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Understanding the value of human life

By:

Chanchalapathi Dasa, Bangalore quoting His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Srila Prabhupada's Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 - Chapter 18

TEXT 47

apāpeṣu sva-bhṛtyeṣu

bālenāpakva-buddhinā

pāpaṁ kṛtaṁ tad bhagavān

sarvātmā kṣantum arhati

TRANSLATION

Then the rishi prayed to the all-pervading Personality of Godhead to pardon his immature boy, who had no intelligence and who committed the great sin of cursing a person who was completely free from all sins, who was subordinate and who deserved to be protected.

PURPORT

Everyone is responsible for his own action, either pious or sinful. Rishi Samika could foresee that his son had committed a great sin by cursing Maharaja Parikshit, who deserved to be protected by the brahmanas, for he was a pious ruler and completely free from all sins because of his being a first-class devotee of the Lord. When an offense is done unto the devotee of the Lord, it is very difficult to overcome the reaction. The brahmanas, being at the head of the social orders, are meant to give protection to their subordinates and not to curse them. There are occasions when a brahmana may furiously curse a subordinate kshatriya or vaishya, etc., but in the case of Maharaja Parikshit there were no grounds, as already explained. The foolish boy had done it out of sheer vanity in being a brahmana's son, and thus he became liable to be punished by the law of God. The Lord never forgives a person who condemns His pure devotee. Therefore, by cursing a king, the foolish Sringi had committed not only a sin but also the greatest offense. Therefore the rishi could foresee that only the Supreme Personality of Godhead could save his boy from his sinful act. He therefore directly prayed for pardon from the Supreme Lord, who alone can undo a thing which is impossible to change. The appeal was made in the name of a foolish boy who had developed no intelligence at all.

A question may be raised herein that since it was the desire of the Lord that Parikshit Maharaja be put into that awkward position so that he might be delivered from material existence, then why was a brahmana's son made responsible for this offensive act? The answer is that the offensive act was performed by a child only so that he could be excused very easily, and thus the prayer of the father was accepted. But if the question is raised why the brahmana community as a whole was made responsible for allowing Kali into the world affairs, the answer is given in the Varaha Purana that the demons who acted inimically toward the Personality of Godhead but were not killed by the Lord were allowed to take birth in the families of brahmanas to take advantage of the age of Kali. The all-merciful Lord gave them a chance to have their births in the families of pious brahmanas so that they could progress toward salvation. But the demons, instead of utilizing the good opportunity, misused the brahminical culture due to being puffed up by vanity in becoming brahmanas. The typical example is the son of Samika Rishi, and all the foolish sons of brahmanas are warned hereby not to become as foolish as Sringi and be always on guard against the demoniac qualities which they had in their previous births. The foolish boy was, of course, excused by the Lord, but others, who may not have a father like Samika Rishi, will be put into great difficulty if they misuse the advantages obtained by birth in a brahmana family.

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Here we are seeing the response of Samika Rishi to the impudent act of his son in cursing Maharaj Parikshit. In these verses one of the things that shine forth is the sense of duty that Samika Rishi is feeling. He analyses what his son has done and then he says, due to the termination of the monarchial regimes and the plundering of people’s wealth by rogues and thieves, people will be killed and injured and animals and women will be stolen and for all these sins, we shall be responsible.

So we see these brahmanas, it is not that they received a lot of honour but they were also very responsible. In fact like we talk about the differences between the human beings and animals, human beings have a developed conscience and with that, the sense of responsibility. But that sense of responsibility also depends on the spiritual enlightenment of the soul. The soul has forgotten his true nature and has gone into a deep slumber and Krishna consciousness is a process that awakens the soul. The more we are awakened, the more we will have the sense of spiritual responsibility.

Sometimes devotees stay in the temple for some time and then some bewildering thing happens and then they go away. There are other devotees who go through difficulties in life, but never give up their sense of spiritual responsibility. There are instances when devotees join the temple, the parents get very upset and forcibly take their son away and drug them, to make them change and some of these drugs are very powerful, they sleep for a few days and then they slowly wake up and different kinds of treatment they give, thinking that our son has gone crazy. But then we have come across a few cases when the effect of the medicine wears out and once again they open up and say, I want to be a devotee. That is because once the soul is woken up he will become conscious of his spiritual responsibility. Whereas sometimes when some problems come in their spiritual life devotees give up spiritual responsibilities very easily. This is because of the degrees of awakening of the soul.

So the brahmanas, they acted with a tremendous sense of responsibility which is very important. When one is spiritually enlightened, he begins to realize, I have spiritual responsibilities as a human being and I must be very careful about it. So the sage here is concerned about the termination of the monarchial regime. What will happen to the society when qualified kings are not ruling the world? We are seeing this in the Kali yuga. Srila Prabhupada recalls in 1942 there was a great famine in Bengal and it is said that about thirty lakh people died. There is a difference between famine and drought. Drought is a natural occurrence, no water, no rain, no food. Famine is due to a political reason, no access to food grains and people die. In many occasions Prabhupada recalled what he had seen in Calcutta, there were many dead bodies and people were dying. It was simply because at that time, the food grains were shipped out of India to other places because of the decision of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill at that time in England. Because of a political reason and then they gave an incentive, if you join the army, then you will have food. They wanted to build the army and fight the World Wars.

I was reading an article on Bengal famine and it says that when a telegram reached Winston Churchill that people are dying in India, food grains have to be released urgently. He said the brown skinned people do not deserve it because they were reproducing like rabbits. Just see, how when somebody becomes avaricious about power and greed how they become so cruel. So this was the concern that when qualified kings are not ruling this world, what happens? That sense of spiritual responsibility that is there for the king is ignored.

And Srila Prabhupada uses a very interesting expression here. The brahmana community as a whole was made responsible for allowing Kali into the world affairs. Today, we see the influence of Kali yuga in the world affairs, a predominance of influence of Kali, ignorance in the human society, especially of the rulers - about spiritual values.

Once when Srila Prabhupada was on a morning walk next to a big golf course in Dallas; he asked, what is this, what is happening? Then the devotees explained, Srila Prabhupada, rich people play this game. And then he asked, what do they do? Then they said, Prabhupada they carry a stick and they hit a ball, which goes several hundred feet away, and they walk to that ball and again hit it, and again walk and finally try to hit the ball into a hole. On hearing that Prabhupada became very grave, his voice changed, there was a drop of tear in his eye. And he said, just see how these elderly people are wasting their time hitting a little ball.

You see the perspective that Srila Prabhupada saw the whole activity in, how people are so misguided, in their advanced age, instead of knowing what is going to happen to them in a few years and preparing themselves, they are just wasting their time in such activities. In fact today, they spend billions of dollars on different games, building stadiums, and competitions between countries, Olympics; it is a billion dollar enterprise. But the world has embraced it; they don’t know any other value in life. You see the influence of Kali in the world affairs; all intelligent people today think that – yes, this is the right thing to do. Some silly thing, running after a ball, don’t know what is the value of human life. What human life can give us, it can solve the ultimate problems of life, death, old age and disease and bring us to a platform of eternal life. They have no understanding of all these things. This is the lamentable thing.

And then another very interesting thing in this verse, Srila Prabhupada points out -

apāpeṣu sva-bhṛtyeṣu

bālenāpakva-buddhinā

pāpaṁ kṛtaṁ

- he is saying, oh, my dear son, bala, because you are immature, pāpaṁ kṛtaṁ, you have committed a great sin. Why? This king who is apāpeṣu, a sinless king and sva bhrtyesu. The word bhrtya means, subordinate. Ekala isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s statement. Krishna alone is the master and everyone else is subordinate. So apāpeṣu sva-bhṛtyeṣu – because the kings are expected to be subordinate to the brahmanas. So the father is saying, this king, he is apāpeṣu, he was sinless and sva bhrtyesu and he is subordinate to the brahmanas. And such a king, bālenāpakva-buddhinā pāpaṁ kṛtaṁ – you have committed a great sin.

Srila Prabhupada explains in the translation, generally the kshatriyas are meant to give protection to everyone but brahmanas are meant to give protection to the kshatriyas; because they are subordinate to the brahmanas. The brahmanas had the sense of responsibility that we have to protect the kshatriyas, not physically but by giving proper guidance and direction. Kshatriyas are valorous, isvara bhava, they have got that feeling of superiority; but the kshatriyas’ another quality is sva bhrtyesu – you are supposed to remain subordinate to the brahmanas - because brahmanas were enlightened people.

So you can see here how the brahmanas were not thinking that we are in a superior position, they were feeling responsible that we have to direct the kshatriyas with proper instructions. And my dear son, you have failed in this. And here was a king who was - apapesu sva bhrtyesu – he deserved to be guided by us. This is how he is admonishing his son. Why Parikshit went and garlanded a meditating sage with a snake, why did he do that? The acharyas explained that was simply under the inspiration of the Lord. The Lord wanted to end his material existence and take him back to the spiritual world.

Prabhupada has again analyzed that and he is saying, then why was a brahmana’s son made responsible for this offensive act? The answer is that the offensive act was performed by a child so that he could be excused very easily and thus the prayer of the father was accepted. Here the father is saying - papam krtam – my dear son, you have done a papa, a sin. tad bhagavan sarvatma ksantum arhati – only that Lord can pardon you.

But if the question is raised why the brahmana community as a whole was made responsible? For that Srila Prabhupada is quoting explanation from Varaha Purana, where it says that, when the Lord was here five thousand years ago, He killed several demons and demoniac rulers. When He was in Vrindavan, Kamsa and all his demoniac associates, Krishna killed them. When He went to Hastinapura and Dvaraka He arranged the battle of Kurukshetra and all the demoniac kings were on the side of Duryodhana, there again He vanquished all those demons. But still there were a few who escaped, and those demons in Kali yuga were given the chance to be born as brahmanas, another act of mercy of the Lord. Hopefully, when they are born in brahmana family they will become enlightened. Because when yogi also falls down, he is born in a brahmana family, so that he gets an opportunity. But they did not take advantage of that chance and the brahmanas simply out of vanity, claimed their position of special respect and honour without having the necessary qualifications. It is obviously seen that the brahmanas are not well qualified with brahmanical knowledge and they have just become ritualistic brahmanas and simply like anyone else running after material desires.

Prabhupada makes another very interesting observation. The typical example is the son of Samika Rishi and all the foolish sons of brahmanas are warned hereby not to become as foolish as Sringi and be always on guard against the demoniac qualities which they had in their previous births. So all the brahmanas born in brahmanical families should be careful. Prabhupada is warning – be aware that in your previous birth you had all these demoniac qualities, be very watchful in this life, don’t be proud. The foolish boy of course was excused by the Lord but others may not have a father like Samika Rishi, they will be put into great difficulty if they misuse the advantages obtained by birth in a brahmana family.

We see this kind of a sense of responsibility that Srila Prabhupada presents from these verses in the Bhagavatam and this is what is very special about Srila Prabhupada and his explanations, always trying to highlight the purpose of Vedic culture, which is ultimately to understand the value of human life and to go back to Godhead.