Arranged By Kṛṣṇa

Pariksit Maharaja entered the muni's hermitage and saw that the muni, longhaired and covered by the skin of a stag, was in transcendental meditation. The King, however, being thirsty, asked the sage for water. Not having received any formal welcome seat or water or sweet words of address, the king felt neglected, and he became angry. His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains that this lack of sense control-his immediate anger at not being properly received by the yogi-is the same as Arjuna's becoming bewildered on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. Had Arjuna not been overcome by illusory family affection by the will of God, there would have been no chance for the Bhagavad-gita to have been spoken because Arjuna would not have asked Krsna his questions of doubt, to be answered for all mankind. Similarly, had Maharaja Pariksit not been fatigued, hungry, thirsty, and then angry, there would have been no chance for Srimad-Bhagavatam to have been spoken by Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, who was the prime authority on Krsna. Pariksit's improper behavior is actually the prelude to Srimad-Bhagavatam, which is itself a counteraction to Kali, as much as the upraised sword of Pariksit on Kali's neck.

The insulted King took up a dead snake which he found in the front of the cave. Picking it up on the front part of his bow, he placed it on the shoulder of the sage as an insult and then left. He accused the sage of not actually being in meditation on the Supreme but of putting on a false show of trance just in order to avoid receiving him.

Srimad-Bhagavatam goes on to describe that the sage had a son, who was immature but, because he was a brahmana's son, very powerful. While he was spending his time playing with other inexperienced boys, he heard of the king's insult to his father, and he therefore became furious and cursed Maharaja Pariksit to die. It was through this inexperienced boy that Kali found an opportunity to ruin the entire cultural heritage of the four orders of life and bring about the corruption which now exists in India as the caste system. In the perverted caste system, one order of life tends to lord it over another by birth, and enmity is thus created among the orders. As stated in the Bhagavad-gita, because these orders are created by the Lord, they are naturally existing in every society. There is always an intelligent class, a warrior or administrative class, a mercantile or agricultural class, and a laborer class which serves the other three orders. By corruption, individuals claim to possess the qualities of a particular position simply by birthright, and then there is no cooperation among the natural orders, but rather there is friction. The first victim of brahminical injustice was Maharaja Pariksit, and after the incident of His being cursed, the intelligent class was not protected properly by the warrior class, the mercantile class began outright exploitation of the other classes, and the lower classes became dissatisfied because of not being protected and cared for. Because these events occurred at the dawn of Kali-yuga, they are understood to be most significant in ushering in the corruption and degradation which characterize this fallen age.

The warrior class is supposed to protect and not insult the brahmanas; therefore the son of the sage, acting immaturely and rashly, used his brahminical power to curse the king. The brahmana boy, Srhgi, cried, "The warrior class is supposed to act as watchdogs. Since when does a watchdog enter the house of the king, sit in the house of the master, and eat with him on the same plate?" In that way he tried to explain away the incident of the yogi's not receiving the king. In those days the brahminical class had powers to curse, but the boy committed a great mistake in using this power. Touching the water of the River Kausiki, he discharged a thunderbolt of words: "In seven days a snakebird will bite the wretched King on account of his breaking the law of etiquette and insulting my father." The boy then returned to the hermitage, and seeing his father with the snake draped on his shoulder, he began to cry loudly. His father gradually opened his eyes and found the dead snake on his neck, but he did not take it very seriously. On hearing what his son had done, he very much regretted the whole incident. He said to his son, "What a greatly sinful act you have performed over such an insignificant offense by the king. He then chastised his boy and warned him that the king, as a representative of the Personality of Godhead, is never to be placed on an equal footing with common men. The sage foresaw the downfall of cooperation between the orders, the end of the pious monarchical regime, and the plundering of the people's wealth by rogues and thieves. He told his son, "Without protection there will be great disruption and social anomalies in the future, and there will be killing and stealing of animals and women. And we shall be responsible for the reaction of all these sins. Without protection of a good king, the people will be scattered like lambs." The rsi then prayed to the all-pervading Personality of Godhead to please pardon his boy who with no intelligence had committed the great sin of cursing a person who was completely sinless. Kings were considered subordinate to the intelligent or brahminical class, and therefore they should have been protected and not cursed.

King Pariksit returned home, but he regretted insulting the brahmana for his inauspicious act, and he hoped that whatever reaction there might be would come at once. While the king was thus repenting, he received the news of his imminent death. He accepted this news as good and used it at once to detach himself from his worldly kingdom. According to the Vedic system, a man is expected to detach himself from family affairs in the latter part of his life because old age is the notice of death. A householder should leave home and go to the forest and live there in seclusion in order to obtain knowledge from the sages about the real purpose of life, spiritual progress, and about how to prepare for the next life.