Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.7.7

kamam dahanti krtino nanu rosa-drstya
rosam dahantam uta te na dahanty asahyam
so 'yam yad antaram alam pravisan bibheti
kamah katham nu punar asya manah srayeta

TRANSLATION

Great stalwarts like Lord Shiva can, by their wrathful glances, overcome lust and vanquish him, yet they cannot be free from the overwhelming effects of their own wrath. Such wrath can never enter into the heart of Him [the Lord], who is above all this. So how can lust take shelter in His mind?

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This verse is a glorification of the Lord by Brahma. When the Lord appears in this material world, sometimes people mistake Him to be an ordinary person, because He may appear externally like another created being of this world but by His activities and behavior which are obviously transcendental, we can recognize that here is the Supreme Lord.

It is the business of Cupid, the demigod of lust to throw his arrow of sex desire in this material world. Everyone because of their desire to enjoy materially have to be influenced by lust. Cupid, manmatha, Kama Deva is an agent of maya who is expert in bewildering our consciousness by awakening lusty desires. Only under the influence of lust, will a bag of flesh, bone, blood, stool, urine and mucus appear very attractive. Now when Krishna appears in the form of an incarnation, He is completely transcendental to any of the material influences.

Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and sometimes even Lord Indra - they demonstrate power which is almost on an equal level of Supreme Lord Vishnu. But still they are always subordinate because they are not independently powerful. Krishna is the source of all power and everyone else simply borrow that power and exhibit it. In this creation those who are predominantly influenced by goodness are called suras or the devatas. Those who are influenced by passion are the asuras and those who are influenced by tamo guna – ignorance, are the rakshasas. There is a constant fight between the suras, asuras and the rakshasas to rule over the heavenly kingdom. Whenever the demigods are challenged by the asuras or the rakshasas they immediately run to Brahma or Shiva or even Vishnu.

Once they went to Shiva to get his support for fighting the asuras. Generally in Kailasa Shiva sits under a huge banyan tree and meditates. So the demigods’ plan was if Shiva and Parvati can produce a son who is as powerful as Shiva they can have him as their commander in chief so that he can finish of all the asuras and rakshasas. So the plan was to make Shiva become interested in producing a son. First they tried to send Cupid to aim his arrows of sex desire against Shiva, but Shiva simply by exhibiting his anger burnt Cupid to ashes. Krodha is more powerful than kama, Shiva used anger to conquer lust.

Once Bhrigu Muni was deputed by an assembly of sages to test among the three deities as to who is the most powerful personality - Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva - the directors of passion, goodness and ignorance. Bhrigu Muni devised a plan and he first went to Brahma. Bhrigu Muni as a son should show respect to his father; so he appeared before Brahma and did not show him proper respect mentally, and Brahma became very angry, and was about to kill Bhrigu Muni but then he realized - oh he is my son. He excused Bhrigu Muni. Bhrigu Muni decided – Brahma doesn’t have the quality of goodness as he cannot control his anger.

Then he went to Shiva, who is the brother of Bhrigu Muni. Shiva got up out of great joy and went to embrace him. Bhrigu Muni immediately said - stay away, you don’t even take proper bath, don’t touch me. Shiva became very angry and took his trident to attack Bhrigu Muni. Immediately, Parvati who was sitting beside Shiva fell at his feet and said - please spare his life he is your brother. Then Shiva came to his senses. So that is the reference here rosam dahantam uta te na dahanty asahyam – the very anger Shiva uses to conquer lust sometimes goes out of his own control. Shiva’s behavior clearly proved that he doesn’t have the quality of goodness in full.

Bhrigu Muni next went and kicked the chest of Lord Vishnu. Vishnu immediately got up from His seat and begged forgiveness from Bhrigu Muni - great sage you have come to My abode and I could not receive you properly. In fact Vishnu's goodness is not material goodness; it is suddha sattva – transcendental goodness. Brahma was insulted mentally, Shiva was insulted verbally, Vishnu was insulted physically.  

So all goodness of this material world is generally tinged with passion and ignorance, whereas the goodness that is there in Vishnu or which is the characteristic of the spiritual world is called suddha sattva. So therefore in this material world, even the greatest of demigods who are situated in the mode of goodness cannot be uncontaminated by passion and ignorance.

Now what about the Supreme Lord in His incarnation as Narasimha, such anger was never exhibited by the Lord in any incarnation. When Narasimha appeared and as long as he was busy killing Hiranyakashipu and his associates, the demigods were very happy. After that Narasimha sat down on the throne of Hiranyakashipu but He would not give up His anger. Demigods wanted to offer their prayers, but were afraid to go near Him because of His anger. Has the anger affected Him so badly? Prabhupada says - even if there is sometimes a show of lust and anger by the Absolute, it should be considered an absolute benediction. The Lord sometimes exhibits so called lust or anger, it shows mercy upon His devotees.

When Krishna dances with the gopis in rasa dance, apparently He is exhibiting His lust, but no, it is the benediction upon the suffering souls of this world that Krishna is inviting - come, join Me in this wonderful rasa dance.

The conclusion is the Lord is completely transcendental to anger, lust - all these base material qualities. They are simply meant for we living entities that are desirous of enjoying materially against our own self interest. When the Lord comes He is untouched by any of these material qualities and He always exhibits His pastimes under the internal potency sambhavamy atma mayaya and even the devotees - mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakrtim asritah - they always are under the shelter of the internal potency of Krishna, therefore even when the devotees become angry, just like Narada Muni becomes angry at the sons of Kubera, that is not material anger, that is again Narada Muni’s mercy upon these foolish sons of Kubera. To show his compassion he became angry. And what was the benediction? They were able to have darshan of Krishna, because of the curse of Narada Muni.  

(The above transcripts have been edited for better readability. However they have not been verified and confirmed by the original speaker.)

Sri Stoka Krishna Dasa is a full-time missionary with ISKCON since 1989. He is presently the Governing Body Commissioner - ISKCON Bangalore Group of Temples and Treasurer & Governing Council Member, ISKCON Bangalore Society.

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