās tapasā śrāntā

yathā kāmānusevayā

SYNONYMS

pītvā — having drunk; āpaḥ — water; pāda-pāḥ — the trees; padbhiḥ — with their feet; āsan — assumed; nānā — various; ātma-mūrtayaḥ — bodily features; prāk — previously; kṣāmāḥ — emaciated; tapasā — by austerities; śrāntāḥ — fatigued; yathā — as; kāma-anusevayā — by enjoying acquired desired objects.

TRANSLATION

The trees had grown thin and dry, but after they drank the newly fallen rainwater through their feet, their various bodily features blossomed. Similarly, one whose body has grown thin and weak from austerity again exhibits his healthy bodily features upon enjoying the material objects gained through that austerity.

PURPORT

The word pāda means foot, and pā means drinking. Trees are called pādapa because they drink through their roots, which are likened to feet. Upon drinking the newly fallen rainwater, the trees in Vṛndāvana began to manifest new leaves, sprouts and blossoms, and they thus enjoyed new growth. Similarly, materialistic persons often perform severe austerities to acquire the object of their desire. For example, politicians in America undergo grueling austerities while traveling about the countryside campaigning for election. Businessmen also will often deny personal comfort to make their business successful. Such austere persons, upon acquiring the fruits of their austerity, again become healthy and satisfied, like trees eagerly drinking rainwater after enduring the austerity of a dry, hot summer.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
His Holiness Hrdayananda dasa Goswami
Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
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