ŚB 7.9.14
तद्यच्छ मन्युमसुरश्च हतस्त्वयाद्य
मोदेत साधुरपि वृश्चिकसर्पहत्या ।
लोकाश्च निर्वृतिमिता: प्रतियन्ति सर्वे
रूपं नृसिंह विभयाय जना: स्मरन्ति ॥ १४ ॥
tad yaccha manyum asuraś ca hatas tvayādya
modeta sādhur api vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā
lokāś ca nirvṛtim itāḥ pratiyanti sarve
rūpaṁ nṛsiṁha vibhayāya janāḥ smaranti
tat — therefore; yaccha — kindly give up; manyum — Your anger; asuraḥ — my father, Hiraṇyakaśipu, the great demon; ca — also; hataḥ — killed; tvayā — by You; adya — today; modeta — take pleasure; sādhuḥ api — even a saintly person; vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā — by killing a snake or a scorpion; lokāḥ — all the planets; ca — indeed; nirvṛtim — pleasure; itāḥ — have achieved; pratiyanti — are waiting (for pacification of Your anger); sarve — all of them; rūpam — this form; nṛsiṁha — O Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva; vibhayāya — for mitigating their fear; janāḥ — all the people of the universe; smaranti — will remember.
Translation
My Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, please, therefore, cease Your anger now that my father, the great demon Hiraṇyakaśipu, has been killed. Since even saintly persons take pleasure in the killing of a scorpion or a snake, all the worlds have achieved great satisfaction because of the death of this demon. Now they are confident of their happiness, and they will always remember Your auspicious incarnation in order to be free from fear.
Purport
The most important point in this verse is that although saintly persons never desire the killing of any living entity, they take pleasure in the killing of envious living entities like snakes and scorpions. Hiraṇyakaśipu was killed because he was worse than a snake or a scorpion, and therefore everyone was happy. Now there was no need for the Lord to be angry. The devotees can always remember the form of Nṛsiṁhadeva when they are in danger, and therefore the appearance of Nṛsiṁhadeva was not at all inauspicious. The Lord’s appearance is always worshipable and auspicious for all sane persons and devotees.
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.9.14
The News—
Iran’s Soleimani killed in US air raid
Tensions between the United States and Iran escalated on Friday [Jan. 3, 2020] after a US air raid killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces, or PMF.
The Pentagon confirmed the attack at Baghdad’s international airport, saying it came “at the direction of the president”. — msn.com
Commentary (spoken by the wives of Kamsa and his brothers who were killed by Kṛṣṇa)—
“Our dear husbands, you treated persons ill who were faultless, and as a result you have been killed. This is inevitable because a person who torments an innocent person must be punished by the laws of nature. We know that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the supreme master and supreme enjoyer of everything; therefore, one who neglects His authority can never be happy, and ultimately, as you have, he meets death.”
— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, CHAPTER 44
Perspective—
Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ. We are suffering just like in the blazing forest fire. When there is fire in the forest all the animals become perturbed, disturbed, especially the snakes. Other animals, they have got legs, they can jump over. But the snakes, they have to crawl. So when there is fire in the forest, the dry foliage that catch fire, so these snakes, they die first. They cannot jump; they have to crawl. And the snake means envious. The snake business is envious. Without any fault it will bite, and the man will die. Envious. Therefore Cāṇakya Paṇḍita has said,
sarpaḥ krūraḥ khalaḥ krūraḥ
sarpāt krūrataraḥ khalaḥ
mantrauṣadhi-vaśaḥ sarpaḥ
khalaḥ kena nivāryate
[Nīti Śāstra]
That there are two jealous, envious beings = one is the snake and another is the…, a man envious. So the envious man is more dangerous than the snake. Why? That you can bring under control the snake by herbs and mantra. Still in India there are experts who can by mantra can catch snake, venomous snake. There is a art. So it can be under, brought under control. But the envious man cannot be, I mean, brought under control; therefore he is more dangerous. So we are living in such world.
In another place, Prahlāda Mahārāja has said that when his father was killed, Hiraṇyakaśipu, he requested Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that “Now kindly mitigate Your anger, because nobody is sorry for killing my father, that he was just like a snake and scorpion.” So sādhur api…
[aside:] Bring me verse.
That even sādhu, they also take pleasure when a snake or scorpion is killed. A sādhu, modeta, vṛścika-sarpa-hatyā [SB 7.9.14]. A sādhu does not want killing of any living entity, but when a scorpion or a snake is killed, even one sādhu also takes pleasure, “Yes, it is right.” They are so dangerous.
The peace formula—
So the whole world is now full with krūraḥ, sarpāt krūrataraḥ khalaḥ, envious. Whole world is surcharged with enviousness. Nation to nation, person to person, there is competition. So how they can be happy? Therefore Kṛṣṇa…, Caitanya Mahāprabhu suggests that “Let them chant Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, then this blazing forest fire will be extinguished.” Ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ. Then śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā-vitaraṇaṁ, that actual life of knowledge will begin. And at last He says, paraṁ vijayate śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṅkīrtanam. And in the Bhāgavat also it is confirmed,
kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya
mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet
[SB 12.3.51]
Simply by chanting.
So those who are actually thinking of the welfare of the whole human society, they should combinedly try how to spread this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra. People may simply have some chance to hear. Then gradually everything will become nice. So this is our mission. We are trying to give chance people to hear harer nāma. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ. It is not that as so many, this pantheist or the so-called Māyāvādīs, they say that “You can chant any name. You can…” No. That is not. Śāstra says, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, or Viṣṇu. Harer nāma: the name of Hari, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Not anyone’s, everyone’s name. No. So that is also another enviousness = “Why Kṛṣṇa’s nāma should be chanted? We have got our own God.” So envious, even to Kṛṣṇa. These are the difficulties.
Still, it is our duty, as it is described in the śāstras, to give everyone the chance of hearing this holy name of the Lord = Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. So begin some kṛṣṇa-kīrtana. So we chant? Yes? Begin saṅkīrtana. Bring kartālas.
— His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Room Conversation with George Harrison & the Shankars, Aug. 5, 1973, London
Happy New Year!
This new year has begun just like all the others in this mundane world. It began with the daily news of birth, death, old age and disease, the afflictions suffered by all souls conditioned to accept the material world as all in all. The year will end the same way except for a very few, those who take seriously to the process of Krishna consciousness.
For thousands upon thousands of births we have willingly accepted torture at the hands of maya, our cruel master, rather than surrender to the sweet will of our Divine Masters, the Supreme Lord Krishna and His devotees. May this new year be the year we reverse this trend.
Yours in the service of our Divine Masters,
Swami. B.K. Giri