Chapter 2: Hiranyakas'ipu, the King of the Demons, on Bereavement

(1) S'rî Nârada said: 'When the brother [Hiranyâksha] as said was killed by the Lord in the form of a boar [see 3.18-19], Hiranyakas'ipu got very sad and angry oh King. (2) Enraged biting his lips because of this, he with his eyes fuming of anger stared into the grey sky and then spoke. (3) He with his terrible teeth and fierce look ghastly to behold, raised his trident in an assembly of Dânavas and said with a grimace the following: (4-5) 'Oh Dânavas and Daityas, Dvimûrdha ['the two-headed one'], Tryaksha ['the three-eyed one'] S'ambara and S'atabâhu ['the hundred-armed one']; oh Hayagrîva ['the horsehead'], Namuci, Pâka, Ilvala and Vipracitti! Puloma, S'akuna and all others, listen to what I have to tell you and may you thereafter all quickly act to it without delay. (6) My so very dear brother and well-wisher was, while those insignificant enemies, the theists who are of worship, conspired behind his back, killed by Hari who was supposed to treat us all equally. (7-8) He [not being equal] has forsaken His love for us and is now, abominably in mâyâ behaving like a wild beast. Like a child He unsteadily changes from this to that form according to the desire of His worshiping devotees. With my trident I will cut His neck and make Him swim in blood so that I can find my peace in satisfying him [Hiranyâksha,] who was so fond of drinking it. (9) When He, [Vishnu] that most deceitful enemy of all is finished, the same will happen to those guys of God whose life belongs to Vishnu, just like it is with the drying up of the branches and leaves of a tree that is cut by its roots. (10) All of you meanwhile go to that world so neatly kept in order by the priests and politicians and see to the destruction of all those repenting and sacrificing bookworms who are of vow and charity. (11) Lord Vishnu roots in their sacrificial activities. He is that person full of religious principles who exhaustingly being worshiped by the twice-born ones is the man of dharma, the one who is the shelter of these gods and sages, forefathers and all the rest. (12) Wherever the twice-born ones keep their cows, study their Vedas and are busy with their varnâs'rama ado, set all those towns afire and cut down all their trees.'

(13) Proving him their respects they took the instructions of their master on their heads and terrorized, as experts in destruction, all the people. (14) The cities and villages, pasturing grounds, orchards and gardens, fields, forests, hermitages and mines, farms, mountain places, cowherd camps and also the capitals, they all burned down. (15) Some of them set the dwellings ablaze with firebrands and others demolished with picks the bridges, surrounding walls and the city gates while another group took axes to destroy the source of livelihood by cutting down the fruit trees. (16) When the people thus time and again were disturbed by the followers of the king of the Daityas, the God-fearing ones gave up their heavenly positions and wandered all over the earth not to be visible to the demons. (17) Hiranyakas'ipu, very distressed about the loss of his brother, performed the obsequies and pacified his nephews. (18-19) S'akuni, S'ambara, Dhrishthi, Bhûtasantâpana, Vrika, Kâlanâbha, Mahânâbha, Haris'mas'ru and Utkaca as also their mother Rushâbhânu and Diti, his own mother, he as a well adapted person addressed in sweet words saying this, oh ruler of man.

(20) Hiranyakas'ipu said: 'Oh mother, oh mother; oh sister in law and nephews, you should not lament about our hero who facing the enemy chose for the glory of a hero's death. (21) Just like travelers who amassing at a road house thereafter resume their course oh sweet mother, the ways of living beings, who by providence in this world were brought together in one place [in a family, a country or religion], part again according to each his karma. (22) The eternal inexhaustible soul, free from the tinge of matter, is capable of going anywhere. Knowing all and being transcendental that soul takes up the self of a body that under the influence of the material world demonstrates various qualities [see B.G. 13: 22]. (23) Just as being reflected in water the trees may appear to be moving, one can also with moving one's head [one's 'eyes'] have the illusion that the world is moving around. (24) So too the unchangeable living being is confused by the mind he has with the qualities of matter oh mother of mine, which leads to it that he despite of his formlessness starts to believe in a physical form. (25-26) This soul confounded about his formless existence, falls in love with the body and thus knows loved ones and enemies, allies and strangers in his karma with the material affair. Departing from being born and dying he laments in different ways and has all kinds of worries, is uncertain about what the scriptures say and forgetful about proper discrimination. (27) In this context one often recites an ancient story about Yamarâja in discussion with the friends of someone who died. Listen closely. (28) Once in Us'înara there was a famous king known as Suyajña who was killed by his enemies in a war. His kinsmen sat around him. (29-31) With his jeweled armor scattered here and there and his ornaments and garlands fallen down, he was lying there in his blood pierced by an arrow through his heart. With his hair loose and his eyes obscured, he had his lips bitten in anger, his lotus face covered by dust and his arms and weapons cut off lying on the battlefield. When the queens ascertained that the master of Us'înara thus was treated by providence, they had their eyes full of tears and pounded their breast constantly with their hands while they fallen down at his feet repeatedly cried 'oh husband!' (32) Wailing loudly about their beloved husband they moistened the lotus feet with their tears that were red because of the kunkum of their breasts. With their ornaments and hair loosened they for everyone heart-rending lamented, sobbing pitiably:

(33) 'Alas by merciless providence oh Lord of us, you oh beloved one, have been taken beyond the range of our sight. You used to provide the livelihood of the state and the inhabitants of Us'înara, but now that you have departed you are the cause of an increasing lamentation. (34) You were such a grateful husband for us oh King, how can we all following you live without you? You who are our best friend, please tell us whereto those who served your lotus feet, have to follow you, now you left us.' (35) The queens thus lamenting had taken the dead husband on their lap, not wishing that the corpse would be cremated. Meanwhile the sun was setting in the west. (36) Hearing the kith and kin of the ruler crying that loudly, Yamarâja personally appeared in the form of a boy and spoke to them.

(37) S'rî Yamarâja said: 'Alas how can you people older than me who saw the law of nature ruling every day of your lives, be of this bewilderment? Don you not understand that you yourselves will return to the same nature where this man returned to? Yet you meaninglessly weep [compare B.G. 2: 28]! (38) Oh we are most fortunate  because we, presently abandoned by our father and mother, weak as we are have not been eaten by the wolves! So why worry knowing that He who protected us in the womb will also protect us later on? (39) Oh poor women, the Supreme Controller by the exercise of His will creates all of this without ever changing Himself and it is He who next to that also maintains and destroys. One says that all that moves and does not move belongs to the game of the Lord who is always fully entitled to maintain something or someone or put an end to it all. (40) Something lost in the street can, protected by destiny, be preserved, while  something kept at home, can be fated to be lost. Despite of being unprotected one under His protection may remain alive whether one is at home or in the forest, but this one here being struck down, well protected as he was, did not survive. (41) Any embodied soul has his own type of birth according to his karma and also disappears in due course of time because of [this finite] karma. But all of this does not apply to the soul despite of the fact that he, being situated within this material world, in various forms is bound to her different modes. He is completely different [see also B.G. 2: 20]. (42) This body of the person that with fire, water and earth out of ignorance was born, undergoes changes and is vanquished again, is just as separate from him as the material of a house is separate from its indweller. (43) The fire in wood can be observed separately, just as the air within the body and the [time-effect of the] all pervading ether that does not mix with anything. The same way the living  entity can be separately considered as transcendental to its material encasement of involvement with the modes. (44) [The body of] this man [called] Suyajña is there right in front of you and you, oh foolish people, now cry for him. But he who heard and spoke with that body in this world, you have never seen! (45) The great ruler of the body, the life air, is despite of residing within this body not the listener, nor the speaker. It is the soul and he differs from the life air that is locked up in the body with all its sense organs. (46) That what expands and manifests, this might, this powerful soul, obtains and forsakes high and low-class bodies that are characterized by the five elements, the senses and a mind. In that engagement he [this power of the self in the form of the so-called linga, the subtle body] differs from the form he assumes by dint of his moral quality [see also 4.29]. (47) One is bound to karma for as long as one is covered by the subtle body [consisting of mind, intelligence and false ego]. From that karmic bondage there is the reversal [from being controlled by the spirit soul to being controlled by the body] and the misery which follows that illusory unification [B.G. 8: 6]. (48) Just like everything produced by the senses with what one sees in a daydream is false and offers no firm ground, it is equally useless to cling to the dream of [the happiness and distress derived from] the material qualities of nature. (49) They who understand that, for that reason do not complain about that what is permanent and that what is transient in this world. Or else they could, as you'll understand, not tackle the habits of those who do make their complaints [see also B.G. 2: 11]. (50) Some hunter who was assigned the task to decimate the number of birds in the forest, spread a net and luring the birds here and there with food then caught them. (51) When he saw a pair of kulinga birds foraging in the forest, the hunter quickly managed to lure the female bird of the two. (52) Oh queens, the male seeing how the female bird in the grip of time was caught in the ropes of the net, very upset did not know what to do next so that the poor thing emotionally started to wail about its mate: (53) 'Alas what a cruel fate for my wife who was so kind to me! What can I do for the poor one crying for me, her poor lordship? (54) Let the Lord also take my life. What is the use of the life of the single half of my body? What kind of miserable existence is it to suffer that pain for a lifetime! (55) How unfortunate are my babies waiting for their mother in their nest. How can I without the mother maintain the young that cannot fly yet?' (56) While the bird thus with wet eyes most sad at a distance lamented over the loss of his beloved, the bird-catcher as a messenger of time managed to sneak up on him and take his life by piercing him with an arrow.

(57) And so it is with you, oh ignorant ladies. You do not see the finality of your existence! Lamenting over your husband will not bring him back, not even in a hundred years.'

(58) S'rî Hiranyakas'ipu said: 'The boy thus having spoken, astounded the hearts of all the relatives. They understood that everything material was just a temporary, false appearance [see also B.G. 2: 18]. (59) After Yamarâja in this form had given instruction he disappeared. Thereupon the relatives of King Suyajña performed the duties for the funeral. (60) Therefore do not lament about yourself or anyone else. In this material world one only lacking in knowledge is obsessed with the meaning of this 'mine' and thine' of one's self-interest and the interest of others. For who is that actually, that soul of you and of the others?'

(61) S'rî Nârada said: 'Diti and her daughter-in-law [Rushâbhânu,] hearing the speech of the king of the Daityas promptly gave up their grief over their son and husband and submitted their minds to the true knowledge of life.'