Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.8.8
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Helsinki · 2005
Chapters
Recitation of verse text and translation
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Very nice. Bhagavat-gītā, Chapter 8, manifestation of Rāma
from Viṣṇu, Sāṅkhyāyana, Paramahaṁsa. Yathā, vivakṣamāṇaḥ, vivakṣamāṇaḥ, bhagavān, vibhūtīḥ, vibhūti, jagāda, jagāda, saḥ, asad-gurave, sad-gurave, advitīya, advitīya, parāśarāya, parāśara, bṛhaspate,
bṛhaspate, sa ca Sāṅkhyāyana
Paramahaṁsa-mukhya, Sāṅkhyāyana Paramahaṁsa-mukhya, vivakṣamāṇo bhagavat-vibhūti, vivakṣamāṇaḥ bhagavat- vivaj-jagada-śāsman-gurave 'ndvitāyam, jagada-śāsman- sad-gurave, advitīya, parāśarāya, bṛhaspataye, parāśarāya, bṛhaspataye, sa ca Paramahaṁsa-mukhya,
Sāṅkhyāyana Paramahaṁsa-mukhya, vivakṣamāṇaḥ bhagavat- vibhūti, vivakṣamāṇaḥ bhagavat-vibhūti, jagāda, saḥ sad-gurave, advitīya, jagāda, saḥ, sad-gurave, advitīya, parāśarāya,
bṛhaspataye, parāśarāya, bṛhaspataye, parāśarāya, bṛhaspataye.
Sāṅkhyāyana-paramahaṁsa-mukhyo, Sāṅkhyāyana, Parama-haṁ- sa-mukhyo, vivakṣamāṇo bhagavad-vibhūti, vivakṣamāṇa, bhagavad-vibhūti Parāśarāyata Bṛhas- patiśe Sāṅkhyāyana- paramahaṁsa-mukhyo, vivakṣamāṇa bhagavad-vibhūti.
Sāṅkhyāyana Paramahaṁsa-mukhya, Sāṅkhyāyana sa-mukhyo, vivakṣamāṇa bhagavad-vibhūti, vivakṣamāṇa vibhūti, parāśarāya, bṛhaspataye.
Sāṅkhyāyana, Sāṅkhyāyana, the great sage Sāṅkhyāyana, Sāṅkhyāyana-mukhya, Paramahaṁsa, chief of all transcendentalists. Vivakṣamāṇa, vivakṣamāṇa bhagavad- vibhūti, bhagavat-vibhūti, the glories of the Lord.
Jagāda, explained. Saḥ, he, asmat, asmat, of me, gurave, gurave, unto the spiritual master and advitīya, follow, parāśarāya, Parāśarāya, under the sage Parāśara. Under the sage Parāśara. Atha bṛhaspateś ca, Bṛhaspateś ca.
Also to Brihaspati. Also translation. The great sage Santhyayana was the chief among the transcendentalists.
And when he was describing the glories of the Lord in terms of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it so happened that my spiritual master, Parāśara and Bṛhaspati, both heard him. Text number nine.
Pravacha Mahyam Sadalav Munich Pulasty Nepuranamadam so hamta vaikat kathayami katsam sadhavale nichyam anu prachayam. Translation.
The great sage Parashara, as aforementioned, being so advised by the great sage Pulastya, spoke unto me the foremost of the Puranas, Bhagavad.
I shall also describe this before you, my dear son, in terms of my hearing, because you are always my faithful follower. The great sage of the name Pulastya is the father of all the morning descendants.
Once upon a time, Parashara began a sacrifice in which all the demons were to be burned to death because his father had been killed and devoured by one of them.
The great Sage Vasistamuni arrived at the sacrifice and requested Parashra to stop the deadly action. And because of Vasishta's position and respect in the community of the sages, Parashra could not deny the request.
Parashara, having stopped the sacrifice, Pulastya, the father of the demons, appreciated his Brahminical temperament and gave the blessings that in the future he would be a great speaker of the Vedic literature called
Puranas, the supplement of the Vedas. Parashara's action was appreciated by Pulasti because Parashara had forgiven the demons out of his dominical power of forgiveness.
Parashara was able to demolish all the demons in the sacrifice, but he considered, demons are so made that they devour living creatures, man and animals.
But why on that account should I withdraw my brahminical qualification of forgiveness?
As the great speaker of Puranas, Parashara, first of all, spoke to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Puranas, because it is the foremost of all the Puranas.
Maitreya Muni described a desire to narrate the same Bhagavatam he had heard from Parashra, and Vidura was qualified to hear because of his faithfulness and his following the instructions received from the superiors.
So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was being narrated from time immemorial by the cyclic succession, even before nationality the time of Vyāsadeva. The so-called historians calculate the Puranas to be only few hundred years old.
But actually the Puranas existed from time immemorial. If for all historical calculations by the mundaneers and speculative philosophers. Śrīla Prabhupāda. Some people.
The great sage Sankhyayana was the chief. And when he was describing the glories of the Lord in terms of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it so happened that my spiritual master Parashtra and Brihaspati both taughout him.
The great sage Parashara, as aforementioned, being so advised by the great sage Pulasya, spoke unto me the foremost of the Puranas, Bhagavad.
I shall also describe this before you, my dear sir Because my faithful follower.
Umanyana Tinanda Syabyanamjana Salakaya Chaksuru Militany Natasmay Sri Guranama Srinnavari Paschatavishari Vanchakupataru Vasha Kripa Syovac Paditana Pavane Bhyovasnava Yona Mona Jai Sri Krishna Chaitana Prabhupita Nanda Sriadvaita Badata Rasivasa Y Bora Bhakta Vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Bare, Arela, Hare Ram Rama Hare So
Authority of Parashara Muni and Puranas
one very important point of these verses in the context of the whole Sarakanta Srimad Bhagavatam is the proof of the authority of the Puranas in general.
Here Parasra Muni is being described as the authority of the Puranas, and the story connected with this is uh being narrated by Srila Prabhupada.
Because there is a particular incident when Parashra Muni got the blessings. He got the blessings from his superiors, Pulastya Muni in Vashita, and I will tell the story a little later.
That he will be the great authority of the particular line of Vedic authority, and this particular line of Vedic authority is Purana.
And the authority of Puranas is being contested not only in the modern time but even previously.
Some people regard Puranas as something inferior, some secondary kind of creations of some fertile mind of you know Hindus. As Hindus they have such a great imagination. And therefore they created this Puranas and this is kind of concoction.
So the idea is being refuted here by proving the authority of Parasha himself.
This is a very strong line of uh proof because if you want to prove that some literature is being authoritative, first of all you have to prove that the author of this literature, somebody who created this literature, has the great authority.
Because ultimately and this is being a line of our arguments is that ultimately the literature is only as authoritative as the person who speaks this literature is authoritative.
It is said that there should be apta pratyaksha. Apta means the great sage, apta means the great saintly person. And whatever he says, whatever he speaks, is an authority in itself.
So here the authority of Parashar Muni is being described and Srila Prabhupada of course mentions the recent controversy.
He speaks that Mandanians, Mundane scholars, they neglect Puranas. They say it's just some recent creation. And he says, look, Parasharamun is so old. And he got these blessings.
And he got in his turn the Puranas not from himself, he has not concocted this Puranas.
He got it from Sankhya Narisi, Sankhya Narishi, got Puranas uh from Sanat Kumar, Sanat Kumar, got Puranas from Sankarsan. This is very important.
But first I would like to describe why it is so important in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because basically the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the refutation of Sāṅkhya philosophy.
Of Sāṅkhya, of nirīśvara-sāṅkhya, of Sāṅkhya, which as Prabhupada says, being described by an imposter Kapila. So this Sāṅkhya philosophy of real Kapila is being very strongly established in the third canto.
And one of the lines of arguing against Vedānta philosophy and against philosophy of real Kapila from the followers of imposter Kapila, from the followers of Atheist Kapila, is that all the Puranas are not authoritative.
There is a very serious argument going on back and forth between these two groups because the followers of Kapila, of imposter Kapila, or Kapila Muni who does not accept the existence of the Lord or the Lord as the source of everything.
They say, look, this Kapila Smriti is very very ancient. And indeed it is very ancient.
Kapila's Smṛti is very respected too, you know, the book written by Kapila as he dictated to his disciple Asuri Brahmana is a very respectable book.
So the followers of Sāṅkhya say that the glories of Kapila Muni is even propounded in the Upaniṣads.
In Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad there is a line which is said, this great Kapila he is the you know the authority and everyone uh has to follow him.
So basically uh and this is explained by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa in his uh Vedānta-sūtra commentary, Govinda-bhāṣya. Basically, uh one of the main problems which we encounter in Vedic philosophy in general is to find the explanation which would harmonize sometimes contradictory views.
And here we have authoritative scriptures like Puranas or Manu-smṛti or Parāśara-smṛti which say that the origin of everything is God. But at the same time we have a seemingly or apparently
equally authoritative scripture which is called Kapila-smṛti. And in Kapila-smṛti something completely different is being said. In Kapila-smṛti it is said that the origin of the whole creation is pradhāna. That pradhāna is an independent origin of everything, and Kapila speaks in this Kapila-smṛti, in this Kapila-smṛti, that the whole creation was basically being born from pradhāna by unconscious process.
As much as milk creates yogurt, you know uh milk creates yogurt by some kind of natural process. And basically the argument there is that nature, prakriti or pradhan, is as primordial as everything else.
The line of Sankey philosophy is that there are basically two primary principles. One is pradhan or nature, prakriti. Another one is puruṣa or consciousness. Somehow or other the consciousness is uh something else.
But basically they say that the whole creation was created by the natural process from from nature itself.
Nature itself has transformed into all these kind of forms, all the mountains and all the buildings and all the human beings and tortoises and monkeys and you know and we have heard this many times.
Why it is so important for us? Not because we accept the authority of Kapila's Smriti. Not at all. We don't know who. Who is Kapila, imposter Kapila, this Kapila, that Kapila.
But exactly the same philosophy is being propounded by the modern scientists. They all say basically the same thing that nature is primordial, that nobody created nature, that Pradhan or nature in its primordial
state, because Pradhan basically is Prakriti in uh in the original state, so to speak, has the power to create all the forms and all the order.
Like recently there is a great scientist, modern scientist, his name is Prigozin, he is the Nobel Prize winner. He's Russian by origin, but he he's from Belgium.
So his achievement in science being awarded by this Nobel Prize is that he's trying to prove that the nature itself has the power to organize all the forms.
One of the very important arguments which followers of theistic line of thought uh have is that look at this world so much order is there the sun is orderly all the planets are orderly so much order is there how is that that this order was created by chance.
So there is a very strong argument uh from the scientists who are basically the followers of uh atheistic Kapila. They don't know that they're his followers. They don't really strictly follow the Parampara system.
They didn't hear it from his source. But because this philosophy is more or less like kind of also primordial within our heart. It's a manifestation of the envy of human beings.
So because of this, this philosophy tends to pop on, even though the parampara is broken. The parampara from the original Kapila Muni is not extant at the moment, at least, not so prominent.
But his followers are still appearing again and again and again. And one of them, you know, this Mr. Prigogine, he even got the Nobel Prize for what?
Because he very strongly is proving this particular point that this um ability or this property is built in nature. That nature itself can create uh orderly structures,
that nature itself ultimately and basically the point uh which he wants to prove is that the nature itself can create human beings, the nature itself can create uh life.
Because this is more or less like already there in the atoms. In the very basic elements of nature, this property is already there to create all these structures. There is no intelligence behind all this creation.
So this is basically what they're trying to prove.
Symbolical versus literal scriptural interpretations
And the same thing is being said by original scientist who is this uh the philosopher impostor Kapila and he's Kapila's smriti and because Kapila's smriti is very respected in this milieu or in this culture of Vedic literature, we have to really disprove this or at least to understand or to explain how it is in harmony with other statements of Vedic literature.
Because the followers of Kapila, they say that look, this book of Kapila is strictly philosophical. It gives a very philosophical basis for the explanation of everything which we see.
Other books like Puranas, they're not philosophical, they're just, you know, mythology. It's just stories for household wives, because they're just, you know, they're not very philosophical, so you need to tell them some stories.
So then the stories, there is the story about God how God was laying down and how the lotus flower appeared from his you know navel it's just symbolical things so their way of harmonizing because they also have the same kind of task in front of them.
Their task is how you harmonize your theory with the theory of other books. So they say this other books is just symbolical description.
And the real science is being described by us, by our original Adi Guru Kapila-deva. He gives the real science. And sometimes we hear exactly the same argument.
Some you know intellectuals, they read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they read Bhagavad-gītā and they say, oh no, this is this is too much. You know, the give me a break. This is this is just my theology, you know.
How is the why why the lotus is being you know steaming out from the navel? You know, give me a break. It cannot be so. You know, and then you know Brahma with four heads, oh my goodness.
It cannot be i you cannot take it literally. It must be some kind of symbolical description. You have to really see through it and see, you know, maybe there is something to it. And then say, you know, why four heads?
Because there are four directions and all kinds of stuff is there. So we may find ourselves in the same position if we don't really understand how this this is authority, how this is coming from the great sage who is
not in the position to cheat others. This is again the main point uh of our uh proof is that we have to really uh really see the origin of this philosophy and to see that
uh you know Parasaramuni is not such a cheap, you know, kind of person who will uh just create something uh to entertain housewives. No. He is also philosopher. And this is real philosophy.
They say uh their way to harmonize it. This is real philosophy and this is for the intellectual people and everything else is just for simple people, just uh and uh intellectual people have to understand it symbolically.
But Baladeva Vidyabhusana says, no, this is ridiculous. He says this is not correct. This is totally ridiculous thing.
And he says that Parāśara's Muni, also Parāśara, and basically Purāṇas are all stemming out from Parāśara, from this line of Parāśara Muni, Parāśara's Muni. And Manu-saṁhitā also they all state the same.
This story about Brahmā appearing on the lotus flower coming from the navel of Mahā-Viṣṇu is there in Manu-saṁhitā. And they say, look, all this Smṛti, or Manu-saṁhitā, or Purāṇas, they are just karma-kāṇḍa.
The real philosophy is here, you know. This is this is the philosophy. This is just karma-kāṇḍa. This is real jñāna. But we say, no, this is not karmakanda.
And this is basically what Baladeva Vidyabhusana explains in his commentary to Vedānta-sūtra. He says, this is not this is ridiculous statement because the Purāṇas
and their point of the original the origin of everything and basically the Vedānta-sūtra explains this in a very logical and orderly way. Vedānta-sūtra explains this in a very logical and orderly way.
Janmādy asya yataḥ, that everything is coming from conscious source.
And the difference between of course Kapila Muni philosophy, Sankhya philosophy and Vedanta philosophy is that they say that the origin of everything is unconscious. There is no intelligence behind this, there is no intelligence behind design, there is no purpose behind this.
So we say no, this is ridiculous. There is intelligence behind this. And this intelligence is not just simple intelligence of some Kapila Muni, it's the intelligence of the Supreme Lord Himself.
It's the all-pervading intelligence which is the source of all creation. So this is basically the the uh the debate uh the issue which is being discussed back and forth so
So we say that all the smritis which are coming from Parāśara Muni, And the oldest smritis which are coming from Manu, it's not just for housewives. It's the philosophy of the first caliber.
It's the greatest philosophy which is there.
And now all the karma-kāṇḍa parts of it, when they say you know you do this yajña or you do this kind of ritual and you will get a sun or you do this thing and you will get a lot of wealth or some money on your bank balance.
Or you do this or you do that. They say it's just a little proofs of uh of the whole process. It's just the experiment which you make, you know, in order to uh uh instill
the faith within the people they say you worship the Lord and by worshiping the Lord uh by doing yajña, worshiping the Lord. Get what you need. But this is not the purpose of the whole literature.
The purpose of the whole literature is to purify the heart. And when the heart is pure, you see the Lord. You know that the Lord is there. You really have no doubts about it whatsoever.
You know that the Lord is the origin of everything. And this little thing is just kind of you know little side effects of the Vedic literature.
And Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa says when Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, and of course you have to deal with this statement because Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad glorifies Kapila and the followers of Adi's Kapila say uh look, this is the author of Kapila Smriti,
and therefore Baladevidabusan says, no, this is ridiculous, this is not this Kapila. This Kapila-smṛti uh should not even consider as an authority, because it contradicts bluntly, so uh obviously
it contradicts the whole body of Vedic literature, and therefore it should be rejected altogether. And uh and Kapila which is being glorified in Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad is not that Kapila, it's completely different Kapila.
And this particular Kapila and his philosophy is being described here in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So that's basically the issue at stake here.
And therefore Parāśara Muni and his Purāṇa, his version of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is being described before the Kapila Muni's philosophy in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Story of Vasishta Muni and Shakti
So the story which is mentioned here by Prabhupada, not in great details. In great detail is being described in Mahābhārata. And it's a very interesting story, and it's a very instructive story as well.
Again, to prove how great was Parāśara Muni.
Because all the Purāṇas are ultimately coming from him and to respect Purāṇas, to understand that this is the philosophy of the highest caliber. We have to respect the author of this.
We have to understand what is what kind of person he is. Actually his name Parāśara. He is named Parāśara because he saved the life of Vasiṣṭha. Basically, Parāśara means somebody who saved somebody else's life.
And Vasiṣṭha Muni his grandfather uh at one point was very desperate and he wanted to commit suicide. And uh there is again the story behind this.
So it's it's a long story, but I will not when shall I end actually this whole thing? Okay. But I will not misuse your friends. I will end in time.
So the story uh perhaps some of you know that Vasiṣṭha Muni had had a son, a son. His name was Shakti. He was a very powerful person, extremely powerful.
And Vasiṣṭha Muni he was the favorite son of Vasiṣṭha Muni, his eldest son, and he really invested all his knowledge into this shakti. And the Shakti knew Vedas through and through.
He was reciting Vedas with such a conviction and such a vigor that anyone who would just hear his recitation, the vibration of his voice, would become the follower of the Vedas.
Because the faith was being instilled in his in his heart by the sound vibration of the Vedas. He really vibrated Vedas or recited Vedas with the great realization behind it.
And he was so perfect in his behaviour he was an ideal man. So once he was traveling in the forest, he was walking in the forest and there was a very narrow pass, forest pass.
And in front of him a king was coming and the king was hunting in the forest, and the king was hungry, and the king was thirsty, and the king's this it's a great king. His name was Kalmāṣapāda.
It's a great king from uh uh from uh the Moon uh dynasty, from Lord Rāmacandra's dynasty, Ikṣvāku dynasty. Great great king from Ayodhyā, you know, very cultured person.
But he was hunting too long and he became agitated and
thirsty and hungry and you know and here you know some sage is coming and sage is very peaceful and he's coming and the etiquette the, custom is that the king has to give way to the sage, you know.
But the king, because he was so agitated and angry and you know thirsty and hungry. He just he just it was too much for him. When we are in this condition, we're really looking for somebody become a target of our anger.
So that's exactly what the situation in this forest. So the sage is coming and sage is just going there and chanting mantras and he's very, the king is just fuming with anger.
And uh the sage he waits when the king gives him the way because this is the etiquette. But the king says, No, you, you dirty brāhmaṇa, give me the way.
And the brāhmaṇa, the Shakti, son of Vasiṣṭha, he says, My dear king, I'm ready to do this, but this is not proper.
You know, I, I cannot do this because the, the scriptures, Manusmṛti, very clearly says if there is this collision of interest, then the king has to give in. He has to really give the way, not the brāhmaṇa.
And I I cannot do this, I I cannot break the rules of the scriptures, you know you have to do it. And the king says you dirty thing. I've... you are a noxious brāhmaṇa. Give me the way. And ultimately.
He's so angry, he cannot control himself. Despite being a king, kings are in the mode of passion. Passion is very prominent in their psyche, in their nature.
So the king, he takes his how you say whip sword No no not not the sword not the sword whip Whip Whip and he he takes his whip, you know,
which is with himself, and he just, you know, he smacks this Brahman with this whip. And he goes forward.
Brāhmaṇa was a little too much. Śakti was very peaceful brāhmaṇa. He was not very aggressive at all. But this was really too much. You know he abused him, he really, you know, he offended him and
and he said, Okay, my dear king, you behaved like a rākṣasa, you didn't behave like a proper king, you behaved like a rākṣasa, so I curse you, now you become a rākṣasa. And you will eat human beings.
This is what you will do for the rest of your life. And when the king heard this curse, he became really you know, he had a second thought, you know. He said, Maybe I did something wrong and he he became very apologetic,
He started begging forgiveness. He said, My dear Shakti, please forgive me. And Shakti said, I'm, you know, I'm not angry at you. I just have to do my duty. I have to curse you. This is my duty because you misbehaved.
You know, and uh, and uh, he said, you know, maybe my curse will not be that strong. He said, maybe by your power as a king, you will be able to withhold this curse. Let's see.
I'm not, he said, I'm not into it, so to speak. Let's see what's going to happen. The story would have a happy end, but it didn't.
Vishvamitra's scheme against Shakti
Because there was another personality involved. There's another personality was Viśvāmitra Muni hiding behind the trees. He happened to be there. And he's of course an enemy of Vasista.
And he knows this is the son of Vasista. And Viśvāmitra is hiding behind the tree. He said, He really thinks, this is my chance. You know, this is great. This is good. The son of Vasista.
Curse this king, and the king will become a Raksasa. And this is this is perfect. Ideal situation. We will really you know get back to Vasista.
So he commands Rakṣasa, Viśvāmitra Muni, who is also very powerful brāhmaṇa, and he says, Rakṣasa, now you have the power to possess this king.
Because the king was cursed, and Rakṣasa, the subtle being, really enters the body of the king. And the king becomes Kalmashapada. Kalmashapada, you know, actually that is his name, which he earned by being Rakṣasa.
So Rakṣasa enters the body of the king. And the king, again, still being powerful and being somewhat forgiven by Shakti, for some time was able to control the rākṣasa inside. You know, like sometimes people get possessed.
And when they they get possessed, you know, this is basically in the modern uh culture they're called crazy and they're locked in in a psychiatric hospital and you know they they're given some kind of crazy medicine uh to control raxis inside. But that's exactly what happened with this king Kalmashapada.
For some time, by his power, by his purity, by his austerity, by his uh you know tapas, he was able to control Rākṣasa, and Rākṣasa was, you know, raging and raving inside and pushing him to do this, but he was controlling him and suppressing him for some time.
But Vishwamitramuni was still there. so as soon as this happened, he understood that the king is too powerful and the rākṣasa is not powerful enough to really possess him and to really uh make him uh doing crazy things.
So Viśvāmitra Muni, he he calls one brāhmaṇa and he says, My dear Brahman, you go to king and you ask the king you say to the king that you're hungry and uh you ask him to feed you with some food, with some meat or whatever, with some sacrificial animal flesh.
And he has the plot inside his mind. You know, say to dangerous people sometimes because when they really want to do something, they can do this. So this brāhmaṇa uh he waits for a king and king goes again to the forest
to hunt and the brāhmaṇa says, My dear king, I'm hungry, please give me some food. I need some meat to eat, some sacrificial animal. You know, I will wait for you here.
And the king he goes there and here and there and then he returns and he forgets completely about it that the brāhmaṇa again uh something was wrong with this particular king because he didn't really respect brāhmaṇas enough and he got himself in trouble, in big trouble because of this.
So this this brāhmaṇa who asked him for food is waiting and the king forgot about this totally. He went to his wife and the wife entertained him and you know dance for him and this and that.
He was totally oblivious about everything. And then he lay down on a bed.
And in the midnight, you know, because still he was a king, still he was very cultured man. And in the midnight he just wakes up and he remembers, my goodness, what did I do?
Brahmana begged me for food and I didn't give him this food. What can I do now?
So he runs to the kitchen and he wakes up the cook and he says, Cook, please cook the food for this brāhmaṇa, cook some sacrificial animal quickly, quickly.
You know the brāhmaṇa is waiting and if I don't do this before the sunrise, you know, he will curse me. And again, you know, my goodness, what's happening? Everyone is out to curse me. So and because this is midnight.
Again, this is the plot of Viśvāmitra. And the midnight Rākṣasas are much more powerful than during the day. During the day uh this king was able to control Rākṣasa, but in the midnight
the rākṣasa is much more powerful. So the uh the the cook cook runs to the kitchen and he doesn't find any any suitable items to cook. So he he runs to the king and he says, My dear king, there's nothing to cook and
From inside Rakshasa tells this brāhmaṇa through the mouth of the king you cook the meat of a human being. You cook some human. You find some some corpse somewhere and cook this meat.
You know, and the king insists on this. He says, cook, cook, cook, cook the human being. Cook some some corpse. You know uh the cook says if you say your majesty, if you really say so, I just have to follow your order.
If if you really want me to do this strange thing, so I don't do this.
And he runs he runs to some you know to the place where the criminals were executed and he finds some fresh kind of criminal who was freshly executed recently.
It's a it's it's not a story which you would tell during the Sunday feast class. But still it's an interesting story.
So he runs to this place, he gets some criminal gets some flesh from some fleshy part of this and he cooks.
And he goes to this brāhmaṇa and the king thinks okay that everything is okay, you know, let me lay down and sleep.
And he goes to this brāhmaṇa and gives this meat and says, My king sent it to you. You want some food? Here's the food. Please take it.
And the brāhmaṇa looks at this and he immediately knows this is human flesh. This is obnoxious. You cannot eat this. And he becomes so happy. He becomes so so angry. He says, this is this is too much.
This king is trying to feed me. This king. Who is this king? You know, this king is rākṣasa. And he curses him again. And then this time the king is not there to beg forgiveness.
He says this king will become the you know the human leader. He will he will devour humans and he curses him with all his brāhmaṇical power.
And as soon as this curse is being pronounced, with the great power behind this curse, the king feels uncontrollable urge to eat some human being.
He just cannot do anything. This is he cannot really resist it anymore. He cannot fight with this urge inside. This urge is too strong.
He just you know he he has to eat somebody or you know uh if he doesn't eat somebody he will just die. So, and and he's a powerful guy, you know, and the ra- and the rakshasa inside says, yes, yes, let's do it.
This is the way this is the way this is life. This is this is the the juice of life. Let's eat somebody.
And of course he, you know, because he was still angry, you know, he had a very e eventful day, you know, he was cursed once and he was cursed twice and so many things happened to him.
So the king he thinks who should I eat first? And then and then he he decides I should do this, Shakti, son of Vasiṣṭha first, because he he is the culprit. He is the one guilty of all my troubles.
So he runs to the forest during the night completely you know in complete uh fury and he finds this sleeping Śakti somewhere in his uh little cottage there and he devours him on the spot.
And then, you know, and Viśvāmitra Muni is there. He says, yes, yes, right. This is exactly what you're supposed to do. Because he wants to.
Vasishta Muni's despair and suicide attempts
So anyway this this is is a far out story and and when Vasiṣṭha finds out about this tragedy, he becomes so desperate, and of course he knows that Viśvāmitra is behind it. He knows that this is not just by chance.
His powerful son Shakti was eaten by one man eater, you know, one some Rakṣasa. And uh after that point, actually the story of King Kalmasha Pada is being described in the Ninth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
There is another episode in this story.
So after this point uh Vasiṣṭha, and he's a brāhmaṇa, he's real brāhmaṇa, he's not he's not kṣatriya. And and he becomes so so morose, you know, this is his favorite son and there is no sons anymore and uh you know and and
and and and he he decides to commit suicide. He says there is no point of living anymore. Really, there is absolutely no point of living. It's it's too much.
You know, first this Viśvāmitra is is coming with his whole army and then he's coming again and again and again. It's just too much and now he kills my son.
This is this is really you know what can I do? You know, better to end my life. And he goes to the mountain and he jumps from the you know high peak of the mountain.
And when he jumps, all the stones become like cotton and he's totally safe. He says, you know, I you know I'm so I'm so I'm such a failure I can't even end my life now. He goes he goes somewhere else, he goes to the fire.
He he wants to end his life in the fire and he enters the fire. And the fire, you know, blazing fire is there. And as soon as he enters the fire, the fire becomes cool and very nice and he says, you know he cannot do this.
And he goes to the ocean. And he wants to drown himself. He goes to the ocean, he puts a stone on his neck, you know, and he goes deep to the ocean to drown and the waves of the ocean again bring him back to the shore and
you know and he's there with a stone around his neck and he says this is this is you know this is what am I supposed to do now? So in in complete frustration, he's frustrated, his son is dead and you know and
and that actually that went on for twelve years. For twelve years Vasiṣṭha Muni was trying to commit suicide. Not just for a few days. He was determined.
For twelve years he was he he tried different methods, it just didn't work and he was frustrated and you know he was roaming everywhere everywhere.
And while he was roaming in the forest somehow or other his daughter-in-law,
the widow of his son, Shakti, in law saw him and he saw him in such a state of mind. And she decided to help him because for twelve years she had her son in her womb.
Birth and childhood of Parashara Muni
The Parāśara Muni, I was sorry, not Parāśara Muni, the Shakti before he was killed and devoured by the rākṣasas. He begot the son, uh, was in the womb of his, uh, wife and he actually taught his, uh, son the way to recite Vedas. So Vasiṣṭha Muni is roaming in the forest and the boy is, uh, secretly going behind him.
And Parāśara Muni within the womb of his mother.
For 12 years he was reciting Vedas every day because his father taught him and he remembered all the Vedas and he recited them with the perfect pronunciation and with such a shakti. You know, and he's just, you know, he's just happily reciting them. He doesn't want to go out from this womb.
He's just happy within the womb reciting the Vedas. But Vasiṣṭha Muni, he goes in the forest and and then all of a sudden he hears this sound, perfect sound of the verse.
This you know, if if you heard this perfect recitation of the Vedas, it's it's very beautiful. And he's so attracted by this sound, and he starts looking where this sound is coming from.
And not only he uh sees this, he also knows this is coming from Shakti. Because such a power and such a you know perfect intonation and everything is so perfect. It must be from my son.
You know, and finally he sees this lady with a big, big belly, you know, and uh and and the sound is coming somewhere from this area but he doesn't really know where exactly.
So she asked, My dear lady, do you know where this sound is coming from? Where this sound, or where does it come from? She said, It's coming from here, from my womb. And Vasistha Muni is asking, Who is there in your womb?
And she says, My son, your grandson, the son of your son, Shakti. And I'm his widow. And he says, really? This is my this is my grandson.
Oh, my grand... So this Vasistha Muni, he became very joyful and practically immediately, you know, because of this great desire of Vasistha Muni, Parashara Muni comes out from the womb. She delivers the baby.
The baby is grown up, really big boy. So and and uh the baby because he's innocent, he doesn't really know who is who is his father. And he always sees Vasistamuni and his mother. And he thinks Vasist Muni is my father.
And he always calls Vasistha Daddy, My dear daddy, my dear father, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. And once his mother, wife of Shakti, hears this daddy, daddy, daddy, and, you know,
she becomes reminded of your tragedy, of her own husband. And she calls her son and she says, This is not your daddy. This is your granddad. This is your grandfather. Because your dad... And she starts crying.
He says, What happened with my dad? Where's my dad? She's crying and crying and crying. Your death was devoured by Rakshasa. Raksasa. Man eater came in the dead of night and he ate your father and his dad's cry.
And Parashara Muni says, Really? Okay.
Parashara Muni's sacrifice against Rakshasas
We will get back to them. And he starts this particular sacrifice mentioned here.
The sacrifice, this yajna, to devour all the rakshasas. The purpose of this yagya was to kill all the rakshasas on the surface of the earth. And he, you know, he's so powerful, you know, this is actually this is his power.
He's a young kid.
He can can recite the Vedas in the womb of his mother. He's, you know, and when when he knows this, he he says, okay, you know, let's do this sacrifice and satisfy the Supreme Lord by killing all the demons in this earth.
This will be a great yagya and the Supreme Lord will be very happy. You know, so he makes this fire and he makes this three fires, three sacrificial fires, and he chants the mantras.
And when he chants the mantras, all the demons and rakshases they feel irresistible urge to go and jump into the fire.
And from all the directions the rakshasas are surrounding and flying and coming and just being burned in this fire.
And Parashuramuni is the fierce fire. He is as powerful as the fire itself, and he is just he is just enraged. He says, you know, until the last Rakshasa will be burned in front of my eyes. I will not finish this yagya.
This is a special yagya which I performed for this. And Vashishtamuni is there and he just doesn't know what to do with him. He he's trying to pacify him, but he his grandson is too powerful.
And then ultimately in the culmination of this yagya Pulastya Muni comes and Pratu comes and so many other sages come. And together they say, you know, they say to Vashishtya Muni, please go to your grandson and please stop him.
You know, all this, you know, this rakshasas, this is their nature. They have to eat somebody, you know, this is and Pulastya says, I created Rakshases uh by the order of Brahman. And rakshases have to be there.
This world uh needs some rakshases. If there's no rakshases, this world will not fulfil its purpose. It will be boring to live in this world if there's no rakshasas.
And people will not believe in God if there's no rakshasas. Rakshasas have the role to play. They're important here. This is their nature.
They're innocent he can kill this Kalmashapada but why does he have to kill everyone else so and uh uh instigated
by Pulastya Muni, Vashishta comes and he says, Vatsa, my dear son, my dear boy, you know, please, you know you're a brahmaṇa. Brahmaṇa has to be forgiving. Brahmaṇa has to be, you know, you I understand. You saw the tears of your mother.
And because the tears of your mother were burning within your heart, you had to do it. I understand. But please stop.
And uh and Parasha Ramuni says I can stop it. Sorry, but this is already on the way, you know, I have to finalise it, I have to finish it.
And then Vajti Muni says to him, you know, please stop it anyway, you know, we'll take care of this fire.
This uh Parasharamuni says this fire is so powerful that it will be burning until the last Rakshasa in this earth uh will burn in it.
Pasasharmuni says you don't worry about this. You please stop it and you please subdue your uh emotions. Please forgive all the accessors. I'm not angry, I'm just doing my duty.
So what if you tell me my grandfather, of course I will do it, of course I will stop it.
And he stopped it in the in the sport and they put the fire and they say that when the volcanes are there, when the the resurrection of volcanus this this fire is still there hidden within the earth. And sometimes it goes out to devour some few ruxases which are still there.
So and and they say and uh and then Pulasti Muni who was there also with Vasistamuni he he gives this blessing, together with Vasistamuni with, with Kratu, all the great sages, and they say, Parashara, because of your power and because of your intelligence and because of your purity out of the blessing. From now on you will be the treasure house of the sacred knowledge of Puranas. You will know Puranas through and through and you will recite Puranas. And this Puranas will be the saving grace for the people of Kali Yuga. This is our blessing to you.
And you please start this line of reciting Puranas. And uh the Puranas which you will recite uh will help the people and the future generation to understand the proper philosophy of life.
So basically this story is here uh uh an uh very important plays an important role to understand for us for us again to understand that this is the philosophy this is not just mythology this is not just a fairy tales, just some kind of stories.
This is the great philosophy of life which propounds very strongly this point that the origin of all is the intelligence of the Supreme Lord. That the intelligence of the Supreme Lord is the created source.
Jan Mahdiya Syayatara, he is the source of the creation. He is the source of maintenance and he is the source of destruction of everything. He is behind everything. The intelligence is behind everything.
And basically, uh this whole story for us to understand this point. We should not really be bewildered or misused by the arguments of the modern philosophers that it's just by chance or just by some kind of natural order that this whole creation was created and there is no intelligence behind.
There is great intelligence behind the creation. There is great intelligence behind the maintenance and there is great intelligence behind any act of destruction. And this intelligence is the Supreme Lord Himself.
And this is of course being proven by the story which we are about to hear, how Lord Brahmā appeared and how Lord Brahmā was bewildered and how Lord Brahmā got enlightened by the Supreme Lord by performing austerities and
how Lord Brahma uh recited the prayers addressed to the Supreme Lord, the prayers to the creative energy of the Supreme Lord, which is the manifestation of his Supreme Intelligence.
Basically, this is, this is that's it. This is the thing.
Scientific approaches to proving God's existence
I, I don't know if I have some case like that in the heart. This is the case. Yeah, it's there in the heart. Especially in my heart because I'm scientist by background. I was giving this class for myself.
I was studying this Prigogine as well. And that these modern scientists they are like manifesting that by their experiments and study.
But Prabhupāda sometimes says that the scientists should aim to prove the existence of God. So what does that mean in practice?
It means in practice that they have to prove that the nature itself is not enough or is not sufficient to create life. Because now their line of arguing is completely opposite.
Their line of arguing is just to prove that the life completely, you know comes by the natural sequence of events from the nature.
But uh if they're real scientists, and there is a few of them of this kind of of this calibre, they will be able to understand the limitations of this approach or insufficiency of this approach. They will be able to really understand that this is a ridiculous proposition.
And that's exactly what Prabhupāda, this is the task which Prabhupāda gave to the scientists of Bhaktivedanta Institute to prove that life comes from life. That life comes from living force behind it.
And this living force is ultimately the great intelligence. And this intelligence is the intelligence of the Supreme Lord. So if the scientists at least they will not be able to prove that the Lord is the origin.
This is the beyond the range of pratyakṣa, the science. It can only be revealed in pure. But
what scientists can prove is that it's not enough by pratyakṣa, they can prove that it's absolutely not enough and absolutely not sufficient to create life from matter by natural sequence.
And I spoke with Rasaraj Prabhu, who is one of the scientists in the Bhaktivedanta Institute, and he has brilliant ideas. He actually says that the modern science is more or less in the position to
follow Sāṅkhya philosophy of Lord Kapila is that the quantum mechanics has the seed of this Sāṅkhya philosophy. You can actually take the modern quantum mechanics and do something about it.
And I also spoke with Gadādhara Paṇḍita from Germany. He also has really good ideas actually. He is dealing with one scientist who discovered uh Some kind of law which is not yet accepted but uh it seems like to be a very fundamental or universal law.
And according to this law, uh again uh Gadādhara Paṇḍita is also working in this direction. According to this law, the origin of everything is three kinds of vibration.
The quantum mechanics also already stated very clearly that the original element which is behind every object of this world is the vibration.
According to quantum mechanics, any object of this world has some kind of wave function as they say. And this wave function is vibration. And that's what Lord Kapila says, right?
That there is sound and this sound is the you know transformation of the tāmasika-ahaṅkāra. When tāmasika-ahaṅkāra is being transformed, the first element which is created is sound or vibration.
So this is already being proven by quantum mechanics. So now Gadādhara Paṇḍita says that according to this fundamental law which he is really developing now or trying to apply to the data of material science.
There are three kinds of vibrations. And you can actually uh fundamental vibrations behind everything. And you can actually quite uh easily understand that the three kind of vibrations is what?
Tamo-guṇa, rajo-guṇa, sattva-guṇa. He says again that according to this, everything like Lord Kṛṣṇa says in Bhagavad-gītā, that everything is like the pearls on the thread.
And he says that there is a lot of proof now, and if you go further, that uh it's really so that there is three kinds of threads and all the creations and all the you know manifested objects of this world are like you know the pearls on an invisible thread, which is ultimately coming from the Lord Himself.
Anyway, so there is there is a room for the scientists. All the Prabhupāda says that they're using brains, they have no brain whatsoever.
But those of them who do have some brain, they can understand that there is that the origin of creation is the Supreme World himself. connection between the the Rakshasha devouring fire and the volcanoes. Yeah.
Then you mentioned that they say can you be a little more little more specific I guess?
Well, they say actually what is said there in in Mahābhārata that this fire is still there in the mountain region and sometimes every now and then this fire is being you know is devouring praxis. That this fire being so powerful, ignited by this powerful sage.
You know, it's not you know, it's it's just you know I I I don't know if we have to this is basically what is said in Mahābhārata that this fire is still there in uh in the mountain region.
Power of austerity and truthful words
In in Himalai region it is said, but uh you know in Himalai region in Himalai it's the it's the more maybe not the whole fire then maybe not the whole explanation
No, it's not the right pronunciation, it's the right behavior. It's the austerity which they perform. Because austerity uh it's the purity of their lifestyle. This is what makes you powerful.
You know, the mantras itself, the power of the mantras really depends on the source uh of of their pronunciation and on the consciousness which produces these powers. And the more pure the consciousness, the more power is there within the mantras.
So the more or less invested with the mant the with the power of the consciousness.
So the sages they live a very pure lifestyle, they're very austere, they're very they have a great integrity basically and this great integrity is reflected in the power of their words.
It is said that you know there is there is two terms in Vedic literature. Satya samkalpa and uh satya satya samkalpa and satya what anyway uh there is two powers if you live a completely
austere life and uh and very a renounced life and a very pure life, then you obtain these two powers.
Satya Sankalpa means that whatever you desire becomes true. Your desire becomes so powerful that any desire of yours becomes the reality. And another power is that whatever you pronounce becomes also the reality.
And therefore their curses are so strong.
When they pronounce this, uh it it becomes satya, it becomes something real. You know if they pronounce something this this will happen for sure. Because this is the power behind their words, the the the pronunciation, their bhakyas. And uh uh another you know and and we can see also Prabhupada he had this tremendous power. He would pronounce something and that would happen.
Like also in Bombay, Radhanath Maharaja told me the story that Prabhupada once, many many years ago he gave a lecture in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in Bombay.
And while leaving Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan after this lecture, he mentioned to Śyāmasundara, you know, we should have a temple here in this place. Near Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
And some years later, you know, somehow or other, you know, the Chopati temple started and then it started growing, growing, growing.
And after some time Śyāmasundara, who was the only witness of this pronouncement of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he came to Chowpatty Temple and he saw this Chowpatty Temple is just, you know, a few meters away from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. And he remembered at that time.
Yeah, Prabhupāda was, yeah, while he was leaving at this particular place, he said, we should have a temple here.
And now this temple is there, you know, and it happened not because of you know not because of some conscious endeavors but because Prabhupada pronounced this. And because he pronounced this, there is this power.
But this power is only coming from the integrity of the person, from the from the purity, from his faith, from his dedication, from his bhakti to the Supreme. This is the power is coming from. Thank you very much.
Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jai!