SB 4.19.32 – Very, Very Pure—King Prthu’s Sacrifice

Giriraj Swami: We read from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto Four, Chapter Nineteen: “King Pṛthu’s One Hundred Horse Sacrifices.”

TEXT 29

ity āmantrya kratu-patiṁ
vidurāsyartvijo ruṣā
srug-ghastāñ juhvato ‘bhyetya
svayambhūḥ pratyaṣedhata

TRANSLATION

My dear Vidura, after giving the King this advice, the priests who had been engaged in performing the sacrifice called for Indra, the King of heaven, in a mood of great anger. When they were just ready to put the oblation in the fire, Lord Brahmā appeared on the scene and forbade them to start the sacrifice.

TEXT 30

na vadhyo bhavatām indro
yad yajño bhagavat-tanuḥ
yaṁ jighāṁsatha yajñena
yasyeṣṭās tanavaḥ surāḥ

TRANSLATION

Lord Brahmā addressed them thus: My dear sacrificial performers, you cannot kill Indra, the King of heaven. It is not your duty. You should know that Indra is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Indeed, he is one of the most powerful assistants of the Personality of Godhead. You are trying to satisfy all the demigods by the performance of this yajña, but you should know that all these demigods are but parts and parcels of Indra, the King of heaven. How, then, can you kill him in this great sacrifice?

TEXT 31

tad idaṁ paśyata mahad-
dharma-vyatikaraṁ dvijāḥ
indreṇānuṣṭhitaṁ rājñaḥ
karmaitad vijighāṁsatā

TRANSLATION

In order to make trouble and impede the performance of King Pṛthu’s great sacrifice, King Indra has adopted some means that in the future will destroy the clear path of religious life. I draw your attention to this fact. If you oppose him any further, he will further misuse his power and introduce many other irreligious systems.

TEXT 32

pṛthu-kīrteḥ pṛthor bhūyāt
tarhy ekona-śata-kratuḥ
alaṁ te kratubhiḥ sviṣṭair
yad bhavān mokṣa-dharma-vit

TRANSLATION

“Let there be only ninety-nine sacrificial performances for Mahārāja Pṛthu,” Lord Brahmā concluded. Lord Brahmā then turned towards Mahārāja Pṛthu and informed him that since he was thoroughly aware of the path of liberation, what was the use in performing more sacrifices?

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Lord Brahmā came down to pacify King Pṛthu regarding his continual performance of one hundred sacrifices. King Pṛthu was determined to perform one hundred sacrifices, and King Indra took this very seriously because Indra himself was known as the performer of one hundred sacrifices. Just as it is the nature of all living entities within this material world to become envious of their competitors, King Indra, although King of heaven, was also envious of King Pṛthu and therefore wanted to stop him from performing one hundred sacrifices. Actually there was great competition, and King Indra, to satisfy his senses, began to invent so many irreligious systems to obstruct King Pṛthu. To stop these irreligious inventions, Lord Brahmā personally appeared in the sacrificial arena. As far as Mahārāja Pṛthu was concerned, he was a great devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; therefore it was not necessary for him to perform the prescribed Vedic ritualistic ceremonies. Such ceremonies are known as karma, and there is no need for a devotee in the transcendental position to execute them. As the ideal king, however, it was King Pṛthu’s duty to perform sacrifices. A compromise was therefore to be worked out. By the blessings of Lord Brahmā, King Pṛthu would become more famous than King Indra. Thus Pṛthu’s determination to perform one hundred sacrifices was indirectly fulfilled by the blessings of Lord Brahmā.

COMMENT

The background to the present verses is that King Pṛthu had performed ninety-nine horse sacrifices and King Indra became envious and fearful that King Pṛthu would perform a hundred, which Indra himself had done previously and which made him famous as the performer of one hundred horse sacrifices. Indra was also fearful that by Pṛthu Maharaja’s becoming so powerful by performance of the sacrifices, Indra’s own position as the king of heaven would be in jeopardy. So King Indra did something horrible from the Vedic point of view: he assumed the guise of a mendicant, of a sannyasi, and stole the horse kept at the sacrificial arena for the sacrifice. As Indra was absconding with the horse, however, Atreya Muni saw him and informed Pṛthu Maharaja’s son what had happened. Pṛthu’s son pursued Indra with bow and arrow and was prepared to kill him. Then Indra gave up his disguise as a sannyasi and returned the horse.

The same sequence repeated several times. Indra would come in disguise as different types of sannyasis, who assume different guises—some are naked, some wear red. He would steal the horse and Pṛthu Maharaja’s son would pursue him. Then he would abandon his disguise and return the horse. Finally, the brahmans who were performing the sacrifice understood that Indra, because of his offenses, had become weakened, and they decided to recite some special mantras unknown to Indra to call him to the sacrificial arena and cast him into the fire and finish him.

At that point—which is where we began to read today—Lord Brahma came down and stopped them. He told them, “You are doing the sacrifice to please the demigods, but Indra is the chief of the demigods and part of parcel of the Supreme Lord.” And soon he will tell Pṛthu, “You are also part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, so you and he are the same, and there should be no enmity.” Pṛthu Maharaja gave up the idea of performing the hundredth sacrifice. He became famous as the performer of ninety-nine, and it was actually the one that he didn’t perform that made him most glorious—even more than the ninety-nine that he did perform—because for the sake of keeping peace in the family he gave up his desire to perform a hundred.

We can see how practical Lord Brahma’s instructions were. He didn’t want disruption in the universe. He didn’t want the powerful controllers within the universe at odds with each other. Further, he knew that Indra was determined to stop the hundredth sacrifice no matter what and he didn’t want Indra to engage in more irreligious activities. For Indra to want to impede religious activities that in and of themselves are glorious—performing one hundred sacrifices—is inglorious. And for Indra to assume the guise of a sannyasi and repeatedly steal the horse is even more irreligious. So Brahma’s advice was practical. He didn’t ask Indra to give up his envy. He didn’t ask him to stop falsely assuming the garb of a sannyasi. Rather, he asked Pṛthu not to perform the hundredth sacrifice, because King Pṛthu was actually more elevated spiritually than King Indra.

Sometimes, someone who is more advanced spiritually will take a humble position to benefit someone who is less advanced, so that the less advanced person may feel more peaceful and not feel provoked to engage in irreligious or improper activities. Pṛthu Maharaja, although he had direct association with Lord Vishnu, preferred to act as the servant of the servant. Lord Vishnu Himself had personally come to his sacrifices, all ninety-nine of them. And when the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes, all the demigods and great sages and saintly persons come with Him. So even though Pṛthu had a direct relationship with the Lord and he himself was an empowered incarnation of the Lord, still he acted as the servant of the servant of the Lord—in two ways. He acted as the servant of Lord Brahma, who is the Lord’s servant, by following his instruction. And he even acted as the servant of Indra, by creating a situation that was more congenial for Indra’s devotional service.

Lord Brahma pointed out the good in Indra—that he was powerful, the chief of the demigods, and part and parcel of the Supreme Lord. He didn’t dwell on his faults of being envious and fearful and duplicitous. That is also an important instruction for us. Sometimes we get in the mood that “Oh, so-and-so is in a position of authority. He has got to be perfect. If he is not perfect, he is not good enough.” But Indra, holding such responsible positions as the king of heaven, the lord of rains, and the head of the other demigods (except for Brahma and Shiva), still was subject to human weaknesses such as envy, fear, and falsehood.

At the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we find that the Bhāgavatam is meant for those who are free from envy (nirmatsarāṇāṁ satām). That is how one advances in Krishna consciousness—becoming free from envy. In Srinivasa Acharya’s prayers to the Six Gosvamis: dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau priya-karau nirmatsarau pūjitau—-the Six Gosvamis were dear to the gentle and to the ruffians because they were not envious of anyone, and therefore they were worshipable (nirmatsarau pūjitau). Srila Prabhupada explains that anyone who is free from envy is worshipable, because one can be free from envy only if he is liberated, if he is completely pure. Envy is what brings us into the material world and keeps us in the material world. If you are free from envy, you are liberated; you are a pure devotee. So that is the goal. But even though Indra was envious, still he was trying to do service. He had his lapses, and his motives may have been mixed—in some cases, definitely mixed—but still he was entrusted with some responsible service, and Lord Brahma wanted to create a situation in which he could do the service without being disturbed.

To a large extent, Srila Prabhupada did the same: He engaged devotees in different services, and he protected them. Even if they were imperfect in their service or in their behavior, he protected them—everyone. When I was the temple president in Juhu, Nara-Narayana Prabhu came, and Srila Prabhupada said that he should be in charge of the garden. We had a lot of land, and Srila Prabhupada wanted all the vacant land to be used to create a nice garden and grow flowers for the deities. I don’t know about now, but at the time Nara-Narayana Prabhu was sort of a temperamental personality and a little hard to work with, and it was hard for me to deal with him. Eventually, Srila Prabhupada wrote me a letter: “Sometimes Nara-Narayana may be difficult to live with, but a good manager is able to satisfy the devotees and live in a cooperative manner with them. If you manage nicely, Nara-Narayana can do tremendous work. Practically no one has more energy than Visvakarma.” And then last night in the film (Following Srila Prabhupada Vol. 2, produced by Yadubara Prabhu), I saw Nara-Narayana before he came to Juhu, when he was building the ratha cart in San Francisco, how he was feeling incapable of performing such a difficult task and how he approached Srila Prabhupada and prayed for blessings. Srila Prabhupada responded, “For this service you will be Visvakarma.” When I saw that I thought, Wow. That is Nara-Narayana. I had no idea of his history and his relation with Srila Prabhupada. I was just seeing this rough, gruff, temperamental servant of Srila Prabhupada, and in retrospect I thought, “If I had known that, I might have dealt with him a little differently.”

That was the thing about Srila Prabhupada. He could appreciate each and every disciple—each and every soul—and see how they could be engaged in Krishna’s service, fix them in their service, and protect them. In the case of authorities, Srila Prabhupada wanted us to follow them. Sometimes a devotee would ask, “What if I follow an authority and the authority gives a wrong instruction?” Srila Prabhupada would reply, “Still, you still have to follow. You can appeal—like in the judicial system, if you are dissatisfied with the decision of the lower court you can appeal to the higher court—but in the meantime you must follow.” “But what about my advancement?” And Srila Prabhupada would reply, “Your advancement will be the same"—because you are not actually following the authority’s wrong instruction. Yes, in a way you are following the authority’s instruction, but ultimately you are following Prabhupada’s instruction to cooperate with the authority, and so your advancement is the same. “But what if the authority continually gives wrong instructions?” Then Srila Prabhupada answered, “I will rectify him, or I will replace him, but still your duty is to follow.”

Such discipline is required, and here we see on the cosmic level that even though Indra was so faulty—acting on the basis of envy, engaging in irreligious principles—still Lord Brahma wanted to preserve him in his position of service, and he wanted to make peace amongst the powerful leaders in the universe. And Srila Prabhupada did that a lot. It is unfortunate that so much of his time had to be devoted to mediating differences among devotees. He did it a lot. I remember one time Hansadutta Prabhu came from Hyderabad. He was so upset, so disturbed. He came into Prabhupada’s room, and Prabhupada listened so patiently, with so much empathy, for hours, until late into the night. In Hyderabad were three very strong personalities: Hansadutta Prabhu, Tejiyas Prabhu, and Mahamsa Prabhu. Sometime later, Tejiyas Prabhu came to Bombay. He didn’t complain to Prabhupada, but he told me a lot about what he had experienced with the other leaders. And you feel sympathy for all of them, because they all wanted to serve Prabhupada. Still, there was friction. And Tejiyas told me something I had never heard before—and it really struck me. Prabhupada had instructed the three of them, “You meet together, you fight like cats and dogs, and when you all agree, then you go ahead.” [laughter] Prabhupada had faith in that process of working together as a group. That also came up in the video last night. And it is stated in shastra too: kalau saṅga śakti—-in Kali-yuga, one gets strength, or power, from association, from working collectively.

So that is our mission. Our mission is to become Krishna consciousness and to spread Krishna consciousness, but to do either we need support. We need the support of each other. So we shouldn’t be too focused on the faults—"Oh, he is envious” or whatever—but we should see that he is trying to serve Krishna. That was also one of the main thoughts I had watching the video last night: What sacrifice these devotees made, what service they did. They are all so glorious. Even if along the way they had difficulty, it doesn’t diminish what they did for Srila Prabhupada. It doesn’t diminish their underlying love for him. The material energy is very strong. It is very strong. There are extraordinary devotees, like many of the leaders here, who have never faltered in their thirty years of devotional service. But when we see what sacrifice these other devotees made, what service they did, how much love for Prabhupada they had, even if they did stumble or trip or fall down, that is not such a big thing. Watching the video, I was thinking, “It doesn’t matter at all. It is not significant at all.” And that is what Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gītā: api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ. Even if one is engaged in the most abominable activity, if he is rightly situated, which means, according to shastra, that he accepts Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, himself as Krishna’s eternal servant, and pure devotional service to Krishna as the goal of his life—if one is rightly situated, he is considered sadhu; he is considered saintly.

There was a point that a devotee mentioned in the video: Prabhupada introduced us as sadhus. These young boys and girls from America and Europe, he introduced them as sadhus. He wanted them to be accepted by the people of India as sadhus, as much as all these yogis and swamis that were prevalent in India. And here we find that even if one falls down, he is still considered sadhu. As long as he remains fixed in that conviction that “Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and I am His eternal servant,” he is considered a saintly person.

Of course, we don’t want to fall. We must try our best not to fall. And we must help each other not to fall. We take good association and follow our spiritual principles—chant our rounds, study shastra, and avoid offenses—so that we won’t fall. And here I think of Srila Prabhupada’s instruction: “Don’t talk nonsense. Don’t waste time. If you have got time, chant Hare Krishna.” We should be liberal in our dealing with others, but we should be strict with ourselves.

There is a beautiful verse in the First Canto (1.5.19):

na vai jano jātu kathañcanāvrajen
mukunda-sevy anyavad aṅga saṁsṛtim
smaran mukundāṅghry-upagūhanaṁ punar
vihātum icchen na rasa-graho janaḥ

“Even though a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa sometimes falls down somehow or other, he certainly does not undergo material existence like others [fruitive workers, etc.] because a person who has once relished the taste of the lotus feet of the Lord can do nothing but remember that ecstasy again and again.”

He will always remember that taste, and eventually he will come back. And that is also an important instruction from the lives of our contemporaries: they have relished in devotional service some nectar to which nothing in the material world can compare. Because of weakness, because of the strength of the waves of maya, they may be knocked down and tossed around, but within their hearts they know they are not able to taste anything like the nectar they relished in the course of devotional service. And at the end, even though there may have been some gap when they weren’t so nicely engaged, many of them come back.

Again, it was so poignant in the movie. Revatinandana Prabhu came into the pandal at the Khumba-mela in Allahabad, and Srila Prabhupada was speaking about Ajamila. Just as he was walked in, Srila Prabhupada explained that in his youth Ajamila had rendered “very, very pure service,” and that because of such pure service in his youth, he came back to Krishna consciousness at the end. And Revatinandana Prabhu took it as a direct instruction, or prediction, from Srila Prabhupada, that because he had rendered very, very pure service. . . And as it happened—no one imagined it at the time—he later deviated, fell down or whatever. But that hope is there. He will come back. He rendered very, very pure service. All the cooking he did, cooking for all those people—it was very pure.

So that is our hope as individuals, and that should also temper the way we look at each other. “Okay, but look at all the good he did. And look at what very well may happen in the future. He will come back.” The Bhāgavatam says so. It is just a temporary interruption.

tathā na te mādhava tāvakāḥ kvacid
bhraśyanti mārgāt tvayi baddha-sauhṛdāḥ
tvayābhiguptā vicaranti nirbhayā
vināyakānīkapa-mūrdhasu prabho

“O Mādhava, Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord of the goddess of fortune, if devotees completely in love with You sometimes fall from the path of devotion, they do not fall like nondevotees, for You still protect them. Thus they fearlessly traverse the heads of their opponents and continue to progress in devotional service.” (SB 10.2.33)

I will conclude with a little story I heard just the other day. One of Srila Prabhupada’s grand-disciples had a dream in which he met Prabhupada and complained about an authority, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada’s, who had fallen down. That grand-disciple was very disturbed because he had put so much faith in the authority and the authority had fallen away for quite some time. In the dream, Prabhupada looked at that grand-disciple very sternly and said, “Don’t you criticize any of my boys! You are just a green shoot in the garden"—something like that. “Don’t you dare criticize my boys.”

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

I don’t want to take more of your time. It is the marathon, and you are performing the greatest yajña. These yajñas we are reading about are mundane. But you are doing the greatest yajña, completely transcendental—very, very pure.

Saṅkīrtana-yajña ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Gaura-premānande Hari Haribol!