may all envious persons be pacified.

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Œr•mad Bh•gavatam 5.18.9

svasty astu viœvasya khalah• pras•dat•m•

dhy•yantu bh•t•ni œivam• mitho dhiy•

manaœ ca bhadram• bhajat•d adhoks•aje

•veœyat•m• no matir apy ahaituk•

SYNONYMS

svasti — auspiciousness; astu — let there be; viœvasya — of the entire

universe; khalah• — the envious (almost everyone); pras•dat•m — let them be

pacified; dhy•yantu — let them consider; bh•t•ni — all the living entities; œ

ivam — auspiciousness; mithah• — mutual; dhiy• — by their intelligence; manah•

— the mind; ca — and; bhadram — calmness; bhajat•t — let it experience;

adhoks•aje — in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is beyond the

perception of mind. intelligence and senses; •veœyat•m — let it be absorbed;

nah• —

our; matih• — intelligence; api — indeed; ahaituk• — without any motive.

TRANSLATION

May there be good fortune throughout the universe, and may all envious

persons be pacified. May all living entities become calm by practicing

bhakti-yoga,

for by accepting devotional service they will think of each other's welfare.

Therefore let us all engage in the service of the supreme transcendence, Lord

Œr

• Kr•s•n•a, and always remain absorbed in thought of Him.

PURPORT

The following verse describes a Vais•n•ava:

v•ñch•-kalpa-tarubhyaœ ca

kr•p•-sindhubhya eva ca

patit•n•m• p•vanebhyo

vais•n•avebhyo namo namah•

Just like a desire tree, a Vais•n•ava can fulfill all the desires of anyone

who takes shelter of his lotus feet. Prahl•da Mah•r•ja is a typical Vais•n•

ava. He prays not for himself, but for all living entities — the gentle, the

envious and the mischievous. He always thought of the welfare of mischievous

persons like his father, Hiran•yakaœipu. Prahl•da Mah•r•ja did not ask for

anything for himself; rather, he prayed for the Lord to excuse his demoniac

father. This is the attitude of a Vais•n•ava, who always thinks of the welfare

of

the entire universe.

Œr•mad-Bh•gavatam and bh•gavata-dharma are meant for persons who are

completely free of envy (parama-nirmatsar•n••m). Therefore Prahl•da Mah•r•ja

prays in this verse, khalah• pras•dat•m: "May all the envious persons be

pacified." The material world is full of envious persons, but if one frees

himself of

envy, he becomes liberal in his social dealings and can think of others'

welfare. Anyone who takes up Kr•s•n•a consciousness and engages himself

completely

in the service of the Lord cleanses his mind of all envy (manaœ ca bhadram•

bhajat•d adhoks•aje). Therefore we should pray to Lord Nr•sim•hadeva to sit

in our hearts. We should pray, bahir nr•sim•ho hr•daye nr•sim•hah•: "Let

Lord Nr•sim•hadeva sit in the core of my heart, killing all my bad

propensities. Let my mind become clean so that I may peacefully worship the

Lord and bring

peace to the entire world."

Œr•la Viœvan•tha Cakravart• T•h•kura has given us a very fine purport in

this regard. Whenever one offers a prayer to the Supreme Personality of

Godhead, one always requests some benediction from Him. Even pure (nis•k•ma)

devotees pray for some benediction, as instructed by Lord Œr• Caitanya

Mah•prabhu in

His Œiks••s•t•aka:

ayi nanda-tanuja kiñkaram•

patitam• m•m• vis•ame bhav•mbudhau

kr•pay• tava p•da-pañkaja-

sthita-dh•l•-sadr•œam• vicintaya

"O son of Mah•r•ja Nanda [Kr•s•n•a], I am Your eternal servitor, yet

somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death. Please pick

Me up

from the ocean of death and place Me as one of the atoms at Your lotus feet."

In another prayer Lord Caitanya says, mama janmani janman•œvare bhavat•d

bhaktir ahaituk• tvayi: "Life after life, kindly let Me have unalloyed love and

 

devotion at Your Lordship's lotus feet." When Prahl•da Mah•r•ja chants om•

namo bhagavate narasim•h•ya, he prays for a benediction from the Lord, but

because he is also an exalted Vais•n•ava, he wants nothing for his personal

sense

gratification. The first desire expressed in his prayer is svasty astu viœ

vasya: "Let there be good fortune throughout the entire universe." Prahl•da

Mah•r•

ja thus requested the Lord to be merciful to everyone, including his father,

a most envious person. According to C•n•akya Pan•d•ita, there are two kinds

of envious living entities: one is a snake, and the other is the man like Hiran

•yakaœipu, who is by nature envious of everyone, even of his father or son.

Hiran•yakaœipu was envious of his little son Prahl•da, but Prahl•da Mah•r•

ja asked a benediction for the benefit of his father. Hiran•yakaœipu was very

envious of devotees, but Prahl•da wished that his father and other demons like

him would give up their envious nature by the grace of the Lord and stop

harassing the devotees (khalah• pras•dat•m). The difficulty is that the khala

(envious living entity) is rarely pacified. One kind of khala, the snake, can

be

pacified simply by mantras or by the action of a particular herb (mantraus•

adhi-vaœah• sarpah• khalakena niv•ryate). An envious person, however, cannot be

 

pacified by any means. Therefore Prahl•da Mah•r•ja prays that all envious

persons may undergo a change of heart and think of the welfare of others.

If the Kr•s•n•a consciousness movement spreads all over the world, and if by

the grace of Kr•s•n•a everyone accepts it, the thinking of envious people

will change. Everyone will think of the welfare of others. Therefore Prahl•da

Mah

•r•ja prays, œivam• mitho dhiy•. In material activities, everyone is

envious of others, but in Kr•s•n•a consciousness, no one is envious of anyone

else;

everyone thinks of the welfare of others. Therefore Prahl•da Mah•r•ja prays

that everyone's mind may become gentle by being fixed at the lotus feet of Kr•s

•n•a (bhajat•d adhoks•aje). As indicated elsewhere in Œr•mad-Bh•gavatam

(sa vai manah• kr•s•n•a-pad•ravindayoh•) and as advised by Lord Kr•s•n•a in

Bhagavad-g•t• (18.65), man-man• bhava mad-bhaktah•, one should constantly

think of the lotus feet of Lord Kr•s•n•a. Then one's mind will certainly be

cleansed (ceto-darpan•a-m•rjanam [Cc. Antya 20.12]). Materialists always think

of sense gratification, but Prahl•da Mah•r•ja prays that the Lord's mercy will

change their minds and they will stop thinking of sense gratification. If

they think of Kr•s•n•a always, everything will be all right. Some people argue

that if everyone thought of Kr•s•n•a in that way, the whole universe would be

vacated because everyone would go back home, back to Godhead. However, Œr•la

Viœvan•tha Cakravart• T•h•kura says that this is impossible because the

living entities are innumerable. If one set of living entities is actually

delivered by the Kr•s•n•a consciousness movement, another set will fill the

entire

universe.