01-08-2025
Remorse and liberation
Srimad Bhagavatham discusses whether the human body belongs to the provider of food, who gives sustenance, or to one's father, who gave life, or to the mother, who nourished and cared for the child. It also ponders whether a maternal grandfather might have ownership in case of adoption, or whether a powerful man might claim ownership where force is used, such as with bonded labour. These examples show the complexity of the ownership question.
This discussion highlights the impermanence and uncertainty of human body ownership. Although a man may boast of his body while living, it ultimately becomes a worm after death if buried, or ashes if cremated. Reflecting on this, the text poses a question: why should a man pamper his body for self-interest, especially if he risks perdition for unleashing violence against other living beings? Scriptures indicate that it is a person's bounden duty to restore the body, given by the Supreme Being, to the God of fire at the end.
Brahma Sri. SundarKumar, in a discourse, emphasised that people should use the faculties given by God to pray and derive His blessings. He narrated the story of Nalakubara and Manigreeva, sons of Kubera, who committed undesirable acts out of haughtiness and incurred the curse of Sage Narada. This story drives home the message that, whoever it may be, they cannot escape punishment for their misdeeds. Realising their mistakes, Nalakubara and Manigreeva sought pardon, and the sage assured them that Lord Krishna would ultimately liberate them. They lived for 100 celestial years as Arjuna trees. To fulfil the words of the sage, the Lord, as infant Krishna, who was bound to a mortar with a cord by his mother Yasodha, crawled between the trees. They fell and rose on the spot as two celestial figures and got liberated.
