Text 36] Hiranyakasipu, King of the Demons 95
queens continued lamenting for the dead body, the lump of matter, and
would not allow it to be taken away for burning. This illustrates the
strong grip of illusion among foolish persons who consider the body the
self. Women are generally considered less intelligent. Because of ig-
norance only, the queens thought of the dead body as their husband and
somehow or other thought that if the body were kept their husband
would remain with them. Such a conception of the self is certainly for go-
khara—cows and asses. We have actually seen that sometimes when a
cow’s calf has died the milkman cheats the cow by presenting before her
the dead body of her calf. Thus the cow, who would not otherwise allow
milking, licks the dead body of the calf and allows herself to be milked.
This substantiates the description of the sastra that a foolish man in the
bodily concept of life is like a cow. Not only do foolish men and women
consider the body the self, but we have even seen that the dead body of a
so-called yogi was kept for days by his disciples, who thought that their
guru was in samadhi. When decomposition began and a bad smell unfor-
tunately began to overwhelm the yogic power, the disciples allowed the
dead body of the so-called yogi to be burned. Thus the bodily concept of
life is extremely strong among foolish persons, who are compared to cows
and asses. Nowadays, great scientists are trying to freeze dead bodies so
that in the future these frozen bodies may again be brought to life. The
incident narrated by Hiranyakasipu from history must have taken place
millions of years ago because Hiranyakasipu lived millions of years ago
and was even then quoting from history. Thus the incident occurred
before Hiranyakasipu’s lifetime, but the same ignorance in the bodily
concept of life is still prevalent, not only among laymen but even among
scientists who think they will be able to revive frozen corpses.

Apparently the queens did not want to deliver the dead body for burn-
ing because they were afraid of dying with the dead body of their
husband.

TEXT 36
at & Rarer AAA Ay |
ME TAN SH YA TA BAZIN 112811
tatra ha preta-bandhindm
GSsrutya paridevitam
