Canto 7: The Science of God
SB7.1

Canto 7 · Chapter 1 · 48 verses · 1 story

The Supreme Lord Is Equal to Everyone

Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains the Supreme Lord’s impartiality and Śiśupāla’s salvation despite his enmity toward Kṛṣṇa.

Read on Vedabase
Connected storiesJaya and VijayaJarāsandha and the RājasūyaKing VenaThe gopīs and the rāsa dance
Who is speakingSūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaŚukadeva Gosvāmī → King ParīkṣitNārada Muni → Mahārāja YudhiṣṭhiraEvery voice in this chapter ›

What this chapter speaks about · the ten subjects

Chapter summary

In this chapter, in response to a question by Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives his conclusions concerning how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, although the Supersoul, friend and protector of everyone, killed the Daityas, the demons, for the sake of Indra, the King of heaven. In his statements, he totally refutes the arguments of people in general who accuse the Supreme Lord of partiality. Śukadeva Gosvāmī proves that because the body of the conditioned soul is infected by the three qualities of nature, dualities arise such as enmity and friendship, attachment and detachment. For the Supreme Personality of Godhead, however, there are no such dualities. Even eternal time cannot control the activities of the Lord. Eternal time is created by the Lord, and it acts under His control. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, therefore, is always transcendental to the influence of the modes of nature, māyā, the Lord’s external energy, which acts in creation and annihilation. Thus all the demons killed by the Supreme Lord attain salvation immediately.

The second question raised by Parīkṣit Mahārāja concerns how Śiśupāla, although inimical toward Kṛṣṇa from his very childhood and always blaspheming Kṛṣṇa, attained salvation in oneness when Kṛṣṇa killed him. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains that because of their offenses at the feet of devotees, two attendants of the Lord in Vaikuṇṭha named Jaya and Vijaya became Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiraṇyākṣa in Satya-yuga, Rāvaṇa and Kumbhakarṇa in the next yuga, Tretā-yuga, and Śiśupāla and Dantavakra at the end of Dvāpara-yuga. Because of their fruitive acts, Jaya and Vijaya agreed to become the Lord’s enemies, and when killed in that mentality, they attained salvation in oneness. Thus even if one thinks of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in envy, he attains salvation. What then is to be said of devotees who always engage in the Lord’s service with love and faith?

In this chapter

Who · Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Kṛṣṇa, Śiśupāla

The story · Mahārāja Parīkṣit asks why Lord Viṣṇu, everyone’s well-wisher, appears to favor Indra by killing his enemies. Śukadeva Gosvāmī explains that the Supreme Lord is beyond the material qualities that produce friendship and enmity in conditioned souls. Parīkṣit also asks how Śiśupāla, who blasphemed Kṛṣṇa from childhood, attained salvation in oneness when Kṛṣṇa killed him. The explanation shows that even demons killed by the Supreme Lord attain salvation.

What it teaches · The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not governed by bodily ideas of friendship and enmity. His actions are transcendental, not acts of ordinary partiality.

Beyond this chapter

Connected stories across the Bhāgavatam

Stories told in other chapters that this chapter's verses or Śrīla Prabhupāda's purports bring in, the other Bhāgavatam verses the purports quote, and stories in other cantos with the same themes. Each link shows the sentence it comes from.

What it teaches · The Lord’s conduct shows how dearly He values the brāhmaṇas and how seriously He regards disrespect toward them. Even while facing punishment, the doorkeepers sought the shelter of remembering Him.

Śiśupāla’s achievement of oneness with the Supreme Lord was different because Jaya and Vijaya, from the very beginning of their material existence, were ordained to treat the Supreme Lord as an enemy for three lives and then return home, back to Godhead.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.26 (Text 26)

Therefore it is to be understood that when Jaya and Vijaya descended to this material world, they came because there was something to be done for the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.35 (Text 35)
Read the story in SB 3.15–16

What it teaches · The liberated kings recognize the danger of pride in temporary power. Kṛṣṇa directs them to worship Him, protect their subjects, and remain steady in happiness and distress.

Formerly, O King, when Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was performing the Rājasūya sacrifice, the great sage Nārada, responding to his inquiry, recited historical facts showing how the Supreme Personality of Godhead is always impartial, even when killing demons.

This relates to how the Lord exhibited His impartiality even when killing Śiśupāla in the arena of the Rājasūya yajña performed by Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.13 (Text 13)
Read the story in SB 10.71–75

What it teaches · A pious ruler supports citizens in worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through their occupations. Royal power does not justify demanding the worship due to the Lord.

I have heard that formerly a king named Vena blasphemed the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that all the brāhmaṇas consequently obliged him to go to hell.

Atheists like King Vena, however, being unable to think of Kṛṣṇa’s form in any of these five ways, cannot attain salvation.

Read the story in SB 4.13–14

What it teaches · Kṛṣṇa explains that desires fixed upon Him do not produce ordinary material desire for sense gratification. The gopīs’ attention is centered upon Him.

If a bona fide listener hears of Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes with the gopīs, which seem to be lusty affairs, the lusty desires in his heart, which constitute the heart disease of the conditioned soul, will be vanquished, and he will become a most exalted devotee of the Lord.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.30 (Text 30)

…Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has very nicely explained the word bhayena, which means “by fear.” When the gopīs went to Kṛṣṇa in the dead of night, they certainly feared chastisement by their relatives — their husbands, brothers and fathers — but nonetheless,…

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.26 (Text 26)
Read the story in SB 10.20–22

What it teaches · Prahlāda’s devotion does not depend on his teachers’ approval or his father’s favor. His spiritual understanding makes him equal toward everyone.

All the devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa are called acyutātmā because they follow in the footsteps of Prahlāda Mahārāja.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.48 (Text 48)

Therefore by the grace of his son, Prahlāda Mahārāja, Hiraṇyakaśipu was also delivered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 7.1.26 (Text 26)
Read the story in SB 7.5