The descendants of Adharma, irreligion
There is a chapter in the 4th canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that appears to get outside of the general description, with the story of the sinful descendants of Adharma.
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Most of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and other Puranas are dedicated to describing the dynasties of saintly kings and great devotees. This is not accidental: the main purpose of these scriptures is to teach us how to love Kṛṣṇa, and the best way to ascend to this platform is by hearing the stories and prayers of great devotees of the Lord. We hear that association with pure devotees is the key to attaining love for Kṛṣṇa, and in the pages of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, we can associate with devotees of the caliber of Dhruva Maharaja and Lord Śiva.
There is, however, a chapter in the 4th canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that appears to get outside this logic, with a description of the sinful descendants of Adharma, the predominating deity of irreligion.
These different descendants are the personifications of other negative, irreligious qualities. Just as demigods control different forces of nature, like rain and wind, these personalities control the influence of these negative qualities. Just as the demigods are devotees of the Lord, these personalities are described as irreligious, although they are also part of the universal mechanism created by the Lord, and sometimes can perform valuable services.
How is this description introduced? Previously, there was a description of the lineages of the sons of Brahma. After describing the sons who started families, Maitreya starts chapter 4.8 by describing the other sons of Brahma who didn’t leave descendants. The four Kumāras, as well as Nārada, Ṛbhu, Haṁsa, Aruṇi, and Yati, became naiṣṭhika-brahmacārīs, and therefore, there is no lineage to be described for them.
Next, he answers a possible question about the previous descriptions. In the previous chapters, he had described the incident of Dakṣa displaying enviousness and anger towards Lord Śiva. One could question how this could have happened. Everything that exists has to be created at some point; therefore, from where did such feelings come? To answer this question, Maitreya describes the lineage of another son of Brahma: Adharma, or irreligion.
As mentioned, just like the age of Kali has a predominating deity, who was confronted by Mahārāja Parīkṣit, irreligion also has a predominating deity that appeared as the son of Brahma. Adharma married his sister Mṛṣā (falsity), and from their combination appeared Dambha (bluffing) and Māyā (cheating). Both bluffing and cheating are used to obtain unfair advantage, and thus, they enable irreligious activities, such as gambling, dishonest dealings, political games, and so on. We can note that the marriage of Adharma and Mṛṣā was incestuous and thus irreligious, and the children who appeared out of this union were also deeply irreligious.
Adharma and Mṛṣā didn’t even take care of these children, and they were thus adopted by a demon named Nirṛti (calamity). Thus, all these negative factors, such as sexual life between brothers, abandonment of children, and so on, appeared following the appearance of irreligion.
From Dambha and Māyā came Lobhaḥ (greed) and Nikṛtiḥ (cunning), and from their union came Krodha (anger) and Hiṁsā (envy). Despite being brother and sister, they got married, following the tradition of incest in the family, giving birth to Kali (quarrel personified, the predominating deity of Kali-yuga) and Durukti (harsh speech). Kali married his sister Durukti, and from their combination came Mṛtyu (death) and Bhīti (fear), and from their union came Yātanā (excessive Pain) and Niraya (hell).
We can see that from the path of irreligion, many other negative qualities and undesirable symptoms appear, culminating in demotion to hell and life in the animal species. Ultimately, religion means devotional service to the Lord. That is the only true dharma; everything else is irreligious to a certain extent. Fruitive activities offered as karma-kanda have the goal of elevating one to the platform of devotional service, but if one becomes attached to just performing fruitive activities to enjoy his senses and improve his social position, he may gradually slide down the path of irreligion and, as a result, develop all the degrading qualities that follow. Demigods are devotees of the Lord who receive the opportunity to serve Him in positions of prestige due to their latent material desires. However, when they become blinded by their opulence and forget about devotional service to the Lord, they develop negative qualities such as pride, anger, and envy. There are many examples of this. Daksa was going on this path, but he was saved by the mercy of Lord Shiva.
Another interesting detail is the position of Mṛtyu, or death personified. Some sources treat Mṛtyu and Yamaraja as the same person, which can be bewildering, since Mṛtyu appears in the dynasty of irreligion and marries his own sister. The answer is that they are connected, but they are not directly the same person.
Mṛtyuḥ is a fateful servant of Yamaraja, assisting him in killing the sinful, so they can be taken by the Yamadūtas and brought to Yamaraja for punishment. In the Ramayana (Uttara-kāṇḍa 7.22), it is even described that Mṛtyuḥ fought on the side of Yamaraja against Rāvaṇa when he attacked the hellish planets. Because they are so closely related, they are often collapsed into one for simplicity. Srila Sridhara Swami, for example, is succinct in his commentary to SB 4.29.22, mentioning simply that “mṛtyur yamarājo ’tra yavanapateḥ padavācya” (Here, mṛtyuḥ is Yamaraja, he is the Lord of the yavanas mentioned in the text), and Prabhupada follows the same line in his purport to SB 4.29.22, focusing on explaining the allegory, instead of secondary details. On his purport to SB 4.28.65, however, Prabhupada confirms that Yavana-raja, or Mṛtyuḥ is the servant of Yamarāja. He is sometimes referred to as Yamaraja in the sense of being his servant and representative. Just as a policeman is the representative of the state.
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