Vaijayantimala devi dasi

Hare Krishna Prabhujis and Matajis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

In the recent offering titled, "Offer All Respect to Others" HG Sudarshana devi dasi mataji mentioned about the importance of respectful dealings with  everyone  and how we should never behave in a way belittling others in any way. In Srimad Bhagavatam 5.5.26  Lord Rshabhadeva gives the following  instruction to His sons. 

sarvāṇi mad-dhiṣṇyatayā bhavadbhiś
carāṇi bhūtāni sutā dhruvāṇi
sambhāvitavyāni pade pade vo
vivikta-dṛgbhis tad u hārhaṇaṁ me

My dear sons, you should not envy any living entity—be he moving or nonmoving. Knowing that I am situated in them, you should offer respect to all of them at every moment. In this way, you offer respect to Me. 

In the synonyms, we find that Srila Prabhupada writes vivikta-dṛgbhis means possessing clear vision and understanding that the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His Paramatma feature is situated everywhere. In the purport he writes, "According to the Vedic statement: īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvam [Ishopanishad mantra 1]. The Supreme Lord is situated everywhere, and wherever He is situated is His temple. We even offer respects to a temple from a distant place, and all living entities should similarly be offered respect.

In the granthraj offering, mataji had referred how Saubhari muni failed to pay respects to Garuda who is a direct servitor of the Supreme Lord. Instead in the name of being compassionate to the fishes, he cursed Garuda. There is a beautiful incident in which we see the respectful dealing by Garuda. Garuda’s mother Vinata has been enslaved by Kadru, the latter having resorted to deception, to make Vinata her slave. Kadru stipulated that the only way for Vinata to be liberated is for Garuda to get the pot of nectar which Indra keeps in his kingdom. The nectar is safeguarded carefully by Indra. But Garuda deals with all the barriers easily, and also defeats every celestial who stands in his way. 

Indra, observing Garuda flying with great speed, hurled his Vajra weapon towards the bird. Garuda, despite being struck with the weapon, smiled and told Indra in polite words, “O King of the Devas, I respect the rishi (Dadhici) from whose backbone this Vajra weapon was made; I respect you too. To honour this, I will shed a single feather. But know that I have not felt any pain due to this weapon”. Saying this Garuda dropped a single feather. Beholding this act and seeing the beautiful feather, all the creatures became excited, and said, “Let this bird of beautiful feather be called ‘Suparna’ (one of fair feathers)”  We see that the Lord declares in Srimad Bhagavad gIta 10.28 - “āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ Of weapons I am the thunderbolt.” This is the respect, the Lord has for the weapon, considering the ultimate sacrifice of  sage Dadhici. Reminded of this, we see that Garuda offers his honor and respect for the weapon which represents the great sage.

Krishna willing we shall try to see few more examples from scriptures which reveal to us the importance of respecting everyone.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev,
Vaijayantimala devi dasi
Chennai


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