Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.78.18-27 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | Nov 13, 2025
Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracarine
nirvisesha-sunyavadi-pascatya-desa-tarine
Sri-krishna-caitanya prabhu nityananda
Sri-advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatham 10th Canto, Chapter-78; Verse 18.
Verse 18:
snātvā prabhāse santarpya
devarṣi-pitṛ-mānavān
sarasvatīṁ prati-srotaṁ
yayau brāhmaṇa-saṁvṛtaḥ
Synonyms:
snātvā — having bathed; prabhāse — at Prabhāsa; santarpya — and having honored; deva — the demigods; ṛṣi — sages; pitṛ — forefathers; mānavān — and human beings; sarasvatīm — to the river Sarasvatī; prati-srotam — which flows toward the sea; yayau — He went; brāhmaṇa-saṁvṛtaḥ — surrounded by brāhmaṇas..
Translation:
After bathing at Prabhāsa and honoring the demigods, sages, forefathers and prominent human beings, He went in the company of brāhmaṇas to the portion of the Sarasvatī that flows westward into the sea.
Verse 19-20
Lord Balarāma visited the broad Bindu-saras Lake, Tritakūpa, Sudarśana, Viśāla, Brahma-tīrtha, Cakra-tīrtha and the eastward-flowing Sarasvatī. He also went to all the holy places along the Yamunā and the Ganges, O Bhārata, and then He came to the Naimiṣa forest, where great sages were performing an elaborate sacrifice.
Verse 21
Recognizing the Lord upon His arrival, the sages, who had been engaged in their sacrificial rituals for a long time, greeted Him properly by standing up, bowing down and worshiping Him.
Verse 22
Lord Balarāma became extremely angry upon seeing how this member of the sūta caste had failed to stand up, bow down or join his palms, and also how he was sitting above all the learned brāhmaṇas.
Purport
Romaharṣaṇa had failed to greet Lord Balarāma in any of the standard ways for welcoming a superior personality. Also, despite being of a lower caste, he sat in a seat above the assembly of exalted brāhmaṇas.
Verse 24
[Lord Balarāma said:] Because this fool born from an improperly mixed marriage sits above all these brāhmaṇas and even above Me, the protector of religion, he deserves to die.
Verse 25-26
Although he is a disciple of the divine sage Vyāsa and has thoroughly learned many scriptures from him, including the lawbooks of religious duties and the epic histories and Purāṇas, all this study has not produced good qualities in him. Rather, his study of the scriptures is like an actor’s studying his part, for he is not self-controlled or humble and vainly presumes himself a scholarly authority, though he has failed to conquer his own mind.
Purport
One might argue that Romaharṣaṇa committed an innocent mistake when he failed to recognize Lord Balarāma, but such an argument is refuted here by Lord Balarāma’s strong criticism.
Verse 27
The very purpose of My descent into this world is to kill such hypocrites who pretend to be religious. Indeed, they are the most sinful rascals.
Purport
Lord Balarāma was not prepared to overlook Romaharṣaṇa’s offense. The Lord had descended specifically to eliminate those who claim to be great religious leaders but do not even respect the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, Romaharṣaṇ was appointed by Veda Vyasa, his guru, to take charge of the Puranas and Itihasas, etc. Veda Vyasa had many disciples, some he assigned for the Rig Veda, for the Yajur Veda, or for the Sama Veda or Atarva Veda. So, these disciples then learned those particular Vedas and scriptures, and they passed it on to their disciples. So, in this way, we get a parampara.
What is a little unusual is that, Romaharṣaṇ was not a Brahmana. He was a mixed caste person, considered much inferior. Still, he was allowed to study the Puranas and make a parampara. So, in spite of his low varna, Veda Vyasa recognized that he was capable of learning the Puranas and Itihasas.
Devotee: Vyasa recognized Romaharsan ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, by teaching him and putting him in charge of the Puranas and Itihasas. And thus, these Brahmanas would gather for sacrifices, they honoured Romaharsan, because he was honoured by Veda Vyasa, and they put him on a special seat.
So, Balarama came there, and all these Brahmana sages, they stood up and recognized Balarama, respected Him nicely. In terms of varna, of course, the Brahmanas were superior to Balarama, who was Kshatriya. Nevertheless, they recognized him as Supreme Lord, so they were offering respects to Him. But then Balarama noticed that Romaharsan did nothing. He sat there [Laughs]. He was of lower caste, so he should at least recognize the Brahmanas are respecting Balarama, so he should also respect Balarama, but he just sat there [Laughs]. Not only did he not respect Balarama, but he was sitting in a higher seat than the Brahmanas, so he was disrespecting the Brahmanas who were higher varna.
So, Balarama concluded, this speaker, Romaharsan, even though appointed by Veda Vyasa, doesn’t really understand the conclusion of scriptures. Romaharsan did not respect Balarama or the Brahmanas. There were Brahmanas performing the sacrifice. There were also Brahmanas accompanying Balarama on pilgrimage. So, giving respect is a basic requirement for learning. It’s also a characteristic which will develop from learning. The more we learn, the more we understand we don’t know anything, so we become humble. And if we are devotees, then humility is natural. So, Romaharsan did not exhibit this respect and humility, so something was wrong with his learning. Moreover, he didn’t even recognize the Supreme Lord. So Balaram concluded, this person is bogus. He’s a hypocrite. And then he said, he should be killed. And the reason is that, the Supreme Lord comes to destroy all of the crooked people, all the wicked people. So, the Lord comes and kills demons. But we have another type of demon, that is a person who disguise as a very pious, religious person, and he’s not. So, Balarama concluded, ‘I’ve appeared in this world to kill demons, here’s a demon, I’ll kill him.’
So, we see here, Balarama became very angry. Of course, we also say the Supreme Lord is not angry, He’s very calm, He doesn’t hate anybody. The Lord, in any case, does not show material anger. Anger arises from kama. The Lord has no desire to enjoy anything in the material world. So, He cannot display anger. Kama is in Rajaguna. Krodha, anger, is in Tamoguna. Here we see, Balarama became angry. So, this is not anger arising from kama. So, the Lord may become angry, just as the devotees may become angry. Hanuman becomes angry and burns down Lanka. When Salva tried to destroy Dwaraka, Krishna became angry and fought with him. When Salva attacked the Lord, the Lord attacked him. So, when the Lord shows anger, the cause is much different. Anger is, of course, a secondary rasa, that arises from prema.
So, Balarama becomes angry, because this Romaharshan is interrupting proper conduct, proper dharma, etc. He is leading people on the wrong path. Just as demons are leading people into bad dharma. So, same with Romaharshan. Therefore, Balarama takes some action here and He kills him. Immediately, the anger disappears. His anger is only accompanying his act of killing. When His purpose is fulfilled, He kills Romaharshan, then, no more anger.
So, these shows of anger or whatever are temporary manifestations. They serve a purpose and then they disappear. So, just as Krishna killed Salva, then He killed Dantavakra and Vidurata, then he gave up killing completely [Laughs]. But there were still demons around [Laughs]. Then the war of Kurukshetra take place, then the Pandavas killed off other remaining demons. And here, Balarama is going to kill some demons. So then, finally, all the demons got destroyed. And the Pandavas could rule the kingdom peacefully.
Q & A
1.) Why did Lord Balarama went away from the war of Kurukshetra ?
It was explained here that he wanted to be neutral – ‘Madhyasta’. We call it as standing in the middle [Laughs]. Of course, this neutrality is not real [Laughs]. Like Krishna, He favors Dharma over Adharma. However, he was obliged to some of the other side, because he had been a teacher of Duryodhana and this and that, whatever. So, he was a little bit obliged. But then, of course, he was supporting Krishna. So then, how to adjust? So then he just stayed out of the war.
Of course, as we see from Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna showed the universal form to Arjuna, before the battle of Kurukshetra, He showed that already everybody’s dead, all the enemies are dead [Laughs]. So, Arjuna should not worry about killing everybody, because Krishna already decided to destroy everybody. Similarly, Balarama doesn’t need to interfere in anything. Krishna is going to take care of it.
2.) So, what about the Romaharshan case? He is recognized by Vyasadeva. Still, he made such a statement, that he didn’t properly learn. This is also pastime?
Well [Laughs], it looks like he got killed, so it was really sad. And then they had to put his son on the throne for speaking. So, it looked like he had some fault, in spite of the fact that he was the disciple of Veda Vyasa, he was appointed by him. He’s also a Jiva, so he can also be faulty.
Devotee: And he’s also one of the Jigyasus, the four types of Krishna. Four types of people come close to Krishna, and each they represent.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Ah, yeah, well, those are the sages who were learning under Namisaranya, asking questions. Yeah, so they were Jigyasus, they were inquisitive to know about Dharma and Supreme Lord, etc.
Devotee: Including Romaharshan also?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, he was supposed to answer all the questions [Laughs].
But then he was killed, and so therefore his son (Suta Goswami) took over and he was the one. And so he also asked questions, so he was a Jigyasu also. We should know that, though Romaharshan was of low varna, but that wasn’t so significant, because they put his son [Laughs], to put on speaking, who is also of apparently a low varna. So in this way, Balaram also respected the decision of Veda Vyasa [Laughs], He didn’t change the parampara, he let the parampara go on with the family of Romaharshan in the form of his son.
Devotee: Balarama chooses his son?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, in combination with the sages, they all agreed that, as something had to be done [Laughs].
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Thank you for the wonderful class. I think this is a powerful reminder that one of the main goals for Shastra study is to become humble. Maharaj we know that there are eighteen puranas and there are sattvik, rajasik and tamasik puranas and Srimad Bhagavatham is one of them. But Srimad Bhagavatham was profounded by Sukadeva Goswami, so, how Rohamaharshan could be in charge of Srimad Bhagavatam, that point I did not understand. Was Rohamaharshan in charge of all the eighteen main Puranas, or some of them?
According to the explanations of our Acharyas, Veda Vyasa wrote all eighteen Puranas and is described in first canto. In spite of dividing the Vedas, writing the eighteen Puranas, writing the Vedanta Sutras, he was still dissatisfied. And then when Narada muni came and he revised Bhagavatham into its present form pointing out Krishna is svayam Bhagavan and that was passed onto Sukadev and then to Parikshit.
4.) Maharaj, the Vedanta Sutra, I read somewhere that it contains only four hundred shlokas, and that is the basis of Srimad Bhagavatam. Is that true Maharaj, or Veda Vyasa, he also spoke like eighteen thousand shlokas to his son, and then his son spoke to Parikshit Maharaj? How Sukadeva Goswami learn this Srimad Bhagavatam from Veda Vyasa? By personal instruction or from the Vedanta Sutra?
Well, Bhagavatam is regarded as the natural commentary on Vedanta Sutra, because it is written by Veda Vyasa himself. And that is indicated in the first verse where “janmādy asya yatah” is quoted from the Vedanta Sutras.
The Vedanta Sutras are an explanation of Upanishads. Upanishads are the essence of the Vedas. And Puranas and Mahabharata and the Bhagavatham are all the same conclusion. But then Bhagavatam is the final conclusion. Because it clearly points out Krishna as supreme. So Veda Vyasa was dissatisfied after writing Brahma Sutras and all the other Puranas and Mahabharata and everything because Krishna had not been pointed out as supreme. The conclusions of the Brahma Sutras are presented in the Bhagavatam in a more elaborate way and also more directly by pointing out Krishna as Svayam bhagavan.
5.) Maharaj, Romaharshan was punished by Lord Balaram immediately. But we as a Sadhakas, we misuse our power and doing bhakti also. So what is the reaction or is there any karma in that, if we use wrongly?
When Krishna and Balaram are directly present, then they can do anything directly. When they are not present then, there are other ways in which matters can be settled. So we have the great Acharyas. And if they see someone deviating then, they can chastise or do whatever. And then we can learn from those examples. And if the devotee has faults and they’re not corrected and they become aparadh, then of course bhakti itself takes care of everything because the bhakti decreases [Laughs].
6.) Hare Krishna. May I ask a question? Thank you very much for a wonderful class. My question is, what was the destiny of Romaharshan? Because he was killed by Lord Balaram and He’s originally very merciful. So he got any mercy from Lord Balaram or he just as a human being he just got reborn. So that’s my question.
So Acharyas don’t mention what happened afterwards. But we do know that when the Lord kills a demon they don’t go to hell. And when Krishna kills demons then we get liberation or go to Vaikuntha. It’s not mentioned what happens to the demons that Balaram kills. But definitely he doesn’t go to hell. So he can get another body and then maybe he can correct his mistake in his next life.
Devotees: Thank you very much Maharaj. Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!! HDG Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !!!