Sukadeva Goswami's prayers to the Lord before explaining the science of creation to Mahara Pariksit

From 2nd Canto 4th Chapter:

Sukadeva Goswami offers respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and glorifies Him. His prayers can be categorized as follows:

Lord’s relation with the material world, Lord’s role as the Supersoul, Lord’s unparalled opulence, Lord’s dealings with the conditioned souls, Lord’s devotional service and finally prayers requesting Lord’s mercy upon his service of explaining about creation.

Lord’s relation with the material world:

• 1.      For the creation of the material world, the Lord accepts the three modes of nature – three purushavataras namely Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.
• 2.      Lord Himself first entered the vaccum of the material universe, and thus all things gradually developed one after another. The sixteen principal creative elements are first developed by the Lord Himself and were thereby shared by all living entities.

Lord’s role as the Supersoul:

• 1.      He is complete whole residing within everyone – as Ksirodakasayi Vishnu He enters into the body of every living being and is the complete whole.
• 2.      Lord as Supersoul awards intelligence to living entities according to their previous activities. Hence is called as dhiyam-pati or the Lord of intelligence.

Lord’s unparalled opulence:

• 1.      He is the complete form of all existence, both material and spiritual.
• 2.      He has a transcendental form - not impersonal, not a material form
• 3.      In the spiritual sky His opulence is immeasurable, therefore no one is equal to Him – Lord resides in all the innumerable Vaikuntha planets by expanding His plenary portions.
• 4.      He is the supreme enjoyer of both the material and spiritual worlds, yet He enjoys His own abode in the spiritual sky.
• 5.      Lord Sri Krsna is the beloved husband of all goddesses of fortune. As all favors of sacrifices are given by goddess of fortune, Lord being her husband, is the Lord of all sacrifices. He is enjoyer of all sacrifices as well. Lord is maintainer of all living beings.
• 6.      Lord is proprietor of all planets – material or spiritual. Everything is but the creation of the Lord.

Lord’s dealings with the conditioned souls:

• 1.      Lord delivers His devotees from all distresses. He also protects pious men who follow vedas.
• 2.      Lord is an associate of His devotees esp members of yadu dynasty. For mundaners / nondevotees however Lord and His abode will always remain a myth or a mysterious problem.
• 3.      Although, He is the Lord of all followers of different paths of self-realization (i.e results are awarded by Him only), is knowable only by those who are above all pretensions i.e only by pure devotees who alone are desireless.
• 4.      The Lord never reveals Himself to mental speculators who endeavor on their own to realize the Absolute truth. The pure devotee however following the ways of previous acaryas can see the Supreme Lord through the transparent medium of a bona fide spiritual master. Being satisfied by the devotee’s service attitude, Lord reveals Himself to the devotee.
• 5.      Lord descends by His own energy to reestablish the eternal relation of the conditioned souls with Him.
• 6.      Nondevotees who do not follow vedas are checked in their progress of demoniac activities.
• 7.      Lord awards specific destinations to both impersonalists and devotees, they are brahmajyoti and the Lord’s abode respectively.

Lord’s devotional service:

• 1.      Lords glorification, remembrance, audience, prayers, hearing and worship can at once cleanse the effects of all sins of the performer. However these devotional services need to be performed offenselessly (without willfully performing sins) and under expert guidance.
• 2.      Intelligent simply surrender to the Lord’s lotus feet and by dint of pure devotional service, at once attain perfection of human life, which is spiritual existence (form as good as the Lord and service in the eternal Vaikuntha planets)
• 3.      The Lord, being all-powerful, can, under any and every circumstance, accept anyone from any part of the world (Kirata, Huna, Andhra etc), either personally or through His bona fide manifestation as the spiritual master. Though they are addicted to sinful acts, Lord purifies them.
• 4.      His ways are inconceivable – Empiric philosophers and mystic yogis cannot conceive of the Personality of Godhead. One can approach the Lord only through bhakti-yoga.
• 5.      Advancement of learning, a charitable disposition, political, social or religious leadership of human society, philosophical speculations, the practice of the yoga system, expertise in the Vedic rituals, and all similar high qualities in man serve one in the attainment of perfection only when they are employed in the service of the Lord for His pleasure. Without such dovetailing, all such qualities become sources of trouble for people in general.

Prayers requesting Lord’s mercy upon his service of explaining about creation:

• 1.      Knowledge is revealed to one from within by the Lord as Lord Brahma was inspired with full knowledge at the beginning of the creation. Sukhadeva Goswami is praying to the Lord so he may be able to explain the facts and figures of creation as inquired by Maharaja Parikshit.
• 2.      Sukhadeva Goswami invokes the pleasure of the Lord so that his statements may be successful and be appreciated by the hearers. Realizing he is an instrument, he wants to move by the direction of the Supreme Lord, who inspired Brahma to speak the Vedic wisdom.
• 3.      All material manifestations are made possible only by Lord’s energy, and the living entity can only pray to the Lord to understand it properly. Sukhadeva Goswami therefore prays to the Lord to help others to whom he would like to speak.
• Sukhadeva Goswami offers his obeisances unto Srila Vyasadeva, who compiled Vedic literatures to revive the lost memory of the conditioned souls with respect to their eternal relation with the Lord.

Difficulties: What prevented the bull from seeing Krsna's grace as the cause of his suffering?

Post continued from : 

Difficulties: Opportunity for introspection or opportunity for blame?

Srila Prabhupada's purport to 1.17.22:
"A devotee’s conclusion is that no one is directly responsible for being a benefactor or mischief-monger without the sanction of the Lord; therefore he does not consider anyone to be directly responsible for such action. But in both the cases he takes it for granted that either benefit or loss is God-sent, and thus it is His grace. In case of benefit, no one will deny that it is God-sent, but in case of loss or reverses one becomes doubtful about how the Lord could be so unkind to His devotee as to put him in great difficulty. Jesus Christ was seemingly put into such great difficulty, being crucified by the ignorant, but he was never angry at the mischief-mongers. That is the way of accepting a thing, either favorable or unfavorable. Thus for a devotee the identifier is equally a sinner, like the mischief-monger. By God’s grace, the devotee tolerates all reverses. Mahārāja Parīkṣit observed this, and therefore he could understand that the bull was no other than the personality of religion himself. In other words, a devotee has no suffering at all because so-called suffering is also God’s grace for a devotee who sees God in everything. The cow and bull never placed any complaint before the King for being tortured by the personality of Kali, although everyone lodges such complaints before the state authorities. The extraordinary behavior of the bull made the King conclude that the bull was certainly the personality of religion, for no one else could understand the finer intricacies of the codes of religion."

Why did Dharma not say it was God's grace? What prevents one from seeing Krsna and His mercy in all things?(From the purport to 1.17.23)

1. The personality of religion knew perfectly well that nothing can take place without the sanction of the Supreme Lord, and still he was put into doubts by the deluding energy, and thus he refrained from mentioning the supreme cause.
2. This doubtfulness was due to the contamination of both Kali and the material energy. The whole atmosphere of the Age of Kali is magnified by the deluding energy, and the proportion of measurement is inexplicable.

Should we just tolerate and not protect ourselves?

1. An accurate understanding of what occurs , therefore exists on more than one level. If one is being unreasonably beaten by a man with a stick, he will be injured and must defend himself or suffer great pain.
2. Despite the beating being ultimately "God's grace", the "beater" may not have one's best interest in mind. Dealing on this level demands prompt and practical action.
3. While acting practically, however one should nevertheless remember Krsna's ultimate control, because Krsna is the ultimate "doer".
4. Maintaining this awareness while acting will free one from envy, anxiety, and anger, and will carry one the Krsna's Lotus Feet
5. Seeing all that occurs as Krsna's will, a devotee understands that "not a blade of grass" moves without the will of Krsna.
6. Such a person remains free from anxiety amid even the greatest difficulties. 
7. Still along with maintaining this vision one must act practically while simultaneously remaining detached from the results of his action.

At another level, Krsna's desires cause our circumstances:

Because He desires that the living entities fully surrender to Him, become His devotees, and return to Him in the spiritual world.

Difficulties: Opportunity for introspection or opportunity for blame?

In the conversation between the Personality of Religion and Maharaja Pariksit where Dharma is asked to identify the cause of his suffering Dharma gives a very wonderful understanding:

1. Some philosophers claim it is one's own karma
2. Some say it is caused by Brahman- The Lord's Supreme Effulgence
3. Atheists say no cause exists beyond material nature

So based on these he advises the kin to reach his own conclusion.

How would I respond when asked this question?

1. Generally on reflecting on the cause of one's difficulty, one would answer with less philosophy and more accusation.
2. By identifying someone as a doer and viewing the person as an enemy, one comes to seek vengeance than practice introspection.
3. While one tends to justify thoughts of retaliation and the ensuing plan of action, one may not realize that those actions will implicate him/her in painful exchanges birth after birth
4. In addition by meditating on another's bad qualities , one will develop those bad qualities themselves. One's mentality is formed by the object of one's meditation
5. SB 7.1.28: A grassworm confined in a hole of a wall by a bee always thinks of the bee in fear and enmity and later becomes a bee simply because of such remembrance.

Therefore on hearing the bull's extraordinary and philosophical reply to his simple question, Maharaja Pariksit concluded that this bull must be religion personified.

The king thus pondered Dharma's words:

SB 1.17.22: The King said: O you, who are in the form of a bull! You know the truth of religion, and you are speaking according to the principle that the destination intended for the perpetrator of irreligious acts is also intended for one who identifies the perpetrator. You are no other than the personality of religion.

Post continued at 

Difficulties: What prevented the bull from seeing Krsna's grace as the cause of his suffering?

Liberation means to become free from dehatma- buddhi

From Srila Prabhupada's purport to SB 2.4.2:

To become liberated means to become free from dehātma-buddhi, the illusory attachment for personal bodily coverings and everything connected with the body, namely wife, children and all other entanglements...........Devotion for Lord Kṛṣṇa means negation of all material attachments as detailed above. By the grace of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Mahārāja Parīkṣit was awarded all material amenities and an undisputed kingdom in which to enjoy the undisturbed position of king, but by the grace of the Lord he was able to give up all connections with material attachment. That is the position of a pure devotee. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, due to his natural affection for Lord Kṛṣṇa as a devotee of the Lord, was always executing his royal duties on behalf of the Lord, and as a responsible king of the world he was always careful to see that the influence of Kali would not enter his kingdom. A devotee of the Lord never thinks of his household paraphernalia as his own, but surrenders everything for the service of the Lord. Thereby living entities under a devotee’s care get the opportunity for God realization by the management of a devotee-master.