Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.2.34 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | May 20, 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 2 Verse 34.
ŚB 2.2.34
भगवान् ब्रह्म कार्त्स्न्येन त्रिरन्वीक्ष्य मनीषया ।
तदध्यवस्यत् कूटस्थो रतिरात्मन् यतो भवेत् ॥ ३४ ॥
bhagavān brahma kārtsnyena
trir anvīkṣya manīṣayā
tad adhyavasyat kūṭa-stho
ratir ātman yato bhavet
Synonyms
bhagavān — the great personality Brahmā; brahma — the Vedas; kārtsnyena — by summarization; triḥ — three times; anvīkṣya — scrutinizingly examined; manīṣayā — with scholarly attention; tat — that; adhyavasyat — ascertained it; kūṭa-sthaḥ — with concentration of the mind; ratiḥ — attraction; ātman (ātmani) — unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa; yataḥ — by which; bhavet — it so happens.
Translation
The great personality Brahmā, with great attention and concentration of the mind, studied the Vedas three times, and after scrutinizingly examining them, he ascertained that attraction for the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the highest perfection of religion.
Purport
Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī is referring to the highest Vedic authority, Lord Brahmā, who is the qualitative incarnation of Godhead. The Vedas were taught to Brahmājī in the beginning of the material creation. Although Brahmājī was to hear Vedic instructions directly from the Personality of Godhead, in order to satisfy the inquisitiveness of all prospective students of the Vedas, Brahmājī, just like a scholar, studied the Vedas three times, as generally done by all scholars. He studied with great attention, concentrating on the purpose of the Vedas, and after scrutinizingly examining the whole process, he ascertained that becoming a pure, unalloyed devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the topmost perfection of all religious principles. And this is the last instruction of the Bhagavad-gītā directly presented by the Personality of Godhead. The Vedic conclusion is thus accepted by all ācāryas, and those who are against this conclusion are only veda-vāda-ratas, as explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (2.42).
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So Sukadeva is explaining here, how this conclusion that devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is the most auspicious method. So that was the conclusion presented in the last verse. And, in this verse, then he supports that by giving an example of Brahmā. So, Brahmā came to the same conclusion. But what did he do? He studied the Vedas. So in other words, the Vedas are the proof for this conclusion. And to make sure, he went through the whole Vedas, three times. And he did so with great attention. And then he came to conclusion.
So of course, what is the position of Brahmā? As Prabhupāda mentions in the first line of the purport, Brahmā is a incarnation of the Supreme Lord, he is avatar. And, though usually he is a Jiva, he is given special power by the Supreme Lord. So, his particular power is to create this material world. Creation, of course, is usually rajoguna. So we should not conclude that because Brahmā creates the world, he is predominated by rajoguna. After all, he is avatar of the Lord. So not only is he avatar of the Lord, empowered for creation, and he is given special power for that. How does he get the power to create the material world? So that is discussed here later in the second canto, also it is described in the Brahma Samhita. He tried to create, but he could not do so. So what did he do? He meditated on the Supreme Lord. And by that, he had darshan of the Supreme Lord, and he got the power to create. So apart from getting the power to create this material world, obviously, he had to have great qualification to see the Lord.
Here in the Bhāgavatam, it is also said, he was given the four root verses of Bhāgavatam. In the Brahma Samhita, it says, he heard the flute of the Supreme Lord. And, he got Gayatri Mantra from the Supreme Lord. So in both cases, he got knowledge from the Supreme Lord. So because he got knowledge directly from the Supreme Lord, he also has special power to convey that knowledge to others. And thus, he is head of our Sampradaya. Of course, we also hear later in the Bhāgavatam that the Vedas emanated from the mouth of Brahma. But, not only the Vedas, we can say, Bhāgavatam also was emanating from his mouth. So, Brahma had realization, he had all the knowledge of the Vedas, and he conveyed that to other people.
So, what is the most important factor in giving knowledge? Ultimately, it is to give the conclusion of all that knowledge. So, that is the most important thing, what is the conclusion. So, here it says, ‘ratiḥ ātmani bhavet’, that one should develop this attraction for the Supreme Lord. So, in this way, there is no contradiction with the previous verse, where it talks about, developing Bhakti Yoga for Krishna. So, of course, one can interpret this word here, here the word is Atmana, or Atmani. So the yogis can interpret this conclusion of the Vedas is to develop attraction for Atma. And Atma of course is equated with Brahman. So they will say, the conclusion of Brahma is that you merge in Brahman. However, of course you can take that, and it is grammatically correct.
But the previous verse just said that you should develop Bhakti Yoga for Vasudev. So we are giving Brahman a name and calling him Vasudev, it is something not impersonal anymore. And, if we say Bhakti Yoga, then obviously, we are developing a affectionate relationship with the Supreme Lord. And in Bhakti Yoga, you never merge into the Lord. So, in this last line it says, develop attraction, Rati, for Atma, can never mean merging into Brahman, because it contradicts the previous verse. So, it does take intelligence, as it said here, he went through the, examined the Vedas three times with his intelligence, manīṣayā. And through that, he was able to get the actual conclusion. So, this of course is difficult for most people. So that is why we have the Parampara coming from Brahma. Instead of trying to struggle to get the conclusion, we get the conclusion from the Brahma Sampradaya. Brahma has the conclusion, he gives that conclusion to someone else. Of course, it doesn’t mean that we just take the conclusion and we forget about the scripture, no, we should also study the scripture. From that study, then we get conviction, that yes, this is the conclusion of the Vedas. So therefore, the conclusion is always supported by the scripture. So for that very reason, also Lord Caitanya instructed his followers to examine the scriptures closely and come to the proper conclusion.
So of course, the conclusion is there at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, give up everything and just surrender to me. And this of course is what Srila Prabhupada taught. But then, why do we have to study the whole Bhagavad Gita then? We have to get Bhakti Shastri, this and that, and study for so many hours and so many years. Why don’t we just accept the conclusion, finished? Why did Prabhupada write a thousand-page commentary on Bhagavad Gita? He could have just put the conclusion out there. One reason of course is, people will ask, why are you coming to this conclusion? We have to have a good answer, so we can say, look, it’s all here in Bhagavad Gita, all in Bhagavatam, scripture its there. The other is for the individual devotee’s benefit. Through study of the whole Bhagavad Gita or Bhagavatam, then he understands the real conclusion. So because the scripture itself concludes in this way, he gets more faith.
So the Vedas are there, this is the mercy of Supreme Lord. And the Vedas are considered to be non-different from the Supreme Lord. However, the Vedas are a verbal expression of the Supreme Lord. So through sound, we can understand the Supreme Lord. However, still, in Kali Yuga especially, we cannot expect everyone to read the three Vedas. So instead of reading three Vedas, the alternative of Lord Caitanya is, you study Srimad Bhagavatam. What is the essence of all of the three Vedas? Gayatri Mantra. And of course, Gayatri Mantra is referred to in the first verse of Bhagavatam. So, our Acharyas accept Bhagavatam as the natural commentary on the Vedas and Brahma Sutras. Natural because written by Vedavyasa himself who also wrote the Brahma Sutras and also compiled the Vedas. So, everything is condensed within Srimad Bhagavatam instead of having to read three Vedas.
Of course, the nature of Supreme Lord is He has great mercy. And therefore, He condenses things. So Vedas are condensed into Gayatri but then Gayatri is also condensed into Om. So Vedas are also condensed into the Bhagavatam. Bhagavatam further condensed into the four verses discussed later in Canto 2. Of course, if we want further condensation, then we say Hare Krishna [Laughs]. So the Lord gives us many alternatives. But even though we have these easier and easier alternatives, we don’t reject the study of the scriptures. So if you cannot study all the Vedas, at least or the Brahma Sutras, at least you study Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. But that goes along with the process of Nama Sankirtana. And all this is the authorized process coming from Brahma. So in this way we practice Bhakti, but we give it some authority. And that is why we always emphasize the use of scripture. But the scriptures come through the bona fide line of authority. If we don’t do so, then scripture also loses its meaning. And though it is scripture, the meaning is different, so the value is zero. So we get the Vedas without the proper conclusion. Or we get Bhagavatam, all of the Bhagavatam, we study it but we get the wrong conclusion. So therefore that gets criticized. And Prabhupada mentions this at the end of the purport, he said these people are called ‘veda-vāda-ratas’, they are absorbed in discussing the Vedas without coming to the proper conclusion. So, we accept the scripture, but we take it through the proper line of authority.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A :
1.) Thank you Maharaj. Maharaj, here it is mentioned that Brahma read the Vedas thrice and got to the right conclusion. Should we also understand that he had the personal guidance of the Supreme Lord to understand it in the right way? Because we don’t see him being guided by a spiritual master.
Well, later on we see he got the four verses from the Supreme Lord. So that’s the conclusion of the Vedas. Not only he got the Vedas, but he got the conclusion as well. At the same time we understand that Brahma’s intelligence is much greater than ours. And the transmission of the vedas from the Supreme lord is also different from what we know. So nevertheless it was transmitted, and he didn’t have to look at the words and say what does that mean and discuss it as we would do. Somehow he got it from the Supreme Lord directly and then he had to start reviewing it. which means that even for the most intelligent person like Brahma, we have to be very careful to get the proper meaning. Therefore he went over the whole thing three times.
2.) Again we see that he had to go through thrice all the Vedas and we also see the previous Acharyas have done a tremendous work to get us to the essential point. The followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu do not have to make so much endeavor. Simply they got the Saramsa. So in that sense the followers of Mahaprabhu are more fortunate and blessed to take advantage of this. Just pay attention to the holy name, concentration to Bhagavatam and our life is successful. So in that sense we are more fortunate, blessed and easiest way.
So the Lord is always merciful and therefore he gives alternatives. That’s why we have different methods in Sathya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. And of course he gives different scriptures. So he has the Vedas and he has the Brahma Sutras and he has Mahabharata and Puranas etc. And he has different methods for different people, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Astanga Yoga, Bhakti Yoga. And in Bhakti Yoga different methods for different people. So therefore Pariksit gets perfection by hearing, Sukadeva by Kirtan, Prahlad by remembering etc. So Caitanya Mahaprabhu has of course used Bhakti Yoga as the main process. Within that he has revealed Nama sankirtan as the main method. So in that sense things have been reduced to the easiest, simplest method. Though it is the simplest method it doesn’t mean we get a different goal. No, we get the same goal. But Lord Caitanya’s mercy is not just to give us the easiest method, it’s also to give something extra and that is he reveals the love of Radha and Krishna. So that’s his greatest mercy.
3.) Haribhol Maharaj, already Bhagavatam explained about the creation through Purusha avatars and there are two types of Shiva, one is material world and one is spiritual world. Already creation has taken place through the universes and the super soul is manifested through Ksirodakasayi Vishnu. What is the exact role of Lord Brahma on the material world? Whether he decides the fate of the Jivas on the particular life? [Not clear] What is the actual role of Brahma in the material world? What he creates?
So he is the secondary creator not the primary creator. Lord does not directly touch matter. The Lord glances over matter, he looks at it, he doesn’t touch it. And though he enters into the material world as Garbhodakshayi Vishnu and as Ksirodaksayi Vishnu, still he doesn’t touch anything [Laughs]. So Brahma does the more immediate creation of taking the elements, making them into bodies, making sure the Jivas get into the correct bodies. So the plan of the Lord is executed through the direct intervention of Brahma.
4.) Why Brahma having four heads? All the Acharyas and Parampara, everyone having single head. But why Brahma having four heads? Any reason Maharaj?
Well, that’s our conception. Of course Ravana has ten heads. Devatas may have more heads also. There is a Hanuman form with many heads. So in spiritual world also they manifest many heads sometimes. In terms of practicality or physical reality, Brahma has four heads to see in all directions. Which means he can gain knowledge more thoroughly than other living entity. But it’s described in other universes which are much bigger, then we have Brahma with hundreds of heads.
5.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, when Brahma knows the essence of Vedas, how to understand he getting bewildered during Brahma Vimohana Lila?
It is also mentioned that the lord himself when he saw Brahma he promised him that within this lifetime he would not be bewildered. And therefore the bewilderment in the Brahma Vimohana Lila is taken as the Yoga Maya of the Supreme Lord.
6.) The great personality Brahma with great attention and concentration of the mind studied the Vedas three times. And after scrutinizingly examining them, previously there were only oral instructions, Shuddhi method. That is we have to receive through oral instructions. How can we understand that Brahmadeva studied the Vedas three times because at that time only oral instruction was present. Did Lord Brahma when he heard the Vedas for the first time, write down the notes and he studied it three times? Or in what way can we understand that he read the Vedas three times?
Well, as I said, the transmission of knowledge of Brahma is much different from our knowledge. And the vedas were only put down in written form in beginning of Kali yuga.
So, therefore, they didn’t have to make notes in the same way because there were no notepads and no pencils and whatever. So, he reviewed it, it was all in his mind. We see that even Brahma has great power in his mind so he creates living entities through his mind.
7.) Appearance of Brahma is generally from Garbodakasayi Vishnu. Here Brahma is getting darshan of Krishna. Is it a special case? How can we understand it? Does it happen once in the lifetime of Brahma.
Later on in the second canto, it is described how Brahma saw the Supreme Lord. Most devotees and even many Acharyas will say, ok, he saw Vishnu. But then Vishwanath Chakravarti Thakur actually says, no, he saw Krishna [Laughs]. And then he describes everything and says this applies to Krishna not to Vishnu.
8.) What is the significance of Brahma receiving knowledge through Krishna playing flute?
So by this we understand that spiritual sound is much different from material sound. The sound of the flute is one of Krishna’s special characteristics. It is not just a sound. If the living entities hear the sound of the flute, they develop Prema. So it is the internal shakti of the supreme lord. And It conveys the sweetness of Krishna.
9.) When Brahma is an incarnation of the Lord, then why did he go through the process of meditation for realization?
So, Brahma is an incarnation of the Lord, but he is still a Jiva. And thus as a Jiva, his powers are limited. And Jiva means dependent on the Supreme Lord. So meditating to get the power to create the material world shows his dependence on the Lord.
10.) Hare Krishna. Maharaj, like you were mentioning three Vedas, but actually Vyasadev divided the Vedas into four. So which Veda did you exclude, Maharaj, when you mentioned three Vedas?
Usually the three primary Vedas are the Rg, Sama and Yajur Vedas. So here when they say three Vedas, they talk about three-fold knowledge, tri-vidya, etc. It refers to three Vedas, so it excludes the Atharva Veda.
Devotee : Okay, Maharaj, then the Gopal Tapani Upanishad is a part of Atharva Veda, so how do we understand that, Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Yeah. Of course, even though they talk about three Vedas, we also talk about four Vedas. So of course they emphasize the three Vedas, and the Atharva Veda is considered dealing with more mundane matters, so therefore sometimes it’s not put in the same category. Nevertheless, we see that Vedavyasa divided the Vedas into four, and he assigned one of his students to take care of Atharva Veda. Like each Veda, Atharva Veda will have Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads and Samhita portions. So, among the Upanishads, we have the Gopal Tapani Upanishad.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!