Śakra and Prahlāda

In the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata, in the Mokshadharma Parva (Chapter 222), Indra (Śakra) goes to Prahlāda, the great daitya king. Prahlāda has lost his empire and all his rank, yet he sits calm. Indra asks where this calm comes from. Prahlāda answers that the ātmā is not the doer, that prakṛti alone acts, that svabhāva (one’s own nature) is the ground of all arising, and that the Paramabrahman is the one source of all arising and passing away. Bhīshma tells this to Yudhishṭhira.

Where it stands

This dialogue comes in a run of Mokshadharma Parva accounts about beings who have lost great power and yet keep perfect calm. The account just before it is the dialogue of the ajagara-vṛtti brāhmaṇa (Chapter 179), in which a king questions a brāhmaṇa who has given up all effort. Here, Indra questions Prahlāda in his fallen state. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 222)

Indra’s question

Indra sees Prahlāda, once the conqueror of all three lokas and worshipped by the lords of the dānavas, now without his empire and all its splendour. Yet Prahlāda sits in perfect śānti (peace), undisturbed. Indra is truly puzzled. He goes to him and asks:

“O Prahlāda, you have been stripped of your empire and of all the things that men prize. How do you remain unshaken? From what source does this wonderful śānti of yours arise?”

The question is an honest one, not a taunt. Indra is asking for the teaching. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 222)

Prahlāda’s teaching

The ātmā is not the doer

Prahlāda’s first point is that the ātmā does not act. What looks like action, such as moving, speaking, deciding, winning and losing, is the work of prakṛti alone. The ātmā is the witness, and prakṛti is the doer. When this is clearly seen, the question “Why am I suffering?” has no ground, because there is no “I” that acts or suffers. Prahlāda has seen this directly.

“O Śakra, I do not grieve. For I know it is not I who acted, and it is not I who lost. Action belongs to prakṛti. The ātmā is akartā (not the doer). When this is clearly grasped, what reason is left for grief?”

Svabhāva as the ground of all arising

Prahlāda teaches that svabhāva, the nature of each thing, is the final ground of how things arise and pass away. The brāhmaṇa in the ajagara-vṛtti account taught that all things arise animittataḥ (without a separate cause). In the same way, Prahlāda says that the svabhāva of each being fixes its place, its actions and its results. This is not the fixed order of the materialist. It is the order of the whole creation, including karma and its fruits, which comes from something deeper than a person’s own will.

Freedom from ahaṃkāra

The pain of loss is rooted in ahaṃkāra, the sense of being the author and owner. “I built this empire. I am the conqueror. I am the ruler of the three worlds.” When ahaṃkāra is seen as mithyā (false), as the “I-maker” laid over what is really the play of prakṛti, loss cannot touch the true svarūpa (own form) of the person. Prahlāda’s calm does not come from holding grief down. It comes from seeing that the one who grieves was never real.

The Paramabrahman as source

Prahlāda ends by pointing to the Paramabrahman as the final ground, the source from which all creation arises and into which all dissolves. Seeing the Paramabrahman as the one reality behind all arising and passing away, Prahlāda sees nothing that is his to guard or to mourn. The empire arose from the Paramabrahman, and it has dissolved back into the Paramabrahman. The witness who sees this dissolution is himself the Paramabrahman. There is no separate being left to grieve. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 222)

Indra’s reply

Indra heard Prahlāda’s teaching and left. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 222)

Its place among the dialogues

The ajagara-vṛtti account (Chapter 179) comes before this dialogue. The Bali-Vāsava dialogue (Chapters 223–227) comes after it. In the Bali-Vāsava dialogue, Bali, in even harsher loss, teaches Indra the same truths about kāla and the ātmā as non-doer. In these dialogues, the daitya kings teach the king of the devas.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 222
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 179 (the ajagara-vṛtti brāhmaṇa, mentioned)
• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapters 223–227 (the Bali-Vāsava dialogue, mentioned)