← Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1962)

Chapter 16: How Parikshit Received The Age of Kali

Verse 25 of 26
SB 1.16.25

dharaṇy uvāca bhavān hi veda tat sarvaṁ yan māṁ dharmānupṛcchasi caturbhir vartase yena pādair loka-sukhāvahaiḥ

Synonyms

śrī dharaṇī uvācatruthfulness; bhavāncleanliness; hinot to tolerate other's unhappiness; vedaTo control oneself even there is cause of anger; tat sarvamMagnanimity; yatself-satisfaction; māmstraight forwardness; dharmafixed up by the mind; anupṛcchasifirmness of the sense organs; caturbhiḥtrue to one's responsibility; vartaseindiscrimination of friend and foe; yenatolerate offence by others; pādaiḥindifferent to loss and gain; lokafollowing scriptural injunctions; sukha-āvahaiḥknowledge (self-realisation); Viraktiunattached to sense enjoyment; Aischaryamleadership; Souryamchivalry; Tejoinfluence; Valamto render possible what is impossible; Smritihto find out proper duty; Swatantramnot to depend on other; Kousalamdexterity in all activities. Kantir—beauty; Dhairyamundisturbed; Ardavamsoft or kindhearted; Evathus; Chaalso; Pragalbhyamingenuity; Prasrayahgentility; Seelammannerly; Sahadetermination; Ojahperfect krowledge; Valamproper execution; Bhagahobject of enjoyment; Gambhiryamever joyful; Sthairyamimmovable; Astikyamfaithfulness; Kritirfame; Manahworshipable; Anahamkritihpridelessness; Yeteall these; Anye chaalso others many; Bhagawanthe Personality of Godhead; Nityaeverlastingly; Yatrawhere; Mahagunahgreat qualities; Prarthyaworth to possess; Mahatwamgreatness; Ichhatamthose who desire so; Nanever; Viyantideterierates; Smaever; Karhichitat any time; Tenaby Him; Ahammyself; Gunapatrenathe reservoir of all qualities; Srigoddess of fortune; Nivasenaby the resting place; Sampratamvery recently; SochamiI am thinking of; Rahitambereft of; Lokamplanets; Papmanaby the store of all sins; Kalinaby the Kali; Ikshitampurviewed by.

Translation

"And in whom, 1. truthfulness, 2. cleanliness, 3. intolerance of other's unhappiness, 4. the power of controlling anger, 5. self-satisfaction, 6. straightforwardness, 7. fixity of mind, 8. controlling the sense organs, 9. Responsibility, 10. equality, 11. tolerance, 12. equanimity, 13. faithfulness, 14. knowlege, 15. absenced of sense enjoyment, 16. leadership, 17. chivalry, 18. influence, 19. power of making everthing possible, 20. discharging proper duty, 21. complete independence, 22. dexterity, 23. fullness of all beauty 24. of equipostion, 25. kind heartedness. 26. ingenuity. 27. gentility, 28. Magnanimity, 29. determination, 30. perfection of all knowledge, 31. proper execution, 32. possession of all object of enjoyment, 33. joyfulness, 34. immovablity, 35. fidelity, 36. fame, 37. being worshipable, 38. pridelessness, 39. being the Personality of Godhead, 40. eternity-and many other transcendenal qualities are eternally present never to be separated from Him, that Personality of Godhead the reservoir of all goodness and beauty, Lord Sri Krishna has now closed his transcendenral pastimes from the face of the earth and in his absence the age of Kali has spread its influence everywhere and I am actually sorry to see this conditton of existence.

Purport

The principles of religions are laid down by the Lord Himself, and the executor of such laws is the Dharamraj or Yamraj. Such principles do work on fully in the age of Satya Yuga; in the Treta Yuga and they are reduced by a fraction of one-fourth, in the Dwapara they are reduced to one-half and in the Kali Yuga they are reduced to one fourth gradually dininishing to the zero point; and then devastation takes place. Happiness of the world depends proportionately on the maintenance of the religious principles individually or collectively. The best part of valour is to maintain the principles inspite of all kinds of odds and thus be happy during the span of life ultimately returning back to home back to Godhead.

Even it is possible to count the atoms after smashing the earth into powder, still it is not possible to estimate unfathomed transcendental qualities of the Lord. It it said that Lord Anantadeva has tried to expostulate the transcendental qualities of the Supreme Lord by his numberless tongues and that for numberless years together still it has been impossible to estimate the factual qualities of the Lord. The above statement of the qualities of the Lord is just to estimate his qualities as far as a human being is able to see in Him. But even it is so the above qualtites can also be divided into many subheading. Accordtng to Srila Jiva Goswmi item No. 3. can be subdivided into 1. protection of the surrendered souls and 2. well wishes for the devotees particularly. In the Bhagwat Geeta we have it from the statement of the Lord that he wants every soul to surrender unto Him only and by doing so he assures every one to give protection from the reactious of all sins. Therefore unsurrendered souls are not devotee of the Lord and as such there is no particular protection for every one in general. For the devotees He has particularly all good wishes and those who are actually engaged in loving transceendental shrvice of the Lord, He has particular attention for such devotee and alwyas He gives direction to such pure devotees as it may help the devotee in the matter of discharging his respnosibility on the path of back to home, back to Godhead. By his quality (10) the Lord is equally kind to every one as much as the sun is equal in distributing its rays over every one equally but still there are many who are unable to take advuntage of the equal sun rays. Similarly the Lord syas that surrendering unto Him is the guarantee for all protection from Him but unfortunate persons are unable to accept this proposition and therefore they suffer from all material miseries. So even though the Lord is equally well wishing to every one the unfortnnate living being due to bad association only is unbale to accept His instructions in toto and for this the Lord is never to be blamed for. He is called welwisher partiality for the devotees only. It appears to be the quality of partiality by the Lord for His devotees but factually the onus rests on the living being to accept or reject the equal treatment by the Lord.

Item No. 7 fixity of mind can be expnaded so that the Lord never deviates from His word of honour. Whomever does He give assurance for protection, the promise is executed at all circumstances. It is the duty of the pure devotee to be fixed up in the discharge of duty entrusted to him by the Lord or the Lord's bonafide representative the spirstual master and the rest is carried on by the Lord without any break.

Responsibility of the Lord is also unique. The Lord has no responsibility practically because all His work is done by His different appointed energies. But still He accepts voluntary responsibilities in the matter of displaying different roles in His trascendental pastimes. When as a boy He was playing the part of a cowboy as son of Nanda Maharaj he discharged the responsibility perfectly. Similarly when He was playing the part of a Kshatriya youngman as the son of Maharaj Vasudeva He displayed all the skill of a marshal spirited Kshatriya. In almost all cases the Kshatriya king has to secure a wife by fighting or kidnapping the girl. This sort of behaviour for Kshatriya is eulogistic in the sense that a Kshitriya must show his power of chivalry before his would be wife so that the daughter of a Kshatriya is pleased to see the valour of her would be husband. Even Personality of Godhead Sri Rama also displayed such spirit of chivalry during his marriage. He broke the strongest bow called Haradhanu and achieved the hand of Sita Devi the mother of all opulence. It is practically the display of Kshatriya spirit during marriage festival and there was nothing wrong in such fighting. Lord Sri Krishna discharged such responsibility fully because although He had more than 16000 sixteen thousands of wives in each every case He fought like a chivalrous Kshatriya and thus secured a wife. To fight sixteen thousands of times for securing sixteen thousands of wives is certainly possible by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and not by any one else. Similarly he displayed full responsibility in the matter of every actions in His diffeent transcendental pastimes.

Item No. 14 Knowledge can be further extended into five subheadings namely 1. intelligence, 2. greatfulness, 3. power of understanding the circumstantial environments of place, object and time. 4. Perfect knowledge of every thing and 5 Knowledge of the self. Only the fools are ungrateful to their benefactors. The Lord however does not require to be benefited by any one else besides Himself because He is full in Himself and still He feels benefited by unalloyed services of devotee. The Lord feels grateful to His devotees for such unsophisticated, unconditional service of a devotee and tries to reciprocate it by rendering service to such devotees although the latter also have no such desire from the heart. Transcendental service of the Lord is itself a transcendental benefit for the devotee and therefore the devotee has nothing to expect from the Lord. On the assertion of Vedic aphorism Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahman we can understand that the Lord, by His omnipresent rays of Personal effulgence called by the name Brahmajyoti,—is all pervading inside or outside of everything like the omnipresent material sky and as such He is also Omniscient of everything.

So far as the beauty of the Lord is concerned He has some special features of His personal body distinguished from all other living beings and over and above that He has some special attractive beautiful features by which He attracts the mind of even Radharani the supermost beautiful creation of the Lord. He is known, therefore, as Madan Mohan or One who attracts the mind of the Cupid even. Srila Jiva Gosami Prabhu has scrutinisingly annalysed other transcendental qualities of the Lord and affirms that Lord Sri Krishna is the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead (Param Brahman). He is omnipotent by His inconcievable energies and therefore He is the Yogeswara or the Supreme Master of all mystic powers. Being the Yogeswara His eternal Form is spiritual or combination of eternity bliss and knowledge. The non-devotee class can not understand the dynamic nature of His knowledge because they are satisfied reaching up to His eternity form of knowledge. All great souls aspire after being equal in knowledge with Him means greatness of His eternal knowledge or in other words it means that all other's knowledge is ever insufficient flexible and measurable whereas the knowledge of the Lord is everfixed and unfathomable. Srila Suta Goswami affirms in the Bhagwatam that although He was observed by the citizens of Dwarka every day, they were ever increasingly anxious to see Him again and again. The living being can appreciate the qualities of the Lord as the ultimate goal but they cannot attain the status quo of such equality. This material world is a product of the Mahat Tattwa which is a state of the Lord's dreaming condition in His Yoganidra mystic slumber in the causal ocean and yet the whole thing appears to be as factual presentation of His creation. This means that the Lord's dreaming conditions are also factual manifestations. He can therefore, bring about everything at His transcendertal control and as such whenever and wherever does He appears He does so in His fullness without deviation of any fractional percentage of His full potency.

The Lord being all that is described above, it is He only who can maintain the affairs of the creation and by His so doing He gives salvation even to His enemies who are killed by Him. He is attractive even to the topmost liberated soul and as such He is worshipable even by Brahma and Shiva the greatest of all demi-gods. Even by His incarantion of Purushavatara He is the Lord of the creative energy. The creative material energy is working under His directions as it is confirmed in the Bhagwat Geeta (B.G. 9/10) He is the control switch of the material energy and to control the material energy in the innumerable universes He is the root cause of innumerble incarnations in all the universes. There are more than five lacs of incaranations of Manu only in one universe besides other incaranations and thus we can simpiy imagine the number of His different incarnations in different universes. In the spiritual world however beyond the Mahat Tattwas there is no question of incarnations but there are plenary expansions of the Lord in the different Vaikunthas. The planets in the spiritual sky are at least three times more than they are within the innumerable universes in the Mahattatwa. And all these Narayana forms of the Lord are but expansions of His Vasudeva feature and as such He is both Vasudeva and Narayana and Krishna simultaneously. He is "Sri Krishna govinda hare murare, He natha narayuna Vasudeva" all in one. His qualities therefore cannot be counted by any one however great may one be.

Verse 25 of 26
Prabhupāda Says