Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.19.22~23 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Jan 21, 2026
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 19 Verse 22.
ŚB 1.19.22
आश्रुत्य तदृषिगणवच: परीक्षित्
समं मधुच्युद् गुरु चाव्यलीकम् ।
आभाषतैनानभिनन्द्य युक्तान्
शुश्रूषमाणश्चरितानि विष्णो: ॥ २२ ॥
āśrutya tad ṛṣi-gaṇa-vacaḥ parīkṣit
samaṁ madhu-cyud guru cāvyalīkam
ābhāṣatainān abhinandya yuktān
śuśrūṣamāṇaś caritāni viṣṇoḥ
Synonyms
āśrutya — just after hearing; tat — that; ṛṣi-gaṇa — the sages assembled; vacaḥ — speaking; parīkṣit — Mahārāja Parīkṣit; samam — impartial; madhu-cyut — sweet to hear; guru — grave; ca — also; avyalīkam — perfectly true; ābhāṣata — said; enān — all of them; abhinandya — congratulated; yuktān — appropriately presented; śuśrūṣamāṇaḥ — being desirous to hear; caritāni — activities of; viṣṇoḥ — the Personality of Godhead.
Translation
All that was spoken by the great sages was very sweet to hear, full of meaning and appropriately presented as perfectly true. So after hearing them, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, desiring to hear of the activities of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Personality of Godhead, congratulated the great sages.
ŚB 1.19.23
समागता: सर्वत एव सर्वे
वेदा यथा मूर्तिधरास्त्रिपृष्ठे ।
नेहाथ नामुत्र च कश्चनार्थ
ऋते परानुग्रहमात्मशीलम् ॥ २३ ॥
samāgatāḥ sarvata eva sarve
vedā yathā mūrti-dharās tri-pṛṣṭhe
nehātha nāmutra ca kaścanārtha
ṛte parānugraham ātma-śīlam
Synonyms
samāgatāḥ — assembled; sarvataḥ — from all directions; eva — certainly; sarve — all of you; vedāḥ — supreme knowledge; yathā — as; mūrti-dharāḥ — personified; tri-pṛṣṭhe — on the planet of Brahmā (which is situated above the three planetary systems, namely the upper, intermediate and lower worlds); na — not; iha — in this world; atha — thereafter; na — nor; amutra — in the other world; ca — also; kaścana — any other; arthaḥ — interest; ṛte — save and except; para — others; anugraham — doing good to; ātma-śīlam — own nature.
Translation
The King said: O great sages, you have all very kindly assembled here, having come from all parts of the universe. You are all as good as supreme knowledge personified, who resides in the planet above the three worlds [Satyaloka]. Consequently you are naturally inclined to do good to others, and but for this you have no interest, either in this life or in the next.
Purport
Six kinds of opulences, namely wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, are all originally the different attributes pertaining to the Absolute Personality of Godhead. The living beings, who are part-and-parcel entities of the Supreme Being, have all these attributes partially, up to the full strength of seventy-eight percent. In the material world these attributes (up to seventy-eight percent of the Lord’s attributes) are covered by the material energy, as the sun is covered by a cloud. The covered strength of the sun is very dim, compared to the original glare, and similarly the original color of the living beings with such attributes becomes almost extinct. There are three planetary systems, namely the lower worlds, the intermediate worlds and the upper worlds. The human beings on earth are situated at the beginning of the intermediate worlds, but living beings like Brahmā and his contemporaries live in the upper worlds, of which the topmost is Satyaloka. In Satyaloka the inhabitants are fully cognizant of Vedic wisdom, and thus the mystic cloud of material energy is cleared. Therefore they are known as the Vedas personified. Such persons, being fully aware of knowledge both mundane and transcendental, have no interest in either the mundane or transcendental worlds. They are practically desireless devotees. In the mundane world they have nothing to achieve, and in the transcendental world they are full in themselves. Then why do they come to the mundane world? They descend to different planets as messiahs by the order of the Lord to deliver the fallen souls. On the earth they come down and do good to the people of the world in different circumstances under different climatic influences. They have nothing to do in this world save and except reclaim the fallen souls rotting in material existence, deluded by material energy.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, all the gathered sages praise King Pariksit, and then the king responds by praising them. So this is proper conduct. One is praised, and one does not simply accept the praise and feel very proud, one more or less feels humbled, and then consequently one likes to praise other people. So, one good quality in people is not to see faults, but to see good qualities. Of course, we cannot ignore faults if they are there, just as Pariksit could not ignore the faults in Kali personified and punished him.
Nevertheless, the devotees especially do not overreact when they see the faults, and they try to see some good qualities. However, what are good qualities? In the material world, ultimately good qualities manifest in sattva. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there are no good qualities in other persons. And certainly, everybody in the Varanashrama system has to have some good qualities. However, we will find more qualities easily manifest in a person situated in sattva guna. And if a person displays good qualities, then people are bound to praise that person.
The good qualities are a manifestation of purity. As Prabhupad explains in the purport, the Jiva can have 50 qualities in minute quantity, 50 qualities of the Supreme Lord in a small degree, but generally they are covered over. So, they are covered over by the material gunas. But when we remove Tamo guna and Rajo guna and we only have sattva guna, the qualities begin to manifest. However, because sattva guna is also a covering, the qualities will have this covering of sattva on them. So, superior to sattvik qualities are transcendental qualities. When will these manifest? If we take away the gunas, they don’t automatically manifest. Jnanis and yogis destroy the gunas, but they don’t manifest any quality. They become nirguna like Brahman. So, the only way these transcendental qualities manifest is through the process of bhakti yoga. We know that the Supreme Lord is full of all the wonderful spiritual qualities. And if we associate with the Supreme Lord as Jivas, we develop or manifest the wonderful qualities like the Lord’s qualities.
So, it is said that people are like spatikas. So, the spatika is clear like glass. And you put it near a yellow flower, it looks yellow. You put it near a red flower, it looks red. So, if we put a person near a tamasik person, they tend to show tamas. If the person changes his association and associates with a rajasik person, he becomes rajasik. And if he is associated with a sattvik person, he becomes sattvik. If he is associated with the Supreme Lord, he becomes transcendental. So, he develops qualities similar to the Lord’s qualities. So, therefore the person in the material world, if he performs bhakti, can develop these spiritual qualities.
In the purport, Prabhupad says, well the Jiva can get 78% of those qualities, not all, 78%. So we may ask, why only 78%? Why not 92%? Why not 100%? And the answer is the Jiva by his nature is different from the Supreme Lord. Jiva is considered to be very small particle, Supreme Lord is pervading everywhere inside and outside the universe, so there is a big difference there. So, if we have to compare the Jiva’s potency and size, etc., with the Supreme Lord, he is nothing. But, the Lord by His mercy allows the Jiva to manifest at least 78% of the qualities.
So, of course, even the 78% qualities manifest, it manifests to a very small degree. However, this is not a problem. Generally, we’ll say, well, Jiva got 78% of the qualities in a very, very small degree, the Supreme Lord has all the qualities in 100% manifestation, they are so different, the Lord will ignore these Jivas. However, to the contrary, the Lord does not ignore the Jivas, He takes them like Himself, He makes them equal to Himself. So, the Lord takes him to the spiritual world, His own abode, He gives them form similar to His own and He associates with them as if they are equal or even superior to Him. And in the form of Krishna, when the devotee interacts and serves Krishna, the difference is completely lost, dissolved. And thus, Mother Yasoda thinks Krishna, You are small, I can punish you.
Of course, if we look from the point of view of philosophy, Supreme Lord has 100% of all qualities, Jivas cannot ever attain those qualities at all, but, with Krishna, the devotees forget all this and they see Krishna as equal or they are even superior to Him.
So, the Acharya’s remark in relation to the Damodar pastime, that we see something which is completely astonishing. Mother Yasoda has a stick in her hand as she is chasing Krishna. And she ties Him up and punishes Him. However, Krishna Himself is the punisher of everybody else. He is the controller of karma. He is the controller of Yamaraja, who also has a stick and punishes everybody. But Mother Yasoda has a stick and she is chasing Krishna. And Krishna does not oppose that at all. Krishna does not tell Mother Yasoda, you stop, look at my stick. Krishna gets caught by Mother Yasoda then what does He do? He cries. Krishna is afraid of Mother Yasoda’s punishment. But, we see opposite in the material world, everybody is lamenting and crying because of the punishment of their karmas. So though the Supreme Lord is completely different from everybody else, still, when He acts as Krishna with His devotees, that difference is completely dissipated.
For other forms of the Lord, the Jivas always are aware that He is Supreme Lord, so the idea of the powerful Lord and we are different, remains. So, there is always a consciousness that the Lord is different from Jiva. But with Krishna and His devotees, that difference also disappears, so it’s Abheda.
So, it is said that Bheda Abheda means the difference between Jiva and Supreme Lord is Bheda Abheda. And in terms of Tattva, our ontology, yes, Supreme Lord has got 100% qualities or 64 qualities as Krishna and Jiva only has 50 in small quantities, obviously, difference is there. So, how do we say Abheda? How do we say non-difference then? So, the usual explanation is, the non-difference is that Jivas are Shakti, Supreme Lord is Shaktimaan. And scripture says that Shakti and Shaktimaan are non-different, they are Abheda. And one of the reasons is that the two cannot be separated. The Lord is always using His Shakti. So therefore, in that sense they are non-different.
But still we see in the case of worshipers of Vishnu or even Ramachandra, there is awareness of difference. But we see with Krishna, that difference disappears. So there, the Abheda becomes more prominent. So, in any case, the Jivas manifest some qualities similar to the Lords. And in Sattva, we get an abhasa of those qualities. Actual qualities will manifest when a person becomes a devotee and then all of the coverings disappear and the qualities manifest nicely.
How do these qualities differ from the qualities in Sattva? We will see that in Sattva, one manifests humility, tolerance, compassion, etc. The devotee manifests same qualities, what’s the difference? So, superficially, they look the same. However, the cause of these qualities is different. The devotee develops all the good qualities by what cause? Bhakti. Because the devotee serves the Lord, he associates with the Lord, he begins to develop the spiritual qualities. So all of these qualities are manifested in relation to the Supreme Lord. And they manifest in relation to the Supreme Lord.
We see that the Mayavadis and the impersonalists, they get rid of all the bad qualities of the material world, they don’t manifest any qualities because they don’t serve the Supreme Lord. Those people in Sattva guna may be practicing niskama karma yoga or whatever, so they are also not worshipping the Lord to any big degree. So, the qualities that manifest in Sattva guna are not directly related to the Supreme Lord. And thus if we have a quality like compassion in Sattva, compassion will manifest by giving some charity to people. And if one is a devotee, the compassion manifest as giving Krishna’s mercy to people. So in other words, the compassion of the devotee is always related to Krishna.
So, the sages were also very elevated and many of them were devotees, so therefore they manifested all these wonderful spiritual qualities. And what do they do with these qualities? They associate with each other, they manifest these qualities and they give mercy to the souls in the material world and they show these qualities. So, that is why in verse 23, the king says, you are naturally inclined to do good to others. You want to give mercy to other people, you are not interested in yourself. And what is the mercy you are giving? The mercy is, as Prabhupad points out in the purport, the devotee or the sages, they deliver people from this material world. So, the only interest of the great sages is to deliver people, that is their wonderful quality.
In Nectar of Devotion there, the second quality that develops in Bhakti is called subha-da. It literally means giving auspiciousness. So, literally when one practices bhakti, the quality of giving auspiciousness develops in the devotee. So, one definition of giving auspiciousness or whatever bhakti gives auspiciousness is that one develops all wonderful qualities. But then another definition of bhakti gives auspiciousness means that Bhakti manifests in the Jivas, that particular devotee that he shows affection for all Jivas. So our Acharyas explain, that definition is given because that’s the main good quality that the devotee develops. He is compassionate to all living entities and he gives that mercy by preaching devotion to them.
So all the great devotees of the Lord will manifest this quality. And Pariksit here is praising the great sages for this quality.
Hare Krsna!
Q&A
1.) Maharaj you explained the difference between Jiva and Supreme Lord. You said Jiva is anu and supreme Lord is Vibhu, but someone who is in the prema level see the distinction between Lord and the devotees. Sometimes Mother Yashoda thinks that Krishna is inferior than Mother Yashoda. So, when you think like this way, in one sense, see, Jiva cannot be compared with the Supreme Lord. But thinking that Lord is inferior than me or depending on me is kind of, you know, like an offence comes, something like that, you know. It’s like, oh, how can I compare myself with the Supreme Lord? It’s one kind of offence coming, correct?
So, from the normal perspective, or material perspective or even the normal devotional perspective, yes its offensive. And for one who is fixed in the worship of Vishnu or other forms of the Lord, they will also say, Oh, that’s offensive. You can never think of yourself superior to the Lord.
So, how is it possible that the people of Vrindavan think like this? So, it is not that they somehow think like that. It is their nature. The nature of intense love is to dissolve respect. So, when that prema is strong, then the respect gets less and less and less. So, we will see that, for instance, in the material world that a person may be a great person like a prime minister and then people give respect. But he has some small children, his sons, his daughters. They don’t think of him as prime minister at all. But it’s not offensive [Laughs]. So, in the same way, with Krishna in Vrindavan, then the whole consciousness is completely different because of the prema.
Of course, we will see sometimes, in certain circumstances, they will also address Krishna, Oh, Supreme Lord! powerful one [Laughs], but then immediately disappears [Laughs]. Mother Yashoda sees Krishna by looking in His mouth and sees the whole universe inside Him. And then she begins to become very serious, Oh! I better practice bhakti and worship the Lord. And then suddenly it all disappears. And then Krishna is my son [Laughs]. So, the strength of the prema will often cover up whatever realization they have that Krishna is that Supreme Lord. So, that is not a fault that they have less respect. The cause is prema. One may develop disrespect for the Lord by material consciousness. That is an offense.
2.) The qualities are manifesting due to sattva guna and due to bhakti are one is related to Krishna and one is related to gunas can we also say that the qualities related to guna are temporary, whereas qualities coming from Krishna due to bhakti are permanent or inherent in the Jiva?
So, the word guna itself means quality. So, in the scriptures we have a whole list of tamasa qualities, rajasa qualities and sattva qualities. So, these qualities are temporary in the sense that a Jiva can change his gunas.
It’s also temporary in the sense that in maha pralaya, the gunas also disappear into mahatatva. Mahatatva goes into prakriti. But in any case, the qualities, the sattvic qualities which look similar to spiritual qualities are actually part of matter. They’re not part of the Supreme Lord or part of the spiritual world.
3.) In the material world, guna is always changing. Sometimes sattva guna is prominent, sometimes raja guna is prominent, sometimes tamo guna is prominent. But does this person affect by the change of gunas? The person who is developing the qualities of sattva guna, rajo guna?
So we have the gunas of a person and he’s born in a certain family. So generally those qualities don’t change too much throughout his life. But the qualities of the world keep changing. So we have Satya yuga, Treta yuga, Dwarva yuga, Kali yuga, keep changing all the time. And even with Satya yuga, sometimes tamo guna rises up and the demons become strong and they conquer over the devatas even. So this is the changing nature of the gunas in the material world. And then again, by association, your gunas can change.
4) Maharaj, is it necessary for a person, as soon as he attains prema, he will return to the spiritual world or he remains in the material world also?
So, on attaining prema, then two things can happen. The Lord can take him to the spiritual world or He can place him in a universe where Krishna is performing his pastimes and he can join the pastimes there and then go to the spiritual world. So it’s up to the Lord.
5.) Maharaj, I heard in a lecture, like even at the last minute, at the time of death also, a person can attain prema in a mind… it’s not like prema you attain, it’s like ashtasatmika vihara, it won’t happen. Even a small minute, he can attain prema and he can back to… he can go to the spiritual world. How we can understand this, Maharaj?
So, anything is possible by the mercy of the Lord. So demons get killed by Krishna and they go to the spiritual world. However, the usual case is, it’s a gradual progression through sadhana to prema. That’s the usual case.
6.) Who is Prabodhananda Saraswati?
So, he is one of the persons who wrote many famous Gaudiya literary works. But his actual biography, we are not too much aware of. Some say he was the guru of Gopala bhatta Goswami, but that’s unconfirmed, we don’t know.
So, whether he is also related to the Sri Vaishnavas in South India, I don’t know. But anyway, his Saraswati is technically a Mayavadi name, I think. So it looks like he was a Mayavadi sannyasi [Laughs] who became a devotee.
7.) When does the 50 quality manifest for Jiva, whether it is from the birth of the Jiva or during spiritual progress?
So it will only start to manifest when one starts Bhakti Yoga. And in Nectar Devotion, this quality of Subhadha and Kleshagni, they begin to manifest in Sadhana Bhakti. But they don’t completely manifest within Sadhana. So if one comes to Bhava, they manifest more. If one comes to Prema, they manifest completely.
8.) Maharaj, you said , 78% of quality of Krishna prevails in human, whereas for Rama and Vishnu, has 60 quality and 55 quality of Krishna, human has only 50 quality. Question is Maharaj, this means 78% of 64 qualities or 78% of 50 qualities of Lord Maharaj?
60 or… I don’t know. You calculate. Use your calculator. 64, 50 over 64 is what? No, of the total qualities. 78% in other words. 50 out of 64 qualities. yeah!
9.) In Advaita, Vishistadvaita, Dvaaita and Achintya beda abheda Tattva, the difference as well as oneness between the Jiva and the Supreme Lord are explained differently. As Achintya beda abheda rattva is the latest, is it the culmination of knowledge and realization. Are different Acharyas like Shankara, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, and Caitanya Mahaprabhu have given their different perceptions?
So, if we exclude advaita, which we completely reject [Laughs], then we are left with Vaishnava philosophies. And they can all be considered to be correct with just a different way of explaining the relationship between Jiva, Matter and Supreme Lord. So, all of the philosophies which accept Supreme Lord, Jiva, and Matter are real. And all of the philosophies, accept that Supreme Lord is independent and Matter and Jivas are dependent on Him. And they all agree the process is Bhakti and the goal is Prema. So, the only difference is to explain how the Jivas relate to the Supreme Lord.
And this becomes a philosophical question. So, if the Supreme Lord and the Jivas are intimately related, then Jivas commit sinful activities. Lord is responsible. So, we cannot deny relationship. But then what type of relationship where the Lord is not responsible. This is the problem.
So, for instance, we have a person produces a pot. And the pot has a crack in it . So, we blame the potter. So, we see the faults in the material world and all the sins of the Jivas. We can blame the Supreme Lord. So, the other way of course is to say they are completely separate. But if they are separate, then what is the idea of the Lord being the controller anymore. So, there is a problem there that has to be explained.
So, different acharyas will take different viewpoints and we can say that, these explanations evolve out of countering Shankaracharyas, pure advaita where nothing exist, Jivas and matter don’t exist at all. But when the scriptures takes about oneness of everything so Shankarachrya emphasises that completely and all the differences rejected. So, Ramanuja’s endeavor was to take this oneness. Which is there in the Upanishads very definitely. But within that to explain how Jivas exist . And how the Lord exists with His qualities etc . So, he says there is oneness . But there is variety within the oneness .
It’s just we can say, the book has qualities . And you cannot just subtract the qualities from the book. Otherwise it’s no longer the same book. Yet, each quality is not the book also. So, the qualities are one with the book . So, the Jivas and matter are one with the Supreme Lord. But also they are different. That’s Vishistadvita. So, of course through this Ramanujacharya at least established that God is existing. And He has qualities, form and activities and He creates the material world. So, this was convincing to many people A. So, they gave up Advaita and they became Visistadvaita followers.
This went on for some time, maybe 500 years or so. And then Madhvacharya came along and says. Why we talk about Advaita, everything is different. So, he says Dvaita philosophy But what about the statements that talk about Advaita and the Upanishads. So many statements are there. You can’t ignore them. So, he says this oneness is not literal, it means everything is dependent on the Lord. That is oneness. But we should not think that Jiva and the Lord or the matter and the Supreme Lord are one in any sense. They are completely different. Difference is the nature of existence.
So, we will see with Achintya beda abeda that we have Abeda and beda. We have both. And we don’t have to negate any of the statements about Beda or Abeda in the Upanishads and Puranas. But if they are equally strong then there is a contradiction. If the book is blue, it cannot be green. If it is green, it cannot be blue. So, if you say the book is green-blue, it doesn’t make any sense. Or to say the book is black and white simultaneously it doesn’t seem to make any sense. So, in other words opposite states cannot exist in one entity simultaneously. It is meaningless. If you say the glass is full of water and not full of water both simultaneously it doesn’t make any sense. To say this is a dog it is also a cat.
So, to say the Lord is different and non-different from matter and Jiva doesn’t make any sense also. How can it be both. Now, if we interpret the words like Madhvadas say that non-difference is not literal then okay, it makes sense. It is only difference. And if we take Ramanuja’s philosophy of non-difference with a little quality in it like the quality of the object and the thing we can kind of tolerate that but ultimately there is difference again to emphasize both simultaneously is kind of meaningless by logic.
However, the advantage is that, we don’t have to interpret any of the statements of either difference or non-difference in Upanishads and scripture. We don’t have to interpret anything. But then, how to explain simultaneous contrary states? So the answer is Achintya Shakti of the Lord. So by the Achintya Shakti of the Lord, Lord can be the biggest, He can be the smallest. He can be black, He can be white. Simultaneously. This means that the Lord’s Shakti is beyond material logic. That’s the definition of Achintya.
So in this way, Lord Caitanya combines the difference and non-difference, which are both mentioned in the Upanishads, and doesn’t discard either, but then also resolves how to explain their coexistence by Achintya Shakti.
Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai !!
HDG Srila Prabhupad Ki Jai !!