¹ This graphic description of Śūrpaṇakhā’s fate can be taken as an impetus to remember that one should never even attempt to harm the beloved devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who do so out of pride will be physically punished by the Supreme Lord, just as animals are punished with a stick—paśūnāṁ laguḍo yathā—as Lord Balarāma says in Śrimad-Bhāgavatam 10.68.31. Prabhupāda has paraphrased Lord Balarāma’s thoughts in this regard in his Kṛṣṇa book: “It is true that if a man becomes too much puffed up because of his family, opulence, beauty and material advancement, he no longer wants a peaceful life but becomes belligerent toward all others. It is useless to give such a person good instruction for gentle behavior and a peaceful life; on the contrary, one should search out the ways and means to punish him. Generally, due to material opulence a man becomes exactly like an animal. To give an animal peaceful instructions is useless, and the only means is argumentum ad baculum. In other words, the only means to keep animals in order is a stick.”