Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.1.37 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | April 10, 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 2 Chapter 1 Verse 37.
ŚB 2.1.37
ब्रह्माननं क्षत्रभुजो महात्मा
विडूरुरङ्घ्रिश्रितकृष्णवर्ण: ।
नानाभिधाभीज्यगणोपपन्नो
द्रव्यात्मक: कर्म वितानयोग: ॥ ३७ ॥
brahmānanaṁ kṣatra-bhujo mahātmā
viḍ ūrur aṅghri-śrita-kṛṣṇa-varṇaḥ
nānābhidhābhījya-gaṇopapanno
dravyātmakaḥ karma vitāna-yogaḥ
Synonyms
brahma — the brāhmaṇas; ānanam — the face; kṣatra — the kṣatriyas; bhujaḥ — the arms; mahātmā — the virāṭ-puruṣa; viṭ — the vaiśyas; ūruḥ — the thighs; aṅghri-śrita — under the protection of His feet; kṛṣṇa-varṇaḥ — the śūdras; nānā — various; abhidhā — by names; abhījya-gaṇa — the demigods; upapannaḥ — being overtaken; dravya-ātmakaḥ — with feasible goods; karma — activities; vitāna-yogaḥ — performances of sacrifice.
Translation
The virāṭ-puruṣa’s face is the brāhmaṇas, His arms are the kṣatriyas, His thighs are the vaiśyas, and the śūdras are under the protection of His feet. All the worshipable demigods are also overtaken by Him, and it is the duty of everyone to perform sacrifices with feasible goods to appease the Lord.
Purport
Monotheism is practically suggested here. Offering sacrifices to many demigods under different names is mentioned in the Vedic literatures, but the suggestion made in this verse is that all those varieties of demigods are included in the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; they are only the parts and parcels of the original whole. Similarly, the divisions of the orders of human society, namely the brāhmaṇas (the intelligent class), the kṣatriyas (the administrators), the vaiśyas (the mercantile community) and the śūdras (the laborer class), are all included in the body of the Supreme. As such, sacrifice by every one of them in terms of pleasing the Supreme by feasible goods is recommended. Generally, the sacrifice is offered with clarified butter and grains, but with the progress of time, human society has produced varieties of goods by transforming materials supplied by God’s material nature. Human society, therefore, must learn to offer sacrifices not only with clarified butter, but also with other manufactured goods in the propagation of the Lord’s glory, and that will bring about perfection in human society. The intelligent class of men, or brāhmaṇas, may give direction for such sacrifices in consultation with the previous ācāryas; the administrators may give all facilities to perform such sacrifices; the vaiśya class or mercantile community, who produce such goods, may offer them for sacrifice; and the śūdra class may offer their manual labor for the successful termination of such sacrifice. Thus by the cooperation of all classes of human beings, the sacrifice recommended in this age, namely the sacrifice of congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, may be executed for the common welfare of all the people of the world.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, various descriptions of the Universal form have been given. In one version, we have the various lokas located on the body of the Lord. And in another, we get the different species as parts of the body of the Lord. We also get the various elements, like earth, water, air, fire, as parts of the body of the Lord. In this verse, we get the different varnas as parts of the body of the Lord. And the different varnas are assigned different organs of the body, which help indicate their function. So, we get the brahmanas at the top, then the kshatriyas, then the vaisyas, and then the sudras. So, the brahmanas are superior to the other varnas. Still, all of the varnas are part of this body and all parts are necessary for the function of the body.
So, even if we don’t use the system of varnas, we know that people have different types of qualities. And a lot of these qualities are influenced by the modes of material nature. So, brahmanas are prominently sattvic. Kshatriyas are a mixture of rajas and sattva. Vaisyas are a mixture of rajas and tamas. And sudras are prominently tamas. So, according to those gunas and qualities, different work is suitable for each varna. So, the brahmana acts as the head, so he is the intelligence. Kshatriyas are the arms, so they implement the instructions of the brahmanas. The vaisyas are considered to be the thighs and also the stomach. So they give nourishment to the whole body. So, the vaisyas supply the food etc., for the society. And the sudras, they do all the heavy work. So, any society has these divisions. So, nevertheless, they all have to be there in order for the whole society to operate.
The other point made here is that, they are all engaged in sacrifice. Which means that they have to worship the Supreme Lord. And we see this also indicated in the Bhagavad Gita. There are talks about how you have to do sacrifice in order to get rain. If the rain falls, the crops grow. So, people have to cultivate the crops, they harvest the crops, they eat the food, they get nourishment. With that nourishment, then they have to offer worship to the Supreme Lord. And then, the rain comes, the food comes, etc., again. So, this is a cycle or a circle. And it’s particularly for the human being. Animals don’t do sacrifices. But the human being is obliged to do sacrifice. If he doesn’t do it, then this circle is broken, and we don’t get the rain, we don’t get the food, and the human being suffers.
So, all the different varnas are involved in this cycle. The sudras do all the work, like ploughing the fields and whatever. And the Vaishyas direct them on what to plant and how to harvest, etc. The Kshatriyas manage all that wealth. And the Brahmanas do the sacrifices. So, all of the varnas are involved in this cycle. And if they do all of their duties properly, then the society prospers.
So, these varnas are considered to be like parts of the body. And the parts of the body have to cooperate in order that the whole body is healthy. If the hands refuse to do any work, then the whole body suffers. If the feet refuse to move, then obviously the body suffers.
So, there has to be cooperation among all the different people, even though they are of different gunas and different qualities and different occupations. So, a society involving all sorts of people, has to live cooperatively.
And when one of the varnas does not cooperate, then we get problems. We see when the Kshatriyas became too strong, then Parasurama came and killed them. Again, we see when the Kshatriyas became strong headed by Kamsa, Krishna came and killed them. When the Brahmanas became too strong, then Buddha came and rejected all the Vedas. So, there has to be cooperation among all the different elements of society. They do their particular job, they contribute to society, and they don’t exploit the other varnas.
So, this is the system set up by the Supreme Lord. But essential to that system for the cooperation is this idea of worship or sacrifice. That worship prevents any of the members from becoming too greedy. When the worship stops, then individuals become greedy, and then the system begins to fall apart.
So, this is a system that the Lord has given to the material world. And the Lord also supplies the Kshatriyas to implement the system. He has given the different sages to teach the system. And thus, throughout the different parts of the day of Brahma, we have all of these Manus and their descendants and the sages constantly appearing to establish this system. This is necessary because, if we don’t have this constant maintenance of the system, the lower gunas will become too strong and destroy the system. And that we see, when Kali Yuga becomes strong, then the whole system becomes weak because Tamo guna becomes very strong.
So, what do we do, when the system becomes so weak? So, at the end of the purport, Prabhupad mentions that actually the main method of worship is Nama Sankirtana in Kali Yuga. So, the unique quality of Nama Sankirtana is that everybody can do it regardless of qualification. And thus, even if the varnas are not functioning properly, Nama Sankirtana can still operate and give its effects. If we are to do the traditional yajnas, etc., then we need the Brahmanas intact. But Nama Sankirtana Yajna does not need the Brahmanas. So, this is a system which is practical for Kali Yuga.
So, in Kali Yuga, the varna system becomes weak, not too practical. But the essence of the system to worship the Lord becomes stronger. So, even without that system, by doing Nama Sankirtana, worship of the Lord, then people of Kali Yuga can still succeed. So, this is also an arrangement of the Supreme Lord. So in this way, the Lord makes arrangements within the material world for the protection and maintenance of all the different creatures, including the human beings.
Hare Krsna!
Q&A
1) Hare Krishna You are explaining in this way, three gunas and Brahmana is in Sattva guna and Kshatriya is in Sattva and Rajo and Vaishya is in Raja and Tama and Sudras is in Tamo guna. All you see, the four gunas, three gunas are telling he is connected to all these four gunas but who is this? These three gunas are necessary for survival in our society. Are they necessary? How do you work? Three gunas are there but sometimes it is stressed that we have to be in Sattva guna but with other gunas how is it difficult for a person to survive in the material world? We need to sleep and we need to work to get rid of Rajo guna and Tamo guna.
The more the people become Sattvic the more they become detached the less they are involved with material things they can renounce everything so their material necessities are much less.
And thus yogis or sannyasis do not depend upon varnas. We have other brahmanas for instance who are grihastas but they do have material needs. And even if they are very renounced then according to Bhagavatam they can go in the field of the Vaishyas pick up the extra grains or sweep the grains off the floor of the market place but again they are dependent upon the Vaishya community.
So for most people in the society, yes all these different varnas are necessary but they are more necessary when people specialize. If people are not in big groups they are just living off in their house on the farm and they do everything [laughs]. We see in America when the settlers came there then they would go off into the plains and the forest and make a little house and they would survive by themselves they didn’t depend on anybody else.
Then we get a little modification of that where we get some community groups like in America and Europe isolated and everybody is operating everything they do all the things they farm, they milk the cow they do everything themselves so each family does everything again.
So each family does all the work [laughs] and there is nobody sitting back doing nothing and everybody is paying tax to them they don’t have such a system. But then we see that most societies or civilizations they get bigger and bigger and they start making these divisions.
So we see Egyptian society or Greek society or Roman society they all have these divisions in them. So it depends on the particular culture.
2) I understand that this whole world is made for the peaceful society it’s not for the spiritual advancement but it is secondary but primly for the peaceful society.
So as we see here they do have worship of the Lord as integral to it but that’s not the main goal for that reason Bhagavatam ultimately rejects the system. But the more intelligent person will make worship of the Lord the main element everything else secondary So that person who does worship of the Lord or Bhakti as the main element can reject the whole system.
But that is difficult for most people so most people do not reject the system, they do it but as a secondary element.
3) So see in the case of devotees how will you categorize that he comes and like see same devotee he is doing worship of the Lord and same devotee he is doing the management same devotee he is doing the business for Krishna same devotee he is doing the temple hall like serving others So we see that one person is connected to all four varnas. So how do you categorize that?
So service in the temple is not exactly the same as the varna system. In the varna system worship of the Lord is secondary element. And all services in the temple whatever they are they may look like sudra or Vaishya or ksatriya or brahman and things are all mainly devotional elements.
So a devotee could do any of these things. However, he may have talent or inclination for a particular service. So probably he will do that service better than the others. So that’s a better engagement.
4) Prabhupada was mentioning that in Narada Muni’s case, Narada Muni, when he was a child he was serving the Bhaktivedanta so he mentioned that even though there are pure devotees if a person who has contaminated heart is serving the pure devotee also that pure devotee’s consciousness get affected how do we understand? If a person if a normal conditioned soul is serving a pure devotee so that pure devotee’s consciousness will it get affected?
So, it depends on several factors. If the devotee is highly advanced very little effect of anybody else on him. If he is less advanced there is the possibility of being affected. So the negative effects are not because of service which is devotional, but that association may not be actually spiritual association.
So it is said that people are like spatikas… crystals and the crystal goes near red it looks red if it goes here it looks brown or whatever like that so you tend to by association pick up qualities of another person. So, if a devotee accepts service from a lower devotee of sorts he may get some influence bad influence. So bad influence because that association of the lower devotee who has got a lower consciousness may start affecting that person.
So the effect will happen when the relationship becomes close. So when they act as equals there is more likely to be influence.
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj Maharaj we understand that in Kali Yuga Nama Sankirtan is the most suitable process and that is why it is the Yugadharma. Is this process not effective in other Yugas Maharaj? Are there any shortcomings in Nama Sankirtan during other Yugas? Why is it not the Yugadharma then?
Like all processes of Bhakti is actually eternal. However in Kali Yuga even other processes of Bhakti may be more difficult to practice. So Bhakti is easiest for everybody But it is still there in Dwapara Yuga, Treta Yuga, Satya Yuga etc.
6) Hare Krishna Maharaj we see either in Grahastha community or in Brahmachari community there are some devotees who serve and their service are very nicely seen. Others serve in an assisting role or supporting role. Now we theoretically understand or even understand from scriptures that when a person serves a servant of the Lord or serves a devotee the Lord sees that and every service is counted. However what happens when a person does some service which is observable he gets an appreciation from the fellow community members or from senior authorities and that gives encouragement to that person to render more service. However it doesn’t happen with someone assisting, for example you know family members when the woman is not much able to come to temple but they are assisting they are taking many responsibilities at home but because the appreciation is not there for one who gets appreciation naturally feels good again because everyone is conditioned.
Even in ashram we see there are some who are in the assistant role or in the subordinate role but the one who does the services, he gets appreciation he does more and more nicely but how to understand Maharaj that these persons who are in the supporting role or in the assisting role also gets mercy sooner or later?
So Krishna appreciates any service as long as it is sincere and He doesn’t distinguish between whether it is supporting service or main service. The devotees, on the other hand, are taught to perform pure bhakti and in that pure bhakti their only goal should be to strive to please Krishna. So if they are striving to get recognition or praise from others this becomes a contamination and in extreme case if we depend on that recognition and praise to the service then it becomes very conditional.
So the satisfaction and the inspiration for the service is simply pleasing the Lord and if we strive to get our satisfaction from other things that also becomes impurity.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupad ki jai!!! HH Bhanuswami maharaj ki jai!!!