BRS 1.2.112

BRS 1.2.112

Verse Text

viṣnu-rahasya ca— āliṅganaṁ varaṁ manye vyāla-vyāghra-jalaukasām | na saṅgaḥ śalya-yuktānāṁ nānā-devaika-sevinām ||112||

Translation

Also, from the Viṣṇu-rahasya: I consider it preferable to embrace a snake, a tiger or a crocodile than to associate with those who worship devatās. They are bearers of spears piercing me with their deviant desires.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

The word śalya, meaning spear, refers to the desires they have for worshipping the devatās.

Purport (Nectar of Devotion)

Similarly, in the Viṣṇu-rahasya there is a statement to the effect that one should prefer to embrace a snake, a tiger or an alligator rather than associate with persons who are worshipers of various demigods and who are impelled by material desire. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam it is instructed that one may worship a certain demigod if he is desirous of achieving some material gain. For example, one is advised to worship the sun-god if he is desirous of getting rid of a diseased condition. For a beautiful wife, one may worship Uma, the wife of Lord Siva, and for advanced education one may worship Sarasvati. There is a similar list for worshipers of all demigods, according to different material desires. But all of these worshipers, although they appear to be very good devotees of the demigods, are still considered to be nondevotees. They cannot be accepted as devotees. The Māyāvādīs (impersonalists) say that one may worship any form of the Lord and that it doesn’t matter, because one reaches the same destination anyway. But it is clearly stated in the Bhagavad-gītā that those who are worshipers of the demigods will ultimately reach only the planets of those demigods, while those who are devotees of the Lord Himself will be promoted to the Lord’s abode, the kingdom of God. So actually these persons who are worshipers of demigods have been condemned in the Gītā. It is described that due to their lusty desires they have lost their intelligence and have therefore taken to worshiping the different demigods. So in the Viṣṇu-rahasya these demigod worshipers are forcefully condemned by the statement that it is better to live with the most dangerous animals than to associate with these persons.