Book 1: Chapter 17
|
Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 1: Chapter 17: Verses 32-45
Ever since you took up your abode in the body of kings (gods among men), these numerous vices-greed, falsehood, thieving, wickedness, proneness to sin, poverty, wile, cantankerousness and hypocrisy-have followed you. Therefore, O ally of unrighteousness, you should not remain in Brahmavarta, which is a fit abode for piety and truth, and where Brahmanas well-versed in the elaborate ritual propitiate the Lord of sacrifices through sacrificial performances. In this land ( of Brahmavarta) Lord Sri Hari abides in the form of sacrifices and blesses His votaries. Nay, moving inside as well as outside all animate and inanimate beings like the air, that Universal Soul grants all their desires. Suta continued : Kali trembled to hear this command of king Pariksit. He made the following request to the king, who stood ready to strike with his uplifted sword, as Yama with his rod of punishment. Kali said :Wherever I think of taking up my abode in obedience to your command, O emperor, I find you bow and arrow in hand. Therefore, O jewel among champions of righteousness, it behoves you to tell me the place where I may settle down permanently in compliance with your orders. Suta continued :Thus entreated by Kali, the king then allocated to him the following (four) places-dice, wine, woman and shambles, the hotbeds of the four vices (falsehood, intoxication, passion and cruelty). On Kali asking for more abodes, the mighty king assigned him gold (as the fifth abode). Thus he allotted to him falsehood, intoxication, passion and slaughter with animosity as the fifth. In obedience to the king's command Kali, the progenitor of unrighteousness, occupied these five abodes assigned by Pariksit (the son of Uttara). Hence a man seeking blessedness, especially a pious monarch, a leader of the people and a religious preceptor should never resort to these. The king then restored the three lost legs of the bull, viz., penance, purity and compassion, and comforted and cherished mother Earth. The selfsame monarch still occupies the royal throne which was bequeathed to him by his granduncle, king Yudhisthira, while retiring to the forest. Shining with the glory of the Kaurava kings, that most blessed emperor of extensive renown,the royal sage Pariksit dwells even now at Hastinapura. Such is the majesty of king Pariksit (the son of Abhimanyu) during whose rulership over the earth you have undertaken the vow of performing this sacrifice.[1] Thus ends the seventeenth discourse entitled "The Subjugation of Kali",
in Book One of the great and glorious Bhagavata-Purana, otherwise known as the Paramahamsa-Samhita
|
|
References
- ↑ In verses 43 to 45 the great king Pariksit has been spoken of as if he were present at the time when the holy sacrifice at Naimisaranya was in progress. According to the aphorism of Panini' the present tense can vbe used even with reference to the immediate past or future. the great Acarya Vallabha of revered memory points out in his famous commentary (the Subodhini) that, even though Pariksit had departed from this world, his renown and glory were still alive. The distance of time which divided him from tyhe perion dof the sacrifice undertaken by Saunak and others has been eliminated in order to evoke the utmost reverence for him. His soul had mergen in the lord; that was also one reason why Suta visualized him as present before his eyes. not oonly the learned speaker but his saintly audience too felt his presence. According to the Vedic maxm (that father himself is reborn as a son) it was Pariksit himself who occupied the throne of hastinapura in the person of his son and worthy successor, janamejaya. Considered from all these points of view, a reference to Pariksit in the present tense goes to heighten the effect of the discourse.