Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.15.9 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | June 3, 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 Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 15 Verse 9.
ŚB 1.15.9
यत्तेजसा नृपशिरोऽङ्घ्रिमहन्मखार्थम्
आर्योऽनुजस्तव गजायुतसत्त्ववीर्य: ।
तेनाहृता: प्रमथनाथमखाय भूपा
यन्मोचितास्तदनयन्बलिमध्वरे ते ॥ ९ ॥
yat-tejasā nṛpa-śiro-’ṅghrim ahan makhārtham
āryo ’nujas tava gajāyuta-sattva-vīryaḥ
tenāhṛtāḥ pramatha-nātha-makhāya bhūpā
yan-mocitās tad-anayan balim adhvare te
Synonyms
yat — whose; tejasā — by influence; nṛpa-śiraḥ-aṅghrim — one whose feet are adored by the heads of kings; ahan — killed; makha-artham — for the sacrifice; āryaḥ — respectable; anujaḥ — younger brother; tava — your; gaja-ayuta — ten thousand elephants; sattva-vīryaḥ — powerful existence; tena — by him; āhṛtāḥ — collected; pramatha-nātha — the lord of the ghosts (Mahābhairava); makhāya — for sacrifice; bhūpāḥ — kings; yat-mocitāḥ — by whom they were released; tat-anayan — all of them brought; balim — taxes; adhvare — presented; te — your.
Translation
Your respectable younger brother, who possesses the strength of ten thousand elephants, killed, by His grace, Jarāsandha, whose feet were worshiped by many kings. These kings had been brought for sacrifice in Jarāsandha’s Mahābhairava-yajña, but they were thus released. Later they paid tribute to Your Majesty.
Purport
Jarāsandha was a very powerful king of Magadha, and the history of his birth and activities is also very interesting. His father, King Bṛhadratha, was also a very prosperous and powerful king of Magadha, but he had no son, although he married two daughters of the King of Kāśī. Being disappointed in not getting a son from either of the two queens, the King, along with his wives, left home to live in the forest for austerities, but in the forest he was benedicted by one great ṛṣi to have a son, and he gave him one mango to be eaten by the queens. The queens did so and were very soon pregnant. The King was very happy to see the queens bearing children, but when the ripe time approached, the queens delivered one child in two parts, one from each of the queens’ wombs. The two parts were thrown in the forest, where a great she-demon used to live, and she was glad to have some delicate flesh and blood from the newly born child. Out of curiosity she joined the two parts, and the child became complete and regained life. The she-demon was known as Jarā, and being compassionate on the childless King, she went to the King and presented him with the nice child. The King was very pleased with the she-demon and wanted to reward her according to her desire. The she-demon expressed her desire that the child be named after her, and thus the child was surnamed Jarāsandha, or one who was joined by Jarā, the she-demon. In fact, this Jarāsandha was born as one of the parts and parcels of the demon Vipracitti. The saint by whose benedictions the queens bore the child was called Candra Kauśika, who foretold of the child before his father Bṛhadratha.
Since Jarāsandha possessed demoniac qualities from birth, naturally he became a great devotee of Lord Śiva, the lord of all ghostly and demoniac men. Rāvaṇa was a great devotee of Śiva, and so also Jarāsandha. He used to sacrifice all arrested kings before Lord Mahābhairava (Śiva), and by his military power he defeated many small kings and arrested them to butcher before Mahābhairava. There are many devotees of Lord Mahābhairava, or Kālabhairava, in the province of Bihar, formerly called Magadha. Jarāsandha was a relative of Kaṁsa, the maternal uncle of Kṛṣṇa, and therefore after Kaṁsa’s death King Jarāsandha became a great enemy of Kṛṣṇa, and there were many fights between Jarāsandha and Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa wanted to kill him, but He also wanted that those who served as military men for Jarāsandha might not be killed. Therefore a plan was adopted to kill him. Kṛṣṇa, Bhīma and Arjuna together went to Jarāsandha in the dress of poor brāhmaṇas and begged charity from King Jarāsandha. Jarāsandha never refused charity to any brāhmaṇa, and he performed many sacrifices also, yet he was not on a par with devotional service. Lord Kṛṣṇa, Bhīma and Arjuna asked Jarāsandha for the facility of fighting him, and it was settled that Jarāsandha would fight with Bhīma only. So all of them were both guests and combatants of Jarāsandha, and Bhīma and Jarāsandha fought every day for several days. Bhīma became disappointed, but Kṛṣṇa gave him hints about Jarāsandha’s being joined together as an infant, and thus Bhīma dissected him again and so killed him. All the kings who were detained in the concentration camp to be killed before Mahābhairava were thus released by Bhīma. Feeling thus obliged to the Pāṇḍavas, they paid tribute to King Yudhiṣṭhira.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this continues the glorification of Krishna. But as we see, he is not directly glorifying Krishna, he is actually describing the events of how Bhima killed Jarāsandha. So of course, Bhima was highly qualified, it says here he had the strength of 10,000 elephants. And Jarāsandha considered him to be an equal in fighting. Nevertheless, we see that though he fought with Jarāsandha for many days, he could not be victorious. Krishna also could not interfere. But very cleverly, Krishna gave a clue on how Bhima could kill Jarāsandha. And that is, he was able to tear him in two parts. So, the hint was given by Krishna. So though Bhima did kill Jarāsandha, we also give credit to Krishna.
Of course, the devotee will always give credit to the Supreme Lord. At the same time, the Supreme Lord likes to glorify His devotees. For instance, in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, actually all the people on the battlefield of Kurukshetra are already killed. Of course, Krishna does not even have to do anything, simply by His will power, they could all disappear. But He also makes Arjuna the instrument of His will. And by agreeing to do that, Arjuna becomes glorious. From the common point of view of normal people, Arjuna is glorious because he fought and he won in the battle of Kurukshetra. But the devotees glorify Arjuna because he was willing to follow the orders and will of Krishna.
Thus, he is glorious in two ways. So this applies to all the devotees, so in this case, we have Bhima, also a great devotee. And in fact, Madhavacharya glorifies Bhima as the greatest devotee. So, he also is subservient to the desires of Krishna. By doing so, he is able to be victorious. So, he is of course glorious because he won the battle, but he is also glorious because he accepted Krishna. We have people in the material world that may also be famous and glorious. Bhagavatam describes many many kings. But the kings die. What is left of them? Only their names. Their names may be famous or not famous after that, people will forget. So, fame in the material world without Krishna, is useless. If that fame of a person is linked with the Supreme Lord, then it becomes eternal.
So, of course, we know that Krishna himself has six qualities. Bhagavan is defined as having one quality called ‘yasa’, or fame. So, a person is famous for qualities. And Supreme Lord has all wonderful qualities. Devotees can have some fame, but not like Krishna. So, we say that Jiva could have 50 qualities in small small portion. Supreme Lord has those same 50 qualities in full quantity, plus He also has 14 extra qualities, so He has 64 qualities. So, what about people in the material world? How many qualities they have? So, none of those 64 qualities, none of the 50 qualities, those are all spiritual qualities.
So, yes, in the material world there are praiseworthy qualities. Kshatriyas have praiseworthy qualities, Brahmanas have praiseworthy qualities, etc. But these are all in terms of material bodies. Body dies, quality is gone, fame is gone. So, the devotee develops spiritual qualities. Those qualities are eternal. And therefore, the fame of the devotee is eternal. So, the fame of Arjuna, the fame of Yudhishthira, the fame of Bhima is based on their qualities, all their qualities are eternal. So, this is very different from the qualities that arise from the gunas in the material world.
And that is why in Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami points out that cultivation of good qualities, good material qualities, is not an anga of bhakti. So, in other words, the cultivation of material qualities has got nothing to do with bhakti. On the other hand, one of the unique qualities of bhakti is subha-da. And that means devotee develops wonderful qualities. So, does a devotee develop material qualities by bhakti? No. He develops spiritual qualities. And all these qualities develop with development of bhakti itself. As Krishna has so many wonderful qualities, devotees also develop many wonderful qualities. But we should never think that these qualities are material.
Sometimes, devotees have the idea that to do bhakti, we have to develop nice sattvic material qualities. First, we should become situated in sattva guna, then we can do bhakti.
But this is contradicted by Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam. And therefore, Krishna says, anybody can do bhakti, you don’t have to be sattvic. Sudras who are in tamo guna can do bhakti. Chandalas can do bhakti. And of course, what Bhagavatam says is, they surpass the brahmanas.
So, in other words, cultivating bhakti produces superior qualities in the devotee, superior to sattva guna. So, we see in the Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, lists of qualities of a devotee. Some of these qualities look like they are sattvic qualities. For instance, he controls his mind, he controls his senses, he is non-violent, he is merciful. So, then we would think, well, then the devotee has sattvic qualities. However, his qualities can also arise from sattva guna. But a devotee is practicing bhakti, so therefore he is destroying the gunas. So, cultivation of bhakti should not throw the devotee into the gunas again. So, the qualities may look similar to the qualities of somebody in sattva guna, but their origin is different.
We can also describe Krishna. He controls His senses, He controls his mind, He is compassionate, He is non-violent. Definitely, that’s not sattvic qualities. So, by practicing bhakti, the devotee develops form and qualities like the Lords. He develops spiritual form and spiritual qualities. So, the origin is spiritual, not material. So, we should not confuse these qualities, for they may look similar. So, devotees like Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishthira, they have all wonderful spiritual qualities. We may think, oh, they are displaying kshatriya qualities. Well, kshatriya qualities arise from rajo guna, how can pure devotees be in rajo guna? No, not. So, they have qualities that appear to be similar to qualities of material kings, but actually they arise from their devotion to Krishna. And they are assistance to their devotional service to Krishna.
So, Bhima uses his strength to serve Krishna. He uses his determination to serve Krishna. He uses his intelligence to serve Krishna. So, all these qualities arise through the svarupa shakti or antaranga shakti of the Lord, not from material gunas, external energy of the Lord. In this way, the devotees have everlasting spiritual fame.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A
1) Thank you, Maharaj. How does a sadhaka ensure or identifies that the qualities that he is developing is not due to sattvic, and it is due to a devotion to Krishna, and it’s a spiritual quality?
Well, by practicing bhakti, the devotee develops qualities. So, bhakti is a spiritual process. Therefore, the qualities that develop have to be spiritual, not material.
A person develops sattvic qualities through specific practice in sattva guna. For instance, a brahmana has all sorts of rules to follow, and that will ensure that he becomes steady in sattvic qualities. A devotee could follow those rules and develop sattvic qualities that way. If the devotee also follows karma yoga or whatever Varnashrama rules to become sattvic, then, danger is that he becomes attached to that sadhana, and that will interfere with his bhakti.
So, Nectar of Devotion states that you can do the rules of Karma Yoga or Varnashrama rules particularly Sattva guna, but you should not be attached to them. If one depends on the rules to maintain sattva guna that becomes a contamination of Bhakti. In other words, our process of bhakti depends on karma yoga, but that’s wrong. So it is said, yes, a devotee can also do karma yoga, but with complete detachment. So, to the extent he has to maintain his material body, he has to follow some profession, so let him follow a Varnashrama profession. But he should not depend on all of those rules for his bhakti.
2) Maharaj in regard to yasha fame, actually pure devotees do not aspire for any fame. On the contrary, they want to be opposite to that. In fact, there are acharyas who don’t want their name to be revealed or name to be discussed. So that seems to be the quality with regard to yasha Maharaj?
So the devotees only aspire to serve the Lord. Anything that helps them serve the Lord, they will accept. So they may pray for qualities which help them serve the Lord. But what we call fame in the material world, that actually doesn’t help bhakti at all. [Laughs].
So Yudhishthira is not striving to be a famous king [Laughs]. He only wants to glorify the Lord through his service. So the real fame of a devotee is his devotion. Why is Radharani famous? Because of her devotion. So the devotees are not striving for fame or anything, they are only striving to serve the Lord. In the process of doing that, they will manifest many wonderful qualities. And they may be famous for those qualities also.
3) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, we see that the Lord played the role of a spiritual instructor to the Pandavas. And also he instructed them in their conduct of their kshatriya functions also. Like the whole Mahabharata war was impossible for the Pandavas to win if it was not for the Lord’s guidance. But in the current context, we understand that when we look at the spiritual master, we should seek only spiritual guidance.
But in terms of material guidance, that may or may not be available. So for a devotee, both the guidance would actually be required to conduct his life properly. In my understanding, a devotee would require both kinds of guidance to lead his life peacefully and probably dovetail everything in Krishna’s service.
We see in Bhagavad Gita and in Bhagavatam, Krishna teaches Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. Of course, He says, give them all up, just do Bhakti. So definitely, Krishna can give instructions on Dharma. He is the ultimate source of all the rules of Dharma Shastras. And He empowers the Manus and their descendants to carry on that. So there are many levels of instruction. Highest level of instruction is Bhakti. So in practicing Vaishnava culture, then our main learning and teaching is Bhakti.
So that is the main instruction that a Guru will give. He may be familiar with Karma Yoga, Karma Mimamsa or whatever. But he doesn’t want to mix those things. So therefore, He emphasizes the process of Bhakti in the teaching.
4) Maharaj, with respect to the previous question about how the sadhaka can understand his qualities as spiritual or as sattvic. And you explained how the origin of those qualities, based on what practice is doing, the qualities will manifest with the spiritual material.
Maharaj, can we also understand those qualities’ nature based on their manifestation? Sattvic qualities may not be always manifested because modes change. The circumstances, based on circumstances, the modes change. The person’s mode may change. Sometimes, Brahmana may not act on the sattvic platform. So those qualities, if they fluctuate in their manifestation, they are more governed by the modes. Whereas, spiritual qualities, they are eternal. So they continue to manifest irrespective of the influence of the modes or the situation. So is that also a good way of understanding?
No, that is definitely true. Spiritual qualities are eternal and steady.
However, they may not completely correspond to what we expect from the material equivalent quality. And thus, they may also break the rules. For example, a devotee lies. Krishna lies. Devotees also lie. Krishna steals. Of course, all of this in the spiritual world is governed by Lila Shakti, pastimes, etc. So generally, of course, Krishna follows certain standards, but He is also free to break them. Why? It is because the rules in the material world are made because people are conditioned. The rules are made to keep people out of ignorance. There is no ignorance in the spiritual world. So therefore, they are not obliged to follow the same rules of conduct.
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, in the pure devotees or the eternal associates of the Lord also, we see that there are some not so good qualities. Like Bhima or Lakshmana, they are known for their short tempered or getting angry easily. So how do we understand that they are a combination of all the qualities? How do we know?
We even see this quality in the Lord. We see sometimes Balarama is getting angry. One of the natures of Krishna is Dhīrodātta, which means He acts very angry sometimes. But we should not associate this type of anger with Rajoguna or Tamoguna. They are qualities manifested in the world to produce pastimes and rasa.
6) So today we were discussing about spiritual and material qualities. Similarly, we see that even amongst devotees, we have spiritual and material attachments. The relationship. So how do I know with another fellow devotee, whether I have material attachment or spiritual attachment?
Well, it will show by the final result. If our attachment is material, it will ultimately end in suffering. If attachment is spiritual, it will lead to transcending the whole material world. No suffering.
7) In yesterday’s class, you mentioned Gajendra calling Vishnu to relieve him from crocodile is Karma Mishra Bhakti. How do you categorize Draupadi calling Krishna for help? She is a pure devotee. So how do you differentiate this? How can we understand this?
Of course, Draupadi is in a different condition. She already is an associate of Krishna. So she is not a person doing Sadhana Bhakti with mixed Bhakti.
Now, in the definition of pure Bhakti, it says, ‘anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ’, devoid of other desires. So then it appears, Krishna, please save me, is other desire. It’s not about Krishna. It’s about oneself. But in that definition, anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, it is explained that anyābhilāṣitā means desires in general to be avoided. So that means in exceptional cases, then we may have a desire for ourself.
So if the devotee says, Krishna, please save me, that’s an extraordinary circumstance when he’s in danger. It’s not every day he’s in danger. So then he may say, Krishna, please save me. So that, of course, is on the level of Sadhana. In Prema, they don’t identify with a material body at all. So there’s no question of saving a material body. However, they do have a sense of having a body, spiritual body, to serve Krishna. So I mentioned that after the Kaliya incident, there was a forest fire and all the people consumed by the forest fire, they came to Krishna and said, please save me. But again, it cannot be because of material bodies. They don’t have material bodies. So in that case, it’s merely an expression of their desire to continue to serve Krishna without obstacle.
8) What should we do to understand and remember Bhagavatam?
Well, it depends on the person. Some people read or hear once, they remember. Some people hear many times, they can still not remember. However, that we can say is due to material qualities, due to material karma. By repetitively hearing Bhagavatam, we develop spiritual qualities. And we also destroy material qualities. So the more we develop bhakti, which is internal energy of the Supreme Lord, the more we will develop good qualities like spiritual memory.
9) What is the use of physical body and subtle body when a sadhaka’s spiritual body is developed by bhakti in this material world?
If a devotee has fully developed prema, the material subtle body and gross body are not so useful. And therefore the Lord makes arrangement for them to get rid of those bodies.
10) Maharaj, we understand that, the conclusion is, sattvic qualities are not a pre-requisite to start bhakti. But how to understand Sikshashtakam verse 3 in this context. As Mahaprabhu said to chant properly and constantly Kirtaniya Sadahari, one should be humble, tolerant, without expecting respect from anyone. This seems like one should have prerequisite to do bhakti properly. Kindly clarify.
The initial qualification is simply faith. But within that faith, we have a trust in existence of the Supreme Lord and we accept our position as a Jiva, servant of the Lord.
If we are still thinking I am superior to everything else, it’s not real faith. So if we show material pride and we think we are superior to everything else, then actually we don’t have faith in bhakti. So within that faith, we accept the position of the Supreme Lord, we accept the position of millions and millions of Jivas who are servants of the Lord.
11) Should we pray to the Lord daily that in order to do bhakti properly, I need proper atmosphere and environment. Is it a good prayer to make?
So, of course, we can say, well, it’s just Kali Yuga and everything is unfavorable, I cannot do bhakti. I’ll wait for Satya Yuga. Bhakti can be performed in any condition. With our intelligence, we make arrangements which are most favorable. So, we can arrange living in the holy dham as one of the angas of bhakti. Then our Acharyas say, well, everybody cannot live in the holy dham. What to do? Wherever you live, you can remember the dham. Somehow or other, we can make favorable conditions, even mentally.
12) Hare Krishna Maharaj, Dandavat Pranam. By practicing bhakti, only can devotees attain the 50 qualities? Or if they attain prema, then only the 50 qualities will manifest? How to understand?
So the two qualities of kleshagini and subhadha, destroying suffering and getting good qualities, it begins in sadhana, it becomes better in bhava, it becomes perfect in prema.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!