Bhagavatam study 84 1.16.7-12 Choose carefully what we hear

In the Bhagavatam about lessons from Parikshit Maharaj, we are discussing basically how Smt. Bhagavatam is flowing forwards in terms of the narrative of Parikshit Maharaj meeting Kali is going to be described in the 16th chapter. So we will discuss this from the verse 7th onwards and in this section till now, Parikshit Maharaj’s reign was described briefly and then how he punished Kali is described.
So the sages ask, why did he simply punish and not finish Kali? So they are going to ask this question and they say that if it is related with Krishna, then you please speak about it. We human beings have not a very long life, especially when we are small, we feel that when we are say children or youth, we feel we have a long life ahead. But one of the paradoxes of life is that the older we go, the faster life seems to be whizzing by.
Just yesterday we think I was 20 and now I’m 40 and then I’ll become 50 and then I’ll become 60 and then I’ll be on the verge of death. So the word Shudra, when it comes with just S, it refers to a particular mentality of a particular human type who have a particular kind of mentality. But Shudra Ayushyam refers to people who are, Shudra when it comes with KS, then it refers to very small, Ksha it becomes.
So Shudra and Kshudra. So Shudra Ayushyam, Shudra Ayushyam. So we have very short lives.
So we are actually meant for death. We’re all going to die and the death will come sooner rather than later. But some of us desire eternal life and not the desire in a sentimental sense.
Oh, I hope I live here forever. But rather that we really seriously long for eternal life. Then, those who are desiring like this, then they, so they, if we have that strong desire, then Mrityu Shamitra Karmani, there is Mrityu, this here refers to not just death, but the person who brings death, that is Yamaraj.
So those who are devoted, they can escape the slaughtering process of Yamaraj. They can actually go beyond death and they can attain eternal life. How can they attain it? By taking that, if they have a strong desire for eternal life, they can escape the slaughtering process of death, actually Prabhupada translates, he hope.
So we are, we’ll be called for, here we might be called to death or we’ll be called to eternal life. And that depends on the direction of our desires. And of course, desire is not enough.
But without desire, nothing is enough. This is a very vital point, that desire alone is not enough. But without desire, nothing is enough.
When we want to grow spiritually and we want to attain Krishna or go get eternal life, just the desire for that is not enough. That can just be sentimental longing. But if one doesn’t even have the desire, then we’re never going to get it.
So, vi tatra laulyam api maulyam ekalam, the prize for attaining Krishna, krishna rasabhavitamiti mati kriyatamiti kuto nalabhyate, tat laulyam api maulyam ekalam, kriyatamiti kuto pilabhyate, janma koti sukrutai nalabhyate, he says that, wherever you can get attraction to Krishna, just get it. And the prize for it is laulyam. Greed will not come simply even by performing piety for many lifetimes.
Greed will come only by the association of serious devotees who have that greed. So, desire is vital for our growth in spiritual life. Desire is not the enemy of devotion.
Desire is the essence of devotion. Desire is not the enemy of devotion. Desire is the engine of devotion.
It is, maam icchaaptum dhananjaya, in 12.9 Krishna says that, if you perform sadhana bhakti, you will actually attain the desire for me. So, for us to go towards Krishna, desire is the engine which will take us towards him. Of course, it is the desire for Krishna.
It has to be there. We have a lot of desires right now, but those desires are about worldly things and they won’t take us towards Krishna. We want a desire for Krishna.
So, how do we get the desire for Krishna? By the diligent practice of sadhana bhakti. And so, we want that without the desire, we will not even practice sadhana bhakti. But without desire, nothing is possible.
But just desire alone is not enough. Desire has to be followed in the practice of bhakti, both combined together. So, he is saying that we desire to go beyond death and therefore, we are very careful about what we hear.
Suppose somebody desires to become a topper in a particular exam, then they will be very, very cautious about the way they spend their time. I won’t let my time get wasted here or there or there. I’ll just focus on moving towards Krishna.
I’ll just focus on steadily and determinately marching towards Krishna. So, that is the mood of a serious devotee. And it is that mood that enables a devotee to march ahead in one’s lives.
Vrityu Sha Mitra Karmani. Here’s some verses in the Bhagavatam are involving three Sanskrit lines or we could say six English lines. And most of them have two Sanskrit lines and four English lines.
So, the verses are divided. Srila Prabhupada especially divides them based on the unity of thought. Where a particular thought gets completed, Srila Prabhupada divides the verse over there.
The numbering can sometimes be different in different recensions of the Bhagavatam. So, this particular text, like an earlier text, is six lines in English. It’s 116.8. na kashchin mriyate taavad yaavad aastha iha antakaha etad artham hi bhagavan aahuta paramarishibhi aho nrloke piyet hari-lila mritam vachah na kashchin mriyate taavad that one will certainly not meet with death yaavad aastha iha antakaha when as long as here is present antakaha.
Antakaha refers to one who causes the end of life. Who is that person? That is Yamaraja. So, Krishna Katha is so attractive that attracts even Yamaraja.
And when Yamaraja is attracted, then Yamaraja comes and sits here, and then he, in a sense, goes beyond time. The time we spend on Krishna is the time that takes us beyond time. That takes us from mortality towards immortality.
So, as long as Yamaraja is sitting over here, suppose, you know, a thief comes to rob from us. But if we start talking very sweetly, such an attractive discussion is going on, the thief forgets to rob and sits and hears. Then what will happen? The thief will not rob.
Or even if a police officer is coming to punish us, but if a very attractive discussion is going on at the place where somebody is to be arrested, the police come and sit and start hearing the discussion and they forget to arrest. So, like that, this forgetfulness is not out of irresponsibility for Yamaraja, but it is because this is because of transcendence. We understand that those who are discussing Krishna Katha have transcended the realm, the arena of control of Yamaraja.
एतद अर्थम् ही भगवान. So, we have invited him here. आहुता परम रिशिभी.
So that nobody will succumb to the jaws of death. For that purpose, we have invited Yamaraja over here. The Param Rishi, the great sages have invited him.
अहोन्रलुकेल्लुपीयेत. And therefore, he is longing, O human beings, अहोन्रलुकेल्लुपीयेत, please drink, drink this nectar. हरिलीलाम्रतम्वचह.
The वचह, the words, the narrations of Hari Leela Amritam, that the nectar of the discussion of Lord Hari, please drink it and by drinking it you can go beyond death. Many people long for drinking some elixir, many people want to drink some medicine by which they can prolong their life, even devatas want to drink amrit by which they can prolong their life and hope that they can get eternal life. But the means for eternal life is right with us.
Just hear about Krishna. anyetvayam jananthah Å›rutvāṇyebhyopāsate te pÄ«cāti tarantyeva rÅ«tyam Å›ruti-parāyanaḥ Å›ruti-parāyanaḥ In 13.26 Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, if we just devote ourselves to Krishna, to the Supreme Then, rÅ«tyam Å›ruti-parāyanaḥ ati-tarantyeva, we’ll go beyond death by being devoted to hearing the glories of Krishna. The same point is made here in 168 in the Bhāgavatam.
ahaṁ ná¹›loke pÄ«yet hari-leelāmá¹›taṁ vacaḥ Oh human beings, please drink the nectar of Lord Hari. Why is it that you’re not drinking it? Please come, drink it. Here is the supreme joy of life.
Just relish it. So there’s a fervent appeal in the words of Shaunak Rishi over here, by which he’s speaking, urging us all to just drink the nectar of Lord Hari. ahaṁ ná¹›loke pÄ«yet hari-leelāmá¹›taṁ vacaḥ And he’s saying how fortunate it is that this opportunity is there, and now he laments that such an opportunity is there, but unfortunately people don’t take that opportunity.
mandasya-manda-pragnyasya vayomandāyuÅ›aÅ›cavai nidrayāriyate naktaṁ dÄ«vācāvyartha-karma-bhÄ« mandasya-manda-pragnyasya People are dull. And not only are they dull or lazy, but their intelligence is duller still. Even some people, they’re not dull physically, they’re dull intellectually.
What does that mean? That means that they are actually having a particular issue which they have to deal with. What is the issue that they have to deal with? That sometimes people are physically very active, especially people in the mode of passion. We see them super active.
They don’t seem to be lazy at all. There are many people in the mode of ignorance, especially people who just sit, young people sit life almost hours and hours in front of a TV or just surfing some sites or playing some video games. People spend hours and hours and that’s what is the use.
So in that sense, they’re lazy also. But if they’re working, they work very hard. And when they work very hard, still they may not be physically lazy, but they’re intellectually lazy.
That means they don’t want to exercise the intelligence beyond anything that is absolutely necessary. So intellectual laziness means that, okay, whatever I need to earn my living, to get a mate for my enjoyment, I will do that. But I won’t exercise my intelligence anything more than necessary.
So about the big questions of life? No, I won’t ask those questions. They’re too difficult to ask. Just forget it.
So this reluctance to address life’s big questions or even to contemplate life’s big questions is a sign of intellectual laziness. So, And also our duration of life is very less. And even that less duration of life, what is happening? We spend so much of our time in sleeping at night.
So it just passes away. And then, And our day goes off in waste activities. How tragic it is.
All of us feel we are so busy, but we waste so much time chit-chatting, gossiping, discussing about this and that and so many hundreds of things we discuss. So what happens? Especially today with the internet being available, there is just no limit to how many topics we can just keep talking about and surfing this, reading that. And now not only internet, we have social media.
So we can really sometimes feel, sometimes we just sit down on social media and start messaging this, reading this, watching that. And our words may go away. So at that time to check ourselves or at least to correct ourselves, we can remember this.
Our day goes off in just idle time. Idle time. So then next verse now.
So here, Sona Krishi has completed his questions, wherein he asks, basically, why did Parikshit simply punish the imposter king Kali and not finish him? And please tell us if this is related with Krishna. And why we should speak things related with Krishna, that’s what he described in subsequent verses. So text 10.
Now Suta Goswami will start describing the pastime in greater detail over here. So what happened? So when Parikshit was residing in the capital of the Kurus, when he was residing at that time, he heard or he saw the symptoms of the entry of the age of Kali in his kingdom. It was not just a kingdom, it was an emperor within his jurisdiction.
So he had power and suppose somebody has got a very powerful wheel. They are moving that wheel round and round and round. Nobody can come near them in the area of that wheel because they will get cut off.
So Chakravarti is a king who is supposed to have that kind of prowess. And within that prowess, no challenger can come. But he heard that Kali had come in.
He perceived some symptoms and he decided this challenge cannot be tolerated. This threat has to be countered. When he heard about this, it was not at all palatable for him.
It’s interesting, the word is Anatipriyam. That is not very dear for him. This is more a metaphorical way of saying that it’s a very bad thing.
In a sense, he knew the age of Kali was going to come. And he knew that this is going to happen. So it is not unexpected.
It is not shocking. But still, it is not at all pleasing also. Sharasannam sanyuja shaundhira dade.
So Sharasannam, he took his bow and arrows. Sharasannam sanyuja. And he took them.
And he took this as an opportunity to start his martial activity. Shaundhira. That he could show his shaurya, his heroism, he could show.
He took up his bow and arrow and he immediately marched out of his capital. In search of the source from which the symptoms of Kali were being manifested. So the kings are meant to be very vigilant.
Not that, oh I am a king and I am going to rule in comfort. No. I am a king and I am meant to maintain dharma.
And wherever any signs of dharma come, the king is vigilant to counter those signs. And that’s what Parikshit Maharaj will do over here. So, let’s see how things move forward from here.
Text 11. Swalankrutam shama turanga yojitam. Ratham rugendra dhajam ashritah purat.
Pruto rathashwa dvipa parthiyuptaya. Swasenaya digvijayaya nirgataha. So, swalankrutam shama turanga yojitam.
Swalankrutam. Now he is describing that he was a great hero. And when he was travelling, he didn’t travel by himself, by casualty.
He swung. It is, he has got a majestic chariot. Swalankrutam.
That means it is beautifully. Swalankrutam it is. That becomes Swalankrutam in Sandhi.
So, it is beautifully decorated. Shama turanga. So, there are black horses which were harnessed over there.
Shama turanga yojitam. He had those dark horses which were harnessed over there. Ratham rugendra dhajam ashritah purat.
So, murga indra. Indra is the king or the head. And murga is animals.
So, the head along the animals is the lion. So, he had a lion standard. So, different warriors, they could be identified by the standards.
In the war, if there is a lot of crowd and from a far distance, if you want to know who is a particular warrior that is coming, the way to identify them, they would have a standard on their chariot. So, his standard, the flag that was like his standard, that was the murga indra, a lion he had. Ashritah purat.
So, he started off from his chipurath, from his city. So, he started off in his rath which was driven by his chariot here. Then he was surrounded by Ashwa, cavalry and vijapatti.
So, he had cavalry, I said in army there is infantry and there is cavalry. So, broadly in army there is air force, there is naval force and there is the army which also refers to the people who fight on land. Those who fight on land, we can have those who are fighting on foot or they are fighting on some carriage.
So, the horsemen fight on horses, the charioteers fight on chariot, the elephant warriors fight on elephants. So, he started off with vigilance to fight a war if necessary. He knew Kali was a formidable threat and he did not take the threat of Kali lightly.
He took his army with him, vijapatti. Vijapatti means there were elephants with him. Yuktaya, being equipped.
So, senaya. So, he took his army with him, digvijaya, nirgataha. So, he started off to conquer.
So, he had already performed three yajnas, Ashwamedha yajnas by which his sovereignty over the world had been established. But here it is indicated that Kali’s coming meant that his sovereignty was being challenged and when his sovereignty was being challenged, that person who had been digvijayi, he again decided to be digvijayi for the purpose of gaining conquest over the directions, he again started off. So, in a sense, conquest is never permanent.
We may conquer some land but there is always the possibility that somebody may come and challenge our rule over that land. And they challenge our rule, then again we need to conquer that land. So, therefore, it’s an ongoing process of reasserting authority.
So, conquest is not a one-time domination, it is an ongoing reassertion of authority and that applies to our inner world also. We can’t say that I control my senses and it’s done. No, even if I control the senses, we have to control them again.
If we don’t control them, then we will be lost. So, digvijayaya nirgataha, he started off for attaining victory. So, text 12 now.
bhadrashvam ketumalam cha bharatam cha uttaraan kurun kim purusha dinivarshani vijitya jagruhe balim Now, it’s described over here, which all the areas he went to. And Prabhupada in a purport gives a description of the areas. So, bhadrashvam ketumalam cha bhadrashvam.
So, there is the kingdom of Bhadrashva and the Ketumala. So, basically, when the Bhagavata… So, we won’t go into the details specifically of the Bharata. uttaraan kurun, these were on the northern side of the Kuru’s kingdom.
He went to the northern Kuru kingdom also. And he actually extracted tributes. vijitya jagruhe balim jagruhe balim means that he got the tax from them.
He exerted his strength and they acknowledged his strength. And he got the tribute from them. Tribute is basically some gift which is a visible acknowledgement of that particular kingdom’s subordination to the emperor.
So, he went over to various parts of the world. And the idea here is that the Bhagavatam, when it describes the story, its purpose is not primarily to describe geography. But it doesn’t shy away from geography either.
It focuses primarily on describing things in a systematic way by which we all can get a sense of the heroism of Parikshit Maharaj and we can get a sense of his magnificence. So, rather than focusing on the technicalities of the specifics, we focus primarily on the essence. The essential principle is that every one of us should be able to move onwards towards Krishna.
And such an illustrious person as Parikshit Maharaj is moving towards Krishna. So, let us also move towards Krishna.