128
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[ Canto 4, Ch. 4 ]
छिन्द्यात्प्रसह्य रुशतीमसतीं प्रभुश्चे-
जिह्वामस्तनपि ततो विसृजेत्स धर्मः॥१७॥
karṇau pidhāya nirayād yad akalpa īśe dharmāvitary asṛṇibhir nṛbhir asyamāne chindyāt prasahya ruśatīm asatīm prabhuś cej jihvām asūn api tato visṛjet sa dharmaḥ
karṇau—both ears; pidhāya—blocking; nirayāt—one should go away; yat—if; akalpaḥ—unable; īśe—the master; dharma-avitari—the controller of religion; asṛṇibhiḥ—by irresponsible; nṛbhiḥ—persons; asyamāne—being blasphemed; chindyāt—he should cut; prasahya—by force; ruśatīm—vilifying; asatīm—of the blasphemer; prabhuḥ—one is able; cet—if; jihvām—tongue; asūn—(his own) life; api—certainly; tataḥ—then; visṛjet—should give up; saḥ—that; dharmaḥ—is the process.
TRANSLATION
Satī continued:  If one hears an irresponsible person blaspheme the master and controller of religion, he should block his ears and go away if he is unable to punish him. But if one is able to kill, then one should by force cut out the blasphemer's tongue and kill the offender, and after that he should give up his own life.
PURPORT
The argument offered by Satī is that a person who vilifies a great personality is the lowest of all creatures. But, by the same argument, Dakṣa could also defend himself by saying that since he was a Prajāpati, the master of many living creatures and one of the great officers of the great universal affairs, his position was so exalted that Satī should accept his good qualities instead of vilifying him. The answer to that argument is that Satī was not vilifying but defending. If possible she should have cut out Dakṣa's tongue because he blasphemed Lord Śiva. In other words, since Lord Śiva is the protector of religion, a person who vilifies him should be killed at once, and after killing such a person, one should give up his life. That is the process, but because Dakṣa happened to be the father of Satī, she decided not to kill him but to give up her own life in order to compensate for the great sin that she had committed by hearing blasphemy of Lord Śiva. The instruction set forth here in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is that one should not tolerate at any cost the activities of a person who vilifies or blasphemes an authority. If one is a  brāhmaṇa  he