King Parīkshit said: Those demigods, demons and humans who worship Lord Śiva, a strict renunciant, usually enjoy wealth and sense gratification, while the worshipers of the Supreme Lord Hari, the husband of the goddess of fortune, do not.
We wish to properly understand this matter, which greatly puzzles us. Indeed, the results attained by the worshipers of these two lords of opposite characters are contrary to what one would expect.
The preceding chapter ended with the recommendation that one should always meditate on Lord Hari, the bestower of liberation. In this regard Mahārāja Parīkshit here expresses a common fear among ordinary people that by becoming a devotee of Lord Vishnu one will lose his wealth and social status. For the benefit of such persons of little faith, King Parīkshit requests Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī to explain an apparent paradox: Lord Śiva, who lives like a beggar, without even a house to call his own, makes his devotees rich and powerful, while Lord Vishnu, the omnipotent possessor of all that exists, often reduces His servants to abject poverty. Śukadeva Gosvāmī will respond with reasoned explanations and an ancient account concerning the demon Vrika.
Śrī Śukadeva said: Lord Śiva is always united with his personal energy, the material nature. Manifesting himself in three features in response to the entreaties of nature’s three modes, he thus embodies the threefold principle of material ego in goodness, passion and ignorance.
The sixteen elements have evolved as transformations of that false ego. When a devotee of Lord Śiva worships his manifestation in any one of these elements, the devotee obtains all sorts of corresponding enjoyable opulences.
False ego transforms into the mind, ten senses (the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, hands, feet, voice, genitals and anus), and five physical elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether). Lord Śiva appears in a special linga form in each of these sixteen substances, which are worshiped individually as deities in various sacred locations of the universe. A devotee of Śiva may worship one of his particular lingas to obtain the mystic opulences pertaining to it. Thus Lord Śiva’s ākāśa-linga bestows the opulences of ether, his jyotir-linga bestows the opulences of fire, and so on.
Lord Hari, however, has no connection with the material modes. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the all-seeing eternal witness, who is transcendental to material nature. One who worships Him becomes similarly free from the material modes.
Lord Vishnu is situated in His own transcendental position, beyond the material energy. Why, therefore, should His worship bear the fruit of material opulence? The real fruit of worshiping Lord Vishnu is transcendental knowledge. Thus Lord Vishnu’s worshiper gains the eye of transcendental knowledge instead of being blinded by mundane assets. The Lord being the detached witness of the material creation, His devotee also becomes aloof from the interaction of the Lord’s inferior energies.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī cites the following passage from the Vedic literature:
“When the absolute reality associates with the modes of nature, He assumes two different kinds of form in this world, according to whether His spiritual qualities are manifest or not. Thus He acts just like a reflection and its further, secondary reflection.”
“The modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, whose individual natures are peaceful, violent and foolish, are personally regulated by Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, respectively.”
“Lord Vishnu’s peaceful mode of goodness does not differ substantially from His original, spiritual qualities, although it is only a partial manifestation of them within this world. Thus Lord Vishnu’s mode of goodness is never tainted by agitation [in passion] or delusion [in ignorance].”
“By the modes of passion and ignorance, on the other hand, the original, spiritual qualities of Lord Brahmā and Lord Rudra are obscured. Thus these spiritual qualities appear only partially, as separated, material qualities.”
“Therefore focusing one’s consciousness upon Lord Vishnu, the embodiment of all goodness, leads one to liberation. Such God consciousness also generates material success as a by-product, but its proper nature is pure spiritual ecstasy.”
“According to their mode of worship, devotees of Brahmā, Rudra and other demigods obtain the limited success of material opulences. Eventually they may possibly become qualified for full liberation.”
This same idea is echoed in the following statement of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.23): śreyāmsi tatra khalu sattva-tanor nrinām syuh. “Of these three [Brahmā, Vishnu and Śiva], all human beings can derive ultimate benefit from Vishnu, the form of the quality of goodness.”
Your grandfather, King Yudhishthira, after completing his Aśvamedha sacrifices, asked Lord Acyuta this very same question while hearing the Lord’s explanation of religious principles.
This question pleased Śrī Krishna, the King’s Lord and master, who had descended into the family of Yadu for the purpose of bestowing the highest good on all men. The Lord replied as follows as the King eagerly listened.
The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another.
Devotees of the Supreme Lord experience both happiness and distress — not as consequences of material work but as incidental effects of their loving reciprocation with the Lord. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, in Śrī Bhakti-rasāmrita-sindhu, his definitive treatise on the process of devotional service, explains how a Vaishnava is relieved of all karmic reactions, including those that have not yet begun to manifest (aprārabdha), those that are just about to manifest (kūta), those that are barely manifesting (bīja) and those that have manifested fully (prārabdha). As a lotus gradually loses its many petals, so a person who takes shelter of devotional service has all his karmic reactions destroyed.
That devotional service to Lord Krishna eradicates all karmic reactions is confirmed in this passage of the Gopāla-tāpanī śruti (Pūrva 15): bhaktir asya bhajanam tad ihāmutropādhi-nairāsyenāmushmin manah-kalpanam etad eva naishkarmyam. “Devotional service is the process of worshiping the Supreme Lord. It consists of fixing the mind upon Him by becoming disinterested in all material designations, both in this life and the next. It results in the dissolution of all karma.” While it is certainly true that those who practice devotional service remain in material bodies and apparently material situations for some time, this is simply an expression of the inconceivable mercy of the Lord, who bestows the fruits of devotion only when it has become pure. In every stage of devotion, however, the Lord watches over His devotee and sees to the gradual elimination of his karma. Thus despite the fact that the happiness and distress devotees experience resemble ordinary karmic reactions, they are in fact given by the Lord Himself. As the Bhāgavatam (10.87.40) states, bhavad-uttha-śubhāśubhayoh: A mature devotee recognizes the superficially good and bad conditions he encounters as signs of the direct guidance of his ever well-wishing Lord.
But if the Lord is so compassionate to His devotees, why does He expose them to special suffering? This is answered by an analogy: A very affectionate father takes the responsibility of restricting his children’s play and making them go to school. He knows that this is a genuine expression of his love for them, even if the children fail to understand. Similarly, the Supreme Lord Vishnu is mercifully strict with all His dependents, not only with immature devotees struggling to become qualified. Even perfect saints like Prahlāda, Dhruva and Yudhishthira were subjected to great tribulations, all for their glorification. After the Battle of Kurukshetra, Śrī Bhīshmadeva described to King Yudhishthira his wonder at this:
“Oh, how wonderful is the influence of inevitable time! It is irreversible — otherwise, how can there be reverses in the presence of King Yudhishthira, the son of the demigod controlling religion; Bhīma, the great fighter with a club; the great bowman Arjuna with his mighty weapon Gāndīva; and above all, the Lord, the direct well-wisher of the Pāndavas? O King, no one can know the plan of the Lord [Śrī Krishna]. Even though great philosophers inquire exhaustively, they are bewildered.” (Bhāg. 1.9.15-16)
Although a Vaishnava’s happiness and distress are felt as pleasure and pain, just like ordinary karmic reactions, they are different in a significant sense. Material happiness and distress, arising from karma, leave a subtle residue — the seed of future entanglement. Such enjoyment and suffering tend toward degradation and increase the danger of falling into hellish oblivion. Happiness and distress generated from the Supreme Lord’s desires, however, leave no trace after their immediate purpose has been served. Moreover, the Vaishnava who enjoys such reciprocation with the Lord is in no danger of falling down into nescience. As Yamarāja, the lord of death and the judge of all departed souls, declares:
“My dear servants, please bring to me only those sinful persons who do not use their tongues to chant the holy name and qualities of Krishna, whose hearts do not remember the lotus feet of Krishna even once, and whose heads do not bow down even once before Lord Krishna. Send me those who do not perform their duties toward Vishnu, which are the only duties in human life. Please bring me all such fools and rascals.” (Bhāg. 6.3.29)
The beloved devotees of the Lord do not regard as very troublesome the suffering He imposes on them. Indeed, they find that in the end it gives rise to unlimited pleasure, just as a stinging ointment applied by a physician cures his patient’s infected eye. In addition, suffering helps protect the confidentiality of devotional service by discouraging intrusions by the faithless, and it also increases the eagerness with which the devotees call upon the Lord to appear. If the devotees of Lord Vishnu were complacently happy all the time, He would never have a reason to appear in this world as Krishna, Rāmacandra, Nrisimha and so on. As Krishna Himself says in Bhagavad-gītā (4.8):
“To deliver the pious and annihilate the miscreants, as well as to reestablish the principles of religion, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium.” And without the Lord’s showing Himself on earth in His original form of Krishna and in the forms of various incarnations, His faithful servants in this world would have no opportunity to enjoy His rāsa-līlā and other pastimes.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī here counters a possible objection: “What fault would there be in God’s incarnating for some other reason than to deliver saintly persons from suffering?” The learned ācārya responds, “Yes, my dear brother, this makes good sense, but you are not expert in understanding spiritual moods. Please listen: It is at night that the sunrise becomes attractive, during the hot summer that cold water gives comfort, and during the cold winter months that warm water is pleasing. Lamplight appears attractive in darkness, not in the glaring light of day, and when one is distressed by hunger, food tastes especially good.” In other words, to strengthen his devotees’ mood of dependence on Him and longing for Him, the Lord arranges for His devotees to go through some suffering, and when He appears in order to deliver them, their gratitude and transcendental pleasure are boundless.
When he becomes frustrated in his attempts to make money and instead befriends My devotees, I bestow My special mercy upon him.
A person who has thus become sober fully realizes the Absolute as the highest truth, the most subtle and perfect manifestation of spirit, the transcendental existence without end. In this way realizing that the Supreme Truth is the foundation of his own existence, he is freed from the cycle of material life.
Because I am difficult to worship, people generally avoid Me and instead worship other deities, who are quickly satisfied. When people receive kingly opulences from these deities, they become arrogant, intoxicated with pride and neglectful of their duties. They dare to offend even the demigods who have bestowed benedictions upon them.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Lord Brahmā, Lord Vishnu, Lord Śiva and others are able to curse or bless one. Lord Śiva and Lord Brahmā are very quick to curse or bestow benedictions, my dear King, but the infallible Supreme Lord is not.
In this connection, an ancient historical account is related concerning how the Lord of Kailāsa Mountain was put into danger by offering a choice of benedictions to the demon Vrika.
The demon named Vrika, a son of Śakuni’s, once met Nārada on the road. The wicked fellow asked him which of the three chief gods could be pleased most quickly.
Nārada told him: Worship Lord Śiva and you will soon achieve success. He quickly becomes pleased by seeing his worshiper’s slightest good qualities — and quickly angered by seeing his slightest fault.
He became pleased with ten-headed Rāvana, and also with Bāna, when they each chanted his glories, like bards in a royal court. Lord Śiva then bestowed unprecedented power upon each of them, but in both cases he was consequently beset with great difficulty.
Rāvana worshiped Lord Śiva to gain power and then misused that power to uproot the lord’s residence, sacred Kailāsa-parvata. On Bānāsura’s request, Lord Śiva agreed to personally guard Bāna’s capital, and later he had to fight for Bāna against Śrī Krishna and His sons.
[Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] Thus advised, the demon proceeded to worship Lord Śiva at Kedāranātha by taking pieces of flesh from his own body and offering them as oblations into the sacred fire, which is Lord Śiva’s mouth.
Vrikāsura became frustrated after failing to obtain a vision of the lord. Finally, on the seventh day, after dipping his hair into the holy waters at Kedāranātha and leaving it wet, he took up a hatchet and prepared to cut off his head. But at that very moment the supremely merciful Lord Śiva rose up out of the sacrificial fire, looking like the god of fire himself, and grabbed both arms of the demon to stop him from killing himself, just as we would do. By Lord Śiva’s touch, Vrikāsura once again became whole.
Lord Śiva said to him: My friend, please stop, stop! Ask from me whatever you want, and I will bestow that boon upon you. Alas, you have subjected your body to great torment for no reason, since I am pleased with a simple offering of water from those who approach me for shelter.
[Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] The benediction sinful Vrika chose from the lord would terrify all living beings. Vrika said, “May death come to whomever I touch upon the head with my hand.”
Upon hearing this, Lord Rudra seemed somewhat disturbed. Nonetheless, O descendant of Bharata, he vibrated om to signify his assent, granting Vrika the benediction with an ironic smile, as if giving milk to a poisonous snake.
To test Lord Śambhu’s benediction, the demon then tried to put his hand on the Lord’s head. Thus Śiva was frightened because of what he himself had done.
As the demon pursued him, Lord Śiva fled swiftly from his abode in the north, shaking with terror. He ran as far as the limits of the earth, the sky and the corners of the universe.
The great demigods could only remain silent, not knowing how to counteract the benediction. Then Lord Śiva reached the luminous realm of Vaikuntha, beyond all darkness, where the Supreme Lord Nārāyana is manifest. That realm is the destination of renunciants who have attained peace and given up all violence against other creatures. Going there, one never returns.
According to Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī, Lord Śiva entered the planet of Śvetadvīpa, a special outpost of the spiritual world within the confines of the material universe. There, on a beautiful white island surrounded by the celestial Ocean of Milk, Lord Vishnu rests on the serpent bed of Ananta Śesha, making Himself available to the demigods when they need His help.
The Supreme Lord, who relieves His devotees’ distress, had seen from afar that Lord Śiva was in danger. Thus by His mystic Yoga-māyā potency He assumed the form of a brahmacārī student, with the appropriate belt, deerskin, rod and prayer beads, and came before Vrikāsura. The Lord’s effulgence glowed brilliantly like fire. Holding kuśa grass in His hand, He humbly greeted the demon.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī quotes the disguised Lord Nārāyana as saying, “For Us seers of the Absolute Truth, all created beings are worthy of respect. And since you are the son of Śakuni, a wise man and performer of great austerities, you certainly deserve the respectful greeting of a young brahmacārī like Myself.”
The Supreme Lord said: My dear son of Śakuni, you appear tired. Why have you come such a great distance? Please rest for a minute. After all, it is one’s body that fulfills all one’s desires.
In Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments: “Before the demon could argue that he had no time to take rest, the Lord began to inform him about the importance of the body, and the demon was convinced. Any man, especially a demon, takes his body to be very important.”
O mighty one, please tell Us what you intend to do, if We are qualified to hear it. Usually one accomplishes his purposes by taking help from others.
Even an envious demon will not refuse the help of a brāhmana’s potency to gain his ends.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Thus questioned by the Personality of Godhead in language that poured down upon him like sweet nectar, Vrika felt relieved of his fatigue. He described to the Lord everything he had done.
The Supreme Lord said: If this is the case, We cannot believe what Śiva says. Śiva is the same lord of the Pretas and Piśācas whom Daksha cursed to become like a carnivorous hobgoblin.
O best of the demons, if you have any faith in him because he is the spiritual master of the universe, then without delay put your hand on your head and see what happens.
If the words of Lord Śambhu prove untrue in any way, O best of the demons, then kill the liar so he may never lie again.
Lord Śiva may have the power to revive himself even after being killed, but at least he will be dissuaded from lying again.
[Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] Thus bewildered by the Personality of Godhead’s enchanting, artful words, foolish Vrika, without realizing what he was doing, placed his hand on his head.
Instantly his head shattered as if struck by a lightning bolt, and the demon fell down dead. From the sky were heard cries of “Victory!” “Obeisances!” and “Well done!”
The celestial sages, Pitās and Gandharvas rained down flowers to celebrate the killing of sinful Vrikāsura. Now Lord Śiva was out of danger.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead then addressed Lord Giriśa, who was now out of danger: “Just see, O Mahādeva, My lord, how this wicked man has been killed by his own sinful reactions. Indeed, what living being can hope for good fortune if he offends exalted saints, what to speak of offending the lord and spiritual master of the universe?”
According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī, this statement of Lord Vishnu’s implies a mild scolding: “My dear possessor of unlimited vision, O you of clear intelligence, benedictions should not be given to wicked demons in this way. You could have been killed! But you were only concerned about saving this poor soul, so you disregarded what would happen to you as a result.” Thus, Ācārya Viśvanātha Cakravartī points out, Lord Nārāyana’s mild rebuke also highlighted Lord Śiva’s exceptional compassion.
Lord Hari is the directly manifest Absolute Truth, the Supreme Soul and unlimited ocean of inconceivable energies. Anyone who recites or hears this pastime of His saving Lord Śiva will be freed from all enemies and the repetition of birth and death.
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī concludes this chapter with the following statement:
“When Lord Keśava saw the danger confronting His devotee, His lotuslike heart became filled with sympathy. Thus He delivered Lord Śiva from the consequences of his own eloquent words.”