Meaning of Purusha - Part 12

Date: 2013-02-16 Author: Narahari Krishna das

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

In the previous offering we saw the meaning of Purusha as

1. puri sayaanaat purushah - The Lord resides in the body (both the individual body and universal body) called pura' ' or 'puri'. 2. purvam eva aham iha aasam eti purushah - As the Lord existed before everything, He is called purusha. 3. poornatvat purushah - He is called purusha because He is poorna. 4. puranatvat purushah - Lord is called purusha because He is purana 5. bahu danat purusha - The Lord is called purusha because He bestows benedictions in plenty. 6. sarvaan paapmana aushat tasmaat purushah - He is beyond sins and burns all the sins of living entities. 7. svatantratvat prakriti sparsha rahitatvat purushah - He is supremely independent and above all material contamination (good or bad).

In this offering we will see the next meaning of purusha.

8. pūrayate iti puruṣaḥ - He makes all the sacrifices and spiritual practices complete. All spiritual seekers following different spiritual disciplines such as karma yoga, jnana yoga, ashtanga yoga and bhakti yoga can attain their respective goals only by His grace. So He is the one who completes everyone's spiritual journey with desired results. And the Supreme Lord alone makes every Vedic sacrifice complete by rectifying all the mistakes by His grace. The following sloka from Garuda Purana verse 230.50 confirms this.

pramādātkurvatāṃ karma pracyavetādhvareṣu yat ​​​​​​​smaraṇādeva tadviṣṇoḥ saṃpūrṇaṃ syāditi śrutiḥ

Any fault which is committed due to inattention or ignorance in a Vedic sacrifice is rectified by the remembrance of Lord Vishnu and the sacrifice is made complete.

There are so many mistakes which can happen in yajnas such as wrong pronunciation of mantras, wrong execution of rituals. In many cases, the rectification process for these mistakes is more difficult than doing the yajna itself; but by remembering Lord Vishnu which is easily done by chanting His holy names (sankritana yajna), all these mistakes will be nullified and the yajna will be perfect.Thus all the yajnas depend on the sankirtana yajna for their completion. But sankirtana yajna does not depend on performance of any other yajnas. It alone can award the highest perfection to everyone. This point is proved in the story of Prthu Maharaja explained in the Bhagavata purana.

Prthu Maharaj performed ninety nine horse sacrifices. When he was performing the 100th sacrifice, Lord Indra became very anxious that Prthu Maharaj will take over his position (One who performs 100 horse sacrifices is qualified to become Indra). So he dressed himself as a false sannyasi and stole the horse meant for the sacrifice. The sage Atri who was one of the priests in the yajna saw this and asked Prthu Maharaj to stop Indra. Prthu Maharaj took his bow and arrow to destroy Indra. Indra was frightened at this and he left the horse and disappeared. Prthu Maharaj resumed the sacrifice and again Indra tried to steal the horse many times and every time Prthu Maharaj stopped him at the warning of Sage Atri. Prthu Maharaj finally was offended by this act of Indra and tried to kill him. At that time, Sage Atri stopped him and said, "Don't worry. We will bring Indra into the fire by chanting mantras and kill him", and they started making preparations for the same. By seeing this incident Lord Brahma appeared and requested Prthu Maharaj to stop the yajna. He told Prthu that Indra has paved the way for many cheating religious systems by dressing as a fake sannyasi. If the yajna continues, he will do more low level activities and introduce more false religious systems. Also he advised Prthu and the sages not to kill Indra as he is appointed by the Supreme Lord to accept offerings of yajna and hence killing him is not pleasing to the Lord. Listening to the advice of Lord Brahma, Prthu stopped the sacrifice and this pleased Lord Vishnu very much. Even though he did not complete the 100th yajna, Lord Vishnu personally appeared in the area of yajna, because of his devotional attitude. Lord Vishnu ordered Lord Indra to beg apology for his offence from King Prthu. He also blessed Prthu that he will have the association of the four kumaras in future and develop pure devotional service.

All sacrifices culminate in transcendental knowledge of the Supreme Lord. And when this knowledge fully matures, it results in pure devotional service to the Lord in full surrender. So by performing sankirtana yajna one can invoke the blessings of Lord Vishnu which alone can complete the yajna. Even though King Prthu did not complete the 100th sacrifice, he pleased Lord Vishnu by his behaviour. Lord Vishnu by His blessings awarded Him pure devotional service, which is the highest fruit of all sacrifices and made His yajnas truly complete and purposeful. This glorious nature of the Lord to make all sacrifices complete is confirmed by the great authority Sukracharya as follows in the Bhagavata Purana as follows. (SB 8.23.15-16)

śrī-śukra uvāca kutas tat-karma-vaiṣamyaṁ yasya karmeśvaro bhavān yajñeśo yajña-puruṣaḥ sarva-bhāvena pūjitaḥ

mantratas tantrataś chidraṁ deśa-kālārha-vastutaḥ sarvaṁ karoti niśchidram anusaṅkīrtanaṁ tava

Sukracharya said: My Lord, You are the enjoyer and lawgiver in all performances of sacrifice, and You are the yajna purusha, the person to whom all sacrifices are offered. If one has fully satisfied You, where is the chance of discrepancies or faults in his performances of sacrifice?

There may be discrepancies in pronouncing the mantras and observing the regulative principles, and, moreover, there may be discrepancies in regard to time, place, person and paraphernalia. But when Your Lordship's holy name is chanted, everything becomes faultless.

We can see that Sukracharya is addressing the Lord as Yajna Purusha which means the Lord makes all the yajnas complete. Let us chant the names of the Supreme Purusha and remember Him so that our life becomes complete in spiritual perfection.

Krishna willing, we shall continue to meditate on the other meanings of purusha in the subsequent offerings.

Thank you very much. Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, Narahari Krishna das Chennai.