322 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

fire, but at the same time, fire can be extinguished with water. Similarly,
although Lord Brahma was very angry due to his quality of passion, he
could still control his passion because Bhrgumuni was his son.

After testing Lord Brahma, Bhrgumuni went directly to the planet
Kailasa, where Lord Siva resides. Bhrgumuni happened to be Lord Siva’s
brother. Therefore, as soon as Bhrgumuni approached, Lord Siva became
very glad and personally rose to embrace him. But when Lord Siva
approached, Bhrgumuni refused to embrace him. ‘“‘My dear brother,” he
said, ‘“you are always very impure. Because you smear your body with
ashes, you are therefore not very clean. Please do not touch me.” When
Bhrgumuni refused to embrace his brother, saying that Lord Siva was very
impure, the latter became very angry with him. It is said that an offense
can be committed either with the body, with the mind or by speech.
Bhrgumuni’s first offense, committed towards Lord Brahma, was an
offense with the mind. His second offense, committed towards Lord
Siva by insulting him, criticizing him for unclean habits, was an offense
by speech. Because the quality of ignorance is prominent in Lord Siva,
when he heard Bhrgu’s insult, his eyes immediately became red with
anger. With uncontrollable rage, he took up his trident and prepared to
kill Bhrgumuni. At that time, Lord Siva’s wife, Parvati, was present.
Her personality is a mixture of the three qualities, and therefore she is
called Trigunamayi. In this case, she saved the situation by evoking Lord
Siva’s quality of goodness. She fell down at the feet of her husband, and
with her sweet words she talked him out of killing Bhrgumuni.

After being saved from the anger of Lord Siva, Bhrgumuni went
directly to the planet Svetadvipa, where Lord Visnu was lying on a bed of
flowers, accompanied by His wife, the goddess of fortune, who was
engaged in massaging His lotus feet. There Bhrgumuni purposely committed
the greatest sin by offending Lord Visnu by his bodily activities. The first
offense committed by Bhrgumuni was mental, the second offense was
vocal, and the third offense was corporal. These different offenses are
progressively greater in degree. An offense committed within the mind is
a positive offense, the same offense, committed verbally is comparitively
more grave, and when committed by bodily action it is superlative in
offensiveness. So Bhrgumuni committed the greatest offense by touching
the chest of the Lord with his foot in the presence of the goddess of
fortune. Of course, Lord Visnu is all-merciful. He did not become angry
at the activities of Bhrgumuni because Bhrgumuni was a great brahmana.
A brahmana is to be excused even if he sometimes commits an offense,
and Lord Visnu set the example. Yet it is said that from the time of this
