sandhÄŤyamÄne Ĺirasi
dakᚣo rudrÄbhivÄŤkᚣitaḼ
sadyaḼ supta ivottasthau
dadášĹe cÄgrato mášá¸am
sandhÄŤyamÄne - being executed; Ĺirasi - by the head; dakᚣaḼ - King Dakᚣa; rudra-abhivÄŤkᚣitaḼ - having been seen by Rudra (Lord Ĺiva); sadyaḼ - immediately; supte - sleeping; iva - like; uttasthau - awakened; dadášĹe - saw; ca - also; agrataḼ - in front; mášá¸am - Lord Ĺiva.
The example given here is that Dakᚣa got up as if he were awakened from deep sleep. In Sanskrit this is called supta ivottasthau. The meaning is that after a man awakens from sleep, he immediately remembers all the duties which he must execute. Dakᚣa was killed, and his head was taken away and burned to ashes. His body was lying dead, but by the grace of Lord Ĺiva, as soon as the head of a goat was joined to the body, Dakᚣa came back to consciousness again. This indicates that consciousness is also individual. Dakᚣa actually took another body when he took on the head of a goat, but because consciousness is individual, his consciousness remained the same although his bodily condition changed. Thus bodily construction has nothing to do with the development of consciousness. Consciousness is carried with the transmigration of the soul. There are many instances of this in Vedic history, such as the case of MahÄrÄja Bharata. After quitting his body as a king, MahÄrÄja Bharata was transferred to the body of a deer, but he retained the same consciousness. He knew that although formerly he was King Bharata, he had been transferred to the body of a deer because of his absorption in thinking of a deer at the time of his death. In spite of his having the body of a deer, however, his consciousness was as good as it was in the body of King Bharata. The arrangement by the Lord is so nice that if a personâs consciousness is turned into KášášŁáša consciousness, there is no doubt that in his next life he will be a great devotee of KášášŁáša, even if he is offered a different type of body.