Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana Book 4 Chapter 3:16-25

Book 4: Chapter 3

Srimad Bhagvata Mahapurana: Book 4: Chapter 3: Verses 16-25 Ill feeling between Lord Siva and Daksa Sati said: I hear a grand sacrificial festival has been set on foot at the residence of Your father-in-law, the lord of created beings. Let us also move thither, if You so desire, O Va The Lord said : It has been well said by you, O good lady, that people go to their relations even uninvited; but this happens only when the latter's mind is not tainted with malice due to excessive arrogance and anger born of self-identification with the body. The pride of the arrogant is heightened and their mind perverted by learning, austerity, opulence, a charming personality, youth and pedigree, which are the six embellishments for the noble but a curse to the most wicked; and deprived of their judgment, they fail to perceive the glory of the most exalted. Considering them as one's own relations, one should never visit the house of such men of unsteady judgment, who view their visitors with a suspicious mind and with angry and frowning eyes. One whose body has been mutilated with arrows by the enemy does not feel the same torture as he who has been cut to the quick by the abusive words of his own people having a malignant mind. For, while the former is able to sleep (on receiving proper treatment and nursing), the latter suffers from heartache day and night. You are surely the most beloved and esteemed of all the daughters of Daksa (the lord of created beings) of exalted rank, my charming lady; yet you will not receive the attention of your father because of your connection with Me, which is a source of great torment to him. He whose heart is burning (with jealousy) and who feels troubled in mind at the sight of the glories of those exalted souls who stand as a witness to the mind of a diva (embodied soul), is unable easily to ascend the supreme heights reached by them and merely hates them even as the demons hate Sri Hari. As regards exchange of formalities in the shape of rising from one's seat and advancing to meet a friend, respectful behaviour and salutation etc., O slender-waisted lady, it Is properly done only by the wise, who do all this mentally with respect to the Supreme Person dwelling in every heart, and not to him who regards the body as his own self. It is the absolutely pure mind which is termed as 'Vasudeva', because it is there that the Supreme Person is realized in His unmasked glory. It is in (the shrine of) such a mind that I wait upon with obeisance Lord Vasudeva, who is beyond sense-perception. Therefore, you should never look at the face of Daksa--even though he is your father, your very procreator-nor of those who are devoted to him, because he bears ill-will to me and offered indignity to me by abusing me, O charming lady, when I visited the sacrifice performed by the lords of created beings, even though I did no wrong to him. If you ignore my advice and go there, no good will come to you thereby. For, when a man who is held in high esteem suffers indignity at the hands of a relation, the affront forthwith causes his death. Thus ends the third discourse, forming part of the Dialogue between Goddess Lima and Lord Rudra, in Book Four of the great and glorious Bhagavata-Purapa, otherwise known as the Paramahamsa-Samhita.