SB 1.16.12 – Shastra and Shaastra

Giriraj Swami: Reading from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Chapter Sixteen, “How Parīkṣit Received the Age of Kali,”

TEXT 12

bhadrāśvaṁ ketumālaṁ ca
bhārataṁ cottarān kurūn
kimpuruṣādīni varṣāṇi
vijitya jagṛhe balim

TRANSLATION

Mahārāja Parīkṣit then conquered all parts of the earthly planet — Bhadrāśva, Ketumāla, Bhārata, the northern Kuru, Kimpuruṣa, etc. — and exacted tributes from their respective rulers.

COMMENT

Actually, in the synonyms, it is mentioned next to “balim — strength,” but in one lecture on the same verse, Srila Prabhupada said, “Why have they put ‘strength,’ it should be ‘tribute’ or ‘taxes.’”

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Bhadrāśva: It is a tract of land near Meru Parvata, and it extends from Gandha-mādana Parvata to the saltwater ocean. There is a description of this varṣa in the Mahābhārata (Bhīṣma-parva 7.14–18). The description was narrated by Sañjaya to Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira also conquered this varṣa, and thus the province was included within the jurisdiction of his empire. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was formerly declared to be the emperor of all lands ruled by his grandfather, but still he had to establish his supremacy while he was out of his capital to exact tribute from such states.

Ketumāla: This earth planet is divided into seven dvīpas by seven oceans, and the central dvīpa, called Jambūdvīpa, is divided into nine varṣas, or parts, by eight huge mountains. Bhārata-varṣa is one of the above-mentioned nine varṣas, and Ketumāla is also described as one of the above varṣas. It is said that in Ketumāla varṣa, women are the most beautiful. This varṣa was conquered by Arjuna also. A description of this part of the world is available in the Mahābhārata (Sabhā 28.6).

It is said that this part of the world is situated on the western side of the Meru Parvata, and inhabitants of this province used to live up to ten thousand years (Bhīṣma-parva 6.31). Human beings living in this part of the globe are of golden color, and the women resemble the angels of heaven. The inhabitants are free from all kinds of diseases and grief.

Bhārata-varṣa: This part of the world is also one of the nine varṣas of the Jambūdvīpa. A description of Bhārata-varṣa is given in the Mahābhārata (Bhīṣma-parva, Chapters 9 and 10).

In the center of Jambūdvīpa is Ilāvṛta-varṣa, and south of Ilāvṛta-varṣa is Hari-varṣa. The description of these varṣas is given in the Mahābhārata (Sabhā-parva 28.7–8) as follows:

nagarāṁś ca vanāṁś caiva
nadīś ca vimalodakāḥ
puruṣān deva-kalpāṁś ca
nārīś ca priya-darśanāḥ

adṛṣṭa-pūrvān subhagān
sa dadarśa dhanañjayaḥ
sadanāni ca śubhrāṇi
nārīś cāpsarasāṁ nibhāḥ

It is mentioned here that the women in both these varṣas are beautiful, and some of them are equal to the Apsarās, or heavenly women.

Uttarakuru: According to Vedic geography the northernmost portion of Jambūdvīpa is called Uttarakuru-varṣa. It is surrounded by the saltwater ocean from three sides and divided by Śṛṅgavān Mountain from the Hiraṇmaya-varṣa.

Kimpuruṣa-varṣa: It is stated to be situated north of the great Himālaya Mountain, which is eighty thousand miles in length and height and which covers sixteen thousand miles in width. These parts of the world were also conquered by Arjuna (Sabhā 28.1–2). The Kimpuruṣas are descendants of a daughter of Dakṣa. When Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira performed a horse sacrifice yajña, the inhabitants of these countries were also present to take part in the festival, and they paid tributes to the Emperor. This part of the world is called Kimpuruṣa-varṣa, or sometimes the Himālayan provinces (Himavatī). It is said that Śukadeva Gosvāmī was born in these Himālayan provinces and that he came to Bhārata-varṣa after crossing the Himālayan countries.

In other words, Mahārāja Parīkṣit conquered all the world. He conquered all the continents adjoining all the seas and oceans in all directions, namely the eastern, western, northern and southern parts of the world.

COMMENT

So, previously, the whole planet was under one rule. And, generally, the emperor of India was the emperor of the world. Other places could have kings, but the kings came under the rule of the emperor of India. And to establish his supremacy, the emperor would exact tribute from the various kings. Now, here the verse mentions that Maharaja Parīkṣit conquered various places. Srila Prabhupada explains the significance of conquering in the context of Maharaja Parīkṣit or any Vedic king. They did not conquer to enjoy, exploit, and possess. They didn’t conquer in the fashion of Napoleon or Hitler, but they conquered with the idea that the people should follow Vedic civilization, or in other words, should follow the laws of God.

As we discussed a few days ago, the king is the representative of the Lord because he manifests the will of God on earth, and he engages the population in service to the Lord. Just as we say, para-dukha-dukhī, the Vaishnavas are sorry when they see the unhappiness of others, so Maharaja Parīkṣit was a mahā-bhāgavata, so he also felt unhappy when he saw that others were unhappy without Krishna consciousness. So, he wanted that every part of the earth planet should follow the Vedic system, and as Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gītā, vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, the whole purpose of the Vedic civilization is to know God or to realize God. So, Maharaja Parīkṣit wanted that everyone should follow the Vedic principles and achieve the actual goal of human life, which is to develop pure love of Godhead and go back home, back to Godhead. Therefore, he went all over the earth, or sent his brothers all over the earth to conquer, not for any personal aggrandizement but to do good to the citizens of the world. We see in the case of Lord Ramachandra also, that after Rāvaṇa kidnapped Sitadevi, Lord Rama attacked Rāvaṇa’s kingdom of Lanka, and He destroyed not only Rāvaṇa but all of the demonic persons who supported Rāvaṇa. But Lord Ramachandra’s motive was not that He should become the ruler of Lanka; His motive was, as we know from Bhagavad-gītā,

paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge yuge

His purpose was to protect the devotees, to deliver the devotees, and to punish the miscreants, or to kill the miscreants if necessary, not to become the king of Lanka or to enjoy the kingdom of Rāvaṇa. So, after Lord Rama fulfilled His purpose and He delivered Mother Sita, killed Rāvaṇa, He established the brother of Rāvaṇa, Vibhīṣaṇa, as the ruler because Vibhīṣaṇa was a devotee, and the Lord wants that the world should be ruled by devotees because devotees will see to the best interest of the citizens, and they will help the citizens to make advancement in Krishna consciousness.

Now, we see the opposite, that people are very anxious to conquer and rule for personal satisfaction or gratification, and they don’t care much for the citizens. Sometimes, Srila Prabhupada also used to lament about the conditions of people in the world under demonic rulers. Once, when Srila Prabhupada visited Africa, his secretary Shyamasundara Prabhu sometimes used to send reports to the temples about Srila Prabhupada when he visited different places. So, Srila Prabhupada came to learn that some of the government leaders in Africa had taken away the land of some of the citizens, and he was very upset. “What right do they have to take away the land of and property of the citizens?” And then he said that as devotees, or as brahmans, we have no interest in politics. We simply want to give advice to the leaders or to the rulers so they can conduct the affairs of state properly for the benefit of the citizens. But then, Srila Prabhupada said, sometimes if the rulers become too bad, we must intervene. We cannot just allow them to create havoc in the lives of the people. So, devotees are very compassionate. Sometimes people wrongly accuse the devotees of being escapists, that they don’t want to face the problems of the world, or they don’t care about others; they just want to escape and go to the ashram and eat and sleep and do a little chanting and worshiping. But actually, devotees are most concerned about the welfare of the whole world. And they work for the welfare of the whole world.

Actually, we can see practically, that the preachers in the Krishna consciousness movement are always trying to help people. They are not living secluded lives; they probably deal with more people than anyone practically. So, Maharaja Parīkṣit conquered the world, but not for the sake of his own sense gratification, but for the sake of doing good to the world, for the sake of helping people to become Krishna conscious. Another interesting feature of the verse and purport is the fact that the Vedic authorities were completely aware of the entire creation of God. The Bhāgavatam was compiled five thousand years ago, and all the different parts of the earth planet are mentioned. According to modern history, for example, Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. But the Bhāgavatam was compiled five thousand years ago, and they knew of the existence of America then. So, there are two methods of acquiring knowledge. One is the ascending method, which is based on sense perception, and the other is the descending method, which is based on receiving knowledge from higher authorities. Or sometimes Srila Prabhupada says the inductive process and the deductive process. The inductive process is based on observation, that I have met so many men and all of them are mortal; therefore, all men are mortal. But the defect in the inductive process is that you haven’t seen every man. Maybe all of the men you have seen so far are mortal, but you might meet one who is not mortal. So, you cannot conclude necessarily that all men are mortal because you haven’t seen all men. And the deductive process starts with the principle that all men are mortal. John is a man; therefore, John is mortal. So, that is the deductive process.

So, we basically follow the deductive process or the descending process, where knowledge descends from perfect authorities to us. And therefore, we find so much information in the Vedic scriptures that is not only perfect but unknown to empiric speculators. There is one verse in Bhagavad-gītā which says that the soul cannot be burned or it cannot be cut, it cannot be wet, it cannot be withered, and it cannot be burned. So, in the purport, Srila Prabhupada explains that the modern theory of the material scientists that life cannot exist above the boiling point of water is false because the soul can exist even in fire. He even commented that the modern theory that germs are necessarily destroyed or killed above the boiling point of water is false. And he wrote it in the purport to the Gītā. And he even mentioned about the Sun-God. But the Sun-God lives in the sun globe, which is fire, but he is still living because the soul cannot be burned by fire. Well, when we read such statements that appear so contrary to our modern scientific beliefs, we may have some doubt. But actually, a few years ago, scientists discovered that life does exist above the boiling point of water. Generally, we can never examine living entities above the boiling point of water because above the boiling point of water, water evaporates. Because we have no chance to observe living entities in water above the boiling point. But some years ago, the scientists went deep under the surface of the ocean, and they found maybe an underwater volcano or something under the water that was extremely hot. But because it was under tons and tons and tons and tons of pressure from water from the ocean, so the water underneath could not evaporate even though it was so high in temperature. And the scientists that went down there in the submarine discovered living entities up to 744 degrees Fahrenheit. And the boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit. And they found that as the temperature of the water increased, there were actually more living entities. They were reproducing more, flourishing more at the higher temperatures. So, it was a complete shock to the scientific community because the discovery completely refuted the notion that life cannot exist above the boiling point of water.

So, knowledge which is based on experimentation and observation is always limited because our experience is limited. Columbus discovered America, but America was already there. So, he discovered it means the people were ignorant, and he made them aware. Otherwise, it was already there. In fact, when Columbus returned to Europe, some people criticized it. “What did you do so great? Discovered America? You didn’t discover America; America was already there.” He said, “Yes, I only made people aware of the fact that America was there. That is my credit.” So, when people are ignorant or unaware, and someone makes them aware of something that already existed we may say he discovered it, but it was already there. And it was already known to the followers of Vedic civilization because everything is described in the Vedic scriptures. So, therefore, with great confidence, Srila Prabhupada made so many statements on so many subjects that were beyond the range of experimental evidence or sense perception, just like saying that the astronauts never went to the moon. So here we find descriptions of all parts of the earth planet, even parts that scientists today may not be aware of. There are so many anomalies because that is a whole other topic, but there is so many anomalies which do not fit into the scientific theories. But anyway, we won’t get into it now. But if devotees are interested, there is information available. But anyway, our point is that Veda means knowledge, perfect knowledge. And the goal of Vedic knowledge or the end of Vedic knowledge is called Vedanta. And the subject of Vedanta is Krishna, The Absolute Truth from which everything emanates. So, somehow or other, the goal is Krishna, to become Krishna conscious, either by studying the Vedas or by working. The king engaged the citizens or at least made sure that the citizens were engaged according to the principles of varnashrama-dharma, so that ultimately, they could be elevated to the platform of Krishna consciousness.

The scriptures also are meant to elevate people to the stage of Krishna consciousness. So, everything in Vedic civilization is ultimately meant to bring us to Krishna consciousness. And Srila Prabhupada explains there are two words which come from the same group: shastra and shastra. Shastra means scripture, and shastra, like astra, shastra, means weapon. But they both come from the same root, which means ‘to control’. Everyone must come under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And those who follow the shastra, they come under the control of the Supreme Lord voluntarily. But if they don’t come under the Supreme Lord voluntarily, then they have to be dealt with by the king, by shastra, and they will be forced to come under control. So, Maharaja Yudhisthir travelled all over the world just to bring people under the control of Vedic rule, which means under the control of God’s laws. And if they did not voluntarily accept shastra, then shastra was there to punish them. And both are good for the citizens. Both are good for the citizens, just like a child. The parents give good instructions to the children, but if the children misbehave, the parents may have to take up the stick. Even Lord Krishna’s mother, Mother Yasoda, sometimes she would take up the stick, because sometimes children are naughty and they don’t follow the good advice of parents. So, the parents always try to see to the welfare of the children. As His Holiness Radhanath Swami mentioned yesterday, śreyas and preyas. Children are very interested in preyas, immediate gratification, immediate happiness. Or they see something they want, they immediately want to touch it, put it in their mouth, or whatever. They just want to play.

And Lord Krishna also exhibited the same tendency. He also just wanted to play. So, Mother Yasoda would have to come and advise Him that now You have played long enough. Now You have to come home. You have to bathe, dress properly, take food. So, that is like śreyas and just playing and enjoying with friends’ is preyas. So the king also is like the guardian. He is the guardian like the parent, and he also has to see that the citizens are not just playing in sense gratification, working for the sake of preyas. He has to see that they realize the benefit of śreyas, which may mean putting off some immediate gratification. It may mean undergoing some austerity for the sake of ultimate gain, which is Krishna consciousness.

So again, the king, the parent, the teacher, or spiritual master, all more or less have the same duty, which is to bring the persons dependent on them to the ultimate goal of life, or to Krishna consciousness. And they may begin by giving good instructions from shastra. But if good instruction is not sufficient, then they may have to use some stick or shastra. But both are good. And of course, Krishna, He is the supreme father. He is the king of kings. He is the supreme guru. So He personally comes and instructs us in Bhagavad-gītā. But if we don’t voluntarily accept the instructions of Bhagavad-gītā, then the stick is there. Maya is there with the stick triśūla, ready to punish us. So the same system is employed even by the Lord Himself, Krishna. And if we are lucky, or if we are intelligent, we will voluntarily accept the instructions of shastra. But if we are not able to accept the instructions of shastra, then shastra is there in many different forms to help bring us to the right position. And both are manifestations of God’s love or God’s mercy upon us, and we should accept both equally. But of course, we don’t like the punishment, naturally. So if we don’t like the punishment, then we should voluntarily accept the instructions and go back home, back to Godhead.

Hare Krishna.

Any questions or comments?

Devotee: Maharaja, you said, we have to acquire the instructions from king, mother, parents, spiritual master, and teacher. But sometimes it so happens that either the spiritual master or the parents, or king, or teacher, these are contradictory instructions, which are contradictory to shastras. So, what should we do? Whether we should understand with our intelligence, sometimes it so happens that instructions of different authorities contradict? Whom to accept?

Giriraj Swami: He says, sometime instructions of different authorities contradict each other, So whose instruction should you accept?

You should accept Krishna’s instruction. Arjuna was in the same position. He was confused. He was confused about what rule to follow, what rule not to follow. But in the end, Krishna’s just said, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, give up all other dharma, give up all other duties, give up all other religious principles, and just surrender to Me. Will that answer your question?

You want to know how do you know which instruction from which authority represents Krishna’s instruction? Well, generally, we take the spiritual master as the direct representative of Krishna. So if the king says one thing, the mother says another thing, the father says another thing, the teacher says another thing, and the spiritual master says another thing, ultimately the spiritual master is taken as the direct representative of Krishna. And he may help us to understand why the contradictions exist, but he is the direct representative of Krishna. So, when Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, to give up everything and surrender to Him. So we surrendered practically to the spiritual master as Krishna’s representative. King Priyavrata was confused by Narada’s instructions, and Manu’s instructions. Manu was the father, and Narada was the guru. Then ultimately, Lord Brahma came, and he is like father of the father and guru of the guru. So he was the supreme authority. So everyone accepted him. And before he spoke, he established the fact that he was speaking on behalf of the Supreme Lord. So again, we come back to the father of the father of the father, the guru of the guru of the guru, Krishna.

Devotee: Maharaja, it is said that we don’t believe in astrology or usually, that is our way of taking, or we don’t worship demigod because we worship Krishna. But if we have completely surrendered to Krishna,

sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

He will take care of us. But we have not reached that stage of full surrender to Krishna. Then is it not essential for us to follow certain rules and regulations? Rather, even to worship devatās and follow certain rules of what the astrologer says.

Giriraj Swami: Well, when we come to practice devotional service, sādhana-bhakti, we have our own rules and regulations. And although we are in the beginning stage, not in the advanced stage, but still we should surrender to the process of sādhana-bhakti. And we should accept whatever is favorable for Krishna consciousness and reject whatever is not favorable. So it is considered a stage of surrender. It is considered a stage of surrender, even though we are not perfect. But still, we are accepting the process, we are surrendering, and we follow according to the process. And the process allows some things, and it does not allow other things. Basically, our process does not allow demigod worship. So we may not be pure devotees of the stage of prema-bhakti, but even in sādhana-bhakti, we are following the process. Otherwise, it becomes an excuse that you are a pure devotee, you can follow, but I am not a pure devotee, so I can do whatever I like.

Srila Prabhupada explains that even a new devotee can be a pure devotee in the sense that he is fully surrendered to the process of Krishna consciousness, and he has no other desire except to make advancement in Krishna consciousness. Like the unripe mango is also a mango, and the ripe mango is also a mango. So the unripe mango may be a little sour and hard, and the ripe mango may be very sweet and juicy, but they are both mangoes. So one can be considered a pure devotee even in the beginning stage if he surrenders to the process and is fixed exclusively on the goal of Krishna consciousness. Therefore, we place so much emphasis on the service of the devotees because they are sincerely taking up the process. They are considered devotees; they are devotees. It doesn’t matter that they are just in the stage of sādhana-bhakti; they are not at the stage of prema-bhakti. So we should be, we should always take the opportunity to serve devotees and avoid the trap of blaspheming devotees or offending devotees because they may be new, but they are still devotees. They are following the process. And Krishna takes charge of them. Krishna takes care of them. Not that, “Oh until I am a pure devotee in pure love of Godhead, Krishna doesn’t take charge. I am not, I am not under Krishna’s control; I am under the control of the stars. So I want to find out more about it, so I know who I am, who is controlling.” Even if you are just a new devotee, you are not under the control of the stars, unless you want to be, but you don’t have to be.

That is why I told that story that when the astrologer/palmist came to visit our house in Indore. And we didn’t know what to say or do. Srila Prabhupada said, “Let him come.” So he was looking at everyone’s palms and saying, “Oh, you will be liberated in the same life,” and “Oh no, you will take some time, you cannot,” and then he left. So the devotees were quite bewildered, and afterwards, they approached Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada said, “If you just clap your hands three times in the ārati, all the lines are washed off. So what is the need?”

Maharaja, the question was actually based on your lecture last night, where you say that we don’t need to worship demigods or approach astrologers. So Mahaprabhu dasa ask the question, I am sure not for himself but for others, that if one has really surrendered to Krishna, then yes, he doesn’t need to worship demigods; he doesn’t need to consult astrologers. But if one is not really fully surrendered to Krishna, maybe he need to do other things because he is not fully under the protection of Krishna.

Oh yes, one more thing I was going to end by saying Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! But in the verse, it mentions vijitya, that Maharaja Parikshit conquered all the lands and all the directions. So we say “jaya,” which means victory. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! So, one explanation is that we want Srila Prabhupada to be victorious over us. “Over us” means over our mind and our senses, because our minds and our senses are out of control. So we want them to be conquered by Srila Prabhupada. So we say, Radha-Gopinatha ki jaya! So, we want our mind and our senses to be conquered by Sri Radha-Gopinatha. Just like, if there is a battle, so one side will be victorious, and the other side will be defeated. So we want that our mind and senses should be defeated and conquered by Srila Prabhupada. We want him to be victorious. So it is the same idea that being conquered by a pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada, or being conquered by the Supreme Lord, is good for us. Similarly, all the countries and citizens and rulers that were conquered by Maharaja Parīkṣit benefited because he was really the representative of the Lord. So being conquered by him really meant being conquered by the Lord, which is good for us.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Radha-Gopinatha ki jaya!

Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari Haribol!