Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.62.17~19 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | May 5, 2025!
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
Jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya
prabhu nityananda
sri-adwaita gadadhara
shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatham Canto 10 Chapter 62 Verse 17.
ŚB 10.62.17
इत्युक्त्वा देवगन्धर्वसिद्धचारणपन्नगान् ।
दैत्यविद्याधरान् यक्षान् मनुजांश्च यथालिखत् ॥ १७ ॥
ity uktvā deva-gandharva
siddha-cāraṇa-pannagān
daitya-vidyādharān yakṣān
manujāṁś ca yathālikhat
Synonyms
iti — thus; uktvā — saying; deva-gandharva — demigods and Gandharvas; siddha-cāraṇa-pannagān — Siddhas, Cāraṇas and Pannagas; daitya-vidyādharān — demons and Vidyādharas; yakṣān — Yakṣas; manu-jān — humans; ca — also; yathā — accurately; alikhat — she drew.
Translation
Saying this, Citralekhā proceeded to draw accurate pictures of various demigods, Gandharvas, Siddhas, Cāraṇas, Pannagas, Daityas, Vidyādharas, Yakṣas and humans.
Texts 18-19
मनुजेषु च सा वृष्णीन् शूरमानकदुन्दुभिम् ।
व्यलिखद् रामकृष्णौ च प्रद्युम्नं वीक्ष्य लज्जिता ॥ १८ ॥
अनिरुद्धं विलिखितं वीक्ष्योषावाङ्मुखी ह्रिया ।
सोऽसावसाविति प्राह स्मयमाना महीपते ॥ १९ ॥
manujeṣu ca sā vṛṣnīn
śūram ānakadundubhim
vyalikhad rāma-kṛṣṇau ca
pradyumnaṁ vīkṣya lajjitā
aniruddhaṁ vilikhitaṁ
vīkṣyoṣāvāṅ-mukhī hriyā
so ’sāv asāv iti prāha
smayamānā mahī-pate
Synonyms
manujeṣu — among the humans; ca — and; sā — she (Citralekhā); vṛṣṇīn — the Vṛṣṇis; śūram — Śūrasena; ānakadundubhim — Vasudeva; vyalikhat — drew; rāma-kṛṣṇau — Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa; ca — and; pradyumnam — Pradyumna; vīkṣya — seeing; lajjitā — becoming shy; aniruddham — Aniruddha; vilikhitam — drawn; vīkṣya — seeing; ūṣā — Ūṣā; avāk — bending down; mukhī — her head; hriyā — out of embarrassment; saḥ asau asau iti — “That’s the one! That’s the one!”; prāha — she said; smayamānā — smiling; mahī-pate — O King.
Translation
O King, among the humans, Citralekhā drew pictures of the Vṛṣṇis, including Śūrasena, Ānakadundubhi, Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa. When Ūṣā saw the picture of Pradyumna she became bashful, and when she saw Aniruddha’s picture she bent her head down in embarrassment. Smiling, she exclaimed, “He’s the one! It’s Him!”
Purport
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī gives this further insight: When Ūṣā saw the picture of Pradyumna, she became bashful because she thought, “This is my father-in-law.” Then she saw the picture of her lover, Aniruddha, and cried out in joy.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, Chitralekha began to draw pictures of various living entities in the universe. So not just human beings, but other forms. So, in verse 17, we have a list of Devas, Gandharvas, Siddhas, Charanas, Panagas, Daityas, Vidyadharas, Yakshas, and even human beings. So we accept, of course, there are different species of life, there are human beings, and monkeys, and gorillas, and chimpanzees, and birds, and dogs, and tigers, etc… However, the Vedic literatures tell us that so-called human species has many varieties, like 800,000 or something. I don’t know the exact number, a lot. It’s 400,000 or whatever. What is it? 400,000.
So here we have some of these other species, like Devatas. They’re kind of like us, but they’re better. We have Gandharvas that look like us, but they have different powers. And so we have Siddhas and Charanas, all these different people mentioned here. So in the modern world, we don’t really see these species, we see human beings. And if we look at fossil records, we see Neanderthals and other pre-human species that look kind of like humans, but weren’t so advanced, etc… So when we see mentions of these different other forms, we may think this is all imaginary. However, we’ll find, even in other cultures, we’ll find mention of other forms as well, like in Buddhism, you’ll know these other forms of Devatas and angels and all sorts of beings as well.
And of course, the question is, well, where are they? We don’t see them. So of course, Prabhupada said, well, the Devatas exist, but in Kali Yuga, the earth is so bad, the Devatas don’t want to come here. So that’s why we don’t see them. Of course, in order to see Devatas, you also have to be qualified. One method of becoming qualified is to do a lot of funerals, like yajnas, etc…, in this lifetime, then when you give up your body, in your next body, you get a form in which you can see Devatas, you go to Svargaloka.
Of course, we see in the Bhagavad Gita, when someone like Yudhishthira was doing his yajnas, Devatas would appear. But it requires a certain qualification of the person, then they will appear. So, of course, we have stories of yogis, like Yogananda and others. They go to the Himalayas, they do yoga, and then they see beings, other beings also. I just read a few years ago a biography of one more recent person who turned into a yogi from Kerala State. I think they call him M or something. So he went to the Himalayas, he wasn’t practicing yoga or such, but he went to the Himalayas, then he began to follow after yogis, etc…, and then he also began to see things. So in other words, even a human being, by cultivating a certain level of consciousness, can see other realms and other beings.
So in the Fifth Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, it describes upper levels of consciousness with upper levels of beings. So, we are on what we call Bhu-Loka. Above us is Bhuvarloka. And in that Bhuvarloka, we get the Gandharvas, the Siddhas, and the Charanas, and the Yakshas, and all these beings which are described here. Above that, we get Svargaloka. And above that, we get Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapaloka, and finally we get Brahmaloka. And as we go to these different Lokas, the consciousness is more refined, more sattvik and more sattvik. And when we come to Bhuvarloka and Bhu-Loka, where we are, it’s Rajasic. And when we go to the lower planets, like Atala, Sutala, Talatala, and Pataal-loka, it’s Tamasic.
So, at these different levels of consciousness, we have different types of bodies. And we can see our level of bodies here, but we cannot see the higher ones or the lower ones. So, we have a conception of this world and this planet and the history of the planet based on our limited vision. So, we look at the universe and we see our planet, we see the moon, we see the planets, we see the sun, we see galaxies and stuff. That’s all we see. We don’t see any life forms or anything there. So, scientists are looking for life throughout the universe and they’re looking for a very simple little virus or a bacteria somewhere on another planet or whatever, and they’ll be very excited to see, ah, there’s some life on other planets. But they’re seeing one type of life, that’s all.
So, long ago, Srila Prabhupada wrote one book, ‘Easy Journey to Other Planets.’ So, at that time, the Americans and the Russians were trying to go to the moon. But Srila Prabhupada said, ‘well, the Yogis have a better method.’ They don’t have to spend money on rocket ships. By the process of yoga, they can go to the moon, they can go to Mars, they can go to any place in Svargaloka, they can go beyond that, they can go beyond the universe. And even if we go to the moon, what do we see there? Some rocks. If the yogi goes there, he sees Svargaloka, full of palaces, full of devatas.
So, why we have this contradiction? Because we’re seeing in different ways. One is the scientific way, and our modern gross way, and the other is the yogi, he sees a different world. So when we see these descriptions of other types of beings, or other planets and other places, we should not think of them as simply imagination or mythology. Rather, we should see this all as perceptions from higher consciousness. The higher our consciousness, the more we can know. So if we go to Brahmaloka at the top, Brahma has so much knowledge. We go to the Devata level, they have knowledge, but not as much as Brahma. And if we come to the earth with the human beings, then we have much less knowledge.
Of course, even if we’re in Brahmaloka, we don’t have all knowledge, it’s still limited. And thus Brahma also has a material body, he has to die. So of course, the solution is to get rid of all limitations, we have to do that by getting rid of the gross body and the subtle body. Of course, if that happens, what do we perceive? When we do that, how do we perceive and what do we perceive? So, if we just destroy our gross body and subtle body and our senses, then actually we see nothing. But if we do bhakti, we develop a spiritual body and spiritual senses. So then we see another world, a spiritual world. That is free of the limitations that we have here. So all these forms we see here are limited forms in the material world. And if we really want to get knowledge, we have to do bhakti yoga, and if we enter the spiritual world, then we have full knowledge.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A
1) Maharaj, if we human like you said different [not clear] or different concept achieving even the same planet like the moon, in a scientific way, by a rocket, a human being can reach the moon planet. But our concept is limited. From our vision, we can only see stones. But what about if physically a human reaches the moon planet? At that time, living entities are there on the moon planet. From there, they perceive that a human came to our planet. They perceive?
So, if we have higher consciousness, then we can perceive everything of lower consciousness. So, Devatas can perceive the earth and all the lower planets. But Devatas cannot perceive Brahma. He’s much higher. So, therefore, the Devatas are capable of seeing earth people coming up there and doing something. We see some examples in Bhagavatam. Demons get very powerful. They can get up to Svargaloka like Bali. However, this is temporary. It’s not their natural place.
So, we go to the moon, we have to wear space-suits, we can’t breathe properly, what are you going to enjoy there? However, the yogi develops a body that can go there and perceive and get a little enjoyment there. In other words, they use their subtle body, not the gross body. So, that subtle body also has eyes, has senses.
Devotee: Actually, the senses do not depend on physical. Sense perceiving does not depend on physical.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: It doesn’t depend on our gross senses. So, we have our gross body with the gross eye and the gross ear, and we have the subtle body, which also has eye, ear, etc. It’s still material, but it’s a little bit more subtle, so it can perceive subtler things. That’s why some people can also perceive auras, even in their consciousness, because they’re using their subtle body with the gross sense, and then they can see things.
2) Hare Krishna Maharaj , may I ask a question? Maharaj, you mentioned that in the higher planetary system, the mode of goodness is prevalent, and in this material world, the mode of passion is prevalent. We know that in Shastra it is said that like Mahaprabhu distributed the Krishna Prem, which is even not approachable for Brahma.
So my question is, if the mode of goodness is prevalent in the higher planetary system, then why do they want to take birth in this material world? Because Brahma also took birth, so why is that? Even though there is sattva guna, why do they want to come to this mode of passion?
So it’s not because they want to enjoy Raja guna, it’s because they get a better spiritual opportunity to get beyond even Sattva guna. So on the earth planet, we get the appearance of Krishna, we get the appearance of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, so we can get their mercy. So when Krishna was born, when Lord Chaitanya was born, all the Devatas came.
They don’t have any interest in Rajo guna or even Sattva guna, they have interest in the Supreme Lord who is beyond the gunas, nirguna. So the point is that the Supreme Lord, process of bhakti, and the mercy of the Lord is manifests throughout the universe, Tamo guna, Raja guna, Sattva guna, and of course beyond the material world. So it manifests in all the gunas.
Devotee: Thank you, Maharaj. So I understand that even though in the material world, the mode of passion is prevalent, but here, in the material world, only there is chance to be the Nirguna. So that is wonderful.
3) Thank you Maharaj. I have another small question Maharaj. I was studying the life of associates of Mahaprabhu and it was mentioned there that Brahmaji, sorry, Haridas Thakur, he is a combined incarnation of Lord Brahma and Prahlad Maharaj.
So my question is in Srimad Bhagavad Gita text 2.23 it is mentioned that So it mentioned that the Atma or soul cannot be divided. So how come the Jiva like Lord Brahma, he is also a Jiva, so how his soul can be divided into two in Kali Yuga and he incarnated as Haridas Thakur?
Well, we will see not only those cases, but we can say all the members of the spiritual world, Jivas, they may come to this material world and participate in the Lord Brahma’s pastimes simultaneously they’re in the spiritual world.
Not only that, that Krishna appears in the material world with His associates, but then He goes to another universe, another universe, another universe, and simultaneously in different universes, Krishna is there with all of His devotees doing pastimes. So His devotees have not just one expansion, they’re all over in different universes. So by the mercy of the Lord, by his arrangement, then the Jivas can have expanded forms.
We say the Lord is one, but the Lord also has His different forms [Laughs]. Then we say the Jiva, by the will of the Lord, can also expand into many forms.
Devotee: Thank you, I think it’s intricate, but thank you for a very clear answer.
4) There are more planetary systems like Atala, Sutala, Talatala, they are also termed as Bhauma svarga so the opulances there are similar to the Svargaloka but the demons reside there. So, why if they are demons, how come they get material opulence also in the lower planetary system and who actually are the athetist who go there with some pious activities and bereft of god consciousness. Those who are god conscious they go to the svarga loka is it like that?
So there’s enjoyment in all the gunas. So you’re going to enjoy in Tamo guna, in Raja guna, or sattva guna. It’s all material and all causes bondage. But the bondage it creates in Tamo guna is simply Tamasic itself. Which means more and more ignorance. So the enjoyment is there, but obviously the enjoyment is not the same as the enjoyment of Svarga or even Earth planet, because it’s full of Adharma. So on Earth planet, we limit the enjoyment by the rules of Dharma. But we also know the Sudras in Tamogun, the rules of Dharma are much easier than the rules for the Brahmana. Still, there are rules for the Sudra also, and you don’t follow those rules, then it’s not the same as the adharma. But those in the lower planets are full of adharma, they get their enjoyment.
Even there, we do get some relief. So we get Bali Maharaj with Vamanadeva, and Shiva is there, so we do get some, it’s not completely tamasic, we have the Supreme Lord there, we have devotees there also. So in Bhagavad Gita it says that those who, as human beings, follow Sattva, they go upwards, and they go to Svargaloka. Those who follow Rajagun, they stay in Bhuloka. Those who follow Tamasic rules, they go to lower planets.
Devotee: What is Bila Svarga Maharaj ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Bila means the hole, that means hellish planets. Because they’re all holes in the ground. You know on the top they’re like Atala, Vitala, Sutala caves or something like that in the Bhu-mandala shell And below that, then there’s the Garbhodak ocean. So they’re like holes, with no sunlight.
5) Maharaj where is Bhuvar-Loka (audio not clear) ?
So Bhu-Loka is our disc, so to speak, with Mount Meru in the middle, and Jambudvipa with the Varshas, and then different dvipas, all of which are inhabited, are up to a certain level anyway. And so that’s called the Bhu Loka region. And then we also have a Svarga, Bhauma Svarga, so the other Varshas, not Bharata Varsha, but the other parts of Jambudvipa, are also considered Svarga, because they get a lot of enjoyment, like that.
So, between Bhu-loka and Svarga Loka, we have this Bhuvar loka. So, above the earth, of course, I think 100 yojanas or whatever, I don’t know how much is, that’s also considered to be our Bhu-loka. Above that, Bhuvar loka extends all the way up to Svarga, which is, I think, the sun planet. So those beings are largely Rajasic. But their bodies are more subtle than ours. Devatas are higher up, more subtle body, Sattvic.
6) Can the different yogis see the demigods?
If we do karma yoga, and we do homas and all this, and do punyas, if we give up our present body, then we get a more subtle body, we go to Svargaloka, then we can see the Devatas, we can become a Devata also.
The jñānis, most of them don’t want to go to Svargaloka at all. They want Mukti, so they don’t want to Svarga so they avoid that. The yogis they are little curious so they what to see the upper planet. So they can go there, if they do their yoga practice properly.
They may end up on Tapaloka, which is just below Brahmaloka.
But generally, even the yogis, they also want Mukti, so they want to get out of the material world completely. Devotees want to go to the spiritual world, so generally they don’t want to see all this also. But if their bhakti is a little bit impure or whatever, then in their next birth they may end up in Svargaloka or other planetary systems higher up.
Devotee: Is it like some devotees possible to go to lower planet if they practice bhakti like Bali Maharaj or Prahlad Maharaj
Well, that’s the will of the Lord. It’s not that they desired that also, and it’s not because they were impure. Of course, the devotees don’t even desire Vaikuntha anywhere they can serve the Lord, whether it’s in hell, Pataloloka, or Svargaloka, or Vaikuntha, it doesn’t matter as long as they serve the Lord.
Devotees: HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai !!! Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham ki jai!!!