The saga of Daksa

The story of Daksa is a saga of pride, repentance, and mercy. It spans multiple Manvantaras and exemplifies the conflicts of a devotee battling his material desires.

The story of Daksa is narrated in the 4th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Daksa was born as one of the sons of Brahma, with the mission of helping his father to populate the universe with good progeny. He was entrusted the position of the main prajapati of the universe, a position higher than even the demigods. Daksa was extremely powerful, and so effulgent that common people couldn't even look at him.

Daksa had 16 daughters, the youngest of Sati, became the wife of Lord Shiva under the order of Brahma. Daksa however resented this marriage. Because he was so involved in fruitive activities, his spiritual realization was not so great, and as a result he failed to understand the auspicious qualities of Lord Shiva, becoming instead focused on his external habits connected to being the Lord of the demons and spirits.

It is said that for one who is powerful like the sun or the fire, there is no consideration of purity or impurity. The sunshine can sterilize an impure place, whereas a common person residing in such a place would be affected. Similarly, Lord Shiva may stay in crematoriums and smear his body with ashes, and different from an ordinary person this doesn't affect his position of purity. Daksa however couldn't understand that.

Once, when executing a great sacrifice, Daksa felt offended when Lord Shiva didn't get up when he entered the room. Blinded by pride, Daksa saw Lord Shiva as a subordinate (because he had become his son-in-law) and thought he had to offer him respect. Lord Shiva however has no need to do that, because his position is higher than any conditioned soul. Often Vaishnavas offer respect to atheists in higher positions by offering their obeisances to the Supersoul inside the body, but in the case of Lord Shiva, even that was unnecessary because he is constantly offering respects to the Lord in his meditation.

Daksa however saw this as insolence and seriously offended Lord Shiva, cursing him to be deprived of his share in all sacrifices. Tolerant, Lord Shiva left the sacrifice and went back to his abode.

Later, Daksa organized another great sacrifice and Sati desired to go to see her relatives. Even though Lord Shiva tried to persuade her from going, she was determined, and this led to her passing away by incinerating her own body, incapable of tolerating the offenses of her father.

Lord Shiva then decided that enough was enough and created a gigantic demon, Vīrabhadra who, assisted by all the followers of Lord Shiva, stormed the sacrifice of Daksa and killed him by cutting his head and throwing it into the sacrificial fire, as well as punishing the demigods who supported Daksa.

Later, the demigods approached Brahma and were instructed by him to approach Lord Shiva and beg his forgiveness. Quickly satisfied by their prayers, Lord Shiva blessed them and revived Daksa using the head of a goat. Coming back to consciousness, Daksa finally became fully aware of his mistakes and offered heartfelt prayers to Lord Shiva. Following that, he was blessed to perform again his sacrifice, and this time it was a great success, with Lord Vishnu personally appearing to accept his offerings.

Daksa however did not return to his duties after concluding the sacrifice. Having now the head of a goat, he decided to abandon his body, and was later reborn as the only son of the Pracetas and Marisa, as a descendant of Maharaja Uttānapāda. All of this happened in the first Manvantara.

After being reborn, however, Daksa didn't immediately re-assume his duties. In his first birth, Daksa was born as an exalted personality, the direct son of Brahma, but in this second birth he was born as a human child, born from Ksatriyas. To regain his powers, he performed austerities for five Manvantaras (1.533 billion years!) to accumulate pious merits, and was finally reinstated in his former position as a Prajapati in the sixth Manvantara (the Cākṣuṣa Manvantara, the one preceding the current one).

Because Daksa retired before producing any descendants as a Ksatriya, the lineage of Maharaja Uttānapāda and Dhruva Maharaja was broken. This led Brahma and Svāyambhuva Manu to approach Priyavrata and ask him to become the next emperor of Bhu-Mandala, as described in the first chapter of the 5th canto.

The rebirth of Daksa is described at the end of the 4th canto:

"Following the order of Lord Brahmā, all the Pracetās accepted the girl as their wife. From the womb of this girl, the son of Lord Brahmā named Dakṣa took birth. Dakṣa had to take birth from the womb of Māriṣā due to his disobeying and disrespecting Lord Mahādeva [Śiva]. Consequently he had to give up his body twice.

His previous body had been destroyed, but he, the same Dakṣa, inspired by the supreme will, created all the desired living entities in the Cākṣuṣa manvantara.

After being born, Dakṣa, by the superexcellence of his bodily luster, covered all others’ bodily opulence. Because he was very expert in performing fruitive activity, he was called by the name Dakṣa, meaning “the very expert.” Lord Brahmā therefore engaged Dakṣa in the work of generating living entities and maintaining them. In due course of time, Dakṣa also engaged other Prajāpatis [progenitors] in the process of generation and maintenance." (SB 4.30.48-51)

As Prabhupada explains in his purport to SB 4.30.49:

"The controversy of the Dakṣa-yajña took place in the Svāyambhuva manvantara period. As a result, Dakṣa was punished by Lord Śiva, but by virtue of his prayers to Lord Śiva he became eligible to regain his former opulence. According to Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, Dakṣa underwent severe penances up to the fifth manvantara. Thus at the beginning of the sixth manvantara, known as the Cākṣuṣa manvantara, Dakṣa regained his former opulence by the blessings of Lord Śiva."

The description of the story of Daksa is resumed in the 6th canto, in chapters four, five, and six. The events are described out of order, and therefore it can be a little difficult to understand.

After Daksa was again appointed as a Prajapati in the sixth Manvantara, Daksa first created different types of living beings, such as demigods, humans, etc. out of his mind, just as Brahma does.

In verses 6.4.17 and 6.4.18, Sukadeva Goswami brings the attention of the hearer back to the story of Daksa he had started in the 4th canto by saying: "In the womb of that girl the Pracetās all begot a son named Dakṣa, who filled the three worlds with living entities. Please hear from me with great attention how Prajāpati Dakṣa, who was very affectionate to his daughters, created different types of living entities through his semen and through his mind."

Verse 6.4.19 then describes the beginning of the work of Daksa in the 6th Manvantara, creating living entities out of his mind: "With his mind, Prajāpati Dakṣa first created all kinds of demigods, demons, human beings, birds, beasts, aquatics and so on."

However, he was not able to create sufficient population through this process and thus decided to again practice austerities to satisfy the Supreme Lord and be blessed to perform his service. He then went to the mountains to practice austerities. In this process, he offered the Haṁsa-guhya prayers to the Lord (described in SB 6.4), who became satisfied and appeared to him, blessing him to marry Asiknī, the daughter of Prajāpati Pañcajana.

Daksa then begot ten thousand very qualified sons in the womb of his wife, known as the Haryaśvas. Daksa instructed them to practice austerities and prepare to enter family life and assist him in the work of populating the universe, but seeing these very qualified boys, Narada Muni became compassionate and decided to free them from the clutches of material energy. Purified with transcendental knowledge, the boys decided to enter renounced life.

Sad with the loss of his sons, Daksa begot one thousand more sons, known as the Savalāśvas. However, when Narada Muni also delivered them, Daksa again lost his temper and proceeded to offend and curse him, as described in the 5th chapter of the 6th canto.

Narada Muni received knowledge about bhakti from Brahma, while Daksa received knowledge about karma-kanda, the performance of fruitive sacrifices. Therefore, although Daksa is highly elevated in the performance of pious activities, he is a materialist, and can't at all understand pure Vaishnavas such as Lord Shiva and Narada Muni. We can see that even when he approached the Lord, while offering his Haṁsa-guhya prayers and was finally able to meet the Lord in Person, he didn't ask for pure devotional service, instead, he just asked for material blessings.

Daksa exemplifies the neophyte devotee, who although indirectly engaged in devotional service, is still bogged down in material activities and material desires, using the Lord as an order supplier to satisfy his material ambitions. This material pursuit is characterized by the influence of the mode of passion, and passion always comes accompanied by ignorance. This explains how Daksa could act so viciously towards lord Shiva and Narada Muni. There is no information about when he may go back to Godhead. From his pastime, we can learn that a devotee performing service in the mode of ignorance is not rejected by Krsna but he may have to face adverse results due to his offenses and remain in this material world for a long time.

Back to the story, Daksa then proceeded to beget 60 daughters, whom, being girls, Daksa was sure Narada would not try to instruct. These daughters were given in marriage to great personalities and through them, Daksa was finally able to fulfill his ambition of populating the universe. Prabhupada describes it in short in his introduction to chapter 6.6:

"Prajāpati Dakṣa begot sixty daughters in the womb of his wife Asiknī. These daughters were given in charity to various persons to increase the population. Since these offspring of Dakṣa were women, Nārada Muni did not try to lead them toward the renounced order of life. Thus the daughters were saved from Nārada Muni. Ten of the daughters were given in marriage to Dharmarāja, thirteen to Kaśyapa Muni, and twenty-seven to the moon-god, Candra. In this way fifty daughters were distributed, and of the other ten daughters, four were given to Kaśyapa and two each to Bhūta, Aṅgirā and Kṛśāśva. One should know that it is because of the union of these sixty daughters with various exalted personalities that the entire universe was filled with various kinds of living entities, such as human beings, demigods, demons, beasts, birds and serpents."

This chapter describes in detail how the daughters of Daksa generated all kinds of living beings, rapidly increasing the population of the universe. Although the universe was never empty, it appears that the population had become much smaller during the first five manvantaras, to the point that when the Pracetas came out of the lake where they were meditating, the Earth was practically uninhabited and covered by trees.

This offers also some explanation for why there is no geological evidence for advanced species of life on our planet until about 800 million years ago. According to the chronology offered in the Srimad Bhagavatam (taking into consideration the Sridhara Swami's factor of two) this coincides with the daughters of Daksa filling the universe with all species of life.

Kaśyapa Muni married several of Daksa's daughters, including Diti and Aditi. This connects the story with the events described in the third canto, of Hiranyaksa and Hiranyakasipu being born from Diti and the appearance of Lord Varaha. Although described in the third canto, these are relatively recent events, that happened in the 6th Manvantara, after the conclusion of the saga of Daksa.