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2024-04-19, 4:08 PM |
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Chapter 1: The
Supreme Lord Is Equal unto
Everyone
(1) The king said: 'How could the Supreme Lord
being loved as a friend equally disposed towards all living beings oh
brahmin, in support of Indra kill the demons as if He would be partial
[see also B.G. 9: 29]? (2) Being
of the highest bliss
and free from the material modes there is for
Him absolutely no personal need to side with the enlightened community
or fear and fight the demons. (3) Oh glorious one, can you please
remove the great doubt that
thus has risen in us concerning the qualities of Nârâyana?'
(4-5) The honorable rishi said: 'What an
excellent question to ask oh great King! Because of the wonderful
activities of the Lord, that are sung by the leading souls of piety,
the sages headed by Nârada, we see more and more the glories and
devotion of His devotees. I will discuss with you all the
topics relating to the Lord, but let me first offer my
obeisances to Krishna's greatest sage [Vyâsadeva]. (6) Even though He is free from the modes,
unborn and unmanifest, the Supreme Lord transcendental to the material
world enters the material qualities of His illusory energy
[in the form of the guna avatâras Brahmâ, S'iva and Vishnu] and
accepts obligations and responsibilities [compare B.G. 9: 11]. (7) The
qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas
belong to material nature and not to the spirit soul oh King. For the spiritual self there is no question of
their combined prominence or decay, the on and off [of the fickleness
one has with material things]. (8) According
to
the
time
of
their
prevalence
one
with
the
mode
of sattva
[goodness] finds the devas and the rishis [the gods and
sages], with the mode of rajas [passion] one encounters Asuras
[the
unenlightened ones] and with the mode of tamas [inertia] one is
faced with Yakshas and Râkshasas [ghosts and demons, see also
B.G. 14: 11-13]. (9) The
way one knows fire as residing in
other elements [like wood], the sages, the expert knowers, perceive the
Supersoul as present within themselves and this [divine self] is not
visible when one looks at all appearances in the outer world [see B.G. 10: 10]. (10) When
He desires to
create material bodies for the living entities, the Supreme One
manifests them on the basis of His creative potency in the mode of
passion. Desiring to engage in different bodies He is of the nature of
goodness and when the Lord is about to put an end to it all He in
accordance with that quality [of destruction] engages the mode of
ignorance [see B.G. 9: 10]. (11) Oh ruler of man, the true cause that
is the male principle, the original unmanifest foundation of
matter [pradhâna], is the [primal, expanding] movement of
time [as the fourth dimension]
which forms the shelter of the Lord [to meditate upon, see also B.G. 11: 32]. (12) Oh
King, also being this [authentic notion of] Time, the Supreme Lord of
name and fame increases in the
mode of goodness the numbers of
enlightened souls and is consequently,
as the friend of the demigods, inimical to and destructive with the
unenlightened ones [the materialists] who are ruled by passion and
ignorance. (13) Concerning
this
[destruction/protection
plan]
in
the past upon the
request of King Yudhishthhira,
the man without enemies, the following
story
was lovingly told by
the great sage of enlightenment
[Nârada] at the grand
sacrifice. (14-15) The
king, the son of Pându, after
having seen how at the great offering called Râjasûya the
King of Cedi
[S'is'upâla] so wondrously had merged into the Supreme
Personality of
Vâsudeva, had as the ruler wonder-stricken at the sacrifice,
before all
the sages listening, asked Nârada who sat there the following
question. (16)
Yudhishthhira had said: 'Oh how wonderful and for sure difficult to
achieve for even the transcendentalists is the attainment of
S'is'upâla behaving so impudently towards Vâsudeva, the
Supreme Absolute Truth. (17) We
all would like to know how this can be oh
sage; from insulting the Lord Vena was sent to hell by the brahmins. (18) That sinful son of Damaghosha fostered from
his earliest prattle to his last days anger towards Govinda, just as
did the evil-minded Dantavakra [his brother]. (19) No
white leprosy [vitiligo] appeared on their tongues nor did they land
in the
darkness
of hell because of their repeated
offenses against Lord
Vishnu, the Supreme Personality of Brahman [compare B.G. 10: 12]. (20)
How could they for everyone to see, so easily find absorption [sâyujya-mukti]
in
the
Supreme
Lord
whose
supreme
position
is
so
hard
to attain? (21) My intelligence concerning this matter
is as fickle as
a candle flickering in the wind. Please
oh man of all fortune, tell us more about the particular cause of
this great wonder.'
(22) The son of Vyâsa said: 'After hearing
the words of the king asking questions in the midst of the
assembly, Nârada, the greatest among the sages, felt satisfied
and
addressed him about the topics. (23) S'rî
Nârada
said:
'This body subject to insults, praise,
honor and dishonor is the product of a lack of discrimination between the
primal state of material nature [pradhâna]
and the supreme [position of
the transcendental witness] oh King
[see also B.G. 2: 14, 12: 18-19]. (24) Oh
earthly ruler, because of this the living beings in this world suffer from the misconception of 'I' and 'mine',
just as
from the reproach and punishment associated with it. (25) Living
with
this
false
conception
one
thinks
that
the
destruction
of
bodies is the same as the
destruction of living beings. The misconception [including reproaching
Him and the fear for punishment] is there not because of Him [but
because of being without Him] who is the beatitude of detachment and
emancipation in
person. How could there from His side, the side of the Soul of all, the Supreme One and Highest Control be any question of violence [mentally and
physically]? (26) Therefore,
whether
one
is
of
a
constant
enmity,
of
devotion,
of
fear, of affection or of lusty
desires, one should stay connected and not care about anything else. (27) The
absorption [though] attained by someone in enmity might not be the same
as the absorption attained by someone in devotional service,
that is my definite opinion. (28-29) A larva checked by a bee in a comb may be
filled with anxiety and resentment, but because of that bee attain the
same
form. Just the same one may [like
S'is'upâla and
Dantavakra] with Krishna, who as the Supreme Lord assumed
a human form, [even] be freed
from one's sins by constantly thinking of Him in enmity. (30) Moved
by lust, hatred, fear, affection and
devotion many who united their mind in the Lord consequently gave up
on
sin and thus attained their destination. (31) Oh
King, the gopîs realized
this by their lusty
desires, Kamsa by his fear, S'is'upâla and other kings by their
hatred,
Krishna's family members by their kinship, You [Pândavas] by
your
affection for Him and we through our bhakti. (32) Not to
be someone like Vena, who couldn't
adopt any of these five forms of respect in regard of the Original
Person, one must fix one's mind on Krishna in one of these ways. (33) S'is'upâla
and
Dantavakra,
the sons of your
maternal aunt oh Pândava,
were [incarnations of] the two exalted
attendants of Vishnu [Jaya and Vijaya, see 3.15-16] who because of a curse of the brahmins [the
Kumâras] fell
from grace.'
(34)
S'rî Yudhishthhira said:
'Who pronounced that curse and what kind of curse was that? It is
difficult to believe that such a thing might happen to a servant of the
Lord. How can it be that those
exclusively devoted to Him have to take another birth [see B.G. 4:
9 and 8:
16]? (35) Those who reside in Vaikunthha are not
concerned with a material body, material senses or a material life.
Please describe how they could be bound to a physical body.'
(36) S'rî Nârada said:
'One day it happened that the sons of Brahmâ, Sanandana and the
others [the Kumâras], traveling around the three worlds arrived
at the place where Vishnu resides.
(37) When they [Jaya and Vijaya] saw them approaching who,
despite of being
born before
the ancients of the universe [see 1.3:
6], looked like boys of five or
six years old, the
two
guards
thought
they were naked children and denied them access. (38) And so they
full of anger cursed them: 'Oh, you two unworthy souls, residing at the
feet of the Slayer of Madhu it is most sinful not to be free from
passion and ignorance and therefore, oh fools, you will soon hereafter
be born from the womb of an unenlightened mother [see 3.17].' (39) Thus being cursed to fall down from their
abode the merciful sages also said to them: 'May it be so that after
three births you turn back to your abode.'
(40) The two were thereafter born as the sons of Diti and by the
Daityas and Dânavas honored as Hiranyakas'ipu, the
older brother and Hiranyâksha, the younger one. (41) Hiranyakas'ipu was killed by the Lord
appearing in the form of a lion [Lord Nrisimhadeva] and
Hiranyâksha was killed by Him when He in the form of a boar had
appeared to uplift the world [Lord Varâha, see 3.18-19].
(42) Hiranyakas'ipu desirous to
kill his son Prahlâda, the beloved devotee of Kes'ava, tried
different ways of torture to cause his death. (43) But since his son protected by the power of
the Supreme Lord [was focussed on] Him, the Soul in all living beings
who is peaceful and equal towards all, he
with all the might he displayed could not kill him. (44) Next the two demons with the names of Râvana and
Kumbhakarna took their birth from Kes'inî as the sons of
Vis'ravâ and caused a lot
of trouble to all the people. (45) In
order to relieve the two of the curse, thereupon Râmacandra manifested Himself and killed them. You will hear about the exploits of
Râma [see 9:
10
& 11] from
the mouth of Mârkandeya, my best. (46) In
their third birth the two were born in
this world as kshatriya sons [as S'is'upâla and Dantavakra] to your aunt. They are
now freed from the curse by Krishna who destroyed their sins with His cakra. (47) The gate keepers of Vishnu by
meditating in a bond of intense hatred managed to get near to Hari
again and found
absorption in the essence of the infallible Lord.'
(48) S'rî Yudhishthhira said: 'How could there
[with Hiranyakas'ipu] be such a hatred for that great
soul, his own son? Please tell
me oh supreme sage, how Prahlâda managed to develop such an
attachment to
Acyuta [the Infallible Lord].'
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