Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.64.12
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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sikatāḥ bhūmeḥ
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grains of sand of the earth
Classical hyperbole image (cf. Bṛhad-āraṇyaka, Rāmāyaṇa) for what cannot be counted. The Bhāgavatam uses it to set up the contrast: count this high, then lose it all through a single error.
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divi tārakāḥ
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stars in the sky
The second incalculable. Stars also figure in BG 10.21 (Kṛṣṇa as the moon among them); here they measure Nṛga's gifted cows. Wealth on a cosmic scale is being placed on one pan of the scale.
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varṣa - dhārāḥ
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drops of a rainfall
Varṣa (rain) + dhārā (stream, drop). The third Bhāgavata-favoured measure of the uncountable. Three figures for one fact: Nṛga's dāna was vast beyond reckoning.
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adadam sma gāḥ
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I gave cows
Imperfect of √dā. Go-dāna is, in the dharma-śāstras, the topmost form of charity. Nṛga's signature act and his eventual undoing share the same word-field — the gift becomes the offence when its object is wrong.
The idea here is that the King gave innumerable cows in charity.
According to ancient authorities these statements indicate only a countless number of cows. Others say that it is not incorrect that he stated that he gave such numbers of cows everyday, in different places and times, since giving even one cow at a place like Kuruksetra or at such times as an eclipse of the sun is equivalent to ten millions of cows.
I gave as many cows as the total of all grains of sand, stars and rain drops. The word ca indicates that actually the number of cows cannot be counted. Sma means that it is famous. The numbers cannot be imagined.
The example of sand indicates the cows were unlimited in number. The example of stars indicates that the cows were heavenly. The example of rain drops indicates that his giving was incessant. Or all the examples simply show unlimited cows. Sikatā is sand of a river bank. The examples are in order of increasing numbers. Sma indicates that it is well known, and not impossible to give that many cows.
- Where am I relying on the sheer volume of my good deeds to cover smaller carelessnesses?
- How can I balance generous breadth with careful accuracy in service?
Sand on the beach, stars in the sky, drops in a monsoon — the Bhāgavata's three classic figures for what cannot be counted. Nṛga's cows match all three. And yet a single cow given away by mistake undid the lot of them. The arithmetic of aparādha is not the arithmetic of piety.
King Bharata renounced his throne to perform tapas, gave in charity, executed sacrifices — and lost his next birth over a single deer he had grown attached to (SB 5.7–14). One small unauthorised affection cost him his hard-won progress.
Nṛga's lakhs of cows are Bharata's heap of austerities; the one wrongly-given cow is Bharata's one deer. The Bhāgavatam keeps showing: the scale of accrued merit does not insulate the soul from a single misstep.
My note
Source: vedabase.io