Srimad Bhagavatam — Saptama Skandha, Shloka 41
Prahlāda’s Prayers Pacify Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva
Prahlāda-stuti and the Lord’s Benediction Offer
एवं स्वकर्मपतितं भववैतरण्या- मन्योन्यजन्ममरणाशनभीतभीतम् । पश्यञ्जनं स्वपरविग्रहवैरमैत्रं हन्तेति पारचर पीपृहि मूढमद्य ॥ ४१ ॥
evaṁ sva-karma-patitaṁ bhava-vaitaraṇyām anyonya-janma-maraṇāśana-bhīta-bhītam paśyañ janaṁ sva-para-vigraha-vaira-maitraṁ hanteti pāracara pīpṛhi mūḍham adya
彼岸へ導く主よ、自らの業の報いにより私たちは生死の河バヴァ・ヴァイタラニーに落ち、再三の生と死、そして恐ろしい糧に怯えています。人々は「我と彼」という身見により友と敵に絡め取られ、「殺せ」と叫びます。どうかこの愚かな者どもを顧み、慈悲により救い、養ってください。
Prahlāda Mahārāja, a pure Vaiṣṇava, prays to the Lord not only for himself but for all other suffering living entities. There are two classes of Vaiṣṇavas — the bhajanānandīs and goṣṭhy-ānandīs. The bhajanānandīs worship the Lord only for their own personal benefit, but the goṣṭhy-ānandīs try to elevate all others to Kṛṣṇa consciousness so that they may be saved. Fools who cannot perceive repeated birth and death and the other miseries of materialistic life cannot be sure of what will happen to them in their next birth. Indeed, these foolish, materially contaminated rascals have manufactured an irresponsible way of life that does not consider the next life. They do not know that according to one’s own activities, one receives a body selected from 8,400,000 species. These rascals have been described in Bhagavad-gītā as duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ. Nondevotees, those who are not Kṛṣṇa conscious, must engage in sinful activities, and therefore they are mūḍhas — fools and rascals. They are such fools that they do not know what will happen to them in their next life. Although they see varieties of living creatures eating abominable things — pigs eating stool, crocodiles eating all kinds of flesh, and so on — they do not realize that they themselves, because of their practice of eating all kinds of nonsense in this life, will be destined to eat the most abominable things in their next life. A Vaiṣṇava is always afraid of such an abominable life, and to free himself from such horrible conditions, he engages himself in the devotional service of the Lord. The Lord is compassionate to them, and therefore He appears for their benefit.
FAQs
This verse compares worldly life to a terrifying river (bhava-vaitaraṇī) into which the soul falls due to his own karma, becoming repeatedly fearful because of birth, death, and the struggle to maintain the body.
Prahlāda points to the conditioned mind’s bodily identification—dividing the world into ‘mine’ and ‘others’—which fuels friendship and hatred and can culminate in violence; he prays for protection from this delusion.
Notice how identity-based divisions create anxiety and conflict; reduce ‘us vs. them’ thinking, act from compassion, and seek shelter of devotion to become free from fear and karmic reactions.