Why it is important to follow the perfect?
The modern English law of primogeniture, or the law of inheritance by the firstborn, was also prevalent in those days when Maharaja Yudhisthira ruled the earth and seas. In those days the King of Hastinapura (now part of New Delhi) was the emperor of the world, including the seas, up to the time of Maharaja Pariksit, the grandson of Maharaja Yudhisthira. Maharaja Yudhisthira’s younger brothers were acting as his ministers and commanders of state, and there was full cooperation between the perfectly religious brothers of the King. Maharaja Yudhisthira was the ideal king or representative of Lord Sri Krishna to rule over the kingdom of earth and was comparable to King Indra, the representative ruler of the heavenly planets. The demigods like Indra, Candra, Surya, Varuna, and Vayu are representative kings of different planets of the universe, and similarly, Maharaja Yudhisthira was also one of them, ruling over the kingdom of the earth. Maharaja Yudhisthira was not a typically unenlightened political leader of modern democracy. Maharaja Yudhisthira was instructed by Bhismadeva and the infallible Lord also, and therefore he had full knowledge of everything in perfection.
The modern elected executive head of a state is just like a puppet because he has no kingly power. Even if he is enlightened like Maharaja Yudhisthira, he cannot do anything out of his own good will due to his constitutional position. Therefore, there are so many states over the earth quarreling because of ideological differences or other selfish motives. But a king like Maharaja Yudhisthira had no ideology of his own. He had but to follow the instructions of the infallible Lord and the Lord’s representative and the authorized agent, Bhismadeva. It is instructed in the sastras that one should follow the great authority and the infallible Lord without any personal motive and manufactured ideology. Therefore, it was possible for Maharaja Yudhisthira to rule the whole world, including the seas because the principles were infallible and universally applicable to everyone. The conception of one world state can only be fulfilled if we can follow the infallible authority. An imperfect human being cannot create an ideology acceptable to everyone. Only the perfect and the infallible can create a program which is applicable at every place and can be followed by all in the world. It is the person who rules and not the impersonal government. If the person is perfect, the government is perfect. If the person is a fool, the government is a fool’s paradise. That is the law of nature. There are so many stories of imperfect kings or executive heads. Therefore, the executive head must be a trained person like Maharaja Yudhisthira, and he must have the full autocratic power to rule over the world. The conception of a world state can take shape only under the regime of a perfect king like Maharaja Yudhisthira. The world was happy in those days because there were kings like Maharaja Yudhisthira to rule over the world.
Source: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (2014 edition), “Srimad Bhagavatam”, First Canto, Chapter 10 – Text 3
