Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 8.23.15

śrī-śukra uvāca

kutas tat-karma-vaiṣamyaḿ

yasya karmeśvaro bhavān

yajñeśo yajña-puruṣaḥ

sarva-bhāvena pūjitaḥ

SYNONYMS

śrī-śukraḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukrācārya said; kutaḥ — where is that; tat — of him (Bali Mahārāja); karma-vaiṣamyam — discrepancy in discharging fruitive activities; yasya — of whom (Bali Mahārāja); karma-īśvaraḥ — the master of all fruitive activities; bhavān — Your Lordship; yajña-īśaḥ — You are the enjoyer of all sacrifices; yajña-puruṣaḥ — You are the person for whose pleasure all sacrifices are offered; sarva-bhāvena — in all respects; pūjitaḥ — having worshiped.

TRANSLATION

Śukrācārya said: My Lord, You are the enjoyer and lawgiver in all performances of sacrifice, and You are the yajña-puruṣa, the person to whom all sacrifices are offered. If one has fully satisfied You, where is the chance of discrepancies or faults in his performances of sacrifice?

PURPORT

In Bhagavad-gītā (5.29) the Lord says, bhoktāraḿ yajña-tapasāḿ sarva-loka-maheśvaram: the Lord, the supreme proprietor, is the actual person to he satisfied by the performance of yajñas. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa (3.8.9) says:

varṇāśramācāravatā

puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān

viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā

nanyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

All the Vedic ritualistic sacrifices are performed for the purpose of satisfying Lord Viṣṇu, the yajña-puruṣa. The divisions of society — brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa — are all meant to satisfy the Supreme Lord, Viṣṇu. To act according to this principle of the varṇāśrama institution is called varṇāśramācaraṇa. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.13), Sūta Gosvāmī says:

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā

varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya

saḿsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

"O best among the twice-born, it is therefore concluded that the highest perfection one can achieve by discharging his prescribed duties according to caste divisions and orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead." Everything is meant to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, since Bali Mahārāja had satisfied the Lord, he had no faults, and Śukrācārya admitted that cursing him was not good.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness