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.

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