VedaVyasa
Praneetha
The Mad Bhagavatam
Chapter 88
Lord S'iva Saved from Vrikâsura
This chapter describes how it is that the devotees of Viṣṇu obtain liberation, while the devotees of other deities obtain material opulences.
Lord Viṣṇu possesses all opulences, while Lord Śiva lives in poverty. Yet the devotees of Viṣṇu are generally poverty-stricken, while Śiva's attain abundant wealth. When Mahārāja Parīkṣit asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī to explain this puzzling fact, the sage replied as follows: "Lord Śiva manifests as false ego in three varieties, according to the three modes of nature. From this false ego arise the five physical elements and the other transformations of material nature, totaling sixteen. When a devotee of Lord Śiva worships his manifestation in any of these elements, the devotee obtains all sorts of corresponding enjoyable opulences. But because Lord Śrī Hari is transcendental to the modes of material nature, His devotees also become transcendental."
At the end of the performance of his Aśvamedha sacrifices, King Yudhiṣṭhira had asked this same question of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who replied, "When I feel special compassion for someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the poverty-stricken man's children, wife and other relations all abandon him. When he again tries to acquire wealth in order to win back his family's favor, I mercifully frustrate him so that he becomes disgusted with fruitive work and befriends My devotees. And at that time I bestow upon him My extraordinary grace; then he can become freed from the bondage of material life and attain to the kingdom of God, Vaikuṇṭha."
Lord Brahmā, Lord Viṣṇu and Lord Śiva can each bestow or withhold favors, but whereas Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva are satisfied or angered very quickly, Lord Viṣṇu is not. In this regard the Vedic literature relates the following account: Once the demon Vṛka asked Nārada which god was most quickly pleased, and Nārada answered that Lord Śiva was. Thus Vṛkāsura went to the holy place of Kedāranātha and began worshiping Lord Śiva by offering pieces of his own flesh as oblations into the fire. But Śiva did not appear. So Vṛka decided to commit suicide by cutting off his head. Just at the critical moment, Lord Śiva appeared from the sacrificial fire and stopped him, offering the demon whatever boon he chose. Vṛka said, "May death come to whomever I touch upon the head with my hand." Lord Śiva was obliged to fulfill this request, and at once the wicked Vṛka tried to test the benediction by putting his hand on the lord's head. Terrified, Śiva fled for his life, running as far as heaven and the outer limits of the mortal world. Finally the lord reached the planet of Śvetadvīpa, where Lord Viṣṇu resides. Seeing the desperate Śiva from afar, the Lord disguised Himself as a young student and went before Vṛkāsura. In a sweet voice he addressed the demon: "My dear Vṛka, please rest awhile and tell Us what you intend to do." Vṛka was charmed by the Lord's words and revealed everything that had happened. The Lord said, "Ever since Lord Śiva was cursed by Prajāpati Dakṣa, he has become just like a carnivorous hobgoblin. So you shouldn't trust his word. Better to test his benediction by putting your hand on your own head." Bewildered by these words, the foolish demon touched his own head, which immediately shattered and fell to the ground. Cries of "Victory!" "Obeisances!" and "Well done!" were heard from the sky, and the demigods, sages, celestial forefathers and Gandharvas all congratulated the Supreme Lord by raining down flowers upon Him.
10.88.1
śrī-rājovāca
devāsura-manuṣyesu
(1) The honorable king [Parîkchit] said: 'The godly, the ones of darkness and the humans who worship the austere Lord S'iva, are usually rich and enjoy the senses, but not so those of Lakshmî and her Husband the Lord Hari.
10.88.2
(2) On our part indeed of great doubt in this, we wish to understand this matter of the destinations of the worshipers of the two Lords so opposite of character.'
The preceding chapter ended with the recommendation that one should always meditate on Lord Hari, the bestower of liberation. In this regard Mahārāja Parīkṣit here expresses a common fear among ordinary people that by becoming a devotee of Lord Viṣṇu one will lose his wealth and social status. For the benefit of such persons of little faith, King Parīkṣit requests Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī to explain an apparent paradox: Lord Śiva, who lives like a beggar, without even a house to call his own, makes his devotees rich and powerful, while Lord Viṣṇu, the omnipotent possessor of all that exists, often reduces His servants to abject poverty. Śukadeva Gosvāmī will respond with reasoned explanations and an ancient account concerning the demon Vṛka.
10.88.3
tri-lińgo guṇa-saḿvṛtaḥ
vaikārikas taijasaś ca
(3) S'rî S'uka said: 'S'iva, always united with his s'akti, is prayed to in his three manifest features of guna: the emotion [his sattva], the authority [his rajas] and the inertia [his tamas], and is thus the [embodiment of the] threefold of ego.
10.88.4
ṣoḍaśāmīṣu kañcana
(4) From that have the sixteen transformations [lingas] manifested of which someone, pursuing any of these, enjoys the acquisition of material assets [see under S'iva].
False ego transforms into the mind, ten senses (the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, hands, feet, voice, genitals and anus), and five physical elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether). Lord Śiva appears in a special lińga form in each of these sixteen substances, which are worshiped individually as deities in various sacred locations of the universe. A devotee of Śiva may worship one of his particular lińgas to obtain the mystic opulences pertaining to it. Thus Lord Śiva's ākāśa-lińga bestows the opulences of ether, his jyotir-lińga bestows the opulences of fire, and so on.
10.88.5
harir hi nirguṇaḥ sākṣāt
sa sarva-dṛg upadraṣṭā
(5) Lord Hari however is, indeed absolutely untouched by the modes, the Original Person transcendental to material nature; He is the witness seeing everything, by worshiping Him one becomes free from the gunas.
Lord Viṣṇu is situated in His own transcendental position, beyond the material energy. Why, therefore, should His worship bear the fruit of material opulence? The real fruit of worshiping Lord Viṣṇu is transcendental knowledge. Thus Lord Viṣṇu's worshiper gains the eye of transcendental knowledge instead of being blinded by mundane assets. The Lord being the detached witness of the material creation, His devotee also becomes aloof from the interaction of the Lord's inferior energies.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī cites the following passage from the Vedic literature:
vastuno guṇa-sambandhe
tad-dharmāyoga-yogābhyāḿ
"When the absolute reality associates with the modes of nature, He assumes two different kinds of form in this world, according to whether His spiritual qualities are manifest or not. Thus He acts just like a reflection and its further, secondary reflection."guṇāḥ sattvādayaḥ śānta-
guṇa-yantṛ-svarūpiṇām
"The modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, whose individual natures are peaceful, violent and foolish, are personally regulated by Lord Viṣṇu, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, respectively."nāti-bhedo bhaved bhedo
guṇa-dharmair ihāḿśataḥ
viṣṇor vikṣepa-mūḍhate
"Lord Viṣṇu's peaceful mode of goodness does not differ substantially from His original, spiritual qualities, although it is only a partial manifestation of them within this world. Thus Lord Viṣṇu's mode of goodness is never tainted by agitation [in passion] or delusion [in ignorance]."rajas-tamo-guṇābhyāḿ tu
bhavetāḿ brahma-rudrayoḥ
guṇopamardato bhūyas
"By the modes of passion and ignorance, on the other hand, the original, spiritual qualities of Lord Brahmā and Lord Rudra are obscured. Thus these spiritual qualities appear only partially, as separated, material qualities."ataḥ samagra-sattvasya
"Therefore focusing one's consciousness upon Lord Viṣṇu, the embodiment of all goodness, leads one to liberation. Such God consciousness also generates material success as a by-product, but its proper nature is pure spiritual ecstasy."
aḿśatas tāratamyena
brahma-rudrādi-sevinām
vibhūtayo bhavanty eva
śanair mokṣo py anaḿśataḥ
"According to their mode of worship, devotees of Brahmā, Rudra and other demigods obtain the limited success of material opulences. Eventually they may possibly become qualified for full liberation."This same idea is echoed in the following statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.23): śreyāḿsi tatra khalu sattva-tanor nṛṇām syuḥ. "Of these three [Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Śiva], all human beings can derive ultimate benefit from Viṣṇu, the form of the quality of goodness."
10.88.6
(6) Your grandfather the king [Yudishthhira] asked Acyuta this as he was hearing from Him about the dharma.
10.88.7
nṛṇāḿ niḥśreyasārthāya
(7) He, the Supreme Lord, his Master, who for the sake of the ultimate benefit of all men had descended into the Yadu-family, then spoke pleased to him who was eagerly listening.
10.88.8
yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi
(8) The Supreme Lord said: 'From the one I favor I gradually take away the wealth, after which then poor, suffering one distress after another, that person will be abandoned by his own [attached] people [see also 7.15: 15, 9.21: 12, 10.81: 14 & 20, 10.87: 40, B.G. 9: 22]
Devotees of the Supreme Lord experience both happiness and distress — not as consequences of material work but as incidental effects of their loving reciprocation with the Lord. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, in Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, his definitive treatise on the process of devotional service, explains how a Vaiṣṇava is relieved of all karmic reactions, including those that have not yet begun to manifest (aprārabdha), those that are just about to manifest (kūṭa), those that are barely manifesting (bīja) and those that have manifested fully (prārabdha). As a lotus gradually loses its many petals, so a person who takes shelter of devotional service has all his karmic reactions destroyed.
That devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa eradicates all karmic reactions is confirmed in this passage of the Gopāla-tāpanī śruti (Pūrva 15): bhaktir asya bhajanaḿ tad ihāmutropādhi-nairāsyenāmuṣmin manaḥ-kalpanam etad eva naiṣkarmyam. "Devotional service is the process of worshiping the Supreme Lord. It consists of fixing the mind upon Him by becoming disinterested in all material designations, both in this life and the next. It results in the dissolution of all karma." While it is certainly true that those who practice devotional service remain in material bodies and apparently material situations for some time, this is simply an expression of the inconceivable mercy of the Lord, who bestows the fruits of devotion only when it has become pure. In every stage of devotion, however, the Lord watches over His devotee and sees to the gradual elimination of his karma. Thus despite the fact that the happiness and distress devotees experience resemble ordinary karmic reactions, they are in fact given by the Lord Himself. As the Bhāgavatam (10.87.40) states, bhavad-uttha-śubhāśubhayoḥ: A mature devotee recognizes the superficially good and bad conditions he encounters as signs of the direct guidance of his ever well-wishing Lord.
But if the Lord is so compassionate to His devotees, why does He expose them to special suffering? This is answered by an analogy: A very affectionate father takes the responsibility of restricting his children's play and making them go to school. He knows that this is a genuine expression of his love for them, even if the children fail to understand. Similarly, the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu is mercifully strict with all His dependents, not only with immature devotees struggling to become qualified. Even perfect saints like Prahlāda, Dhruva and Yudhiṣṭhira were subjected to great tribulations, all for their glorification. After the Battle of Kurukṣetra, Śrī Bhīṣmadeva described to King Yudhiṣṭhira his wonder at this:
yatra dharma-suto rājā
gadā-pāṇir vṛkodaraḥ
kṛṣṇo 'strī gāṇḍivaḿ cāpaḿ
"Oh, how wonderful is the influence of inevitable time! It is irreversible — otherwise, how can there be reverses in the presence of King Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of the demigod controlling religion; Bhīma, the great fighter with a club; the great bowman Arjuna with his mighty weapon Gāṇḍīva; and above all, the Lord, the direct well-wisher of the Pāṇḍavas? O King, no one can know the plan of the Lord [Śrī Kṛṣṇa]. Even though great philosophers inquire exhaustively, they are bewildered." (Bhāg. 1.9.15-16)Although a Vaiṣṇava's happiness and distress are felt as pleasure and pain, just like ordinary karmic reactions, they are different in a significant sense. Material happiness and distress, arising from karma, leave a subtle residue — the seed of future entanglement. Such enjoyment and suffering tend toward degradation and increase the danger of falling into hellish oblivion. Happiness and distress generated from the Supreme Lord's desires, however, leave no trace after their immediate purpose has been served. Moreover, the Vaiṣṇava who enjoys such reciprocation with the Lord is in no danger of falling down into nescience. As Yamarāja, the lord of death and the judge of all departed souls, declares,
jihvā na vakti bhagavad-guṇa-nāmadheyaḿ
kṛṣṇāya no namati yac-chira ekadāpi
tān ānayadhvam asato 'kṛta-viṣṇu-kṛtyān
"My dear servants, please bring to me only those sinful persons who do not use their tongues to chant the holy name and qualities of Kṛṣṇa, whose hearts do not remember the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa even once, and whose heads do not bow down even once before Lord Kṛṣṇa. Send me those who do not perform their duties toward Viṣṇu, which are the only duties in human life. Please bring me all such fools and rascals." (Bhāg. 6.3.29)The beloved devotees of the Lord do not regard as very troublesome the suffering He imposes on them. Indeed, they find that in the end it gives rise to unlimited pleasure, just as a stinging ointment applied by a physician cures his patient's infected eye. In addition, suffering helps protect the confidentiality of devotional service by discouraging intrusions by the faithless, and it also increases the eagerness with which the devotees call upon the Lord to appear. If the devotees of Lord Viṣṇu were complacently happy all the time, He would never have a reason to appear in this world as Kṛṣṇa, Rāmacandra, Nṛsiḿha and so on. As Kṛṣṇa Himself says in Bhagavad-gītā (4.8),
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāḿ
dharma-saḿsthāpanārthāya
"To deliver the pious and annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium." And without the Lord's showing Himself on earth in His original form of Kṛṣṇa and in the forms of various incarnations, His faithful servants in this world would have no opportunity to enjoy His rāsa-līlā and other pastimes.Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī here counters a possible objection: "What fault would there be in God's incarnating for some other reason than to deliver saintly persons from suffering?" The learned ācārya responds, "Yes, my dear brother, this makes good sense, but you are not expert in understanding spiritual moods. Please listen: It is at night that the sunrise becomes attractive, during the hot summer that cold water gives comfort, and during the cold winter months that warm water is pleasing. Lamplight appears attractive in darkness, not in the glaring light of day, and when one is distressed by hunger, food tastes especially good." In other words, to strengthen his devotees' mood of dependence on Him and longing for Him, the Lord arranges for His devotees to go through some suffering, and when He appears in order to deliver them, their gratitude and transcendental pleasure are boundless.
10.88.9
nirviṇṇaḥ syād dhanehayā
. (9) When he futile in his attempts to serve the capital gets frustrated and makes friends with those devoted to Me, will I show My mercy.
10.88.10
vijñāyātmatayā dhīraḥ
(10) Sober with the wisdom understanding that the subtle, pure, eternal spirit of the Supreme Brahman is one's true self, is one freed from samsâra.
10.88.11
ato māḿ su-durārādhyaḿ
vismayanty avajānate
(11) Leaving aside Me because I am most difficult to worship, do people worship others from which they quickly find satisfaction in receiving royal opulence. Having become arrogant, proud and negligent do they, surprisingly, then insult those whom they owe the benedictions [see also B.G. 2: 42-44; 4: 12; 7: 20-25; 17: 22, 18: 28].'
10.88.12
(12) S'rî S'uka said: 'Brahmâ, S'iva and others are capable of cursing and showing favor. Brahmâ and S'iva are quick with their condemnations and blessings, my dear King, but the Infallible One [Vishnu] is not.
10.88.13
atra codāharantīmam
vṛkāsurāya giriśo
(13) In this connection is as an example the following ancient story told of Giris'a running into danger by offering a choice of benedictions to the demon Vrikâsura.
10.88.14
vṛko nāmāsuraḥ putraḥ
(14) An Asura named Vrika, a son of S'akuni [see 9.24: 5], meeting Nârada on the road, wickedly asked which of the three Lords was most quickly pleased.
10.88.15
upādhāvāśu siddhyasi
yo 'lpābhyāḿ guṇa-doṣābhyām
(15) He said: 'For quick success you better worship S'iva, he is as quickly satisfied by qualities as he is angered by faults.
10.88.16
stuvator vandinor iva
(16) Satisfied with Ten-head [Râvana] and with Bâna who like minstrels sang his glories, got he in great trouble [though] giving them unequaled power.'
Rāvaṇa worshiped Lord Śiva to gain power and then misused that power to uproot the lord's residence, sacred Kailāsa-parvata. On Bāṇāsura's request, Lord Śiva agreed to personally guard Bāṇa's capital, and later he had to fight for Bāṇa against Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His sons.
10.88.17
(17) Thus informed worshiped the Asura him at Kedâra [in the Himalayas] by offering oblations of flesh from his own limbs into the fire that is S'iva's mouth.
10.88.18-19
devopalabdhim aprāpya
nigṛhya dorbhyāḿ bhujayor nyavārayat
(18-19) Out of frustration to obtain the sight of the Lord, was he the seventh day with his hair wetted in the waters of that holy place, about to cut off his head with a hatchet. But then supremely merciful rising from the fire looking like Agni stopped he him seizing his arms and restored he his body on the touch, just like we would.
10.88.20
tam āha cāńgālam alaḿ vṛṇīṣva me
(20) He told him: 'Enough, enough, dear man, please listen, choose a benediction from me, I'll bestow upon you whatever boon you desire. Ah, your greatly tormenting your body is useless, I am pleased by persons who with water approach me for shelter [see also B.G. 17: 5-6]!'
10.88.21
(21) With that offer of the god chose the sinner a boon that terrified all living beings as he said: 'May whomever die on whose head I place my hand!'
10.88.22
tac chrutvā bhagavān rudro
(22) O son of Bharata, Rudra hearing this, disgruntled vibrated om and granted it him with an ironic smile; it was like giving milk to a snake [see also 10.16: 37].
10.88.23
śambhor mūrdhni kilāsuraḥ
(23) To put the favor to a test tried the demon then to put his hand on the head of S'iva and made that way his flesh creep about what he had caused.
10.88.24
tenopasṛṣṭaḥ santrastaḥ
kaṣṭhānām udagād udak
(24) Pursued by him fled he trembling with fear from the north [of his residence] to as far as the limits of the earth and the sky in all directions.
10.88.25-26
tato vaikuṇṭham agamad
yatra nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣān
yato nāvartate gataḥ
(25-26) Not knowing what to do against it remained the chief demigods silent. Thereupon he went to Vaikunthha, the place luminous beyond all darkness where Nârâyana, the Supreme Goal is manifest. That place is the destination from where the renunciates who in peace gave up the violence do not return [see also S'vetadvîpa].
According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Lord Śiva entered the planet of Śvetadvīpa, a special outpost of the spiritual world within the confines of the material universe. There, on a beautiful white island surrounded by the celestial ocean of milk, Lord Viṣṇu rests on the serpent bed of Ananta Śeṣa, making Himself available to the demigods when they need His help.
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