Text 6] Maharaja Rahiigana Meets Jada Bharata 341
carried this palanquin alone without assistance for a long time and
for a long distance. Besides that, due to your old age you have
become greatly troubled. My dear friend, I see that you are not
very firm, nor very strong and stout. Aren’t your fellow carriers
cooperating with you?

In this way the King criticized Jada Bharata with sarcastic words,
yet despite being criticized in this way, Jada Bharata had no bodily
conception of the situation. He knew that he was not the body, for
he had attained his spiritual identity. He was neither fat, lean nor
thin, nor had he anything to do with a lump of matter, a combina-
tion of the five gross and three subtle elements. He had nothing to
do with the material body and its two hands and legs. In other
words, he had completely realized his spiritual identity [aharn
brahmasmi]. He was therefore unaffected by this sarcastic criticism
from the King. Without saying anything, he continued carrying
the palanquin as before.

PURPORT

Jada Bharata was completely liberated. He did not even care when the
dacoits attempted to kill his body; he knew that he certainly was not the
body. Even if the body were killed, he would not have cared, for he was
thoroughly convinced of the proposition found in Bhagavad-gita (2.20):
na hanyate hanyaméne Sarire. He knew that he could not be killed even
if his body were killed. Although he did not protest, the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead in His agent could not tolerate the injustice of the
dacoits; therefore he was saved by the mercy of Krsna, and the dacoits
were killed. In this case, while carrying the palanquin, he also knew that
he was not the body. This body was very strong and stout, in sound con-
dition and quite competent to carry the palanquin. Due to his being freed
from the bodily conception, the sarcastic words of the King did not at all
affect him. The body is created according to one’s karma, and material
nature supplies the ingredients for the development of a certain type of
body. The soul the body covers is different from the bodily construction:
therefore anything favorable or mischievous done to the body does not
affect the spirit soul. The Vedic injunction is asarigo hy ayam purusah:
the spirit soul is always unaffected by material arrangements.
