yamadūtā ūcuḥ. kati santīha śāstāro. jīva-lokasya vai prabho. trai-vidhyaṁ kurvataḥ karma. phalābhivyakti-hetavaḥ. The servants of Yama said: O master! How many controllers of the jī

yamadūtā ūcuḥ

kati santīha śāstāro

jīva-lokasya vai prabho

trai-vidhyaṁ kurvataḥ karma

phalābhivyakti-hetavaḥ

The servants of Yama said: O master! How many controllers of the jīvas are there in this world, who are causes of manifesting results for action for the jīvas performing action in the three guṇas?

“Though we defeat all others in the world, we have suffered defeat from the four persons with four arms. After punishing them, we will then bring Ajāmila to hell. If we cannot do so, we are servants of a fire fly. After this, we can no longer serve.” Thinking in this way internally, with choked syllables, they then challenged Yamarāja. Traividyam means “three types.”

 

|| 6.3.5 ||

yadi syur bahavo loke

śāstāro daṇḍa-dhāriṇaḥ

kasya syātāṁ na vā kasya

mṛtyuś cāmṛtam eva vā

If there are many controllers who will carry out the punishment, then who will award results for sin and piety and who will not? 

“If there are many controllers, what is the problem?” There are two results for action: hell (mṛtyuḥ) and heaven (amṛtam). Among all the rulers who desire to give these two results, which one will award these results? If there is disagreement, then no one will award results (since opposite results must be awarded). If somehow there is agreement, there will be no question of who awards the results, but all will award results since they are all in agreement. But then again there is a problem (since the award cannot be given many times).

|| 6.3.6 ||

kintu śāstṛ-bahutve syād

bahūnām iha karmiṇām

śāstṛtvam upacāro hi

yathā maṇḍala-vartinām

For managing many people performing actions, there may be many rulers. However, their sense of control is metaphorical, like the control of district leaders in comparison to the control of a king.

“Let there be many rules for handling many people performing actions. There is no fault in that.” Among all the controllers their sense of being the chief controller is metaphorical. For example the controlling power of the regional leaders (maṇḍala-vartinām) is metaphorical, since they do not have independence.

|| 6.3.7 ||