SB 1.15.8

Giriraj Swami: Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Canto One, Chapter Fifteen, “The Pāṇḍavas Retire Timely”

TEXT 18

yat-sannidhāv aham u khāṇḍavam agnaye ‘dām
indraṁ ca sāmara-gaṇaṁ tarasā vijitya
labdhā sabhā maya-kṛtādbhuta-śilpa-māyā
digbhyo ‘haran nṛpatayo balim adhvare te

TRANSLATION

Because He was near me, it was possible for me to conquer with great dexterity the powerful King of heaven, Indradeva, along with his demigod associates and thus enable the fire-god to devastate the Khāṇḍava Forest. And only by His grace was the demon named Maya saved from the blazing Khāṇḍava Forest, and thus we could build our assembly house of wonderful architectural workmanship, where all the princes assembled during the performance of Rājasūya-yajña and paid you tributes.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The demon Maya Dānava was an inhabitant of the forest Khāṇḍava, and when the Khāṇḍava Forest was set on fire, he asked protection from Arjuna. Arjuna saved his life, and as a result of this the demon felt obliged. He reciprocated by building a wonderful assembly house for the Pāṇḍavas, which attracted the extraordinary attention of all state princes. They felt the supernatural power of the Pāṇḍavas, and thus without grudge all of them submitted and paid tributes to the Emperor. The demons possess wonderful and supernatural powers to create material wonders. But they are always disturbing elements of the society. The modern demons are the harmful material scientists who create some material wonders for disturbance in the society. For example, the creation of nuclear weapons has caused some panic in human society. Maya was also a materialist like that, and he knew the art of creating such wonderful things. And yet Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to kill him. When he was chased both by the fire and by the wheel of Lord Kṛṣṇa, he took shelter of such a devotee as Arjuna, who saved him from the wrath of the fire of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Devotees are therefore more merciful than the Lord, and in devotional service the mercy of a devotee is more valuable than the mercy of the Lord. Both the fire and the Lord ceased from chasing the demon as soon as both of them saw that the demon was given shelter by such a devotee as Arjuna. This demon, feeling obliged to Arjuna, wanted to do him some service to show his gratefulness, but Arjuna declined to accept anything from him in exchange. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, however, being pleased with Maya for his taking shelter of a devotee, asked him to render service unto King Yudhiṣṭhira by building a wonderful assembly house. The process is that by the grace of the devotee the mercy of the Lord is obtained, and by the mercy of the Lord a chance to serve the Lord’s devotee is obtained. The club of Bhīmasena was also a gift of Maya Dānava.

COMMENT

So, in this verse, Arjuna continues the appreciation of the Lord Sri Krishna. He understood that without the mercy of Krishna, he could have not done so many things. Just as he defeated Indra and associates of Indra in the battle. So the pastimes of the Lord, or devotees of the Lord are very wonderful. And therefore, we can understand the super excellent position of the Supreme Lord as opposed to the demons. And we may be able to produce material renders, but we are actually disturbing elements in the society. Just like Srila Prabhupada mentions that the modern scientists are the modern demons, who create material wonders such as atomic bombs, but whose contribution is simply to create disturbance in human society. Similarly, there are other demons who have some insignificant mystic power and who claim to be God, and thus disturbed at the spiritual prospects of their foolish followers.

When Krishna was personally present, there was one demon named Paundraka. He also falsely claimed to be God or Vasudeva. He was so foolish that he even dared to challenge Krishna, sending a message to Krishna’s assembly that, “My dear Krishna, you are just a pretender imitating me, I am the real Vasudeva, you are an imitation only. So, I request you to surrender your symbols of Vasudeva, namely the club, disc, lotus, and conch. Otherwise, I shall challenge you to a dual.” So, Krishna read this message aloud in the assembly about Paundraka who claimed to be God.

When Srila Prabhupada was [Unintelligible 00:13:28] there was a big press conference. And one reporter from Times Magazine asked him, ”What is your opinion about. . .?”

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The followers of guru Maharaja ji were actually guilty, so the court threw out the charges against us and instituted new charges against the followers of guru Maharaja ji. After they were convicted, another thing happened, and that is that although Yogeshwar was supposedly a young boy, he decided he would marry an American secretary. So this decision very much upset guru Maharaja ji’s mother in India, and she was very angry that he was doing this. So she announced that actually her son, Bala-Yogeshwar was not the real god, and that actually her younger son, Bala-Bhagavān he was the real god and as the leader of the divine light society. She established Bala-Bhagavān as the real god in place of Bala-Yogeshwar as head of the Divine Institution.

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