॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Thursday, 12 January 2023 VII.01 - Examples of how Bhagavan manages this creation and deals with even bad people for their own good.
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This Skandha includes the story of Narasimha Avatara and the greatest of Bhaktas, Prince Prahlada. The build-up to the story is fascinating.
After hearing about how Bhagavan foiled Vrittra through Indra’s Vajrayudha, and how Diti's plans to kill Indra went to nought, a pertinent question arises. Why is Bhagavan taking sides and helping Indra?
श्रीराजोवाच
सम: प्रिय: सुहृद्ब्रह्मन् भूतानां भगवान् स्वयम् । इन्द्रस्यार्थे कथं दैत्यानवधीद्विषमो यथा ॥
T: King Parikshit inquired: "My dear Sage Shuka, I have a big doubt. The Supreme Being, Bhagavan Maha Vishnu, being everyone’s well-wisher, is equal and extremely affectionate towards everyone. How, then, did He become partial like a common man for the sake of Indra and thus kill Indra’s enemies like Hiranyakashipu? How can a person equal to everyone be partial to some and inimical toward others?"
"Bhagavan is full of bliss. He has no need to side with gods to get happiness. What interest would He have in acting partially? How could He be afraid or envious of asuras?"
The great sage Shuka liked the question very much. He replied, "Dear King, indeed the Srimad Bhagavatam gives us insights into Bhagavan's ways of running this creation. The study of Srimad Bhagavatam counteracts the effects of worldliness and instils devotion. That is why Sage Narada and others constantly chant His glories and tell His stories."
" Indeed, Bhagavan is Nirguna, beyond the three Gunas of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. But in His creation through the energy of His Maya, He voluntarily enters into beings and acts according to their Gunas as the embodied soul! That is His Leela. The balance of power in creation keeps shifting from the Sattvic gods, to the Rajasic asuras, and to the Tamasic Yakshas and Rakshasas. Their tussles and victories are all His Leela! He decides who should win when, based on His grand script. Therefore, He is never taking sides, but merely, as the Ishwara, acts always as the witness of all this drama played out by the combination of His own consciousness and the Maya energy shaped into beings with Gunas.”
“The next important factor in this Leela is Kala or Time. Everyone acts according to his Karma within the script of Kala.”
“At the Rajasuya Yaga performed by your grand uncle Yudhisthira, the King was astonished at how Sri Krishna dealt with Shishupala. After Shishupala committed a hundred offences, Sri Krishna beheaded him with his Chakra. Then Shishupala's soul emanated from his body and entered into Bhagavan Sri Krishna! Knowing that there can be no better end to one's life on earth than to merge into Bhagavan, Yudhisthira was astonished why Shishupala, such an evil prince, received Bhagavan’s grace! Luckily, Sage Narada was present in the royal assembly at that very moment. So he asked the Sage to solve this riddle.
“Although these two men — Sishuupala and Dantavakra — repeatedly blasphemed Bhagavan, Lord Sri Krishna (Vishnu), the Supreme Brahman, their lives were such that they were quite well off, with no ill-health nor hellish suffering. We are certainly most surprised by this. How were they granted, in the presence of many exalted persons, the highest privilege of entering very easily into the body of Sri Krishna, a fate most difficult to attain?”
Sage Narada was pleased to clarify the matter for everyone’s benefit. “Dear King, blasphemy and praise, chastisement and respect, are experienced because of ignorance. The body of the conditioned soul is planned by the Lord for suffering in the material world through the agency of the external energy called Maya. The conditioned soul considers his body to be his self and considers everything in relationship with the body to be his. With this wrong conception of life, he is subjected to dualities like praise and chastisement. He thinks that when the body is annihilated the living being is annihilated.”
“ Bhagavan Maha Vishnu, Ishwara, is the supreme controller, the Paramatma of all living entities. Because He has no material body, He has no false conception of “I” and “mine.” When He chastises the demons it is for their good, and when He accepts the prayers of the devotees it is for their good. He is affected neither by prayers nor by blasphemy. Therefore, by enmity or by devotional service, by fear, by affection, or by lusty desire — by all of these or any one of them — if a conditioned soul somehow or other concentrates his mind upon the Lord, the result is the same!"
“It is amazing that by devotional service one cannot achieve such intense absorption in thought of Bhagavan as one can through constant enmity toward Him. That is my opinion. A worm constantly thinks of the grasshopper as his enemy, and through that meditation during hibernation, he eventually becomes a grasshopper! Similarly, if the conditioned souls somehow or other think of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, who is Sat-Chit-Ananda-vigraha, they will become free from their sins. Whether thinking of Him as their worshippable Lord or as an enemy, they will regain their original spiritual state because of constantly thinking of Him.”
“My dear King Yudhishthira, the gopis by their lusty desires, Kamsa by his fear, Shishupala and other kings by envy, the Yadus by their familial relationship with Krishna, you Panḍavas by your great affection for Sri Krishna, and we, the general devotees, by our Bhakti Yoga, have obtained the mercy of Sri Krishna.”
“Atheists like King Vena, however, being unable to think of Sri Krishna’s form in any of these five ways, cannot attain salvation.”
Narada then went on to explain how Shishupala and Dantavakra had taken birth after Bhagavan Maha Vishnu’s doorkeepers (Jaya and Vijaya) incurred the curse from Sanandana and other Kumaras by their misdemeanour in Vaikuntha. The two attendants were granted the opportunity to be born as Vishnu’s sworn enemies three times and be liberated by being killed by Maha Vishnu Himself! They were born as Diti’s sons Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha. Respected by all asuras and Daityas, they were most powerful and hated Maha Vishnu from birth. They were again born as Ravana and Kumbhakarna, and were killed by Sri Rama ( Narada says that story will be told at a later date by Sage Markandeya to Yudhishthira!) Finally, they were born as Shishupala and Dantavakra to be enemies of Sri Krishna.
Maha Vishnu came as Lord Narasimha to destroy Hiranyakashipu after he tortured his son Prince Prahlada for his unswerving devotion to the Lord.
Yudhishthira now wanted to know the story of how Prahlada became a staunch devotee.
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॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Index - Skandhas I-III
Index - Skandha IV-V
Index - Skandha VI-VII
