Text 26] Bhisma’s Passing Away 469
Bhismadeva. This is all due to the arrangement of the great wheel-carrier
Lord Sri Krsna, who establishes the glories of His devotee. The father
likes to see the son become more famous than himself. The Lord declares
very emphatically that worship of His devotee is more valuable than the
worship of the Lord Himself.
TEXT 26
s
gorenrrafateary TIAN AAVAAY |
TE RUMNTEPAAAATIT AT RAI
purusa-svabhava-vihitan
yatha-varnam yathasramam
vairdgya-ragopadhibh yam
amnatobhaya-laksanan
purusa—the human being; svabhadva—by his own acquired qualities;
vihitan— prescribed; yath@—as it is; varnam—classification of castes; yatha—
as it is; @8ramam—orders of life; vairagya—detachment; raga—attachment;
upadhibhyam—out of such designations; dmndata—systematically; ubhaya—
both; laksanan—sy mptoms.
TRANSLATION
At Maharaja Yudhisthira’s inquiry, Bhismadeva first of all defined all
the classifications of castes and orders of life in terms of the individual’s
qualifications. Then he systematically, in twofold divisions, described
counteraction by detachment and interaction by attachment.
PURPORT
The conception of four castes and four orders of life, as planned by the
Lord Himself (Bg. 4.13) is to accelerate transcendental qualities of the
individual person so that he may gradually realize his spiritual identification
and thus act accordingly to get free from material bondage or conditional
life. In almost all the Puranas the subject matter is described in the same
spirit, and so also in the Mahabharata-it-is more elaborately described by
Bhismadeva in the Santi-parva beginning from the Sixtieth Chapter.
The varnasrama-dharma is prescribed for the civilized human being just
to train him to successfully terminate human life. Self-realization is
