When Indra commits so many mistakes why is he considered a great person?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so Indra seems to be like a baddie that’s a nice word so he is always a person who does anti-devotional things and then he has to be corrected so how do we maintain a reverential attitude is he a great person? I can just add Indra is good and you can’t kill him but they were glorifying him saying he is just like Indra ok so Indra is still glorified sometimes after he does some wrong also why is that? so I would say that there are two different aspects to it first is that the Bhagavatam is spoken to a particular audience and all the stories within that are told from that audience context what that means is the Bhagavatam is essentially talking about taking people from Dharma to Paradharma see the Bhagavatam Parikshit Maharaj is not a sinful person at all, he doesn’t have to tell you to give up sinful activities he says that give up Kaitava Dharma that means give up Dharma Kama Moksha and practice Parabhakti so in every every particular book there is a particular purpose and everything will be presented in that book in the light of that purpose so because the Bhagavatam essential message is to raise people from Dharma to Paradharma so then the those who have practiced Dharma even attained perfection in Dharma how even they are not good enough that will be demonstrated by showing how those who are practicing Paradharma are higher than them so Indra represents the person who practices Dharma very well and that’s how he attains the post of Indra so the stress of the Bhagavatam is rise from Dharma to Paradharma and that’s why Indra becomes the example to repeatedly illustrate the inadequacy of just practicing Dharma without coming to Paradharma. If you look at the Rig Veda there the purpose is to inspire people to practice Dharma Artha Kama. The Upanishads talk about Moksha.
The Rig Veda, there is one western scholar who wrote that the Rig Veda is the most most materialistic religious book I have ever read What do you mean by materialistic religious book? No, not necessarily contradictory. What he says is that this book is filled with how to get material gains by practicing religion Oh you want a child you want a harvest, you want this, you want that do this, do this, do this so that’s what the purpose of the Rig Veda is that and in the Rig Veda actually there are more hints to Indra than even to Vishnu because in that context the goal of that book is to inspire people who are materialistic to become religiously materialistic. They are not so mature that they can become devotees spiritualists.
So for that purpose then their model of success is Indra and so Indra will be glorified for them. So in that book we will not have much glorification of Vishnu. So each book has its context and its purpose.
So when we see it in the light of that purpose now the Bhagavatam is spoken to an audience who already is steeped in Vedic knowledge and in that sense they already have an awareness of Indra’s greatness so for them it serves the constructive purpose that Indra is that even the person who is this great is not great enough to rise higher. But when we don’t study the Vedas at all we just come directly to the Bhagavatam then Indra almost becomes like a buffoon you know a person who keeps committing mistakes and he has to be corrected and he has things to learn. It’s not like that he is a very exalted person and that’s why there are passages when Prithu Maharaj is being told don’t punish Indra.
You know he is a great person even in the Mahabharata Indra is very greatly glorified and even in the where is this in the prayers verses that Arjuna says when he is remembering Krishna there he says that it is by Krishna’s mercy that I was able to go to heaven in this body and I was able to sit on the same throne as Indra so he considers that a great honor if Indra is simply a materialist if you think like that then why would Arjuna who is a pure devotee consider that an honor but he knew Indra is a great person and when Arjuna went to heaven he got to sit. Now no mortal in this body gets to get to heaven and when he goes to heaven he has to offer some prayers and offer some obeisances but to get on that sit on that same ashram so he says this is Krishna’s mercy on me so these are some sections even in the Bhagavatam where we can see that Indra’s position is also recognized