Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.12.24 by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj @ ISKCON Chennai on 22 Jan 2025
ŚB 1.12.24
sarva-sad-guṇa-māhātmye
eṣa kṛṣṇam anuvrataḥ
rantideva ivodāro
yayātir iva dhārmikaḥ
Translation
This child will be almost as good as Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa by following in His footsteps. In magnanimity he will become as great as King Rantideva. And in religion he will be like Mahārāja Yayāti.
Purport
The last instruction of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā is that one should give up everything and should follow in the footsteps of the Lord alone. Less intelligent persons do not agree to this great instruction of the Lord, as ill luck would have it, but one who is actually intelligent catches up this sublime instruction and is immensely benefited. Foolish people do not know that association is the cause of acquiring qualities. Association with fire makes an object hot, even in the material sense. Therefore, association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead makes one qualified like the Lord. As we have discussed previously, one can achieve seventy-eight percent of the godly qualities by the Lord’s intimate association. To follow the instructions of the Lord is to associate with the Lord. The Lord is not a material object whose presence one has to feel for such association. The Lord is present everywhere and at all times. It is quite possible to have His association simply by following His instruction because the Lord and His instruction and the Lord and His name, fame, attributes and paraphernalia are all identical with Him, being absolute knowledge. Mahārāja Parīkṣit associated with the Lord even from the womb of his mother up to the last day of his valuable life, and thus he acquired all the essential good qualities of the Lord in all perfection.
Rantideva: An ancient king prior to the Mahābhārata period, referred to by Nārada Muni while instructing Sañjaya, as mentioned in Mahābhārata (Droṇa-parva 67). He was a great king, liberal for hospitality and distribution of foodstuff. Even Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa praised his acts of charity and hospitality. He was blessed by the great Vasiṣṭha Muni for supplying him cold water, and thus he achieved the heavenly planet. He used to supply fruits, roots and leaves to the ṛṣis, and thus he was blessed by them with fulfillment of his desires. Although a kṣatriya by birth, he never ate flesh in his life. He was especially hospitable to Vasiṣṭha Muni, and by his blessings only he attained the higher planetary residence. He is one of those pious kings whose names are remembered in the morning and evening.
Yayāti: The great emperor of the world and the original forefather of all great nations of the world who belong to the Āryan and Indo-European stock. He is the son of Mahārāja Nahuṣa, and he became the emperor of the world due to his elder brother’s becoming a great and liberated saintly mystic. He ruled over the world for several thousands of years and performed many sacrifices and pious activities recorded in history, although his early youth was very lustful and full of romantic stories. He fell in love with Devayānī, the most beloved daughter of Śukrācārya. Devayānī wished to marry him, but at first he refused to accept her because of her being a daughter of a brāhmaṇa. According to śāstras, a brāhmaṇa could marry the daughter of a brāhmaṇa. They were very much cautious about varṇa-saṅkara population in the world. Śukrācārya amended this law of forbidden marriage and induced Emperor Yayāti to accept Devayānī. Devayānī had a girlfriend named Śarmiṣṭhā, who also fell in love with the emperor and thus went with her friend Devayānī. Śukrācārya forbade Emperor Yayāti to call Śarmiṣṭhā into his bedroom, but Yayāti could not strictly follow his instruction. He secretly married Śarmiṣṭhā also and begot sons by her. When this was known by Devayānī, she went to her father and lodged a complaint. Yayāti was much attached to Devayānī, and when he went to his father-in-law’s place to call her, Śukrācārya was angry with him and cursed him to become impotent. Yayāti begged his father-in-law to withdraw his curse, but the sage asked Yayāti to ask youthfulness from his sons and let them become old as the condition of his becoming potent. He had five sons, two from Devayānī and three from Śarmiṣṭhā. From his five sons, namely (1) Yadu, (2) Turvasu, (3) Druhyu, (4) Anu and (5) Pūru, five famous dynasties, namely (1) the Yadu dynasty, (2) the Yavana (Turk) dynasty, (3) the Bhoja dynasty, (4) the Mleccha dynasty (Greek) and (5) the Paurava dynasty, all emanated to spread all over the world. He reached the heavenly planets by dint of his pious acts, but he fell down from there because of his self-advertisement and criticizing other great souls. After his fall, his daughter and grandson bestowed upon him their accumulated virtues, and by the help of his grandson and friend Śibi, he was again promoted to the heavenly kingdom, becoming one of the assembly members of Yamarāja, with whom he is staying as a devotee. He performed more than one thousand different sacrifices, gave in charity very liberally and was a very influential king. His majestic power was felt all over the world. His youngest son agreed to award him his youthfulness when he was troubled with lustful desires, even for one thousand years. Finally he became detached from worldly life and returned the youthfulness again to his son Pūru. He wanted to hand over the kingdom to Pūru, but his noblemen and the subjects did not agree. But when he explained to his subjects the greatness of Pūru, they agreed to accept Pūru as the King, and thus Emperor Yayāti retired from family life and left home for the forest.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : So here we have a continuation of the predicted qualities of Pariksit. And the first example here is he would be like Krishna and having all wonderful qualities. We know that, of course, Supreme Lord has all spiritual qualities. And His wonderful qualities are unlimited. However, to make it understandable by us, Rupa Goswami has mentioned 64 qualities of Krishna. But we should understand this is not all of His qualities, these qualities can be subdivided into many other qualities as well. So all wonderful qualities manifest in Krishna and no bad quality manifest.
So all the forms of the Lord have all good qualities. Why is that? Because actually there is only one Supreme Lord. However, that Supreme Lord manifests in different forms so we call him by different names like Narasimha and Rama but actually He is one Supreme Lord. However, we see that in Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami says that Vishnu will manifest 60 qualities, Krishna will manifest 64 qualities. So that means they must be different, Vishnu and Krishna must be different, not the same. So how can we say there is only one Bhagavan when we are saying that Vishnu only has 60 qualities and Krishna has 64. It looks like there are two different persons. So the answer is that yes, Vishnu is non-different from Krishna, therefore he must have all the qualities. But in that particular form of Vishnu with four arms in Vaikuntha, he does not manifest all of those qualities. So the example is given of the moon. How many moons do we have? We only have one moon. But call the moon differently on different days. So we call one Purnima, another one Amavasya, another Pratipa etc. Why do we distinguish with different names? Because the moon looks a little bit different. There are different amounts of light coming out of the moon on these different tithis. So at the full moon, then the moon is giving all of its light. And the Amavasya, it doesn’t seem to be giving light at all.
So we give different names. But it’s the same moon. So similarly, Lord is one but we give him different names according to His appearance. So in some forms he’ll manifest 60 qualities, others maybe a little more, and in Krishna he’ll manifest 64 qualities. So one Supreme Lord is having all the qualities, but in some forms, he manifests less of the qualities.
So Krishna not only has all the qualities, because they all have all the qualities, but Krishna will manifest those qualities in his form and pastimes. And the other forms do not manifest those particular qualities. So the four particular qualities that Krishna manifests are qualities of sweetness. So by sweetness we don’t mean Madhurya Rasa but we mean intimacy, closeness. Closeness, such that we do not see Krishna as the Supreme Lord. So this manifests in Vrindavan. And these qualities will produce intimacy in relationship with Krishna. So that is the difference between Krishna in Vrindavan and Vishnu in Vaikuntha.
Vishnu manifests his form and his qualities in Vaikuntha and devotees establish relationship with him, but they always see him as Supreme Lord. But in Vrindavan, the devotees do not see Krishna as Supreme Lord. And the difference is that this produces more intense prema.
So the four qualities are particular, one relates to Krishna’s form. It is Madhurya Rupa. So Krishna has a sweet form. All the forms of the Lord are wonderful, they’re all spiritual, they’re all beautiful. Still when we see those other forms we think, oh this is Supreme Lord.
So when we see Vishnu or Narasimha or Rama, oh very beautiful, he’s Supreme Lord. When a person sees the form of Krishna, the beauty of Krishna, he thinks oh Krishna is so beautiful, but he doesn’t think of Him as Supreme Lord. In fact, the devotee will think of Krishna in a particular relationship, Krishna is my son, so mother Yasoda thinks Krishna is my son, not Supreme Lord. All of the cowherd boys think of Krishna as friend only, not as Supreme Lord. So that form itself evokes this intimate type of relationship.
So, Krishna manifests not one relationship, but many types of relationships with His devotees. We will see in Vaikuntha, the main relationship with the Lord is Dasya, everybody is a servant. Of course, we have Madhurya Rasa because Lakshmi is there, but very limited, no one can be Lakshmi like Lakshmi. We don’t have Sakhya Rasa there. So we have all sorts of devotees with Krishna. So we get Santa, Dasya, Sakhya, Vatsalya and Madhurya devotees.
And not just one, so there will be millions of Gopis in Madhurya Rasa, there will be millions of cowherd boys in Sakhya Rasa etc. So, Krishna is surrounded by all of these different devotees with various rasas which are all sweet. With His devotees Krishna will manifest pastimes, but the pastimes are sweet pastimes.
Of course, all the forms of the Lord – Rama, Narasimha and Vishnu have pastimes with their devotees. All spiritual, but still everyone is thinking this is Supreme Lord. But in pastimes with Krishna, no one thinks of Krishna as Supreme Lord. And this gives a certain sweetness and intensity to those pastimes. And therefore, we get very remarkable pastimes. And we will not see such pastimes with the other forms.
So we have the Damodar pastime in which Krishna gets tied up by Mother Yasoda. We will not see Narasimha getting tied up, Rama getting tied up, Vishnu getting tied up. But Krishna willingly gets tied up by His mother. So such remarkable pastimes we will see with Krishna, but not with other forms of the Lord. The fourth quality that Rupa Goswami mentions is Venu Madhurya, the sweetness of Krishna’s flute. So Krishna is very famous for playing His flute.
Of course, we will see in Svargaloka, some of the musicians are there playing flutes also, but very, very different. When anyone hears the sound of that flute, they develop this very sweet mood of Krishna. So when the birds and animals hear, they begin to faint. When the rocks hear, they begin to melt. When the river hears, the river becomes static like frozen. When the cows hear the flute, they completely fall in love with Krishna. And when the devotees hear the flute, they are filled with this Prema. So Krishna conquers all the devotees by the sound of his flute. So these are some of the special qualities of Krishna. Of course, there are many other qualities, but these are the four prominent ones that Rupa Goswami mentions.
Of course, not only these four qualities manifest, but it is said in Nectar of Devotion that Krishna will manifest all the rasas, all twelve rasas, seven secondary and five primary rasas, in the most remarkable way. And in such a way that He can do this simultaneously. For instance, when Krishna entered into the arena of Kamsa, then so many people were looking at Krishna, one Krishna, but they all reacted or responded differently. So the cowherd boys manifested Sakhya Rasa and Hasya Rasa, laughter, joking. Vasudeva and Devaki and Nanda Maharaja manifested Vatsalya Rasa and Karuna Rasa, pity, lamentation. The Vrsnis manifested Dasya Rasa. The yogis when they saw Krishna, manifested Santa Rasa. The secondary rasas were manifested by people like Kamsa, the Fear Rasa [Laughs]. And Virya Rasa, which means courage, etc., manifested between Krishna and the wrestlers.
So in this way, one Krishna there, simultaneously everybody experienced different rasas with Krishna. So this happens with Krishna, but with no other forms. So this makes Krishna very, very special among all the different forms. So those who follow Krishna, here it says ‘Krsna anuvratah’, Pariksit was a follower of Krishna. So by association with Krishna, one will develop qualities like Krishna.
If one follows Krishna in Vrindavan, one will develop all sorts of sweet qualities. If one follows Krishna in his Dwaraka form, as we see here with Pariksit, then he will have a mixture with some Aishwarya mixed with the Madhurya. So by association and by worship, one will develop qualities like the Supreme Lord. So Prabhupada mentions here how association, not just by proximity, being close to the person, but even by hearing instructions, that is association also.
The Lord is non-different from his instructions. So therefore, we have devotees speaking scripture, speaking instructions of the Lord. So in that sense, they’re also non-different from the Lord. So when we say a guru is non-different from the Lord, it actually means non-different because he’s speaking scripture. Scripture is non-different from the Lord, therefore, he’s non-different from the Lord, then you have to give proper respect.
So Pariksit, he followed after Krishna. Even he didn’t have direct association, he followed after him by following his instructions. Therefore, he manifested all wonderful qualities.
Hare Krishna.
Q&A
1) Question not audible
So anyway, the only Madhurya Rasa with Rama is Sita, nobody else. So no one could aspire to be Sita. So there Madhurya Rasa finished. Vatsalya Rasa with his parents only, nobody else. Sakhya Rasa, a little bit with his brothers, that’s all, nobody else. So, that leaves only these Dasya and Santa Rasa.
2) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj the question is that the example of Yayati is given there but when we read this story of Yayati we don’t really connect him with such a staunch follower of Dharma that he is glorified in this verse. So how do we understand that Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, I suppose because historically within their dynasties or whatever, he is very famous [Laughs]. So therefore, he gets that position.
3) Also Maharaj very often we hear this example of Krishna entering the arena of Kamsa and how different people they were exhibiting different rasas can we say something similar was happening at the time of Govardhan lila when there were different devotees and they were experiencing different rasas while Krishna was there … can we understand that way?
Yeah that also given as another example. When Krishna lifted Govardhan all the different people of Vrindavan were there and they all experienced their individual Rasas. So the elders had Vatsalya Rasa, the servants had Dasya Rasa, the friends were in Sakhya Rasa.And the Gopis, there was like a purva Raga. They had not yet come to the Rasa-lila; it was one year before. But they were developing Madhurya Rasa for Krishna. So all rasas, the primary Rasas are manifested there simultaneously with Krishna.
4) We often hear that being jealous of the Lord, we have been thrown out of Vaikuntha. So how to understand this Maharaj? Whether jealousy is present in Vaikuntha?
There is Vyabhachari Bhavas minor sentiments in the spiritual world, which manifests sometimes, especially let’s say this jealousy will manifest among the Gopis. But that is purely spiritual, it has nothing to do with the jealousy or envy we find in the material world. The anarthas such as envy and jealousy in the material world ultimately arise from ignorance. And spiritual world has zero ignorance eternally. Therefore, it is impossible that we can develop envy…material envy in the spiritual world; it is impossible.
Of course we will have examples like Jaya and Vijaya falling out of the spiritual world etc. and getting cursed or whatever. Thats of course is Lila only. Or we see Tulsi Devi getting cursed coming into the material world but this is past time only. So in the cases of all the jivas in the material world, they are eternally envious. We can’t say beginning of envy. So they are eternally in the material world, they develop this envy in the material world due to their ignorance.
5) In Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami, before explaining about the four extra qualities of Krishna, he compares the qualities of Vishnu and he lists out the common qualities between Krishna and Vishnu. One such quality is various incarnations appearing from them. From this, can we substantiate that Krishna is the source of all the incarnations? And we also see that in Jayadeva Goswami ‘s Gita Govindam, Vishnu or Krishna are not mentioned as incarnation as He is Avatari…
So whatever qualities Vishnu may have are also included in Krishna. So Vishnu has 60 qualities, Krishna has 64 qualities. So this 64 includes the 60.
Sometimes Krishna is called Avatar because he appears within the material world. Avatar means the form of the Lord who descends from the spiritual world to the material world. So even in Gita Govinda, though Jayadeva Goswami mentions all the Avatars, he puts Krishna in a special position. Of course more correctly we will call Krishna the Avatari, the source of all the Avatars.
6) While we chant Krishna’s names without offense, whether a particular rasa manifests automatically? How we can develop a particular rasa? Does a particular rasa is naturally present within the Jiva?
So how does that manifest?We will see for instance in the Brahma vimohana Lila that Krishna was there in Vrindavan holding His curd rice in His hand. Vishnu looked at Him and suddenly that he saw all of the forms of cowherd boys and calves became Vishnu forms and all the Vishnu forms emanated, all the elements and the universes and the Devatas and whatever, so ultimately Brahma understood everything is coming from Krishna.
Well, everything is in the name. Name is not different from Krishna. So form, qualities, pastimes, rasa, all present in the name of Krishna. So you chant the name of Krishna, you can realize all the rasas.
7) How to perform pure devotion in Grahastha Ashram?
Well, Caitanya Mahaprabhu says everybody, whether you are a Grihastha or a Sannyasi or a Brahmachari or a Mleccha or outside the Varna Ashram system can practice pure bhakti. How do we do that? By chanting the name of Krishna purely. How do we chant purely? So we chant, but we also get knowledge of scripture so that we do pure bhakti, not mixed bhakti.
8) From where we can receive the knowledge about Vrindavan Krishna, whether it is from Srimad Bhagavatam or from Sri Caitanya Charitamrita?
So, both are good sources of course, even everything in Sri Chaitanya Caritamrita is based upon Bhagavatam [laughs].
9) As Krishna has many flutes like Venu, Murali, Vamsi, does different flutes invoke different rasa?
Well there is no specific mention that a specific flute is related to a specific rasa because Krishna through any of His flutes simply by His will can manifest different rasas.
10) For the sins we have committed we get punishments and after completing those punishments we take birth and we are rewarded a birth according to our karma.Why is it that we suffer for the mistakes we have done in our previous birth?
Well hell gives us some of the punishment not all the punishment. So hell is for people who do very sinful activities. Others may not have to go to hell but they still have lots of karmas to deal with.
11) When I have Dasya Bhava with Krishna can I still go to Goloka?
Yeah, so there is Dasya with Krishna in Goloka also., this is described in the Nectar of Devotion. So Krishna has some boys who are His servants. Then they follow Him around and they are carrying different items for Krishna.
Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatham ki Jai…HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!