एवं गिरित्रः प्रिययाभिभाषितः
प्रत्यभ्यधत्त प्रहसन्सुहृत्प्रियः ।
संस्मारितो मर्मभिदः कुवागिषून्
यानाह को विश्वसृजां समक्षतः ॥१५॥
ṛṣir uvÄca
evaá¹ giritraḥ priyayÄbhibhÄá¹£itaḥ
pratyabhyadhatta prahasan suhṛt-priyaḥ
saá¹smÄrito marma-bhidaḥ kuvÄg-iṣūn
yÄn Äha ko viÅ›va-sá¹›jÄá¹ samaká¹£ataḥ
ṛṣiḥ uvÄca - the great sage Maitreya said; evam - thus; giritraḥ - Lord Åšiva; priyayÄ - by his dear wife; abhibhÄá¹£itaḥ - being spoken to; pratyabhyadhatta - replied; prahasan - while smiling; suhá¹›t-priyaḥ - dear to the relatives; saá¹smÄritaḥ - remembering; marma-bhidaḥ - heart piercing; kuvÄk-iṣūn - malicious words; yÄn - which (words); Äha - said; kaḥ - who (Daká¹£a); viÅ›va-sá¹›jÄm - of the creators of the universal manifestation; samaká¹£ataḥ - in the presence.
The great sage Maitreya said: Lord Åšiva, the deliverer of the hill KailÄsa, having thus been addressed by his dear wife, replied smilingly, although at the same time he remembered the malicious, heart-piercing speeches delivered by Daká¹£a before the guardians of the universal affairs.
When Lord Åšiva heard from his wife about Daká¹£a, the psychological effect was that he immediately remembered the strong words spoken against him in the assembly of the guardians of the universe, and, remembering those words, he was sorry at heart, although to please his wife he smiled. In Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ it is said that a liberated person is always in mental equilibrium in both the distress and the happiness of this material world. Therefore the question may now be raised why a liberated personality like Lord Åšiva was so unhappy because of the words of Daká¹£a. The answer is given by ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura: Lord Åšiva is ÄtmÄrÄma, or situated in complete self-realization, but because he is the incarnation in charge of the material mode of ignorance, tamo-guṇa, he is sometimes affected by the pleasure and pain of the material world. The difference between the pleasure and pain of this material world and that of the spiritual world is that in the spiritual world the effect is qualitatively absolute. Therefore one may feel sorry in the absolute world, but the manifestation of so-called pain is always full of bliss. For instance, once Lord Kṛṣṇa, in His childhood, was chastised by His mother, YaÅ›odÄ, and Lord Kṛṣṇa cried. But although He shed tears from His eyes, this is not to be considered a reaction of the mode of ignorance, for the incident was full of transcendental pleasure. When Kṛṣṇa was playing in so many ways, sometimes it appeared that He caused distress to the gopÄ«s, but actually such dealings were full of transcendental bliss. That is the difference between the material and spiritual worlds. The spiritual world, where everything is pure, is pervertedly reflected in this material world. Since everything in the spiritual world is absolute, in the spiritual varieties of apparent pleasure and pain there is no perception other than eternal bliss, whereas in the material world, because everything is contaminated by the modes of material nature, there are feelings of pleasure and pain. Therefore because Lord Åšiva, although a fully self-realized person, was in charge of the material mode of ignorance, he felt sorrow.
