Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

of Devala Rsi, who was also taking a bath in the water. Upon this, the sagebecame very angry and immediately cursed him to become a crocodile. King Huhuwas very sorry when cursed in that way, and he begged pardon from the sage, whoin compassion gave him the benediction that he would be freed when Gajendra wasdelivered by the Personality of Godhead. Thus the crocodile was delivered whenkilled by Narayana."In the purport to verse 1 of this chapter, Srila Prabhupada states:"Indradyumna, in his birth as an elephant, attained salvation and became apersonal associate of the Lord in Vaikuntha, and the crocodile regained hisstatus as a Gandharva."As you point out, the purport to verse 4 says Huhu was promoted to the spiritualworld, while verse 5 states that when his crocodile body was destroyed, MaharajaHuhu resumed his original form as a Gandharva and thereafter returned toGandharvaloka.So two things are at work simultaneously. One is the curse of the sage, and theother is the mercy of the Supreme Lord. After beány cursed, Maharaja Huhubegged the sage for forgiveness and thus the chance to resume his formeridentity as a Gandharva. So the sage blessed him that he would be freed fromthe crocodile form when Miller by the Lord. Thus Huhu would return toGandharvaloka after the curse had run its course. The Lord does not contradictthe blessings of the rsis. Therefore when Huhu was delivered by the Lord, theLord accepted him as a resident of the spiritual world but let the sage'sblessing also take effect, by which Huhu was returned to Gandharvaloka.In the case of Maharaja Indradyumna, Sage Agastya did not make a provision forthe lifting of the curse because Indradyumna did not ask him to, since the kingaccepted the curse as the will of the Lord. So the result was that Indradyumalived out all his karmic reactions in the form of Gajendra and then wentstraight back home, Back to Godhead, when he was delivered by Lord Narayana.Comments by Diviratha dasJanuary 16, 1995Your mentioning of the introduction of Chapter 4 of the 8th Canto reminds me ofanother question. Is it right that these introductions or summarizations werewritten by a sannyasi disciple of Srila Prabhupada? That is what I heard from adevotee, who worked closely with this sannyasi as he was preaching in Centraland Northern Europe.Answer by Suhotra SwamiJanuary 16, 1995I do not know. If I were you, I would direct this question to a BBT Trustee, ora BBT editor like Jayadvaita Maharaja or Dravida Prabhu.But actually, if I were really you I wouldn't consider this question worthasking. The cover of any volume of the Srimad Bhagavatam states very clearlywho the author of the book is. We know that Prabhupada had assistants inpreparing the Bhagavatam, i.e. in the matter of checking the Sanskrit-Englishsynonyms, English editing, etc. But the final produkt is credited to SrilaPrabhupada alone. That includes the chapter summaries. Perhaps a disciple ofSrila Prabhupada wrote the summaries under his direction. I don't know. All Iknow is the final credit goes to Srila Prabhupada.This line of inquiry -- who really did what in putting together the SrimadBhagavatam or any of Prabhupada's BBT publications -- seems innocent and may