74
Krṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
are unlimited. You are the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Supreme Brahman. I therefore offer my respectful obeisances unto You again and again. My dear Lord, Your body is full of transcendental bliss and knowledge, and You are eternal. You are the master of all mystic powers; therefore You are known as Yogeśvara. Kindly accept me as insignificant dust at Your lotus feet.”
Before entering the heavenly planets, King Nṛga circumambulated the Lord. He touched his helmet to the lotus feet of the Lord and bowed before Him. Seeing the airplane from the heavenly planets present before him, he was given permission by the Lord to board it. After the departure of King Nṛga, Lord Krṣṇa expressed His appreciation for the King’s devotion to the  brāhmaṇas  as well as his charitable disposition and his performance of Vedic rituals. Therefore, it is recommended that if one cannot directly become a devotee of the Lord, one should follow the Vedic principles of life. This will enable him, one day, to see the Lord by being promoted either directly to the spiritual kingdom or indirectly to the heavenly kingdom, where he has hope of being transferred to the spiritual planets.
At this time, Lord Krṣṇa was present among His relatives who were members of the  kṣatriya  class. To teach them through the exemplary character of King Nṛga, He said: “Even though a  kṣatriya  king may be as powerful as fire, it is not possible for him to usurp the property of a  brāhmaṇa  and utilize it for his own purpose. If this is so, how can ordinary kings, who falsely think of themselves as the most powerful beings within the material world, usurp a  brāhmaṇa ’s property? I do not think that taking poison is as dangerous as taking a  brāhmaṇa ’s property. For ordinary poison there is treatment—one can be relieved from its effects; but if one drinks the poison of taking a  brāhmaṇa ’s property, there is no remedy for the mistake. The perfect example was King Nṛga. He was very powerful and very pious, but due to the small mistake of unknowingly usurping a  brāhmaṇa ’s cow, he was condemned to the abominable life of a lizard. Ordinary poison affects only those who drink it, and ordinary fire can be extinguished simply by pouring water on it; but the  araṇi  fire ignited by the spiritual potency of a  brāhmaṇa  can burn to ashes the whole family of a person who provokes such a  brāhmaṇa .” (Formerly, the  brāhmaṇas  used to ignite the fire of sacrifice not with matches or any other external fire but with their powerful  mantras , called  araṇi .) “If someone even touches a  brāhmaṇa ’s property, he is ruined for three generations. However, if a  brāhmaṇa ’s property is forcibly taken away, the taker’s family for ten generations before him and for ten generations after him will become