Yamaraja a very powerful personality and great devotee,his siter is

[Guest guest]

Intelligent persons who can see properly may look into the general conditions

of the living entities who are wandering in the cycle of the 8,400,000

spieces of life, as well as in different classes of human beings. It is said

that

there is an everlasting belt of water called the River Vaitaraëé at the

entrance

of the plutonic planet of Yamaräja, who punishes sinners in different

manners. After being subjected to such sufferings, a sinner is awarded a

particular

species of life according to his deeds in the past. Such living entities as are

 

punished by Yamaräja are seen in different varieties of conditioned life.

Some of them are in heaven, and some of them are in hell. Some of them are

brähmaëas, and some of them are misers. But no one is happy in this material

world,

and all of them are either class A, B or C prisoners suffering because of

their own deeds. The Lord is impartial to all circumstances of the sufferings

of

the living entities, but to one who takes shelter at His lotus feet, the Lord

gives proper protection, and He takes such a living entity back home, back to

Himself.

Sb 2.2..7

 

It is described in the Bhägavatam (Canto Six) that the party of Viñëudütas

who came to deliver Ajämila from the clutches of the party of Yamaräja appeared

 

like youthful boys, corroborating the description in this verse. It is

ascertained thus that the spiritual bodies in the Vaikuëöhalokas, either of the

Lord

or of the other inhabitants, are completely distinct from the material bodies

of this world. Therefore, when the Lord descends from that world to this

world, He descends in His spiritual body of ätma-mäyä, or internal potency,

without

any touch of the bahiraìgä-mäyä, or external, material energy

Sb 2.7.26

 

The Lord learned all the Vedas with their different branches simply by

hearing them once from His teacher, Sändépani Muni, whom He rewarded by

bringing

back his dead son from the region of Yamaloka.

PURPORT

No one but the Supreme Lord can become well versed in all the branches of

Vedic wisdom simply by hearing once from his teacher. Nor can anyone bring a

dead

body back to life after the soul has already gone to the region of Yamaräja.

But Lord Kåñëa ventured to the planet of Yamaloka and found the dead son of

His teacher and brought him back to his father as a reward for the instructions

 

received. The Lord is constitutionally well versed in all the Vedas, and yet

to teach by example that everyone must go to learn the Vedas from an authorized

 

teacher and must satisfy the teacher by service and reward, He Himself

adopted this system. The Lord offered His services to His teacher, Sändépani

Muni,

and the muni, knowing the power of the Lord, asked something which was

impossible to be done by anyone else. The teacher asked that his beloved son,

who had

died, be brought back to him, and the Lord fulfilled the request. The Lord is

not, therefore, an ingrate to anyone who renders Him some sort of service. The

devotees of the Lord who always engage in His loving service are never to be

disappointed in the progressive march of devotional service.

SB 3.3.2

 

I know that you are now Vidura due to the cursing of Mäëòavya Muni and that

formerly you were King Yamaräja, the great controller of living entities after

their death. You were begotten by the son of Satyavaté, Vyäsadeva, in the kept

wife of his brother.

PURPORT

Mäëòavya Muni was a great sage (cf. SB 1.13.1), and Vidura was formerly the

controller Yamaräja, who takes charge of the living entities after death.

Birth, maintenance and death are three conditional states of the living

entities

who are within the material world. As the appointed controller after death,

Yamaräja once tried Mäëòavya Muni for his childhood profligacy and ordered him

to

be pierced with a lance. Mäëòavya, being angry at Yamaräja for awarding him

undue punishment, cursed him to become a çüdra (member of the less intelligent

laborer class). Thus Yamaräja took birth in the womb of the kept wife of

Vicitravérya from the semen of Vicitravérya's brother, Vyäsadeva. Vyäsadeva is

the

son of Satyavaté by the great King Çäntanu, the father of Bhéñmadeva. This

mysterious history of Vidura was known to Maitreya Muni because he happened to

be

a contemporary friend of Vyäsadeva's. In spite of Vidura's birth from the womb

of a kept wife, because he had otherwise high parentage and great connection

he inherited the highest talent of becoming a great devotee of the Lord. To

take birth in such a great family is understood to be an advantage for

attaining

devotional life. Vidura was given this chance due to his previous greatness.

SB 3.5.20

They are all great devotees of the Lord entrusted to execute certain

functions of universal affairs. One may be angry with Yamaräja for his

thankless task

of punishing sinful souls, but Yamaräja is one of the authorized devotees of

the Lord, and so are all the other demigods. A devotee of the Lord is never

controlled by such deputed demigods, who function as assistants of the Lord,

but

he shows them all respects on account of the responsible positions to which

they have been appointed by the Lord. At the same time, a devotee of the Lord

does not foolishly mistake them to be the Supreme Lord. Only foolish persons

accept the demigods as being on the same level as Viñëu; actually they are all

appointed as servants of Viñëu.

SB 3.5.38

tän ahaà dviñataù krürän

saàsäreñu narädhamän

kñipämy ajasram açubhän

äsuréñv eva yoniñu

"The envious, the mischievous, the lowest of mankind, these do I ever put

back into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of

life." Demigods like Yamaräja and other controllers are there for the unwanted

conditioned souls who always engage in threatening the tranquillity of the

kingdom

of God. Since all the demigods are confidential devotee-servitors of the

Lord, they are never to be condemned.

SB 3.5.39

The River Ganges and Bhagavad-gétä are chief sources of transcendental

happiness for mankind, and intelligent persons can take shelter of them to go

back

home, back to Godhead. Even Çrépäda Çaìkaräcärya recommends that a little

knowledge in Bhagavad-gétä and the drinking of a little quantity of Ganges

water

can save one from the punishment of Yamaräja.

3.5.41

In the Sixth Canto we find the following statements of Yamaräja, the

controller of all unfaithful living entities:

dharmaà tu säkñäd bhagavat-praëétaà

na vai vidur åñayo näpi deväù

na siddha-mukhyä asurä manuñyäù

kuto nu vidyädhara-cäraëädayaù

[sB 6.3.19]

svayambhür näradaù çambhuù

kumäraù kapilo manuù

prahlädo janako bhéñmo

balir vaiyäsakir vayam

dvädaçaite vijänémo

dharmaà bhägavataà bhaöäù

guhyaà viçuddhaà durbodhaà

yaà jïätvämåtam açnute

"The principles of religion are initiated by the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, and no one else, including the sages and demigods, can manufacture any

 

such principles. Since even great sages and demigods are unauthorized to

inaugurate such principles of religion, what to speak of others—the so-called

mystics,

demons, human beings, Vidyädharas and Cäraëas living in the lower planets?

Twelve personalities—Brahmä, Närada, Lord Çiva, Kumära, Kapila, Manu, Prahläda

Mahäräja, Janaka Mahäräja, Bhéñma, Bali, Çukadeva Gosvämé and Yamaräja—are

agents of the Lord authorized to speak and propagate the principles of

religion."

(SB 6.3.19-21)