← Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1962)

Chapter 17: Punishment and Reward of Kali

Verse 22 of 41
SB 1.17.22

rājovāca dharmaṁ bravīṣi dharma-jña dharmo 'si vṛṣa-rūpa-dhṛk yad adharma-kṛtaḥ sthānaṁ sūcakasyāpi tad bhavet

Synonyms

rājā uvācathe king said; dharmamas you speak; bravīṣilike one who knows the codes of religiosity; dharma-jñathe personality of religiosity; dharmaḥyou are; asiin the disguise of a bull; vṛṣa-rūpa-dhṛkwhatever; yatone who acts irreligiously; adharma-kṛtaḥplace; sthānamof the identifier; sūcakasyaalso; apithat; tatbecomes.

Translation

The king said, oh you are one who knows the truth of religiosity in the form of a bull, you are speaking just on the principle that the place which is fixed up for the person engaged in acts of irreligiosity, is also the place for the identifier. You are no other than the personality of religiosity.

Purport

A devotee's conclusion is that no body is directly responsible for becoming benefactor or mischiefmonger without the sanction of the Lord, therefor he does not identify any one directly resposible for such action. But in both the cases he takes it for granted that either benefit or loss it is God sent and as such it is his Grace. In case of benefit, no body will deny it being god-sent but in case of loss or reverses it becomes doubful how the Lord could be unkind to his devotee as to put him in great difficulty. Jesus Chriest was seemigly put into such great difficulty being crucified by the ignorant but he was never angry upon the mischief mongers. That is the way of accepting a thing, either favourable or unfavourable, by the devotee and as such for a devotee the identifier is equally a sinner like the directly mischiefmonger. As God's Grace the devotee tolerates all reverses upon him and Maharaj Parikshit observed this particular symptom of a devotee in the form a bull and therefore he could understand that the bull was no other than the personality of religiosity himself. In other words a devotee has no snffering at all; because the so called suffering is also God's Grace for a devotee who sees God in everything. They never placed any complaint before the king for being tortured by the personality of Kali although every one lodges such kind of complaints before the state authorities. The extraordinary behaviour of the bull made the king to conclude that the bull was certainly Personality of religiosity otherwise no body could understand the finer intricacies of the codes of religion.

Verse 22 of 41
Prabhupāda Says