Srila Gurudeva: That sage saw that Pariksit Maharaja had put a snake around his neck. He knew. How did he know? Because he used to know past, future, and present. Anyone who will do bhajana, he will be powerful enough to know the past, future and present. You can also know all these things by bhajana. All our acaryas were qualified to know all these things, like Krsna. They were so powerful. Whatever they will say, it will be true. So he saw that Maharaja Pariksit had done this and he rebuked his son, “Oh, you are very ignorant. This had been done by Pariksit. He is so learned. He is the nephew of Krsna. If he is going to die, then the whole world will turn into chaos. It will be destroyed. Brahmanas should be very tolerant. They should have so much forgiveness. Why did you become so angry? Especially brahmacaris should be very tolerant. So why did you become so angry? You should know that tolerance is one of the qualities of a Vaisnava or sadhu.
trnad api sunicena
taror api sahisnuna
amanina manadena
kirtaniyah sada harih
-Sri-Siksastakam 3
[Thinking oneself to be even lower and more worthless than insignificant grass that has been trampled beneath everyone’s feet, being more tolerant than a tree, being prideless and offering respect to everyone according to their respective positions, one should continuously chant the holy name of Sri Hari.]
“You are a brahmana and you have no quality of tolerance? What will happen if he is going to die?” While he was in trance, he saw that by this incident the Srimad-Bhagavatam was going to come into this world. So he became silent. He did not say anything more and he knew all these things; how Pariksit Maharaja will hear the Bhagavatam, how the Srimad-Bhagavatam will come from the mouth of Sukadeva Gosvami, and how he will be liberated. We know that he was already liberated, so this was only like a drama. Krsna is doing all these things. So that sage became silent.
That sage told one of his students, “You should go to Pariksit Maharaja and tell him, ‘In seven days, a serpent will come and he will bite you and you will die. So you should do whatever you want to do. You can do anything.” Hearing this, that student returned to his asrama and Pariksit Maharaja became very happy, very happy. He thought that, “This is not really a curse, but it is a benediction. For a long time I have wanted to give up all these worldly things, this kingdom, reputation, sons, wife and everything. I have wanted to practice bhakti-yoga in a very solitary place in any jungle, but I was involved and going on being involved more and more in all these worldly things. Now I think that it is not a curse but really Krsna has given me this opportunity and I think that this curse is indeed Krsna Himself. So, I must give up all these worldly things and chant and remember and hear the very sweet and very powerful pastimes of Krsna. This is only the way.”
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 3rd, 1998, Malaysia, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 25]