Duty of Yamaraja

Expressions researched:
"duty of the Yamaraja" |"duty of Yamaraja"

SB Canto 1

Being a mahājana, it is the duty of Yamarāja to preach the cult of devotion to the people of the world, as Nārada, Brahmā, and other mahājanas do

SB 1.13.15, Purport: According to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, anyone who is conversant in the transcendental knowledge, or the science of Godhead, be he a brahmana or a sudra, a householder or a sannyasi, is eligible to become a spiritual master. Even in the ordinary moral codes (maintained by Canakya Pandita, the great politician and moralist) there is no harm in taking lessons from a person who may be by birth less than a sudra. This is one part of the answer. The other is that Vidura was not actually a sudra. He was to play the part of a so-called sudra for one hundred years, being cursed by Manduka Muni. He was the incarnation of Yamaraja, one of the twelve mahajanas, on the level with such exalted personalities as Brahma, Narada, Siva, Kapila, Bhisma, Prahlada, etc. Being a mahajana, it is the duty of Yamaraja to preach the cult of devotion to the people of the world, as Narada, Brahma, and other mahajanas do. But Yamaraja is always busy in his plutonic kingdom punishing the doers of sinful acts. Yamaraja is deputed by the Lord to a particular planet, some hundreds of thousands of miles away from the planet of earth, to take away the corrupt souls after death and convict them in accordance with their respective sinful activities. Thus Yamaraja has very little time to take leave from his responsible office of punishing the wrongdoers. There are more wrongdoers than righteous men. Therefore Yamaraja has to do more work than other demigods who are also authorized agents of the Supreme Lord. But he wanted to preach the glories of the Lord, and therefore by the will of the Lord he was cursed by Manduka Muni to come into the world in the incarnation of Vidura and work very hard as a great devotee. Such a devotee is neither a sudra nor a brahmana. He is transcendental to such divisions of mundane society, just as the Personality of Godhead assumes His incarnation as a hog, but He is neither a hog nor a Brahma. He is above all mundane creatures. The Lord and His different authorized devotees sometimes have to play the role of many lower creatures to claim the conditioned souls, but both the Lord and His pure devotees are always in the transcendental position. When Yamaraja thus incarnated himself as Vidura, his post was officiated by Aryama, one of the many sons of Kasyapa and Aditi. The Adityas are sons of Aditi, and there are twelve Adityas. Aryama is one of the twelve Adityas, and therefore it was quite possible for him to take charge of the office of Yamaraja during his one hundred years' absence in the form of Vidura. The conclusion is that Vidura was never a sudra, but was greater than the purest type of brahmana.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

So in other words, it is the duty of the Yamarāja to see that everyone is becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious

Lecture on SB 1.16.8 -- Los Angeles, January 5, 1974: So Yamaraja is a great devotee Vaisnava. We should not be afraid of Yamaraja. Those who are devotees, they are... Yamaraja says that "I offer them respect, my obeisances." He advised his messengers that "Don't go to my devotees. They are to be offered respect by me. You go to persons who are reluctant to chant Hare Krsna mantra. You go there and bring them here for judgment." The Christian also believe, "the day of judgment." The judgment is given by Yamaraja. But who goes to his court for judgment? The criminals, those who are not devotees, those who are not Krsna conscious, they go to the court of Yamaraja.

So in other words, it is the duty of the Yamaraja to see that everyone is becoming Krsna conscious. That is his duty, just as the police department's duty is to see that everyone is law-abiding, acting according to the law of the state. Police is not anyone's enemy. He is enemy to the criminals, not to the law-abiding citizens. I have seen it, personal experience. In one of my friend's house there was burglary. The police inquiry was there. So we were going in another's house, the policemen and we also. So we saw in distant place a few men were fleeing. They were going away, hastily running away. So I inquired the police, "Why these people are running away?" So he answered, "You do not know Babaji, that they are criminals. Because we are passing, they are thinking, 'Now the police is coming to arrest us,' although there is no purpose. How one can arrest? But they are..." What is called, this? Culprit mind is always suspicious. Because they are culprit, criminals, as soon as they saw, "The policeman is coming," they began to go away, run away.

So Yamaraja is not to be afraid by the devotees. This is the purpose. And it is the Yamaraja's duty to see that these rascals who have forgotten Krsna, or God, and come here to enjoy material sense gratification, they must be punished. Because material sense gratification is always sinful. We may create so many artificial laws, "This is good, and this is bad." Just like in your country, drinking is good. And in some other country, drinking is bad. In your country, meat-eating is no offense. But in the Vedic civilization, meat-eating is one of the foremost sinful activities. So here the so-called "good" and "bad," they are all mental creation. Otherwise, everything is bad, nothing good. Here, only goodness is to become Krsna conscious.