yo 'sau mayÄvidita-tattva-dá¹›Å›Ä sabhÄyÄá¹
ká¹£ipto durukti-viÅ›ikhair vigaṇayya tan mÄm
arvÄk patantam arhattama-nindayÄpÄd
dṛṣá¹yÄrdrayÄ sa bhagavÄn sva-ká¹›tena tuá¹£yet
yaḥ - who; asau - that; mayÄ - by me; avidita-tattva - without knowing the actual fact; dá¹›Å›Ä - by experience; sabhÄyÄm - in the assembly; ká¹£iptaḥ - was abused; durukti - unkind words; viÅ›ikhaiḥ - by the arrows of; vigaṇayya - taking no notice of; tat - that; mÄm - me; arvÄk - downwards; patantam - gliding down to hell; arhat-tama - the most respectable; nindayÄ - by defamation; apÄt - saved; dṛṣá¹yÄ - seeing; ÄrdrayÄ - out of compassion; saḥ - that; bhagavÄn - Your Lordship; sva-ká¹›tena - by your own mercy; tuá¹£yet - be satisfied.
As usual, a devotee in an adverse condition of life accepts such a condition to be the mercy of the Lord. Factually, the insulting words used by Dakṣa against Lord Śiva were enough to have him thrown perpetually into a hellish life. But Lord Śiva, being kind toward him, awarded him punishment to neutralize the offense. King Dakṣa realized this and, feeling obliged for Lord Śiva’s magnanimous behavior, wanted to show his gratitude. Sometimes a father punishes his child, and when the child is grown up and comes to his senses, he understands that the father’s punishment was not actually punishment but mercy. Similarly, Dakṣa appreciated that the punishment offered to him by Lord Śiva was a manifestation of Lord Śiva’s mercy. That is the symptom of a person making progress on the path of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is said that a devotee in Kṛṣṇa consciousness never takes any miserable condition of life to be condemnation by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He accepts the miserable condition to be the grace of the Lord. He thinks, “I would have been punished or put into a more dangerous condition of life due to my past misdeeds, but the Lord has protected me. Thus I have received only a little punishment as token execution of the law of karma.†Thinking of His grace in that way, a devotee always surrenders to the Supreme Personality of Godhead more and more seriously and is not disturbed by such so-called punishment.