महाराज पृथु ने ब्रह्मावर्त क्षेत्र में जिस स्थान पर सरस्वती नदी
पूर्वाभिमुख होकर वहती हैं, सौ अश्वमेघ यज्ञ करने की दीक्षा ली। यह देख
इंद्र के मन में आशंका हुई की, इस यज्ञ से महाराज पृथुका पुण्य उन से
अधिक हो जायेगा। पृथु के अश्वमेघ में स्वयं भगवान श्री हरि जानार्दन ने
साक्षात् दर्शन दिया था। उनके साथ रूद्र, ब्रह्मा जी, अपने-अपने
अनुचरों के साथ पधारे थे, साथ ही समस्त लोकपाल, गन्धर्व, अप्सराएँ,
सिद्ध, विद्याधर, दानव, दैत्य, भगवान् श्री हरि के पार्षद, सनकादि मुनि,
दात्तात्रेय, कपिल, नारद इत्यादि उस यज्ञ में पधारें। महाराज पृथु
भगवान् श्री हरि को ही अपना प्रभु मानते थे, उनके यज्ञ में यज्ञ
सामाग्रियों को देने वाली भूमि ने कामधेनु होकर यजमानों की सभी
कामनाओं को पूर्ण किया। परन्तु देवराज इंद्रको यह सहन नहीं हुआ,
उन्होंने यज्ञ में विघ्न डालने का प्रयत्न किया, उन्होंने अंतिम यज्ञ
के घोड़े का चुपके से हरण कर लिया।
Envy is the inability to tolerate another person's success.
The history of Prahlada Maharaja, the great devotee of Lord N?si?hadeva,
is narrated in the Seventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Prahlada
Maharaja, a small child of only five years, became the object of envy for
his great father, Hira?yakasipu, only because of his becoming a pure
devotee of the Lord. The demon father employed all his weapons to kill
the devotee son, Prahlada, but by the grace of the Lord he was saved from
all sorts of dangerous actions by his father. He was thrown in a fire, in
boiling oil, from the top of a hill, underneath the legs of an elephant, and
he was administered poison. At last the father himself took up a chopper
to kill his son, and thus N?si?hadeva appeared and killed the demoniac
father in the presence of the son. Thus no one can kill the devotee of the
Lord. Similarly, Arjuna was also saved by the Lord, although all dangerous
weapons were employed by his great opponents like Bhi?ma.
Here in this material world, everyone is envious of someone else. Even in
religious life, it is sometimes found that if one devotee has advanced in
spiritual activities, other devotees are envious of him. Such envious
devotees are not completely freed from the bondage of birth and death.
As long as one is not completely free from the cause of birth and death,
one cannot enter the sanatana-dhama or the eternal pastimes of the Lord.
One becomes envious because of being influenced by the designations of
the body, but the liberated devotee has nothing to do with the body, and
therefore he is completely on the transcendental platform. A pure devotee
is never envious of anyone, even his enemy. Because the devotee knows
that the Lord is his supreme protector, he thinks, “What harm can the so-
called enemy do?” Thus a devotee is confident about his protection.
To overcome this feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to
another's advantages, success, possessions, etc. we must constantly
engage our senses in hearing and chanting (sravana-kirtana) the glories of
the Supreme Lord, utilize our time and energy in rendering devotional
service unto His Lotus Feet. Thus, we would certainly be freed from the
disease of envy.
If we have the strong desire to steer the car of our life smoothly and
escape this royal road to destruction, we must uproot the seeds of envy
engrained deep within our hearts, stop watering the creepers of jealousy
and thereby save ourselves from getting lost in the dangerous dark alleys
of the mode of ignorance. Only by strict control over our senses and by
purifying our consciousness, would we become eligible to go back home,
back to Godhead.
As recommended in the scripture especially by Bhakti Siddhanta
Saraswati Maharaj that you should take the shoes of the sinor pure
devotees-- like one's Gurudev--and hit it 100 times morning and 100 times
on evening on your head. This act will bring you to be prideless.
Another remedy is to take only Krishna-prasadam which will remove your
egotism by removing your mode of ignorance. In Bhagavad-Gita it is
stated,"Your food controls your brain."
Indra is the chief of the administrative demigods
While Indra is the chief demigod of the heavenly planets, he is an ordinary
living entity in the material world and possesses the four defects of the
conditioned soul
King Indra is also known as sata-kratu, which indicates that he has
performed one hundred horse sacrifices (asvamedha-yajna). Also called
Sacipati, the King of heaven is an incarnation of the lusty feature of the
Lord. He is also called Sahasraksa.
The whole material world is filled with such envy that everyone becomes
afraid of his neighbors. Every businessman is afraid of his associates
because this material world is the field of activities for all kinds of envious
people who have come here to compete with the opulence of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.
Material opulence leads to pride. As we see in this pastime, pride and
obsession with the material energy makes us callous towards Vedic ideals.
We may not experience such gross material opulence like Indra- being
fanned by Gandharvas, Kinnaras with Apsaras dancing and white
umbrella's over our head. If we are not firmly rooted in our sadhana we
will remain in material consciousness by enjoying those things and go
further deep in material consciousness. We will become callous and
commit offences to people around us.
due to his attachment for material opulence and power
So even great personalities like Indra, the king of heaven, very pious
person to get in such position, to be very, very pious. He is the king of
heaven. What kind of good karma, very, very pious person. But even such
a person is not free from envy. It's interesting to note here, the yajnas,
they wouldn't kill the animals. Actually, the yajnas, they would take an old
animal and give it, come out with a fresh body. It would be like a
rejuvenation. Just imagine if they had some clinic where senior citizens
could go in and they do some mantras and you come out with a body of a
young teenager. So, it was like that, they take an old, old animal and come
out with a young animal's body. Just prior to the time of the Lord Buddha,
however, they were actually taking the animals for eating. So, Buddha
stopped the sacrifices. The Vedas in which these sacrifices were
described, he denied the Vedas and put a stop to the sacrifices. But
actually, it was a whole point, it was a whole point because the Vedic
culture had been polluted. It was a point of giving up the bogus version of
Vedic culture so the real Vedic culture can be brought back again by
halfway by Sankaracharya and all the way by Lord Caitanya and other
previous other Vaishnava acharyas bringing back in full force. So here we
see envy is a big problem of the living entities here in the material world.
In fact, that's why we're here, we have this envy problem. We can't stand
to see somebody go ahead of me. That's a big problem. Envy got us here.
We couldn't stand to see somebody ahead of me, namely Krishna Himself,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. We couldn't tolerate it. All right, so
you go to a world where you can think you're the Supreme. Everybody
thinks they're supreme in this material world. A little kid thinks he is a
supreme. He cries and he is not happy, he cries and the parents come
running and do this for him, they do that for him and this way he thinks he
is a supreme. The dog thinks he is a supreme, barking, barking, barking,
what are you doing in my territory, get out of here. So, everybody thinks
they're the supreme. So, this mentality, this envious mentality of thinking
I'm the supreme, it doesn't satisfy the self, it's an unnatural position. It's
like a fish being out of the water. It cannot be happy on land. It is not in
the natural atmosphere. So, this position where I am envious and thinking
I am the supreme is an artificial position and can never satisfy the self.
This is why Krishna consciousness is very important. Because Krishna
consciousness means you give up the envious mentality, you want to be
the supreme, and you put yourself back in your natural position. It's like
the fish being put back in the water. The fish may flap in agony on the
land but he can't be satisfied there. But if he's picked up and thrown back
in the water, so the bonafide spiritual master, the Vaishnavas, they pick
up the suffering souls, trying to enjoy separately on the land, trying to
enjoy independently from this natural atmosphere and they toss them
back in the water. Why are you suffering here trying to be the supreme?
Just get back to your natural position.
Jivera svarupa haya
krsnaera nitya das.
The constitutional position of the living entity is the eternal servant of
Krishna. Why do we have such a hard time accepting that? Well, we have
been conditioned for millions of lifetimes trying to be the supreme. That's
why to give up this tendency to become a subordinate servant once again
is difficult for us. That's why we have the Krishna conscious movement.
It's Lord Caitanya's mercy to manifest this movement to give you an
atmosphere where you can come back to your original position. You can
chant and dance in ecstasy, you can take prasadam, and in this way you
can revive that natural tendency to be the servant once again. By hearing
the wonderful teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the Srimad Bhagavatam,
Caitanya Caritamrita and all these wonderful books that Prabhupadaa has
given us, you can come back, come back, come back to being who you
really are. You can come back home. Come back home to being a servant
once again. So, we have to speed up this process, the thing, okay, let me
give it up tendency to enjoy it separately, let me actually take up being a
servant once again. Let me see what service is required to be done. Some
service needs to be done and I'm just going to be an illusion that
somebody else is doing the service. I can look and see if there is some
service to be done. I'm not going to be a rascal, just let someone else do
the service, let me be the enjoyer. So, we can actually say, okay you,
nonsense rascal trying to enjoy and let others do the service. Let you now
give up your tendency to try to enjoy separately and just be the servant
again. What service requires to be done? Not devotional service makes me
nervous. No. Devotional service is my natural position. Let me get back to
being who I actually am. Let me actually hear from this wonderful
knowledge, the teachings of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam by
hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, I can actually revive my natural
original consciousness. Just like Krishna says,
conditioned soul has a tendency to cheat; therefore this quality is also
visible in a person like King Indra
