Hiraṇyakaśipu and Hiranyaksa: The birth of two great demons
Kaśyapa Muni and Diti were two great and important personalities. As the saying goes, together with great power comes great responsibility. A mistake had serious consequences.
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Kaśyapa Muni and Diti were two great and important personalities. As the saying goes, together with great power comes great responsibility. Being two prajapatis, they had the responsibility of upholding religious principles and giving an example to all others.
Diti, however, was not able to control her sexual impulses, and Kaśyapa was not able to resist her. They thus united at an inappropriate time, before Kaśyapa could perform his evening worship. In an ordinary couple, this could be an ordinary event, but because Diti and Kaśyapa were not an ordinary couple, the consequences were also far from ordinary.
Diti became pregnant with two great, powerful demons. Understanding what happened, Diti became afraid of the disturbances her sons would cause, and thus decided to delay their delivery as long as possible, keeping them for 100 years inside her womb.
One reason for that was selfless: she wanted to spare the inhabitants of the universe from the suffering they would cause for as long as possible. Another reason, however, was selfish: she wanted to keep her sons inside her womb to prevent them from being killed by Lord Viṣnu.
However, despite Diti’s best efforts, Hiranyaksa and Hiraṇyakaśipu started causing disturbances even from inside the womb. Even as small embryos, they were extremely powerful and started blocking the light of the sun and the moon, leaving the planets of the universe in darkness.
When the demigods saw themselves incapable of solving the situation, they anxiously traveled to Brahmaloka and asked Lord Brahma for help. Lord Brahma answered by telling them the story of the curse of Jaya and Vijaya by the four Kumaras, but openly admitted that he was not able to do anything. As He explained: “Those two principal doorkeepers of the Personality of Godhead have now entered the womb of Diti, the powerful semen of Kaśyapa Muni having covered them. It is the prowess of these twin asuras [demons] that has disturbed you, for it has minimized your power. There is no remedy within my power, however, for it is the Lord Himself who desires to do all this.”
He explained that the Lord Himself would soon come as an incarnation to deal with the problem, and therefore, there was no point in further discussing the situation. Incapable of fighting the two powerful demons, the demigods would have to tolerate the situation until the Lord appeared to fight with them. In fact, it is described that the demigods later had to run from Hiranyaksa and were forced to serve Hiraṇyakaśipu. Although repeatedly challenged by the two demons, none of the demigods tried to directly fight them.
At the end of 100 years, Diti finally gave birth to the twin brothers. Hiranyaksa was born first and was thus, following the Vedic system, considered the junior brother, while Hiraṇyakaśipu, born later, was considered the senior. Different from most cultures, in the Vedic system, it is considered that in the case of twin brothers, the one conceived first (and thus older) stays deeper in the womb and is thus born later, while the baby who is conceived last is the first to be born. Hiraṇyakaśipu was thus the senior brother, although Hiranyaksa was born first.
When they were born, very inauspicious signs appeared all over the universe, including earthquakes, fires, thunderbolts, strong winds, and thick clouds. Animals felt very disturbed, inauspicious planets appeared in the sky, and so on. It also described that “the images of the gods in the temples shed tears”, this applies to images of demigods in different temples, not to deities of the Lord.
In his purport, Prabhupāda mentions: “We can learn from the description of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that it is because of the birth of two great demons that there were so many natural disturbances. It is to be indirectly understood, as previously described, that when there are constant disturbances on the earth, that is an omen that some demoniac people have been born or that the demoniac population has increased. In former days there were only two demons — those born of Diti — yet there were so many disturbances. At the present day, especially in this Age of Kali, these disturbances are always visible, which indicates that the demoniac population has certainly increased.”
He continues to make the point that the problem of the world is not overpopulation, but the increase of varṇa-saṅkara, or children of low consciousness, begotten without the necessary purificatory process. When good children are born, everything becomes auspicious. The point is thus not about decreasing population, but increasing the proportion of good children being born. This can be achieved only by the spread of Krsna consciousness and education about the process of begetting enlightened children. We can see that the whole pastime happens around Diti, forcing her husband to beget a child at an inappropriate time and with inappropriate consciousness.
Problems and what we can learn from them
One could question how the Lord could allow the demigods to face such difficulties, considering they are his sincere devotees. The point is that although highly elevated, the demigods are still affected by material desires. The Lord thus allows great demons and other calamities to periodically disturb them so they become humbled and take shelter in Him. This is a similar situation we also face, with all the problems and difficulties we face in material life. Although these different situations are the result of our previous actions, in the case of a devotee, they are filtered by the Lord and presented in ways that can help us to advance, by forcing us to take shelter in the Lord. Although these can be quite bitter pills, if we face these situations with the right mentality, they can help us to advance faster in spiritual life.
One may question why the Lord allows this or that to happen, but the alternative, staying in this material world life after life, would be much worse. Difficult situations should thus be seen as the Lord trying to shake us off from material life and renewing our efforts in going back to Godhead.
Another lesson we can learn is that problems can be solved by approaching a higher authority. Arjuna was perplexed before the battle of Kurukṣetra, but after approaching Krsna, the doubts were destroyed, and he understood perfectly what to do. Similarly, after approaching Brahma, the demigods could perfectly understand the situation and started happily waiting for the appearance of the Lord.
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