​Bhagavatam study 61 1.12.21-29 The prophecy of a glorious death is not inauspicious

Srimad Bhagavatam. dhanmi naam agranir esha kulyas cajuna yodhvayo utasya iva durdarsha samudra iva dustaraham Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 1, Chapter 12, entitled Birth of Antara Parikshit, Text 21.
Here the sages are responding, the Brahmins rather, are responding to the questions of Krishna Yudhishthira Maharaj whether the child who is to be born, he is going to be a worthy heir of the glorious dynasty of the Kurus. And while replying in the affirmative, the sages are giving many superlative comparisons to describe the glory of the upcoming son. dhanmi naam agranir esha, dhanmi refers to archers.
agranir esha, so he will be the foremost among archers, similar to that who is the greatest archer. kulyas cajuna yodhvayo, so he will be equal to the two Arjunas. Now, usually when we use the word Arjuna, we refer to the Parth Arjuna, the friend of Krishna, who was a great hero, a great devotee and a champion archer.
There is also another Arjuna, who is known as Kartavira Arjuna, and he was also a great warrior. In fact, so great was the warrior that he could not be very easily defeated. It was only by the powerful reignments of a far greater warrior than him, Parashurama was actually the lord of the supreme.
He is mentioned that he was the avatar of the supreme that he was defeated. So anyway, the important point is, it’s compared to Arjuna and his utasya eva durdharshaha, utasya, so utasya is fire, durdharshaha, irresistible. When a fire starts blazing, quite often whatever comes in its way gets burnt.
Nothing remains. And yet, his prowess will be like that. Nobody will be able to stand in front of him.
He will burn opponents like fire. samudra eva dushtaraha, and unpassable like the ocean. Now when Lord Ram had to go to Lanka, at that time, Ravana had a lot of confidence that Ram will never be able to cross the ocean.
Because crossing the ocean was such a difficult thing. It’s unsurpassable, the ocean. So similarly, by comparing him here to the ocean, the point is made that when he is going to attack, the enemies will be burnt as fire burns.
And when he is going to defend, he is going to defend like the ocean where no one will be able to pass through him. And thus, he will be truly a glorious warrior, as was Arjuna. Text 22 Vikranta means one who is powerful, extremely powerful.
So he will be powerful like a Mrugendra. Mruga is animals, Indra is the king of the animals, that is the lion. So Mrugendra, so he will be as powerful as a lion.
One who has Hima, snow, that is mountain, specifically the Himalayan mountain. And this mountain is so large that many people go there to take shelter. And so he can offer shelter as can the Himalayan mountain.
Normally, when people give up worldly shelters for the sake of spiritual growth, even at that time, they need to actually take shelter of something higher. And they go to take shelter of the Supreme Lord. But intermediately, while they are doing the sadhana to take shelter of the Lord, they have to have some shelter here in this world.
And that shelter is the Himalayas. So it’s a Himalayas compared to an object of shelter over here. So Vasudha refers to the earth.
So he will be as tolerant as the earth. Now, the earth is an object which beholds everything including man’s foulest activities. And not only does the earth behold it, but the earth also sustains those who do such activities.
People live on the earth and they do about their good and quite often their bad activities on the earth. And the earth gives grain, the earth gives food. The earth is the source of the various things that sustain life.
And often people respond to nature and whatever they respond, that falls on the earth. So actually speaking, the earth tolerates a lot. And in that sense, if somebody is a model of tolerance, here the earth is used as a model.
Because it’s quite an extraordinary model. Sahishnupitaraviva. So Titiksha and Sahishnu are similar.
The term Titikshasubharata when Krishna uses in the Bhagavad Gita in 2.14, Therefore one cannot tolerate. There it is used, Titiksha is translated as tolerance. Here Srila Prabhupada translates as forebearing.
Forebearing and tolerating are quite similar. Forebearance especially means patience and perseverance amongst difficulty. And tolerance has a similar connotation.
So, the point is that Pariksit will have many great virtues. And it is said, the last comparison that is given is he will be tolerant like parents. Now again, children, especially when they are small, they do all sorts of things.
And knowingly or unknowingly they make a mess of things. They are mischievous. They are quite often irresponsible.
They don’t even understand what is responsibility. And through it all, the parents love their child, take care of their child and help the child to grow. So, this is no easy task.
And that’s why Pariksit Maharaj has been compared here that tolerance of parents is quite special. And he is compared to that model. Now the comparison goes on in text 23.
Samya means equanimity. That means one who faces reversals without getting upset by them. One who can stay fixed in the life’s ups and downs.
So, now Pitamaha, this word can have a dual reference. So, if you use the word Pitamaha with the reference point of Pariksit, then his Pitamaha is Yudhishtir. So, if we consider Yudhishtir as a reference point, then his Pitamaha is Bhishma.
So, quite often the Pandavas have kept the reference points in the narrative, in the Mahabharata and till now even in the Bhagavatam. And thus the word Pitamaha usually refers to Bhishma who is their grandfather, their grandfather, their grandsire. But now the focus, the reference point of the Bhagavatam is slowly shifting from the Pandavas to Pariksit.
Of course, Pariksit will come into the highlight of the Bhagavatam only four chapters later, in chapters 17, 18, 19 especially. But before that, there will be focus on the Pandavas departure, Krishna’s departure and all that will be narrated. Even before that, Dhritarashtra’s renunciation at the Godiva Vidura will be narrated also.
But the point is here we could have dual references and based on that Pitamaha can refer either to Yudhishtir or it can refer to Bhishma. Either way it is a Psalm. Normally when we are young, we are excited.
Oh, I’ll achieve this. I’ll achieve that. Oh, this has gone wrong.
The world may come crashing down. Oh, this is gone right now. I’m on the top of the world.
So like that when you are in youth, there is a lot of passion and with the passion there are ups and downs. But as we grow older, as we come to the level of grandparents, then we have seen life, most of life we have seen. And we understand that, yes, there are important things in life, but there is nothing worth really getting too excited about.
And especially if one has not only matured physically, but has also evolved spiritually, then one has not only experienced the the hollowness of material ups and downs, but one has also experienced the solidness of spiritual shelter of connectedness with higher spiritual reality. And based on that connection, one can actually stay stable. One can avoid being tossed up and down by life’s dualities.
So like the grandfather, his psalm is equipoised amidst dualities. Prasade ghrishopmaha, prasade. So prasad, often we use it in the sense of mercy.
Prasad can also mean charity. One who gives in charity is also merciful. So he will give charity or munificence, generosity or charity.
Charity is the activity, generosity is the spirit. So generosity is a disposition to give charity. So here this prasade can refer to either.
And ghrishopmaha, samaha like ghrish. So ghrish refers to one who resides on the ghri, on the top of mountain. Lord Shiva resides on the top of Kailash mountain.
So he is called as ghrish. Now lord ghrish, lord Shiva is known to be very charitable. If he is pleased, he gives lavishly and he gives quickly also.
Because he becomes pleased quickly. And often he doesn’t even, if he is pleased with someone, he doesn’t see their antecedents, he doesn’t see their background. He just gives charity.
So the point is he has a tremendous spirit of giving. And similarly here it is said that Parikshit also had a, would be charitable. Now for a king to be wealthy is in one sense natural because the king has the royal treasury.
So king being wealthy is a good thing, but it’s somewhat natural. A king who is wealthy and charitable is special. The king is not holding the wealth, but the king sees the wealth as meant for service.
And therefore service of brahminical culture, service to the brahmanas and service through the brahmanas of the rest of the society. So when the king sees that, when the king is charitable also, then that is especially glorious. A king being wealthy is glorious from material perspective.
But a king being charitable is glorious not just from material perspective, but quite likely from the spiritual perspective also if his charity is connected with spiritual reality. आश्रयस् सर्वभूतानाम् The shelter of all living beings. Like तथा देवो रमाश्रयहम् This is Deva, Narayan, the shelter of Rama.
Rama is Lakshmidevi. The king is meant to take care of all the citizens. And taking care is not just providing food, clothing, shelter.
Although that is extremely important in terms of the basic necessities of life. But along with that, we have physical needs, we have emotional needs, we have spiritual needs. Now all those needs need to be taken care of.
So, Manipalphim Rama, the goddess of fortune, and the blessings that she produces, she bestows in terms of money, they are what is worth taking shelter of. But that goddess whose shelter people seek, whose favour people seek, she seeks the shelter and favour of the Supreme Lord. Her Narayan is Rama Shreyaha.
And therefore, now she is an extremely powerful person. And so when she is taking shelter of Vishnu, Narayan, that means that the indicator that everyone else should also take shelter of him. And as it is mentioned here that whether we take shelter of him or not, still he always shelters us.
He provides us life, he provides us functioning capacity, he provides us intelligence to achieve all the things he has provided to us, whatever we have. And we may not realise it initially, but as we practise bhakti and tune our consciousness, we start realising this more and more, how lavishly Krishna has provided his gifts to us. Text 24 So, Sadgun means good qualities.
We have all good qualities. Anuvrataha, following in his footsteps. It’s a high praise indeed for a child to be compared to Krishna and to be told that he is almost like Krishna.
There can be few praises higher than this. So, actually we cannot be God, but we can be godly. And being godly is the perfection of our life.
Because in godliness, we relish the… Actually, godliness is not just how we conduct ourselves with others, but how we connect with God. So, those who are godly, those who are connected with God, they manifest the great qualities of God also. So, here, Paikshi, what he said is, he is manifesting godliness and he is manifesting all virtuous qualities because of his connection with God.
Another example of charity is given of Rantideva. The story of Rantideva will come later in the Bhagavatam. It’s written in the Canto where it is stated that he was, after fasting for a long time, when different people came to him asking for charity, he was ready to give them charity and give up his own food for their sake.
So, thus, he actually demonstrates that, the brahmanas demonstrate that how this child is truly extraordinary in terms of his qualities. For example, is considered extremely dharmic. Now, we may hear of Ayyati in terms of how he was attached to a woman or whatever, but that is not the point.
Even when he was, as soon as he realised his error, he actually changed his ways. And eventually, the Mahabharata explains how Ayyati was elevated to heaven. Because Ayyati should not be, just because he went through a phase of attachment and delusion because of that, that should not be held against him.
But the fact that he himself realised the error of his ways and he became detached and eventually became elevated, all this indicates his greatness. So, being dharmika does not necessarily mean always being flawless. It also means being being focused in our goal and even if we can’t be consistent, we can be resilient.
Even if we can’t stay fixed on the same path all the time, we can always spring back onto the path as soon as possible. And thus, we can do our part in helping us in staying, in moving towards the right destination. Text 26 So, now the question comes up.
Every king is known not just by how they lived during their period but also a king is expected to continue a legacy. So, what kind of legacy do they continue? So, that will depend on the kind of sons they get. So, it’s mentioned that he will beget Rajarishis.
He will be a glorious king himself and he will beget glorious kings in future. śāstā chodpatha gāminām śāstā śāsan is discipline. śāstā means one who disciplines.
Prabhupāda translates chastises. So, chodpatha gāminām utpatha gāminām utpatha means disturbance gāminām means those who create. So, he will chastise the disturbance creators.
nighrahitā kalesha So, those who are the nighrahitā, those who are offensive, those who molest, those who are quarrelsome. So, what will he do? bhūdharmasya kāraṇāt He will be the protector of dharma and thus he will chastise all people. So, now the previous verses talked about his virtues by comparing him with various great kings.
Now, this text talks about his virtues in terms of the qualities. So, it’s stated that the qualities that he has will be extraordinary and those qualities will manifest in activities. So, he will maintain dharma, he will chastise adharma, he will curb adharma by chastising the adharmic and he will create a legacy where dharma will be continued.
In one sense, the king is a representative of God. So, the king is often called a Naradeva. Naradeva.
So, just as Krishna says that he comes to establish dharma and to destroy adharma, similarly, the king also has to do that on behalf of the Supreme Lord. And here, the brahmins are reassuring Vishwamitra that this son who is going to come in the dynasty, he is surely capable of doing all this. Text 27 now.
Now, after describing his activities and extolling him through various comparisons, now, they seem to talk of quite a sobering thing. Now, most astrologers, when somebody is going to be born, they don’t talk about the death of the person. But here, these brahmins who are foreseeing, they have astrological capacities and they say, तक्षकात् आत्मनों मृत्यूर् तक्षक.
Takshaka is a snake bird. So now, within the Puranic cosmology, there are different beings existing at different levels and there is interconnectedness between these various levels of the cosmos which has changed to disconnectedness because of the infected state of the present age of Kali. But the point is, there, Vishwamitra, he had seen various kinds of beings from various places and he knew Takshaka.
Takshaka was a formidable snake bird and it is mentioned, तक्षकात्मनों मृत्यूर् By Takshaka, the death will happen. दुज़पुत्रोपसरजितात् दुज़पुत्र That is, the son of a brahmana, उपसरजितात् That Takshaka, if not Takshaka the snake bird, he lives in a different place. So, why would he come and try to kill Parikshit? दुज़पुत्र उपसरजितात् That means, he will be sent by a brahmana’s son.
And how will he be sent by a brahmana’s son? That story will be told in the later half of this, in the last chapters of this canto. But here they say that this might seem tragic. Oh, he will die.
And he will die by a snake bite. Dying by a snake bite is nothing glorious. If at all somebody is going to die, then if you say that they will die a hero’s death on a war field, yes, there is some glory to that.
But to die in a war field may not seem at all glorious. But then they are immediately clarifying, so to die by a snake bite is not at all glorious. But they are saying, no, it will be glorious.
Why? प्रपत्यत् उपश्रुता So, प्रपत्यत्, he will take प्रपण, प्रपण, we say surrender. So, the same root is there over here also. So, उपश्रुता, after hearing, he will surrender to the Supreme, to the all-powerful Absolute, he will surrender.
मुक्त संगः पदम हरे हे, मुक्त संगः By hearing, he will become free from all attachment and पदम हरे हे, he will attain the abode of Lord Hari. That’s what this verse states primarily, is that Parikshit will have a glorious death. In his birth, or even before his birth, he had darshan of Vishnu and in his death also, he will have darshan of Vishnu because he will be hearing the Katha of Vishnu and in that hearing that Katha itself, the Katha of Vishnu is non-different from Vishnu.
Thus, he will have darshan of Vishnu in the absorption in the Katha of Vishnu and thus his life will be complete cycle of great glory beginning with the Supreme and ending with the Supreme. They further elaborate what is going to happen, how he will become Mukta Sangha, so they say that, text 28, जिज्ञा सितात्म या थार्थ्यो मुनेर्विया सिसुतादसो हित्वेदं रुपगंगायां यास्यत्य अध्धाकुतोभयं जिज्ञा सितात्म या थार्थ्यो आत्म या थार्थ्यो आत्म या थार्थ्यो means यथा अर्थव, as is the right understanding, as is the right position. आत्म, he will enquire about the knowledge of the Self.
मुनेर्विया सिसुतादसो He will ask this from the Muni, who is the यासुत. So, यासुत means Śukadeva Swami will describe to him हित्वेदं रुपगंगायां हित्वेदं All this world, or this attachment to this world, he will give up. गंगायां, on the banks of the Ganges.
यास्यत्य And he will go, अध्धाकुतोभयं अकुतोभयं, without any fear. Without any fear, he will live. So, now if it is said that the Brahmana is going to send a snake bird, now, there are few things which are as feared in spiritual culture, Vedic culture as the curse of a Brahmana.
And yet, so, and that too, if a Brahmana is sending a snake bird, that seems quite gruesome, fearsome and gruesome. But he is saying that he will live. अध्धाकुतोभयं परिक्षित्व He will live a life of fearlessness.
Because he will be enquiring about the real self, understanding the self as the part of the Supreme and he will learn this knowledge after having, on the banks of the Ganga, after having renounced all material attachments. So, in this way, he will be situated in his spiritual glory. And hearing from Vyasadeva’s son, Sita Goswami, will help him to become situated in his spiritual glory.
And thus, this is going to be a glorious, glorious departure from this world. Text 29. So, we will continue about what happens next in our future talks.