Bhagavatam study 89 1.17.1-6 Outrage on seeing atrocity is healthy

Continue with the 17th chapter yes 117.1 this is punishment and reward of the age of Kali so here what happened is that Parikshit Maharaj has seen Kali come he has seen Kali attack the step goes backwards the camera goes backwards Suta Goswami narrating all this to the sages at Namisharanya, Sona Kali, so he is speaking now attacking them, tormenting them Dandahastamcha Vrishalam so he had a club in his hand and Vrishalam he was actually like a low caste person low quality person Ladrushe Drupalanchanam Parikshit Maharaj saw that he was actually dressed like a king so he was dressed like a king but he was acting like a wicked person he was acting like a person who has no sense of decency that’s why it is said he was like a Shudra, although he was pretending to act like a Brahmana but he was totally a low quality person, a low grade person and what exactly was he doing he was attacking the cow and the bull and as he was attacking like this what happened thereafter so the background was that Suta Goswami had been narrating the story and the sages had said if this story is related with Krishna please tell us and their question had been when they heard that this person was attacking the cow and the bull, they asked why did Parikshit simply punish them why did not Parikshit kill this person entirely so then who that person is and why this attack was happening, how is it related to Krishna all this is being narrated in this story so the whole idea is that everyone of us we find ourselves in different context as many things are going on which we are not aware of so for example if we could see this simply as a random act of violence or somebody is attacking cow and bull atrocious but then there is so much more going on that somebody is not an ordinary person that somebody is Kali and cow and bull are not an ordinary person they are actually Bhoomi and Dharma so the Bhagavatam seems to be depicting just an ordinary crime but it is not an ordinary crime it is a catastrophe there are characters from various strata of reality who are interacting over here and only when we hear from Shastra Chakshu then we understand the significance of the incidents so now in this chapter the thrust will be on how Parikshit Maharaj will receive the age of Kali and will actually punish as well as reward so let’s see what happens so now it is described now when Parikshit Maharaj observed this what did he see Vrisham Brunal Dhavalam that Brunal Dhavalam this Vrisham was this bull was actually white very attractive white is considered to be a sign of purity of state of being uncontaminated so this bull was very pure but mehantamim vibhitam mehantamim vibhitam means that he is actually urinating in fear normally when we have great fear there are certain functions in our body which are voluntary and certain functions which are involuntary so when there is great fear even the voluntary functions sometimes become involuntary that means sometimes tears may come from if we are very grievously hurt by someone tears may come from our eyes and we may start crying although we don’t want to cry so normally in most situations we are able to control our emotions but in some situations our emotions just go out of control and then we may just break down in tears similarly at the point it might seem a little obscene why talk about somebody urinating why in a book like a Bhagavatam why such a thing mentioned no the point is that the magnitude of the terror that this bull was going through that is conveyed by this fact that suppose somebody is a very atrocious person and that person is about to cause, about to injure or hurt and attack in a brutal way then that overwhelming of the emotions of our body of the emotions in our mind causes us to lose control of our voluntary bodily functions and that magnitude of fear, now why would Dharma be so fearful shouldn’t Dharma be fearless you have to understand that things are being conveyed in a symbolic way over here, Dharma himself is is a Devata in fact the previous chapter mentioned that he is the best among the Devatas so he is not afraid but this whole pastime is done to convey some things so when Adharmic people start predominating then naturally the Dharmic people become fearful so the bull here is Dharma personified and is also representing Dharma so when Adharmic people start coming atrocities Dharma becomes fearful and this fear of the Adharmic people is a healthy fear as devotees we are not afraid of we don’t want we can tolerate bodily injury and we can be detached from the body, we try to be detached from the body but even devotees have a healthy fear of losing their spiritual consciousness of getting materially contaminated, of getting materially attached and materially entangled thereby so this is representative of the fear that Dharma is having that I will be overwhelmed by Adharma this Kali is attacking the bull symbolizes that actually Adharma has become very powerful and Adharma is acting in a way by which Adharma is making people suffer so that suffering should not be there and that’s why the point being made over here is that everybody was that this particular bodily reaction is being depicted over here and then Vepamanam Padai Kena He was trembling, Vibhyatam, so there was fear and Padai Kena, actually he was standing only on one leg so normally in life if we see somebody who is who is physically afflicted in some way then naturally we have some sense of compassion normally even people who are not normally particularly sensitive if they see somebody who is say if we are travelling on a, if we are crossing a road and we see somebody who is blind then we will want to offer a helping hand to them just help them to cross over so normally if somebody is physically incapacitated in some way it’s a basic human sensitivity or compassion to help someone but if somebody is blind and somebody just somebody goes by and some bully just pushes them so that they fall down and then the stick falls away and then they are lying helpless on the ground that is considered especially cruel so the magnitude of the heartlessness and the cruelty of the bull is conveyed over Kali is conveyed towards the bull by saying he was standing on one leg and struggling to balance himself and even that one leg on which he was standing is being attacked say somebody can’t walk and they walk on crutches and somebody teases them by taking their crutches away and they are left helpless and they fall down it’s really very cruel thing to do so the magnitude of the cruelty of Kali is being conveyed through this example over here so 1.17.3 gaam cha dharma dughaam teenam bhrisham shudra padahatam vivatsam ashruvadanam shamaam yavasam ichchaten now gaam cha dharma dughaam teenam so now this shudra was not just attacking the bull he was also attacking the cow now he was using a stick to attack the bull and he was kicking the cow gaam cha dharma dughaam teenam cow who was dharma dughaam teenam she is actually the person who gives ghee which is important for sacrifice so again her significance in the dharmic context is being told over here and they said that she teenam she was very weak bhrisham shudra padahatam is being fiercely assaulted by the shudra padahatam he was attacking her with his foot now to kick someone is not kicking doesn’t just hurt but it also conveys an extreme amount of disrespect normally we don’t touch anything which is respectable with our foot so if we kick someone with the foot it is not just that we are hitting them, we are assaulting them but we are also grievously insulting them a cow is considered to be especially sacred and to kick a cow is considered to be grievously wrong and on top of that cow is considered a symbol of motherhood so a cow without calf is considered to be in a state of great suffering a cow can live without many things but for a cow to live without a calf is very very difficult and so anyone who makes a cow live without a calf, they themselves are very cruel, so here this cow had no calf with her in the puranas elsewhere it is described how for the cow she sometimes referred to as dharma she is dharma she is earth here, then the children who are dharmic then the people who are dharmic are like her children so now her eyes were filled with ash shamam yavasam ichchatim shamam yavasam ichchatim she was desperately desiring her she wanted something to eat shamam she was very weak, dinam as described earlier, she was poor yavasam ichchatim she was desiring something to eat now Prabhupada says that she was desiring grass Vishwachitra says that she was desiring her share of sacrifice the point is that we can take this in the symbolic context or we can take it in the deeper context cow is very weak and normally if somebody wants to torment someone they just starve them and they starve, they become very weak and they can’t do much when they are weak like that but if they keep not only, first of all you make them weak, someone weak and then you beat them then when we are weak we are especially vulnerable and we are desperately needing some food to gain some strength and at that time somebody attacks us it’s extremely painful so that was what was happening to the cow over here and thus the whole point of this description is the magnitude of the cruelty with which Kali was attacking is being described over, conveyed over here so in different cultural context the cruelty will be conveyed in different ways in the Mahabharata’s culture it is described that when one king wanted to attack another kingdom they would not actually attack the civilians they would not directly plunder the kingdom usually on the outskirts of the kingdom that kingdom’s cows would be grazing and the invader would come and try to conquer the cows and the cows would have some guards over there and they would be overcome and then conquering the cows, taking possession of the cows symbolized the intention to attack and then the king would come out and then the defending king would fight with the attacking king two armies would fight and during this fight the cows would not be attacked the cows were considered to be like the symbol of wealth and possessing them or taking possession of them was used to signal attack but the cows would not be attacked now for somebody to attack the cows themselves that is considered grievous and so if you understand the cultural context then we will say that this is not just a strange incident or what is this, a cow and a bull having attack and then we will see that this is something which is conveying something very grievously wrong a cow being attacked, a bull being attacked is something just not done and when that is being done that indicates that it is a serious infraction so text 4 now पप्रच्चरतं आरूडः कारत्स्वर्परिच्छडं मेगगं भीरया वाचा समारोपित् कार्मुकः so पप्रच्चरतं आरूडः so at that time Parikshit Maharaj was furious and he challenged this imposter who was dressed like a king, Papruchaya, asked him Parikshit Maharaj was travelling on his chariot so while he was on the chariot कारत्स्वर्परिच्छडं so he spoke loudly मेगगं भीरया वाचा in a voice just like thunder rumbling of thunder in a grey voice he spoke that समारोपित् कार्मुकः he spoke with his bow and arrow poised, big attack now Parikshit Maharaj was a dharmic king a dharmic king he could see that atrocious wrong was happening but still he didn’t want to immediately punish so what he did was he first decided to give him a fair chance, tell ask him to tell what is happening give him a chance to have an audition and based on that decide what he is going to say and then he would punish him so what does Parikshit Maharaj challenge him कस्तम्मच्चरने लोके बलाद्धम्च बलान्बली नरदेवो सिवेशेन कर्मणाद्विजहा so कस्तम्मच्चरने लोके so how are you attacking those who are under my protection, तम्मच्चरने लोके, those who are in my people बलाद्धम्च बलाद्धम्च बली so that you think you have power and you can attack those who are powerless but these people are not powerless, they are under my protection, नरदेवो सिवेशेन you are dressed like a नरदेव, like a king, the kings are considered to be the representatives of gods on the earth, that’s why they are called नरदेव, so भूदेव refers to the representatives of the gods on the earth, that is the ब्रामण, they are the नरदेव refers to also the representative of gods but they are gods among humans, that is the kings, so नरदेवो सिवेशेन नतवट कर्मण द्विजः you are dressed like a king but कर्मण by your work you are अद्विजः you are not acting like a द्विजः, द्विजः refers to one who has got the second birth, ज is birth, द्वि is second, so सिवेशेन is considered to be like a second birth and this second birth is offered to ब्रामण, शत्रियाज and वैशाज so when this is not offered to अद्विजः so if somebody is अद्विजः means somebody is not had second birth that means that person is शुद्र, so here शुद्र is not used in terms of a it’s not a casteist slur to put down certain community of people, rather it is by actions it is you are acting in an unworthy way you are dressed like a king but you are acting like a imposter like an aggressor, you are acting like an unworthy person so why this point is emphasized in the भागतम that this कली was dressed like a king whenever there is some story that is being told then the story can be a historical event but everything in that story has significance so just like in the Bhagavad Gita first chapter there are so many descriptions about how Arjuna had a chariot महती संदनेस्ततव it is a glorious chariot and that chariot is considered like a symbol of victory similarly कपीद्धजः he had a, Arjuna had a standard or a flag that was of a monkey and that represent Hanuman, that is also symbol of victory, so whenever there are these associated signs and paraphernalia or anything which is there in a particular scriptural narrative it all can have significance and some things have a greater significance some lesser significance so the point is कली कली could have just been just an aggressor attacking the cow and the bull but time and time again the भागतम it is said that he was dressed like a king मेरे देवो उसी वेशे न so what is the point of saying that he was dressed like a king normally a king is supposed to be a protector king is not meant to be exploiter so it is something like if some huge crime like robbery that is going to be that is bad and news will report that but if somebody in police uniform commits a robbery then that becomes even more news worthy now these people dressed up like policemen and then they committed a robbery where somebody enters a bank and they are dressed like the security staff of the bank and then while they are dressed like the security staff then they enter and attack and injure and kill and rob the bank then that is even more grievous our dress conveys some things to some people about us and then when we are in a particular dress we are meant to act in a particular way so if somebody dresses in a particular way and then acts in a different way and not just a different way but opposite way then that is extremely serious so Kali had dressed up as a king that means he was claiming to have authority, claiming to have power and his dress as a king would inspire people to respect and submit but then after people had offered respect and submission then he was offering them not protection but he was exploiting them so this is the outrageousness of the crime that Kali is committing and that outrageousness of the crime is conveyed over here by by the point that he was dressed like a king so anybody committing crime is a serious issue but a person who is a law, who is a protector of the law, somebody who is meant to protect law in that dress if somebody commits crime that is far far more grievous and this is also meant to be a this is also meant to be like a serious this is also meant to be a precursor of what is going to be happening in future so what happens that it is told in the 12th canto of the Mahabharata when the predictions of what is going to happen, Kali is coming that is that the kings will be like predators and they will plunder the citizens so that same point of the kings plundering the citizens that is symbolized over here through Kali being dressed up like a king and then tormenting people so take 6 so so now Krishna has departed and so has Arjuna who is Gandiva dharam who is the builder of the Gandiva so do you think that just because Krishna and Arjuna have departed now they don’t have any protector he has started by saying that who are machcharane, those who are under my protection how dare you punish them so you you have taken advantage of the fact that Krishna and Arjuna have departed and now you are thinking that you can punish somebody so shocho means what you are doing is lamentable it is grievous, you are culpable you are a criminal those who are not culpable a king also has to punish but the king is meant to punish those who are who are criminals but if the king punishes an innocent person then the king becomes a criminal you are acting like a king and instead of doing justice you are doing injustice first of all acting like a king itself is wrong and then you are punishing those who are innocent that is again further wrong and therefore because you are attacking and injuring those who are innocent you deserve to be killed so there are certain crimes which are so grievous that they deserve capital punishment in today’s world there is a concern about administering capital punishment because of many reasons one is misplaced compassion people feel that we don’t give life so we can’t take life that is true but then that person has already taken life of someone and then those people are allowed to be free they may take life of further people so capital punishment if somebody is proven to be have committed a grievous crime and they have no remorse then they need to be punished and death may be the appropriate punishment for them of course in today’s world with a corrupt legal system it often happens that people who are under privileged, people who don’t have contacts people who don’t have money they can’t hire big loyals sometimes for a small crime they may be framed and they may be sent to the gallows or they may be sent to the electric chair or whatever is the way to punish them and people who are wealthy are influential, have connections even if they commit a grievous crime they may not be punished and sometimes if somebody is wrongly framed and then they are killed then there is no way to repair that they are just dead but if somebody is wrongly framed and if there is some other punishment then it may be that they can be saved they can be they can be a trial again and then the wrong punishment can be corrected so in that sense in today’s world, capital punishment there are genuine concerns, valid concerns that where the where the legal system is corruptible then then capital punishment may be used as a weapon against the underprivileged that is a valid concern if there are things who are just and who are competent enough to administer justice properly then for them to punish punish someone with capital punishment especially if they have done a grievous crime then that is not only proper but it is sometimes not only proper but it is essential also and that’s what is being sentenced as punishment that Parikshit Maharaj gives over here