Srimad Bhagavatam – day 383
Mādhavāya namah
Hiraṇyakaśipu continued, “The wives of King Suyajna did not allow their husband’s body to be taken for cremation. Meanwhile the sun had set. Hearing the queens’ wails Yama, the Lord of death, arrived there in the form of a small boy and said,
“aho amīṣāṁ – How astonishing is this! All of you appear to be elderly women who are accustomed to witnessing births and deaths in this world. Even then you are deeply infatuated towards this king. All of you are bound to die one day or the other, isn’t it? Death is inevitable. You are wastefully grieving for that person who has returned to the source from where he had emerged.
Aha! How fortunate are we! Even though our parents have gone, leaving us to fend for ourselves and even though we are incapacitated, we are free from all forms of worries. We have not been swallowed by jackals and other carnivorous wild animals in this world. That God who protected us when we were situated in our mother’s womb is protecting us now also.
O women! The formless Supreme Lord has, out of His own will, created this vast universe. He alone protects it and annihilates it. To that Lord, this world, which is filled with moving and non-moving entities, is a toy. This is what Mahatmas declare. He possesses great expertise in protecting and annihilating this universe.
The object protected by Lord Vishnu remains safe even when it is misplaced on the road. In the absence of God’s protection, the object gets destroyed no matter how safely it is guarded. Likewise, an orphan who is wandering alone through the forests remains safe due to Lord’s protection, while the person who is well-protected by his family in his house dies when he lacks this grace of the Lord.
On the strength of their past fruitive actions, living beings take up appropriate bodies at one point and discard them at another point. Although the Self illumines in such body which is the outcome of Nature, it remains separate from the body. This Self cannot be bound by Nature and its three attributes. Due to bodily identification (feeling ‘I am the body’) the living entity gets a body.
Even though the living entity resides within this house made up of the 5 gross elements, in reality his existence is different from this house. The house-holder builds a huge mansion. Nevertheless, even though he is the owner of the house his existence is different from his house. Likewise, even though the Self is the owner for this body, it is different from the body. His original form is different from this gross body.
Just as bubbles are created from water, other objects are created from fire, earth and other gross elements. All these objects take birth at one time, undergo transformations and get destroyed at another point of time. Likewise the human being takes birth at one time with a gross body made of the 5 elements. He undergoes transformations and thereafter at another time dies, leaving his body behind.
Just as fire which pervades the wood is different from the wood; just as wind which pervades the body is different from the body; and just as the all-pervading space does not associate with any object contained in it, the Self (atma), although remaining a shelter for the body which arises as the outcome of trigunas, remains aloof from them all.
O fools! The body of Suyajna for whom you are moaning is still lying in front of you. Why then do you cry? His subtle body, which was previously listening and replying to you all, however was never visible in this world. You have never seen it.
The life-force (prana), which is a refuge for all actions of the body, is said to be the most-supreme. However, even such life-force (Prana) cannot neither listen nor reply.
The Self, which through the medium of the senses witnesses and directs all the happenings, remains different from the body and the life-force. Even though he is the driver for this body; even though he determines its movements, he (self) remains aloof and different from them all.
The senses (indiryas) and mind combine to create a gross body, which is a combination of the five gross elements. Even among such bodies taken, some are supreme while some are degraded. Nevertheless, the all-pervading Self which accepts such bodies remains different from those bodies”.
In such an easy clear way Hiraṇyakaśipu explains about death.
Narayanaya namah