900 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 17
PURPORT

The Vaisnavites or the devotees of the Lord do believe, as above ex-
plained, that nothing can take place without the sanction of the Supreme
Lord. He is the supreme director, for He confirms in the Bhagavad-gita
(Bg. 15.15) that He, as all-pervading Paramatma, stays in each and every-
one’s heart and keeps vigilance over all actions and witnesses all activities.
The argument of the atheist that one cannot be punished for one’s mis-
deeds, unless proved before a qualified justice, is refuted herein, for we
accept the perpetual witness and constant companion of the living being.
A living being may forget all that he might have done in his past or present
life, but one must know that in the same tree of the material body, the
individual soul and the Supreme Soul as Paramatmi are sitting like two
birds. One of them, the living being, is enjoying the fruits of the tree,
whereas the Supreme Being is there to witness the activities. Therefore the
Paramatma feature or the Supreme Soul is actually the witness of all
activities of the living being, and by His direction only the living being can
remember or forget what he might have done in the past. He is, therefore,
both the all-pervading impersonal Brahman and the localized Paramatma
in everyone’s heart. He is the knower of all past, present and future, and
nothing can be concealed from Him. The devotees know this truth, and
therefore they discharge their duties sincerely, without being overly
anxious for rewards. Besides that, one cannot estimate the Lord’s reactions
either by speculation or by scholarship. Why does He put some into
difficulty and not others? He is the supreme knower of the Vedic know-
ledge, and thus He is the factual Vedantist. At the same time He is the
compiler of the Vedanta. No one is independent of Him, and everyone is
engaged in His service in different ways. In the conditioned state, such
services are rendered by the living being under force by the material nature,
whereas in the liberated state the living being is helped by the spiritual
nature in the voluntary loving service of the Lord. There is no incongruity
or inebriety in His actions. All are on the path of Absolute Truth.
Bhismadeva correctly estimated the inconceivable actions of the Lord.
The conclusion is, therefore, that the sufferings of the representative of
religion and the representative of the earth, as present before Maharaja
Pariksit, are planned in order to prove that Maharaja Pariksit was the ideal
executive head, for he knew well how to give protection to the cows (the
earth) and the brahmanas (religious principles), the two pillars of spiritual
advancement. Everyone is under the full control of the Lord. He is quite
correct in His action when He desires something to be done by someone,
irrespective of the consideration of the particular case. Maharaja Pariksit
