Shloka 30
Dakṣa Offends Lord Śiva: Cursing and Countercursing in the Sacrificial Assembly
ब्रह्म च ब्राह्मणांश्चैव यद्यूयं परिनिन्दथ । सेतुं विधारणं पुंसामत: पाषण्डमाश्रिता: ॥ ३० ॥
brahma ca brāhmaṇāṁś caiva yad yūyaṁ parinindatha setuṁ vidhāraṇaṁ puṁsām ataḥ pāṣaṇḍam āśritāḥ
Bhṛgu Muni prosseguiu: Visto que blasfemais os Vedas e os brāhmaṇas fiéis aos princípios védicos, que são a ponte do dharma para os homens, entende-se que já vos abrigastes na doutrina do ateísmo.
Bhṛgu Muni, in cursing Nandīśvara, said that not only would they be degraded as atheists because of this curse, but they had already fallen to the standard of atheism because they had blasphemed the Vedas, which are the source of human civilization. Human civilization is based on the qualitative divisions of social order, namely the intelligent class, the martial class, the productive class and the laborer class. The Vedas provide the right direction for advancing in spiritual cultivation and economic development and regulating the principle of sense gratification, so that ultimately one may be liberated from material contamination to his real state of spiritual identification ( ahaṁ brahmāsmi ). As long as one is in the contamination of material existence, one changes bodies from the aquatics up to the position of Brahmā, but the human form of life is the highest perfectional life in the material world. The Vedas give directions by which to elevate oneself in the next life. The Vedas are the mother for such instructions, and the brāhmaṇas, or persons who are in knowledge of the Vedas, are the father. Thus if one blasphemes the Vedas and brāhmaṇas, naturally one goes down to the status of atheism. The exact word used in Sanskrit is nāstika, which refers to one who does not believe in the Vedas but manufactures some concocted system of religion. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said that the followers of the Buddhist system of religion are nāstikas. In order to establish his doctrine of nonviolence, Lord Buddha flatly refused to believe in the Vedas, and thus, later on, Śaṅkarācārya stopped this system of religion in India and forced it to go outside India. Here it is stated, brahma ca brāhmaṇān. Brahma means the Vedas. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi means “I am in full knowledge.” The Vedic assertion is that one should think that he is Brahman, for actually he is Brahman. If brahma, or the Vedic spiritual science, is condemned, and the masters of the spiritual science, the brāhmaṇas, are condemned, then where does human civilization stand? Bhṛgu Muni said, “It is not due to my cursing that you shall become atheists; you are already situated in the principle of atheism. Therefore you are condemned.”
FAQs
This verse says that those who blaspheme Brahman (Vedic truth) and the brāhmaṇas—who preserve dharma for society—fall into pāṣaṇḍa (heretical, irreligious paths).
Sati spoke while witnessing disrespectful talk against sacred authority; she condemned those who were deriding Brahman and brāhmaṇas, identifying such speech as a sign of irreligion.
Guard one’s speech: avoid mocking sacred traditions and sincere spiritual practitioners; instead, cultivate respectful inquiry and support principles that uphold ethical restraint and spiritual growth.