Prayers by King Kulasekhara to remember Krishna
Satsvarupa : In India almost twenty years ago, Prabhupada had translated and written commentary on this and several other verses - The Prayers of King Kulasekhara - for his Back to Godhead newspaper. Now, during the summer of 1968, while still recovering from his heart attack of a year ago, he sang this particular verse often. And several times he explained its meaning to the devotees gathered in his room in the evening.
krishna tvadiya-pada pankaja-panjarantam
adyaiva me visatu manasa-raja-hamsah
prana-prayana-samaye kapha-vata-pittaih
kanthavarodhana-vidhau smaranam kutas te
"Swans have a proclivity to stick their long necks underwater and wrap them around the stem of the lotus flower. So King Kulasekhara is praying, 'My dear Krishna, may the swan of my mind enter the network of the stem of Your lotus feet.' He is praying to do so now, at the present moment, while he is healthy and can chant Hare Krishna and entangle his mind in Krishna thought. Therefore, King Kulasekhara wishes that he may die immediately, because he fears that if he waits until later, when the time of death comes, he will be choking. The elements of his body will be disturbed, and there will be a death rattle, like 'gar, gar.' How will it be possible then to remember Krishna?"
Reference: Prabhupada-lila - Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami
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