Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.20.5
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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parjanyaḥ
—
the rain-god (Indra acting through cloud)
The Vedic personification of rain. Gītā 3.14 — annād bhavanti bhūtāni, parjanyād anna-sambhavaḥ — places parjanya in the sacrifice-cycle. Kṛṣṇa is the ultimate parjanya behind the parjanya.
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nipītam
—
drunk up
From ni + √pā — to drink down. Eight months of slow drinking; one season of return. The Bhāgavatam loves these long-rhythm verbs — they describe how the Lord's economy works at scales the jīva cannot perceive.
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vasu
—
wealth
Water named as wealth. Gauḍīyas note that in the Vedic worldview, water is the prototypical resource — Lakṣmī is born from waters, and Viṣṇu lies on water. To call rain 'wealth' is to remember its divine origin.
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kāle-āgate
—
when the proper time arrived
Locative absolute. Time (kāla) is Kṛṣṇa Himself (Gītā 10.30, 11.32). Nothing in the cycle is premature or late — kāla is the impersonal face of Bhagavān's will.
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sva-gobhiḥ
—
with its own rays
Compound: sva (own) + go (ray/cow). Go is polysemous — ray, cow, sense — and the Bhāgavatam plays on this. The sun draws with its rays; Kṛṣṇa draws with His gopīs and His cows; the universe is gathered and returned in many keys of the same word.
The ācāryas compare the sun’s evaporating the earth’s wealth of water to a king’s collecting taxes. In Chapter Twenty, of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this analogy as follows: “Clouds are accumulated water drawn from the land by the sunshine. Continually for eight months the sun evaporates all kinds of water from the surface of the globe, and this water is accumulated in the shape of clouds, which are distributed as water when there is need. Similarly, a government exacts various taxes from the citizens, such as income tax and sales tax, which the citizens are able to pay by their different material activities: agriculture, trade, industry and so on. This taxation is compared to the sun’s drawing water from the earth. When there is again need of water on the surface of the globe, the same sunshine converts the water into clouds and distributes it all over the globe. Similarly, the taxes collected by the government must be distributed to the people again, as educational work, public work, sanitation work and so on. This is very essential for a good government. The government should not simply exact taxes for useless squandering; the tax collection should be utilized for the public welfare of the state.”
The sun (parijanya) by is rays (svagobhih) draws water from the earth for eight months. When the time (kale) arrives, the sun returns the water. The sun is the king of the earth; the water is the tax. Drawing up the water is taking the taxes. The rain of the clouds is the king’s gift back to the citizens. The sun is compared to a king because it takes and gives water just like the king takes taxes and gives benefits.
This verse compares the sun to a king, who takes (nipiṭam) taxes in the form of water, wealth for the living beings.
The sun is compared to a king. During the monsoon the cloud begins to release water as showers etc.
- What has the Lord 'evaporated' from me that may be returning as rain when needed?
- Where am I mourning a withdrawal that is actually accruing for later distribution?
The sun drank earth's water for eight months and now returns it as rain — this is the Vaiṣṇava economy. Bhagavān as Sūrya (and ultimately as Viṣṇu, whom the sun-orb represents) does not seize; He gathers in order to give back at the right hour. Wealth in the hands of the Lord is always wealth held in trust for jīvas.
When earth withheld her grain, Mahārāja Pṛthu, an avatāra of Viṣṇu, took up his bow and threatened her — and she yielded her wealth back to the citizens (SB 4.18). The pattern is the same as the sun's: divine power compels the seasonal return of what was hoarded, so that jīvas may eat.
Gauḍīyas read Pṛthu's act as the political form of what the sun-cloud cycle does naturally: Bhagavān's representatives ensure that no wealth — material or spiritual — stays trapped where it cannot serve.
My note
Source: vedabase.io