SB 1.12.23 (1964)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 23
Pitamahasamah samye prasade girisha upamah. Asryah sarva bhutaram yatha devo ramashrayah.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Pitamaha—grand father or Brahma, Samah—equally good, Samye—in the matter Prasade—in charity or in munificence, Girisha—lord Shiva, Upamah—comparison of equillibrium, Asrayah—resort, Serva—all, Bhutanam—of the living beings, Yatha—as is, Devo—the supreme Lord, Ramasrayah—the Personality of Godhead.
TRANSLATION
This child shall be like his grand father Yudhisthir or Brahma in the matter of equanimity of the state of mind, munificent like the Lord of the Kailash Hill Shiva and resort of everyone like the Supreme Personality of Godhead Narayana Who is shelter of even the goddess of fortune.
PURPORT
In the matter of equanimity of the state of mind like the grand-father can be meant bothwise namely in relation with Maharaj Yudhisthir or Brahma the grand father of the living beings. According to Shridhar Swami this grand father is Brahma but according Viswanath Chakrabarty the grand father is Maharaj Yudhisthir himself. But in both the cases the comparison is equally good. Because both of them are recognised representatives of the Supreme Lord and as such both of them have to keep up equanimity of the mind being engaged in different welfare work of the living being. Any responsible executive agent at the top of the administration has to tolerate different types of onslaught from the very persons for whom the executive head works. Brahmaji was criticised even by the Gopis the highest perfectional devotee of the Lord. The Gopis were not satisfied by the work of Brahmaji because Lord Brahma as creator of this particular universe, created eyelids which obstructed the act of seeing Lord Krishna by the Gopis. They could not tolerate a moment's closure of the eyes from seeing the beloved Lord Krishna. And what to speak of others who are very naturally critical in every action of a responsible man. Similarly Maharaj Yudhisthir had to cross over many difficult situations created by his enemies and he proved to be the most perfect keeper of equanimity of the state of mind in all critical stages. Therefore the example of both the grand fathers for maintaining the equanimity of mind is quite fitting.
Lord Shiva is celebrated demigod for awarding gifts to the beggars of such gifts. His name is, therefore, Ashutosh or one who is pleased very easily. He is also called the Bhutnath or the Lord of the common folks who are mostly attached to Him on account of His munificent gifts even without consideration of the after effects. Ravana was too much attached to lord Shiva and by pleasing him easily Ravana became so powerful that he wanted to challenge the authority of the Lord Rama. Off course Ravana was never helped by Lord Shiva when he fought with Rama the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Lord of Lord Shiva. To one Bhasmasur Lord Shiva awarded benediction which is not only awkward but also disturbing. Bhasmasura became powerful by the grace of Lord Shiva to vanish anybody's head simply by touching with the hand. And this was also awarded by Lord Shiva but the cunning fellow wanted to make an experiment of the power by touching the head of Lord Shiva. Thus the Lord had to take shelter of Vishnu to save Himself from the trouble and Lord Vishnu by His illusory potency asked the Bhasmasura to make an experiment with his own head and the fellow did it and he himself was finished and the world was saved from all sorts of trouble by such cunning beggars from the demigod. But the excellent point is that Lord Shiva never denies anyone any sort of gift which a beggar wants. He is therefore the most generous never mind sometimes somekind of mistake is also done in that way.
Rama (Rawma) means the goddess of Fortune. And her shelter is Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu 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 crores of planets and all of them are provided with all neccessaries of life for progressive march towards the end of self realisation and not otherwise. Those who are not on the path of self realisation but on the path of sense gratification, are put into difficulty by the exigency of Maya the illusory energy for the path of a false plan of economic development. Such economic development is never successful by the plan makers because such plan itself 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 Vishnu. Without Vishnu the Goddess of Fortune is an illusion. We should therefore seek the protection of Vishnu instead of directly seeking the protection of the Goddess of Fortune. Vishnu and the devotees of Vishnu can only give protection to all others and because Maharaj Parikshit was himself protected by Vishnu it was quite possible for him to give complete protection to all who preferred to live under his subordination.