19920112 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.4.11

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on January 12, 1992 – in Chennai (Madras), India. The lecture begins with a reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.4.11.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.4.11

devy uvāca
na yasya loke ‘sty atiśāyanaḥ priyas
tathāpriyo deha-bhṛtāṁ priyātmanaḥ
tasmin samastātmani mukta-vairake
ṛte bhavantaṁ katamaḥ pratīpayet

Translation: The blessed goddess said: Lord Śiva is the most beloved of all living entities. He has no rival. No one is very dear to him, and no one is his enemy. No one but you could be envious of such a universal being, who is free from all enmity.

Purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda: In Bhagavad-gītā (9.29) the Lord says, samo’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu: “I am equal to all living entities.” Similarly, Lord Śiva is a qualitative incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, so he has almost the same qualities as the Supreme Lord. Therefore he is equal to everyone; no one is his enemy, and no one is his friend, but one who is envious by nature can become the enemy of Lord Śiva. Therefore Satī accused her father, “No one but you could be envious of Lord Śiva or be his enemy.” Other sages and learned brāhmaṇas were present, but they were not envious of Lord Śiva, although they were all dependent on Dakṣa. Therefore no one but Dakṣa could be envious of Lord Śiva. That was the accusation of Satī.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport to text 11, chapter 4, canto 4 of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the matter of, “Sati quits her body”. Spoken at the Madras Ratha-yātrā Festival Pandal, 12^th January 1992 in the 505^th year of our Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

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Jayapatākā Swami: So Lord Śiva had warned his wife, his consort Sati not to go to the sacrifice of Dakṣa. Dakṣa was performing a very big sacrifice and the wives of the different, consorts of the different demigods, they were all going to attend a function. And when Satī saw everyone going, she also got the urge to go to that function. So she asked Lord Śiva, if he would take her. But Lord Śiva, last time he had gone to a sacrifice of Dakṣa. Dakṣa had offended him and there was a cursing and counter cursing between the brahmanas and the followers of Śiva, Mahādeva. So then he decided it was better not to go and avoid a confrontation. But Satī wanted to go. So he advised her not to go, to stay at home. But she didn’t listen to his advice and she went anyway.

So here is the human nature. Even as the human nature is a reflection of the godly nature in this material world. The difficulty seems to be there between husband and wife, that sometimes even if the husband gives good advice, the wife doesn’t want to listen. As shown even in the personality of Satī, the personified material energy, the goddess of this material energy, she also didn’t listen to Lord Śiva.

So now she is regretting it, to have come to the sacrifice and see that Lord Śiva wasn’t being offered any oblations. Neither was he being offered any oblations nor was there any seat meant for him. So then she realized that the problem was that her father, who was a gross materialist was envious of Lord Śiva. In the Vedas, a family obligations are promoted, even in the same story, it’s encouraging how a wife should follow a Kṛṣṇa conscious husband, take his advice. At the same time, the exception to the rule, confirms the rule: in a family—husband, wife, children—they should all be serving Kṛṣṇa. They should all be helping each other in advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. But here is a contradictory example unfolding, where the daughter is chastising her father, calling him, ill names, and she is called the ‘blessed goddess’. She is considered to be right, in what she is doing. Because Dakṣa had disqualified himself as her father. The duty of a father, a guru, a teacher and a king or head of state is to be able to lead their children, disciples, students and prajā, citizens or subjects; through the dharma, ardha, kāma to the ultimate achievement of mokṣa, if they cannot deliver their children, disciples, students or citizens from the cycle of birth and death they are not a qualified parent, guru, teacher or king or head of state. So the Vedas say, pitā na syād, mata na syād, guru na syād, rāja na syād—they are not parents, they are not guru, they are not teachers—if they are simply in name only, but they cannot deliver one, they are not really, what they seem to be.

So she was going with great respect to see her father. But she understood, why her own father is not receiving her, is not saying, ‘Hello!’ is not giving her any greeting, only because she has become the wife of Śiva. And he is so envious against Śiva that he won’t recognize his own daughter. Then immediately she could understand. This is the problem with the person from whom I have taken birth. He is not offering respect to Śiva, he is not giving any oblation to Śiva, he is not even accepting me, his own daughter because I am the wife of Śiva. Why he is become so envious? Why others are not envious? So this must be his own defect. Because Lord Śiva is a faultless person. He is beloved of all living entities, has no rival. Everyone is his equal. No one is too dear to him, no one is his enemy. So she is making her presentation. Of course, we know that Satī is famous, because she emulated herself. She decided that she didn’t want to be the daughter of such an envious person. The soul is eternal and she is also eternal. The energies of Kṛṣṇa are eternal. So why should she have to have a body given from someone, who is envious of her own . . . of a pure devotee like Śiva, whose her . . . is also her consort. So she decided to give up the body. But first she is stating that reason is very clearly, why.

So, in the Vedas it says, one should respect the guru, respect the parents, respect the teacher, respect the king. But there are exceptions to the rule. If the respected person becomes envious against Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa’s pure devotee, then they are no longer worthy of respect. An envious person we can reject. This is the teaching. We are to be non violent. But the Vedas also say that, if a snake is killed, a poisonous venomous snake, then even the saintly persons don’t feel sad. Because a snake can bite anyone without reason.

An envious person means he is envy without reason. Envy means simply due to bad intention he is against someone. There is no reason. It’s not envy, if someone is doing something wrong and the authority wants to check him. Hiraṇyakaśipu was torturing Prahlāda and Narasiṁhadeva came and destroyed him, liberated him. So that’s not considered wrong. Even someone may say, oh, he was envious against Prahlāda, just because he tortured His devotee. In the Lord, this quality is not wrong. There is just cause, Hiraṇyakaśipu was torturing Prahlāda, who was an innocent child, he had done no fault. Even in the state today, if a parent tortures his child the police can go and arrest him, put the parent in jail. He may say, “I am the father, I am the mother. So I can put cigarettes in my child. I can burn my child, I can beat my child bloody.” No, the law does not accept you are a parent to protect your child not torture your child. So what the Vedas are teaching is very logical. So similarly here, the parent has become envious against the pure devotee of the Lord, which means he is also envious against the Lord indirectly. So Satī decided, “Why should I keep such a father?” So instead of killing the father, she decided to kill herself to leave that body and take a new birth from another parent. She will become Pārvatī, daughter of Himalayas. Instead of Satī or Dakṣinī, she decided to give up that connection. And history tells us she became Pārvatī, son of the Himalayas, a daughter of (excuse me) daughter of the Himalayas. So, this is a very unique history.

Bhāgavata has several instructions here about Lord Śiva. We know here, in South India, there was a time when there was a lot of misunderstanding between the Śaivites and the Vaiṣṇavas to the point that there was war spot, kidnappings, torturings. But here in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, there is a very strong lesson not to be envious of void Śiva. Not to be envious of any Vaiṣṇava. So from these teachings the devotees, they learn to respect Lord Śiva also. According to our realization: Vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ: Lord Śiva is a great devotee, and we respect him as the greatest devotee.

Here in Tamil Nadu, in the history of Rāmānuja, we find that there was a king of Kāñcīpuram and Śrīraṅgam, who had become a Śaivaite and he wanted to force Rāmānuja to declare that Śiva was the Supreme Lord. So he sent his soldiers to arrest Rāmānuja. But they came first as friends saying, “The king is inviting you to see him for a friendly discussion.” But someone informed that there was ill play at hand. So the secretary of Rāmānuja was a gṛhastha. He said, “Please take my white cloth and give me your saffron cloth. You go and take your disciples and you hide. Leave this place to the jungle. Go to another kingdom. This king is up to no good.” And so the secretary posed himself as Rāmānuja and was taken away with another devotee to see the Śaivaite king. At that time, Rāmānuja escaped and went to the place called Melkoṭe. Melkoṭe is now in Karnataka and there was a Jain king in charge of that place. And he was there, he preached and eventually, he converted Jain king to a Vaiṣṇava-dharma. And I think there is ancient some temples also there in Melkoṭe. I don’t know if they were established by Rāmānuja or before that. While this was going on . . . the secretary of Rāmānuja, he was put before that king. And the king said, I forget the exact discussion. It was a quite recorded discussion, it’s very well recorded. My memory fails me. That he asked him something to the effect that, who is the Supreme Lord? So naturally he replied, “Viṣṇu!” He said, “How you can say Viṣṇu, when Lord Śiva is the destroyer of all the worlds. He, who can destroy something must be the Supreme.” He kept some logic like that. So he answered very nicely how Śiva is destroying, and Brahmā is creating, but everything is happening through the power of Viṣṇu. So the king, he said, “Well, you are envious of Śiva, because you are not declaring him to be the Supreme.” He said, “I would kill you, but you saved my sister.”

One time when Rāmānuja was young, he had cured his sister, who was ghostly, haunted by giving viṣṇu-mantra. So he said, “You saved my sister, so I won’t kill you. But because you are blind to the truth of Lord Śiva’s supreme position, we are going to make you blind.” So then he blinded the secretary and they beat him, the other devotee also. But very soon after that, the king mysteriously died of natural causes, some disease and he died. The next king, his younger brother was not so fanatical, rather he took to Vaiṣṇavism. The very drastic changes from one government to the next. Sometimes here in South India, still seems to be that way. (laughter) So Rāmānuja came back to Śrīraṅgam, then that secretary was blind. He was chanting at the temple of Kāñcīpuram, Varadaraja and twice the Deity offered him a blessing for his beautiful bhajanas. He said, “I will give you whatever you want.” But each time the secretary asked forgiving all the old enemies, who had tortured him or done things against him. Then he went to see Rāmānuja to visit him, paid his obeisances. Rāmānuja said, “I heard the Deity has offered you a blessing. So it’s very nice that you never ask anything for yourself. You want to do causeless devotional service, so you are just asking to forgive all the enemies, who have done things against you. But your body has already been offered to Kṛṣṇa and guru. So your body is the property of the guru. But now your property is not able to function perfectly because it’s missing something. So if the Deity asks you again, you please ask the Deity to fix the property of your guru. Make it complete so it can do the proper service it should do.” The purport being you don’t have to ask anything for yourself. Since he was such a selfless devotee, if he would ask to have his eyes returned because he was considering his body to be the property of the guru and he was only using his body in the service of the guru, it wouldn’t be a selfish consideration. So indirectly speaking in this way, the servant understood the purport, went back and was again worshipping Varadarāja and Varadarāja asked again, offered that any blessing you want, you can have. So that time he prayed that, “My guru has some property, which is not complete, it’s become damaged. So if you can make it complete so it can serve the guru, that will be pleasing to the guru. So this is what I want.” So then his eyesight was returned. Even though the eyes were physically plucked out, the whole optic nerves and everything were restored completely, the eyeball intact, which is not medically very feasible. This happened by the Lord’s causeless mercy. So then he went and submitted himself before Rāmānuja to take up the service again. So these are all historical accounts happened within the past century, past millennium or so.

So these difficulties were there. According to the viewpoint of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we respect Lord Śiva as a great devotee. We avoid offending him. We also try to, we avoid offending any other Vaiṣṇava. Because offending a Vaiṣṇava, not only that one person suffers, but the whole place is forced to suffer. From the ancient descriptions, it seemed that Tamil Nadu was a very lush place. But now it’s become very dry, compared to previous descriptions. Before we read, how the saints that they travel from one place to the next had to go through very thick . . . These offenses will be counteracted and there will be more rain. This would also solve the Kāverī water problem. I don’t have the statistics. Yamarāja may be keeping track, what are the offenses? But we heard that effigies of Rāma were burnt, many different types offensive things were done in the past. Certainly these have a bad effect on all the people.

When Lord Nityānanda was offended by Rāmacandra Khān, after he also offended Haridāsa Thakur, there was a very big reaction.

[You know, Rāmacandra Khān, anyone here doesn’t know Rāmacandra Khan story? Whoever doesn’t raise their hand, I am going to call on him to explain. Only two don’t know. Will you explain the history of Rāmacandra Khān? Pardon? Why didn’t you raise your hand when I asked? Who doesn’t know the story? Who doesn’t know the story of Rāmacandra Khān? Please raise your hand. (laughter) All right, a lot of people here are shy to raise their hand. No, they just want to know, if somebody everybody knows. But then people they don’t know and they don’t change their head. If we ask people if they know Tamil or they know English in Tamil and they don’t know. Don’t be shy. Raise your hand. We just want you to understand that the youth, I don’t know many languages. There is nothing to be ashamed of. We are rather shy, we don’t know Tamil.]

So anyway, Rāmacandra Khān was a landlord in Bengal during the empire, in the time of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And he was at the time when Hussein Shah was the emperor. So Rāmacandra Khān was Hindu, but he had been given some title by the Emperor ‘Khān’ which meant, he was like a lord. It’s like a Mughal title. Right? Khān. But he had Ramacandra, he was a Hindu. So he had given some area to administrate. But he was a sense gratifier. He was enjoying dancing girls, and drinking and he was worshiping Devī for enjoying material sense gratification. When Haridāsa Ṭhākura came in his area and was preaching people glorified Haridāsa Ṭhākura said, “He was a great devotee.” So everyone, I hope most people know the story, where Haridāsa Ṭhākura was tested by the prostitute. This Rāmacandra Khān was the one who offered a reward of a thousand gold coins or silver coins, I forget to any girl, who could make him fall down. Of course, only the loose women were interested in such a proposal. So the dancing girls, amongst them there was one very famous star. So she was willing to go for the reward, said, “I can break his vows.” So she went and tested him in three nights. But in the end she became so moved by Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s chanting. I am just saying in a nutshell because most people know the story. Then she became a devotee and he initiated her and she started chanting. When Rāmacandra Khān came, he was practically fainted, when he saw that the girl was shaved up, chanting japa said, “I have given up my sinful life. Go back.” So that’s the normal end of the story everybody knows.

But in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is a further elaboration. He is the same person that Nityānanda Prabhu went to visit him. But when Nityānanda came, he would refuse to see Nityānanda. He refused to let Him come in his house. He said, “Nityānanda is a Vaiṣṇava, so he is dirty. I don’t want Him in my house. Let Him sit out on a place, where we offer bali-dhāna to the goddess Kali. Let Him sit over there.” So they put some grass mat or something down in that place and offered Nityānanda to sit. So Nityānanda sat in that maṇḍapa and He just said that, “This person is destroying himself, because of his offenses he is going to be completely destroyed. All the people depended on him. The villagers and other people, nobody protested, because they are afraid of his lord. But because they didn’t protest, they also had to take the reaction.” So Nityānanda, He went away very dissatisfied, very angry. And how this person is mistreating so many Vaiṣṇavas. Even He came there just to get him forgiveness. But instead he also mistreated Him. So He said, “Alright, let what’s going to happen due to his offenses he’s going to be destroyed. The reaction to his own activities.” So naturally this kind of person, nothing wonderful that he was also cheating on his taxes. And even today tax collection is a very heavy offense. So there was a special agent of the government of the emperor who came. And the way these landlords were working they were like commission agents. They had to collect the tax from the people and give it to the emperor. And they were allowed to keep a certain percent. But this lord was keeping a bigger percent than he was supposed to, and giving only a small fraction to the emperor. So he was discovered by one Choudhury. So he came with his Mogul army and attacked and looted the that Rāmacandra Khān’s bungalow, took everything away, forcibly converted him to the other religion, to Islam, defiled his women folk, burnt down the whole village, razed it to the ground, robbed everything from everybody and took away his position, because he wasn’t paying his taxes. That was the external reason. But the real reason was, because of his offenses to the Vaiṣṇavas. So anyone  . . . that story, the purport of that is that anyone in the whole village was also subject to the offense, because they didn’t protest.

Although Dakṣa was the main envious person, the others didn’t protest. They didn’t refuse to go that you are not giving to Śiva, so we won’t go. They just went along with his offensive behavior. So as a result they also had to take a share in the karma, a share in the reaction, in the offense. So after Satī emulates herself, the followers of Lord Śiva and Lord Śiva himself was known to have a short temper at times. Because being the Lord of the mortal ignorance sometimes slight, very slight tinge is seen there. So his temper sometime flares up. But very soon after that he cools down and he is very quick to forgive also. He is known as Āśutoṣa. He sees even a good quality in someone, who has hardly any good quality. He sees a good quality, but also he can get dissatisfied Very quick. So this was no small thing. When he got the news, his wife was burned up to a crisp. He became very dissatisfied and he gave that permission to his followers to finish off the sacrifice of Dakṣa. So not only Dakṣa, but so many people are going to get their medicine, because they also were accomplices to the offensive mentality. That’s why, if you hear somebody offending Kṛṣṇa or offending a devotee and if you just sit there and don’t say anything, you have to also get some of the reaction. So therefore, I said one should protest, if they hear our aparādha, they should protest, they cannot tolerate. If we can’t protest or silence the person or if like Satī, you cannot die just by hearing. There is the three things we are supposed to do if we hear offense to the Vaiṣṇava: 1. We cut the tongue out of that person, that means we silence him and we defeat him by argument. 2. To die, that doesn’t mean we commit suicide in a normal sense. But like Satī, if feeling so contaminated from having heard offenses. If we can explode into flames like she did or just suddenly die because of feeling so sad to hear such offensive things, that’s also alright. 3. Just to walk away and leave that place immediately. Because if you don’t, you are going to have to take also the effect of offensive mentality. Sometimes somebody becomes a little disbalanced mentally and they start to criticize devotees. We can’t go on listening to that. It’s very dangerous for our spiritual life. The whole principle of bhakti is to be nirmatsarāṇām – free from all enviousness.

So unless something is a constructive criticism, “This devotee didn’t go to maṅgala-ārati. So let’s see, what we can do to preach to him and help him, so he can go to maṅgala-ārati tomorrow or see what is wrong. Maybe he is feeling sick.” You see, that’s constructive. But if someone says, “Oh look it, so and so never goes to maṅgala-ārati, just see that person is a rascal number one.” And we just go on repeating simply demoralizes the person. And there is nothing constructive about it. Unless you are going to do something about it. There is no use in this going on repeating something to demoralize others. Not that we should show a blind eye. But then you do something constructive or don’t do. That is the point. Just unconstructive criticism becomes offensive. Although it’s not the right of the person to say, if he is actually at fault. But the mentality may be offensive, if it’s not meant to be constructive. So the principle is we should go to the authority, to the guru and inform, if we find someone is deviating or to the GBC body as the case may be, and say this problem is there, something should be done or we go first to the person and humbly submit that this doubt has come because this thing is going on or what’s wrong? How come you are not attending the program? This as an example, things should be done in a constructive way. It’s not our motive to see someone torn down. Not like Dakṣa, who wanted to wipe out Śiva from all sacrifices, wipe him out from all kinds of activities.

Actually, Śiva took it as a blessing, when he was cursed that he won’t be offered any karma-kāṇḍa, sacrificial offerings. The Lord Śiva doesn’t care for those things. He is quite happy, if people come to him for Kṛṣṇa conscious spiritual advice for spiritual matters. As it is the common people normally ask Lord Śiva for material things. But many transcendentalists go to him for realizing the impersonal Brahman. But also there are devotees, who will go to him and receive instruction about Kṛṣṇa. He is a very compassionate person. Being the head of a particular area of this material existence. He is open to all kinds of people and he reciprocates with them accordingly. But he says, he likes most of all the kṛṣṇa-bhaktas. Because the kṛṣṇa-bhaktas don’t ask him for anything material. The kṛṣṇa-bhaktas don’t want any material favor from Lord Śiva. They only want the blessings of serving Kṛṣṇa. So if we go to the devas with that attitude, that is nothing contradictory. We are not seeing the devas as independent from Viṣṇu.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He visited all the temples of South India—Śiva temple, Devī temple, Murugan temple, Gaṇeśa temple. He went to all the temples, but to all the deities. He was chanting:

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

Actually, this movement of Caitanya Mahāprabhu can integrate the Śaivaites and Vaiṣṇavas of South India through real knowledge, that possibility is there. If people want to follow the teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, there can be an integration. He was very expert (in) material sacrifice, but he wasn’t qualified in spiritual subject matter. Someone may be materially knowledgeable, but they need to know Kṛṣṇa consciousness from a Kṛṣṇa conscious guru. Otherwise they won’t be able to achieve their success in life. They won’t be able to save themselves. Dakṣa can hardly save himself. How can he save anybody else?

So there is also an example given about one Sanskrit paṇḍita. Sanskrit paṇḍita was very proud of his learning. So when he was going home in the evening, he went to the village and at that time he was going to take a shortcut through the forest. But one villager warned him to please don’t go in the forest. “So why not? There is a shortcut to my home. I live in such and such place.” He said, “No, my sir, my dear brāhmaṇa, there is a tiger been seen in the forest. So it’s very dangerous. You should go to the village. It may be a little longer, but it’s safe.” “No, no tiger. I am a paṇḍita. I know Sanskrit. You know the meaning of the word tiger in Sanskrit? Bāghraḥ. What is that?

Devotee: Vyāghraḥ.

Jayapatākā Swami: “So vyāghraḥ has got so many meanings, wach syllable, each letter has got a world of significance. You put all these things together and you get a many different.” [Recording abrubtly ended]