Diti becomes pregnant, and the whole universe suffers
Kaśyapa Muni is a great personality, described as no one other than Vasudeva, the father of Krsna in his previous life. However, he also played the pastime of becoming the father of two great demons.
The Srimad Bhagavatam is full of histories of great devotees and personalities begetting exalted children who become great kings and sages. Although the Bhagavatam speaks a lot about renunciation, great families of devotees and their lineages are the very fabric of the narration.
Kaśyapa Muni is one of these great personalities, described as no one other than Vasudeva, the father of Krsna in his previous life. Vasudeva was first Sutapā, who married Pṛśni and begot the Lord as Prsnigarba. He was then Kaśyapa, who married Aditi and begot Vamanadeva, and finally Vasudeva, who married Devakī and begot Krsna Himself. However, as Kasyapa, Vasudeva also begot two great demons, and thus, this story is also highly instructive.
Kasyapa Muni is the son of Marici, one of the nine mental sons of Brahma. He married 13 of Daksa's daughters (in his second birth), including Aditi (the mother of the demigods) and Diti (the mother of the demons). Kasyapa became thus one of the principal prajapatis of the universe. It is described that through his wives, Kasyapa generated most of the population of the universe.
At a certain point, all the wives of Kasyapa Muni already had children, except Diti, who became envious of the others and anxious to have children of her own. With this in mind, she approached her husband.
The desire of Diti to beget children was perfectly in accordance with religious principles, and approaching her husband with this purpose was also appropriate. To beget a few children and properly educate them is the main purpose of a religious marriage. The problem is that in her anxiety, Diti approached her husband at an inappropriate time, when he was performing his religious duties at the end of the day. Brahmanas are supposed to chant the Gayatri mantra and perform other duties three times per day, at sunrise, noon, and sunset. At these times, one is strictly prohibited from engaging in sexual activities.
Diti approached her husband at sunset. To justify her anxiety in begetting a child at this inappropriate time, she offered several arguments on verses 3.14.11 to 3.14.15 of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
All the words of Srimad Bhagavatam have significance. Although Diti speaks while bewildered, the points she makes are generally valid. Just the time is inappropriate.
a) To beget children according to the desire of the wife is one of the duties of a husband. As Prabhupada explains in the purport, Diti was not exactly approaching her husband out of sexual desire, but because she desired children. It was thus the duty of Kasyapa Muni to satisfy her desire to beget children.
b) She argues that by satisfying the desire of his wife and making her happy, Kasyapa would also become happy, since happiness in family life is based on the spouse being happy. Good children are also a source of happiness to their parents.
c) Good children expand the glories of their parents, especially of the father. Kasyapa is a very qualified man, therefore, he is competent to beget such good children and give them a chance to practice spiritual life and go back to Godhead. As Prabhupada mentions in his purport, "Every human being should be given the opportunity to take advantage of his human form of life, and a father like Kaśyapa is supposed to beget good children for the purpose of liberation."
d) In verse 13, Diti mentions how she and her other sisters got married to Kasyapa Muni. Daksa is very knowledgeable in terms of family life, and thus he was able to properly educate his daughters, in a way that when it came time for them to marry, they could choose a qualified husband. It is described that Daksa asked each of his daughters to understand to whom they were attracted and thus make a final decision about the groom, considering all factors. Kasyapa Muni was such a great sage that 13 of the girls were attracted to him, therefore, Daksa made the necessary arrangements.
e) The final argument of Diti is that when a distressed person approaches a great person, his pleas should not go unanswered.
It's understandable that Didi, in her bewilderment, approached her husband at the prohibited time, but Kasyapa, being a great sage, was supposed to control himself and make her wait until the proper time. Instead, he just tried to pacify her with gentle words, and immediately relented when she insisted.
When a common person commits a mistake, the consequences are usually not very grave, but when a great person, in a position of responsibility, commits a mistake, the consequences can be very serious. An ordinary clerk making a mistake will probably just result in some small financial loss, but a king making a mistake can destroy the whole country. Similarly, a powerful sage like Kasyapa Muni can generate children that are very powerful both positively and negatively. In this case, the mistake resulted in two powerful demons being born.
Kasyapa voiced his objections to the union at the appropriate time on verses 3.14.17 to 3.14.21 of the Srimad Bhagavatam. Just like the words of Diti, the points made by Kasyapa Muni are generally correct; the problem was with the timing:
a) The wife is the source of the three perfections of liberation in the sense that a good wife helps her husband in the performance of religious duties, economic development, and sense gratification. A wise man can use these facilities to peacefully advance in spiritual practice and thus attain ultimate perfection. By serving such a husband, a wife also shares his achievements, and thus both benefit. As Srila Prabhupada mentions in his purport:
"A faithful wife is supposed to cooperate with her husband in fulfilling all material desires so that he can then become comfortable and execute spiritual activities for the perfection of life. If, however, the husband is progressive in spiritual advancement, the wife undoubtedly shares in his activities, and thus both the wife and the husband profit in spiritual perfection."
b) Life in the material world is very dangerous, and a man can easily degrade himself by falling victim to sexual adventures, as illustrated in the history of Ajamila. However, a faithful wife can protect one from such dangers by helping him to keep his senses under control and engage his sexual inclinations in a positive way to beget good children. Kasyapa thus expresses his gratitude for that.
c) A good wife is considered the better half of a man's body because she assists the husband in performing all kinds of religious duties. Apart from elevated souls who have the inclination to be proper brahmacaris and sannyasis, practically everyone has an inclination for performing material activities. These activities can be purified by properly executing religious duties inside family life, and working with a spirit of detachment, as Krsna teaches us in the Bhagavad-Gita. Marriage is thus an institution that offers a path for one to gradually become purified and progress in spiritual understanding.
d) For brahmacaris and sannyasis, there is not much space for mistakes. If one is not capable of controlling his senses, he can easily fall in spectacular ways. A householder, on the other hand, has the protection of his wife, which is comparable to a general that protects a fort from plunderers.
e) Because of all these different types of service, a husband has a great debt to his wife, which he has to repay by helping her to advance spiritually, otherwise, there is no way to repay it. This point made by Kasyapa Muni is also true, but Prabhupada emphasizes in his purport that at this point, he started speaking like a henpecked husband, excessively attracted to the beauty of his wife. Therefore, he started speaking loosely in a mode of joke.
After making these points, Kasyapa Muni composes himself a little and starts speaking more soberly, arguing that although he doesn't object to the idea of begetting a child, like Diti wants, they should wait for the appropriate time.
Diti approached Kasyapa in the evening when he was executing his religious duties. He argued that she should wait for at least a muhurta, so they would enter into the appropriate time. A muhurta is 48 minutes, but the word is usually translated as "a moment" or "a few seconds" because it is not a very long period of time. Thus, he simply asked Diti to wait.
Lord Shiva walks around the earth during the time of sunset, accompanied by his associates, the ghosts and spirits. Using his three eyes, he can see everything, and therefore, if he sees a couple engaged in copulation at this time, he uses the opportunity to send one of his associates to become their child. This is a blessing to the ghost who gets the opportunity of human life, but it is not very pleasant for the couple, who will now have to raise such a tamasic child. This is thus a kind of punishment for the couple for disrespecting him in this way. Understanding the situation, Kasyapa was afraid of this.
Despite the good advice of Kasyapa Muni, Diti couldn't control her impulses. It is described that she caught hold of the clothing of the great brāhmaṇa sage, and basically forced him to unite with her at an inappropriate time.
Diti became pregnant as she desired, but she was afraid that Lord Shiva could kill the embryo due to the offense they committed against him. Therefore, she offered prayers to him, mentioning that Lord Shiva can become angry very easily, but he can also be pleased very easily, and therefore, he could forgive her. Diti was not so much concerned for herself, but as a mother, she was concerned for the child in her womb.
The problem was, however, not the wrath of Lord Shiva. The extraordinary circumstance of such great personalities like Kasyapa and Dita failing to follow basic regulative principles created the situation for two great demons to take birth, Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu. Kasyapa could foresee this, and thus, angered by the calamity, spoke thus:
"Because of your mind’s being polluted, because of defilement of the particular time, because of your negligence of my directions, and because of your being apathetic to the demigods, everything was inauspicious. O haughty one, you will have two contemptuous sons born of your condemned womb. Unlucky woman, they will cause constant lamentation to all three worlds! They will kill poor, faultless living entities, torture women, and enrage the great souls." (SB 3.14.38-41)
There was something good, however. Being such powerful demons, the sons of Diti were destined to be killed by Lord Vishnu, since none of the demigods or other beings in the universe would be able to oppose them.
Diti saw her sons being killed by the Lord as a blessing, answering that it was very good that her sons would be killed by the Lord with his Sudarśana chakra, and just desired that they would not be killed by the curse of the Brahmanas before. This humble attitude also softened the heart of Kasyapa, who offered a blessing:
Two pure devotees were going to appear in the lineage of the demons: Prahlada Maharaja and Bali Maharaja, his grandson. These two great souls are an example for the whole universe, being counted amongst the twelve Mahajanas, the great authorities in devotional service. The whole purpose of the material creation is to allow the souls to come in contact with devotional service and gradually return to their proper consciousness. The way to be touched by devotional service is to come in contact with a pure devotee, therefore, the Lord organizes for his devotees to take birth even amongst the demons.
Demons usually don't have much interest in associating with devotees, since they are usually inimical to Lord Vishnu, nor do they usually have much opportunity of doing so. However, sometimes great Vaishnavas appear in demoniac families to benefit them. By taking birth in demoniac families, a devotee like Prahlada liberates 21 generations of ancestors and descendants, and benefits many others through their personal association.
Because of their presence, other relatives of Prahlada and Bali developed a devotional attitude, even though demons by nature. Bali's daughter, Ratnamālā, for example, developed affection for Lord Vamanadeva when she saw him, desiring to become his mother. However, when the Lord took away the possessions of Bali Maharaja, she became angry and desired to kill him. This led her to become Putana in her next life. Krsna then accepted her service in feeding Him milk and gave her the position in Goloka Vrindavana after killing her body and thus destroying her demoniac nature.
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