TEXT 53
esa te rudra bhago stu
yad-ucchisto dhvarasya vai
yajnas te rudra bhagena
kalpatam adya yajna-han
SYNONYMS
esahthis; teyour; rudraO Lord Siva; bhagahportion; astulet it be; yatwhatever; ucchistahis the remainder; adhvarasyaof the sacrifice; vaiindeed; yajnahthe sacrifice; teyour; rudraO Rudra; bhagenaby the portion; kalpatammay be completed; adyatoday; yajna-hanO destroyer of the sacrifice.
TRANSLATION
O destroyer of the sacrifice, please take your portion of the sacrifice and let the sacrifice be completed by your grace.
PURPORT
A sacrifice is a ceremony performed to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, First Canto, Second Chapter, it is stated that everyone should try to understand whether the Supreme Personality of Godhead is satisfied by his activity. In other words, the aim of our activities should be to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just as in an office it is the duty of the worker to see that the proprietor or the master is satisfied, so everyones duty is to see whether the Supreme Personality of Godhead is satisfied by ones activity. Activities to satisfy the Supreme Godhead are prescribed in the Vedic literature, and execution of such activities is called yajna. In other words, acting on behalf of the Supreme Lord is called yajna. One should know very well that any activity besides yajna is the cause of material bondage. That is explained in Bhagavad-gita (3.9): yajnarthat karmano nyatra loko yam karma-bandhanah. Karma-bandhanah means that if we do not work for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord, Visnu, then the reaction of our work will bind us. One should not work for his own sense gratification. Everyone should work for the satisfaction of God. That is called yajna.
After the yajna was performed by Daksa, all the demigods expected prasada, the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Visnu. Lord Siva is one of the demigods, so naturally he also expected his share of the prasada from the yajna. But Daksa, out of his envy of Lord Siva, neither invited Siva to participate in the yajna nor gave him his share after the offering. But after the destruction of the yajna arena by the followers of Lord Siva, Lord Brahma pacified him and assured him that he would get his share of prasada. Thus he was requested to rectify whatever destruction was caused by his followers.
In Bhagavad-gita (3.11) it is said that all the demigods are satisfied when one performs yajna. Because the demigods expect prasada from yajnas, yajna must be performed. Those who engage in sense gratificatory, materialistic activities must perform yajna, otherwise they will be implicated. Thus Daksa, being the father of mankind, was performing yajna, and Lord Siva expected his share. But since Siva was not invited, there was trouble. By the mediation of Lord Brahma, however, everything was settled satisfactorily.
The performance of yajna is a very difficult task because all the demigods must be invited to participate in the yajna. In this Kali-yuga it is not possible to perform such costly sacrifices, nor is it possible to invite the demigods to participate. Therefore in this age it is recommended, yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi sumedhasah (Bhag. 11.5.32). Those who are intelligent should know that in the Kali-yuga there is no possibility of performing the Vedic sacrifices. But unless one pleases the demigods, there will be no regulated seasonal activities or rainfall. Everything is controlled by the demigods. Under the circumstances, in this age, in order to keep the balance of social peace and prosperity, all intelligent men should execute the performance of sankirtana-yajna by chanting the holy names Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. One should invite people, chant Hare Krsna, and then distribute prasada. This yajna will satisfy all the demigods, and thus there will be peace and prosperity in the world. Another difficulty in performing the Vedic rituals is that if one fails to satisfy even one demigod out of the many hundreds of thousands of demigods, just as Daksa failed to satisfy Lord Siva, there will be disaster. But in this age the performance of sacrifice has been simplified. One can chant Hare Krsna, and by pleasing Krsna one can satisfy all the demigods automatically.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fourth Canto, Sixth Chapter, of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, entitled Brahma Satisfies Lord Siva.

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