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TEXT 23
pitamaha-samah samye
prasade girisopamah
asrayah sarva-bhutanam
yatha devo ramasrayah
SYNONYMS
pitamahathe grandfather, or Brahma; samahequally good; samyein the matter; prasadein charity or in munificence; girisaLord Siva; upamahcomparison of equilibrium; asrayahresort; sarvaall; bhutanamof the living beings; yathaas; devahthe Supreme Lord; rama-asrayahthe Personality of Godhead.
TRANSLATION
This child will be like his grandfather Yudhisthira or Brahma in equanimity of mind. He will be munificent like the lord of the Kailasa Hill, Siva. And he will be the resort of everyone, like the Supreme Personality of Godhead Narayana, who is even the shelter of the goddess of fortune.
PURPORT
Mental equanimity refers both to Maharaja Yudhisthira and to Brahma, the grandfather of all living beings. According to Sridhara Svami, the grandfather referred to is Brahma, but according to Visvanatha Cakravarti, the grandfather is Maharaja Yudhisthira himself. But in both cases the comparison is equally good because both of them are recognized representatives of the Supreme Lord, and thus both of them have to maintain mental equanimity, being engaged in welfare work for the living being. Any responsible executive agent at the top of administration has to tolerate different types of onslaughts from the very persons for whom he works. Brahmaji was criticized even by the gopis, the highest perfectional devotees of the Lord. The gopis were dissatisfied with the work of Brahmaji because Lord Brahma, as creator of this particular universe, created eyelids which obstructed their seeing Lord Krsna. They could not tolerate a moment's blinking of the eyes, for it kept them from seeing their beloved Lord Krsna. So what to speak of others, who are naturally very critical of every action of a responsible man? Similarly, Maharaja Yudhisthira had to cross over many difficult situations created by his enemies, and he proved to be the most perfect maintainer of mental equanimity in all critical circumstances. Therefore the example of both grandfathers for maintaining equanimity of mind is quite fitting.
Lord Siva is a celebrated demigod who awards gifts to beggars. His name is therefore Asutosa, or one who is pleased very easily. He is also called the Bhutanatha, or the lord of the common folk, who are mainly attached to him because of his munificent gifts, even without consideration of the aftereffects. Ravana was very attached to Lord Siva, and by easily pleasing him, Ravana became so powerful that he wanted to challenge the authority of Lord Rama. Of course, Ravana was never helped by Lord Siva when he fought with Rama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Lord of Lord Siva. To Vrkasura, Lord Siva awarded a benediction which was not only awkward, but also disturbing. Vrkasura became empowered, by the grace of Lord Siva, to vanish anyone's head simply by touching it. Although this was awarded by Lord Siva, the cunning fellow wanted to make an experiment of the power by touching the head of Lord Siva. Thus the lord had to take shelter of Visnu to save himself from trouble, and the Lord Visnu, by His illusory potency, asked Vrkasura to make an experiment with his own head. The fellow did it and was finished himself, and so the world was saved from all sorts of trouble by such a cunning beggar of the demigods. The excellent point is that Lord Siva never denies anyone any sort of gift. He is therefore the most generous, although sometimes some kind of a mistake is made.
Rama means the goddess of fortune. And her shelter is Lord Visnu. Lord Visnu is the maintainer of all living beings. There are innumerable living beings, not only on the surface of this planet but also in all other hundreds of thousands of planets. All of them are provided with all necessities of life for the progressive march towards the end of self-realization, but on the path of sense gratification they are put into difficulty by the agency of maya, the illusory energy, and so travel the path of a false plan of economic development. Such economic development is never successful because it is illusory. These men are always after the mercy of the illusory goddess of fortune, but they do not know that the goddess of fortune can live only under the protection of Visnu. Without Visnu, the goddess of fortune is an illusion. We should therefore seek the protection of Visnu instead of directly seeking the protection of the goddess of fortune. Only Visnu and the devotees of Visnu can give protection to all, and because Maharaja Pariksit was himself protected by Visnu, it was quite possible for him to give complete protection to all who wanted to live under his rule.
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