srimadbhagavatham-skandha1-chapters16 and 17

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Chapter16-Parikshith becomes the king

After the pandavas departed, Parikshith was ruling the kingdom. He married Iravathi and had Janamejaya and other three sons.He seemed to have conquered the whole Asia, (Badhrasva KethumAla, BhArathotthara kuruvarsha, kimpurushadhi dvipas.)(These are described in a later skandha.)

Parikshith after hearing the stories of Krishna and His connection with his forefathers and what all Krishna did for them, became a great devotee In the meanwhile there was a wonderful incident that happened during his travels in Kurukshethra.

Chapter 17-Parikshith meets kalipurusha

Parikshith came across a cow which stood with a bull. The bull had only one leg and the cow was without her calf and was shedding tears.The cow was the earth,prthivee and the bull was Dharma.There stood kalipurusha in the form of a man wearing king"s costume.He was beating the bull and kicking the cow.The bull asked the cow the reason for the tears.The cow answered that she was grieving because Krishna has left the earth due to which the world fell into the clutches of kali and the bull had lost its legs and all the evils have come into the world.

 

At that time Parikshith came there and saw the bull and the cow being tormented by the man and threatened to kill him. He asked the identity of the two animals and they replied that they do not know their idrentity nor that of the man because their intellect is confused due to the self contradicting speeches of people in the world.

kEchith vikalpavasanA Ahur AthmAnam Athmanah

dhaivam anyE parE karma svabhAvam aparE prabhum

apratharkyAth anirdhESyAth ithi kEshvapi niSchayah

athrAnuroopam rajarshe vimarSa svamaneeshayA

Some misinterpret the truth and say that they are their own masters, others either name God, actions or one's own nature as the ruler of their destiny.Some others say that everything that has happened is due to something that is inexplicable and inestimable. So you, a rajarshi, can discriminate and find out which is true.

Here the reference is to the different schools of philosophy like vedanta, Nyaya, chArvaka,sankhya etc. Though all interpretations are based on veda only, they differ due to the different outlooks.The meaning is that by all these different arguments the world and dharma are baffled.Srimadbhagavatham stresses the importance of bhakthi over all other means of attaining salvation.

The king surmised that the bull is the dharmadhevatha, (the word vrsha means dharma ) and told the bull that it had four legs in krthayuga, namely tapas, austerity, Soucham, purity, dhayA, mercy and sathya truth.In the course of time, the first three legs have been destroyed by smaya,pride,sanga,attachment and madha, arrogance, which are the traits of adharma. Now the bull had only one leg, namely sathya, which the kalipurusha is trying to destroy , because he represents asathya.the cow, the earth, was shedding tears on the Lord being left the world to which he descended to lessen te burden of the earth.

So saying the king attempted to kill kalipurusha and told him that he should not live on earth where people follow the vedic rites and worship the Lord and which is the place for dharma and sathya.Then Kali asked the king to tell him the place he could go to, where he can live without the fear 0f the king pursuing him. Parikshit marked out the four places where adharma prevails, namely, gambling, drinking, prostitution and murder over which adhrma has its reign.

But Kali was not satisfied and said that coming to know this incident people may avoid these four which are actions of adharma fearing the effects of kali and hence he wanted a place where all the four reside, so that getting into it people cannot avoid the effects of kali. Then Parikshit pointed out gold (which implies money and the desire for it) as the abode for Kali, who went away satisfied, because by pursuing wealth men will succumb to the power of the other four evils.

Parikshit did not destroy Kali because he was doing only what was ordained in the cycle of the ages, in which it is inevitable that the four yugas must follow each other but only forbidden him to show his power in the land ruled by the king.

Next chapter explains how the kalipurusha influenced even the king later to show that no one can change the result of karma.