Inconceivable Mercy

“O Lord, the potency of the dust of Your lotus feet is so great that every embodied soul wandering in the cycle of birth and death needs it. He either endeavors to obtain this dust or receives it through Your direct blessings. How surprising it is that this dust, which is not even available to great personalities, is obtained by this snake, who is born in ignorance and controlled by anger.”

tad esa nathapa durapam anyais
tamo-janih krodha-vaso ‘py ahisah
sarimira-cakre bhramatah saririno
yad-icchatah syad vibhavah samaksah

PURPORT BY SRI KRSNA BALARAM SWAMIJI

The scriptures state that a living entity wanders through eight million four hundred thousand different species of life, under constant control by the stringent laws of material nature. Lord Krsna controls this material world and all living entities, and has since time immemorial. As it is stated in the Vrhadaranyaka Upanisad (4.4.22), sa va ayaa asya sarvasya vasi sarvasya isanah sarvasya adhipatih, “The Supreme Lord governs material nature and everything within it. He is God of all and is the Supreme Authority for everyone.” After experiencing unlimited births, a fortunate soul takes a human form and follows a spiritual path to obtain the mercy of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. As stated in the Padma Purana:

evarm samsrti cakre ‘smin
bhramyamanam duratyaye
jive duhkhakule visnoh
krpa kapy upajayata

“While experiencing the miseries of this world and going through the cycle of birth and death, which is very difficult to overcome, some suffering soul receives the mercy of Lord Visnu, by which he adopts spiritual life to be liberated.”

Kaliya’s wives are surprised that their husband is the recipient of such inconceivable mercy. They know that their husband had an ignorant birth, is by nature filled with envy and anger, and is the leader of other snakes. How could he possibly have the dust of the Lord’s feet, which is janma koti sukrutibhir na labhyate, unobtainable even by those who have performed pious deeds for millions of births? Sri Sukadeva Goswami states, yad icchatah, that Kaliya desired this dust in his previous birth when he was performing devotional service as Vedasira. Anyone who becomes a serious devotee desires to have the dust of the Lord’s feet, and has faith that some day the Lord will extend His mercy to them, as He did to Kaliya. Therefore one should start his devotional life immediately, without wasting any time. As the Nyaya Sastra states, siubhasya sighram, “Auspicious activities should immediately be adopted for the benefit of one’s soul.” Everyone makes arrangements for the benefit of the body, but fortunate people make arrangements for the benefit of the soul. Serious adoption of the devotional path is the only method for developing the soul.

[Srimad Bhagavatam, 10.16.38, KBS0060]