Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.76.26~27 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | November 1, 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 10 Chapter 76 Verse 26.
ŚB 10.76.26
शाल्वामात्यो द्युमान्नाम प्रद्युम्नं प्राक्प्रपीडित: ।
आसाद्य गदया मौर्व्या व्याहत्य व्यनदद् बली ॥ २६ ॥
śālvāmātyo dyumān nāma
pradyumnaṁ prak prapīḍitaḥ
āsādya gadayā maurvyā
vyāhatya vyanadad balī
Synonyms
śālva-amātyaḥ — Śālva’s minister; dyumān nāma — named Dyumān; pradyumnam — Pradyumna; prāk — previously; prapīḍitaḥ — hurt; āsādya — confronting; gadayā — with his club; maurvyā — made of carbonized iron; vyāhatya — striking; vyanadat — roared; balī — powerful.
Translation
Śālva’s minister Dyumān, previously wounded by Śrī Pradyumna, now ran up to Him and, roaring loudly, struck Him with his club of black steel.
ŚB 10.76.27
प्रद्युम्नं गदया शीर्णवक्ष:स्थलमरिंदमम् ।
अपोवाह रणात्सूतो धर्मविद् दारुकात्मज: ॥ २७ ॥
pradyumnaṁ gadayā sīrṇa-
vakṣaḥ-sthalam ariṁ-damam
apovāha raṇāt sūto
dharma-vid dārukātmajaḥ
Synonyms
pradyumnam — Pradyumna; gadayā — by the club; śīrṇa — shattered; vakṣaḥ-sthalam — whose chest; arim — of enemies; damam — the subduer; apovāha — removed; raṇāt — from the battlefield; sūtaḥ — His chariot driver; dharma — of his religious duty; vit — the expert knower; dāruka-ātmajaḥ — the son of Dāruka (Lord Kṛṣṇa’s driver).
Translation
Pradyumna’s driver, the son of Dāruka, thought that his valiant master’s chest had been shattered by the club. Knowing well his religious duty, he removed Pradyumna from the battlefield.
Purport
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that actually Lord Pradyumna has a sac-cid-ānanda body, an eternal, spiritual form that can never be wounded by mundane weapons. Dāruka’s son, however, was a great devotee of the Lord, and out of intense love he feared for the safety of his master and thus removed Him from the battlefield.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “The name of Śālva’s commander-in-chief was Dyumān. He was very powerful, and although bitten by twenty-five of Pradyumna’s arrows, he suddenly attacked Pradyumna with his fierce club and struck Him so strongly that Pradyumna became unconscious. Immediately there was a roaring, ‘Now He is dead! Now He is dead!’ The force of the club on Pradyumna’s chest was very severe, enough to tear asunder the chest of an ordinary man.”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
In the scriptures, of course, often it says that the devotees become liberated from the material world. However, they don’t merge in Brahman. Sometimes it is said, the devotee attains the abode of the Supreme Lord. Sometimes it says, the devotee enters into the Lord. Sometimes it is said, the devotee attains similarity to the Lord. So what this means is that the Jiva, who is a devotee, attains a spiritual body in the spiritual world. But this is not like a material body, this is a spiritual body.
The Supreme Lord has a spiritual body in the spiritual world, he comes in the material world, he maintains his spiritual body. So devotees in the spiritual world are like the Lord. They have spiritual bodies, not subject to birth and death. Those bodies are necessary in order that the devotee is able to serve the Lord. If they don’t have bodies and senses, how can they serve the Lord? So when the Lord comes into the material world, he still has a spiritual body, and the devotees that come with him also maintain their spiritual body.
However, we will see often not only the devotees’ bodies, even the Lord’s body seems to get afflicted by the enemies. However, this is an appearance; it’s not actual, because spiritual body cannot be injured in any ways. In second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna, the soul cannot be cut, cannot be burned, cannot be dried up, no material element can affect the atma. The devotee’s spiritual body also is like the atma, cannot be cut, cannot be dried, cannot be wet, cannot be in any way affected. So therefore, though the Lord and the devotees fight with demons, and they appear to be tired or get exhausted or whatever, this is not actual.
But then, is it just pretending? So, in another example, we have Krishna in Damodar pastimes. And when he sees Mother Yashoda’s stick, he starts running away. And he’s very afraid. And when she catches him, he begins to cry. But then, of course, Krishna cannot in any way be afraid of anybody. He cannot even be caught by anybody. Why should he cry [Laughs]? So then we say, well, he’s just pretending. But that also does not seem correct. So, in other words, Krishna says putting on a show for Mother Yashoda and pretending to be a small child and pretending to cry, that would be like fake [Laughs]. In other words, he’s fooling Mother Yashoda to think he’s a small child, when he isn’t [Laughs]. But how can the Supreme Lord cheat his devotees? He cannot do so. So the answer is, no, he’s not cheating the devotee. Krishna completely identifies himself as the small child of Mother Yashoda. In the same way, if he’s with the gopis, then nothing is pretend. He actually surrenders to the gopis [Laughs].
So, according to the particular rasa, the Lord may act in certain ways that do not look proper for the Supreme Lord. But these are not the Lord pretending. He completely identifies with his childhood form from Mother Yashoda. And he completely feels and acts as Mother Yashoda desires him to act. Of course, how is it possible he can be the Supreme Lord at the same time, think he’s a child, like he’s under illusion [Laughs]? However, nothing is impossible for the Supreme Lord. So there is an expression in Sanskrit, that says that, the Lord can make the impossible, possible [Laughs]. So simultaneously, he can be the Supreme Lord, simultaneously, he can completely identify as a small child. And there’s no contradiction. Of course, we see the Lord is simultaneously in Goloka as a cowherd. Simultaneously, he is Narasimha or Rama or Vishnu. And they’re all, they have different qualities [Laughs]. And none of those actions and none of those qualities that the Lord displays are imitation. So, in different activities, the Lord will act in different ways.
So, Pradyumna actually is an expansion of Krishna himself. So, because he is Supreme Lord, he has a spiritual body, he cannot be injured, he cannot be fatigued, he cannot be cut, nothing can happen to him. But here we find, he gets struck by the club and he falls down and it looks like he’s going to die [Laughs]. So, his chariot driver then takes him off the battlefield because of that. So, of course, because Pradyumna is the Supreme Lord, he cannot be defeated, he cannot be injured, he cannot get tired [Laughs]. Nevertheless, he acts like this [Laughs]. Then, he’s not pretending also. So, all of this happens for pastimes.
The Lord has many Shaktis, so he has Yogamaya Shakti and Leela Shakti. And they can adjust the consciousness, even of the Supreme Lord. So, they can feel the intensity of fighting. As I mentioned, this is actually a Rasa, a secondary Rasa, but nevertheless a spiritual Rasa. So, Pradyumna or Krishna, they will sometimes fight and experience this Rasa of competition and battle. So, Pradyumna or Krishna will fight and experience this Rasa of competition and battle. If there was no challenge from the enemy and the Lord thought, well, look, they’re all dead anyway, I’m the victor, I’m always in control of everything [Laughs], they can do nothing, there would be no Virya Rasa at all [Laughs]. So, in this way, the consciousness even of the Supreme Lord, becomes adjusted to manifest these Rasas. And though he does have sat-cit-ananda body, even that body will seem to react in different ways during this Rasa. And thus, when Pradyumna strikes him with his club, he falls over and looks like he is shattered [Laughs].
Sometimes in Bhagavatam, it is said that, Krishna comes in the material world and he acts like a human being. Of course, Rama also has a human-like form. However, Krishna, he acts even more human-like. And thus, even Brahma or Indra think, oh, Krishna is just a little child [Laughs]. On the other hand, the Devatas never forget that Rama is Supreme Lord. So, Krishna comes and he acts very much like a human. And the demons think, well, I can conquer Krishna, because he is just a human [Laughs]. And Krishna, for his part, of course, he defeats them all. But he does so with some fighting [Laughs]. So we see in this battle, Pradyumna fights and later, Krishna himself has to fight and defeat Salva. And ofcourse, because he is Supreme Lord, he doesn’t even have to fight, he can just by his will, he can defeat salve. But he prolongs this battle, just because of this spirit of fighting. And it also shows that the Lord is always ready to protect his devotees. So, just as Krishna lifted up Govardhan Hill to protect the devotees from Indra, so he fights this battle to protect the people of Dwaraka from Salva.
In this particular case, also we see that the chariot driver gets a chance to show his affection for Pradyumna. So, his driver has dasya rasa, he acts as a servant. So he gets a chance to express that service attitude by taking Pradyumna from the battlefield. So in this way, this is an opportunity not only for Pradyumna to express his virya, but also it gives an opportunity for his servant to express dasya-rasa. So, in this way, many desires are fulfilled by one action.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A:
1.) Hare Krishna. Thank you very much Maharaj. I have a question. Maharaj, you explained Yoga, Yogamaya Shakti, Lila Shakti, etc. Can you explain each Shakti, what is the function?
So, the Shakti is a way of explaining how the Lord is able to accomplish different actions [Laughs]. So, of course, the Lord has unlimited power. And therefore, He can do anything. However, we can also classify His different powers. So, the Lord knows everything. How does He know everything? So we say, He possesses Jnana-Shakti, this power of knowing. How does the Lord experience bliss? So, through Hladini-Shakti [Laughs]. How does the Lord manifest the spiritual world? Through His Sandhini-Shakti [Laughs]. So, in this way, through his Shaktis, the Lord accomplishes everything in the spiritual world. So, He produces the Dhama and everything in the Dhama by His Sandhini-Shakti. And through that same Sandhini-Shakti, He manifests His own form and qualities [Laughs].
So, once we have spiritual world and the trees and everything there, and we have Krishna and then we have devotees there, there has to be activities or pastimes. So, pastime means a series of activities that lead to a certain conclusion. Yeah, so then, the activities have to be arranged one after the other. And they will involve different devotees and the Supreme Lord. So, the Lila-Shakti arranges everything, so it takes place properly.
And the Lord and the devotees, when they are in these pastimes, they also limit their awareness. For instance, Yasoda and Nanda are in Vatsalya Rasa, they are never aware of Madhurya Rasa. So, every night Krishna goes out for Rasa-Lila, Yasoda doesn’t know anything about this. How is it possible [Laughs]? So, Yogamaya limits the consciousness of all the individuals. So, therefore, each individual has a certain range of awareness, but they don’t know other things. So, it looks like ignorance. So, we call this spiritual ignorance [Laughs]. Similarly, of course, pastimes are taking place in the spiritual world in Goloka. So, we have Nanda, Yasoda, the Gopis and Radha, etc., and Krishna. Simultaneously, in some universes, pastimes are taking place. But Mother Yasoda and Nanda in the material world are not aware that simultaneously there have been pastimes in the spiritual world [Laughs]. So, in this way, their consciousness becomes limited within the pastimes. So, this happens by the power of Yogamaya.
2.) Thank you very much. So, Yogamaya Shakti, Lila Shakti, etc., so many Shakti kind of variety?
Yeah. We have Jnana Shakti, we have Aishwarya Shakti [Laughs]. By Krishna’s Aishwarya Shakti or power, He manifested within Mother Yasoda, the whole universe [Laughs]. He also has Samhara Shakti, destruction Shakti [Laughs]. So by that Shakti, He destroys the demons [Laughs]. Yeah, of course, He has Srishti Shakti, with that, Vishnu creates the material world [Laughs].
Devotee: Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Anything else? Okay. Hare Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!