Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.2.35 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | May 22, 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 35.
SB_2.2.35
भगवान् सर्वभूतेषु लक्षित: स्वात्मना हरि: ।
दृश्यैर्बुद्ध्यादिभिर्द्रष्टा लक्षणैरनुमापकै: ॥ ३५ ॥
bhagavān sarva-bhūteṣu
lakṣitaḥ svātmanā hariḥ
dṛśyair buddhy-ādibhir draṣṭā
lakṣaṇair anumāpakaiḥ
Synonyms
bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead; sarva — all; bhūteṣu — in the living entities; lakṣitaḥ — is visible; sva-ātmanā — along with the self; hariḥ — the Lord; dṛśyaiḥ — by what is seen; buddhi-ādibhiḥ — by intelligence; draṣṭā — one who sees; lakṣaṇaiḥ — by different signs; anumāpakaiḥ — by hypothesis.
Translation
The Personality of Godhead Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is in every living being along with the individual soul. And this fact is perceived and hypothesized in our acts of seeing and taking help from the intelligence.
Purport
The general argument of the common man is that since the Lord is not visible to our eyes, how can one either surrender unto Him or render transcendental loving service unto Him? To such a common man, here is a practical suggestion given by Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī as to how one can perceive the Supreme Lord by reason and perception. Actually the Lord is not perceivable by our present materialized senses, but when one is convinced of the presence of the Lord by a practical service attitude, there is a revelation by the Lord’s mercy, and such a pure devotee of the Lord can perceive the Lord’s presence always and everywhere. He can perceive that intelligence is the form-direction of the Paramātmā plenary portion of the Personality of Godhead. The presence of Paramātmā in everyone’s company is not very difficult to realize, even for the common man. The procedure is as follows. One can perceive one’s self-identification and feel positively that he exists. He may not feel it very abruptly, but by using a little intelligence, he can feel that he is not the body. He can feel that the hand, the leg, the head, the hair and the limbs are all his bodily parts and parcels, but as such the hand, the leg, the head, etc., cannot be identified with his self. Therefore just by using intelligence he can distinguish and separate his self from other things that he sees. So the natural conclusion is that the living being, either man or beast, is the seer, and he sees besides himself all other things. So there is a difference between the seer and the seen. Now, by a little use of intelligence we can also readily agree that the living being who sees the things beyond himself by ordinary vision has no power to see or to move independently. All our ordinary actions and perceptions depend on various forms of energy supplied to us by nature in various combinations. Our senses of perception and of action, that is to say, our five perceptive senses of (1) hearing, (2) touch, (3) sight, (4) taste and (5) smell, as well as our five senses of action, namely (1) hands, (2) legs, (3) speech, (4) evacuation organs and (5) reproductive organs, and also our three subtle senses, namely (1) mind, (2) intelligence and (3) ego (thirteen senses in all), are supplied to us by various arrangements of gross or subtle forms of natural energy. And it is equally evident that our objects of perception are nothing but the products of the inexhaustible permutations and combinations of the forms taken by natural energy. As this conclusively proves that the ordinary living being has no independent power of perception or of motion, and as we undoubtedly feel our existence being conditioned by nature’s energy, we conclude that he who sees is spirit, and that the senses as well as the objects of perception are material. The spiritual quality of the seer is manifest in our dissatisfaction with the limited state of materially conditioned existence. That is the difference between spirit and matter. There are some less intelligent arguments that matter develops the power of seeing and moving as a certain organic development, but such an argument cannot be accepted because there is no experimental evidence that matter has anywhere produced a living entity. Trust no future, however pleasant. Idle talks regarding future development of matter into spirit are actually foolish because no matter has ever developed the power of seeing or moving in any part of the world. Therefore it is definite that matter and spirit are two different identities, and this conclusion is arrived at by the use of intelligence. Now we come to the point that the things which are seen by a little use of intelligence cannot be animate unless we accept someone as the user of or director of the intelligence. Intelligence gives one direction like some higher authority, and the living being cannot see or move or eat or do anything without the use of intelligence. When one fails to take advantage of intelligence he becomes a deranged man, and so a living being is dependent on intelligence or the direction of a superior being. Such intelligence is all-pervading. Every living being has his intelligence, and this intelligence, being the direction of some higher authority, is just like a father giving direction to his son. The higher authority, who is present and residing within every individual living being, is the Superself.
At this point in our investigation, we may consider the following question: on the one hand we realize that all our perceptions and activities are conditioned by arrangements of material nature, yet we also ordinarily feel and say, “I am perceiving” or “I am doing.” Therefore we can say that our material senses of perception and action are moving because we are identifying the self with the material body, and that the superior principle of Superself is guiding and supplying us according to our desire. By taking advantage of the guidance of Superself in the form of intelligence, we can either continue to study and to put into practice our conclusion that “I am not this body,” or we can choose to remain in the false material identification, fancying ourselves to be the possessors and doers. Our freedom consists in orienting our desire either toward the ignorant, material misconception or the true, spiritual conception. We can easily attain to the true, spiritual conception by recognizing the Superself (Paramātmā) to be our friend and guide and by dovetailing our intelligence with the superior intelligence of Paramātmā. The Superself and the individual self are both spirit, and therefore the Superself and the individual self are both qualitatively one and distinct from matter. But the Superself and the individual self cannot be on an equal level because the Superself gives direction or supplies intelligence and the individual self follows the direction, and thus actions are performed properly. The individual is completely dependent on the direction of the Superself because in every step the individual self follows the direction of the Superself in the matter of seeing, hearing, thinking, feeling, willing, etc.
So far as common sense is concerned, we come to the conclusion that there are three identities, namely matter, spirit and Superspirit. Now if we go to the Bhagavad-gītā, or the Vedic intelligence, we can further understand that all three identities, namely matter, individual spirit, and the Superspirit, are all dependent on the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Superself is a partial representation or plenary portion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Bhagavad-gītā affirms that the Supreme Personality of Godhead dominates all over the material world by His partial representation only. God is great, and He cannot be simply an order supplier of the individual selves; therefore the Superself cannot be a full representation of the Supreme Self, Puruṣottama, the Absolute Personality of Godhead. Realization of the Superself by the individual self is the beginning of self-realization, and by the progress of such self-realization one is able to realize the Supreme Personality of Godhead by intelligence, by the help of authorized scriptures, and, principally, by the grace of the Lord. The Bhagavad-gītā is the preliminary conception of the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the further explanation of the science of Godhead. So if we stick to our determination and pray for the mercy of the director of intelligence sitting within the same bodily tree, like a bird sitting with another bird (as explained in the Upaniṣads), certainly the purport of the revealed information in the Vedas becomes clear to our vision, and there is no difficulty in realizing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. The intelligent man therefore, after many births of such use of intelligence, surrenders himself at the lotus feet of Vāsudeva, as confirmed by the Bhagavad-gītā (7.19).
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, in this verse it is stated that Krishna is in all beings along with the individual soul. And it says, this can be perceived and hypothesized using our intelligence. So, in other words, we can prove the presence of the Supersoul using our senses and our logic. So, of course, we also know that use of our senses and Anuman or use of logic is secondary proof. So, the primary proof is scripture, Sabda. That, of course, does not mean that we discard sense perception and logic completely. But our Acharyas say that, the senses and our use of logic should follow the conclusion of scripture.
For many things, scripture is not going to speak daily activities, etc. It is not going to talk about how to make idlis or how to light a fire. So, we use our senses and our intelligence to do our daily activities. So we use our senses and our intelligence to do that. However, spiritual subject is beyond the senses and logic. So, independently, they cannot come to a proper conclusion. So, for spiritual things, we go to scripture. However, following the scriptural conclusion, we can use the senses and our intelligence to support it. So, that is what is said here. Not that we are using our intelligence and our senses separately. But, rather, it simply confirms what scripture says.
So, in the purport, Prabhupad explains how we use our senses to come to some sort of conclusion. And, of course, we also have to use our intelligence or our logical ability. So, using our senses and our logical ability, we can hypothesize. Yes, there is something beyond our body and senses. That is, I, or whatever. But, of course, people can always challenge that. We know that logic is insubstantial because another logician can always defeat it. But, anyway, we can make a reasonable theory that body is different from Atma. Atma is different from Supersoul. And, of course, if we go to scripture, then this is what is told directly. So, when we read the scripture, then we can say, oh, scripture is speaking something which is reasonable. So, using our senses and intelligence, we can confirm what is in scripture, and, by that, we get an increase in faith. So, in this way, our intelligence is useful to us even spiritually.
We see that we have to use our intelligence in order to come to the proper conclusion of scripture. We see that various sages are studying Vedas and Upanishads, etc., and then they make philosophy out of that. So, they are taking scripture as a basis, and then they are coming to some conclusions, and they make a whole philosophy using intelligence. And so we have six dharshans – six different philosophies with particular sages heading those philosophies. But, if we look at that different philosophies, they have different conclusions. They all use the same scripture, Vedic literature, but they use intelligence, and they came to different conclusions. So, how is that possible? How can scripture say opposite things? If that’s true, it’s got no meaning to it. If we say, Krishna is Bhagavan, on one page is scripture, and on the other page it says Krishna is not Bhagavan, what does that mean? Then scripture becomes meaningless. So, some great sages even conclude, there is no Supreme God, no Brahman even. So, all we can say is, they use their intelligence, but their intelligence is faulty, and therefore they come to wrong conclusions. So, we must use intelligence to understand scripture, but the warning is that, if we use our intelligence one way, we come to wrong conclusions with faulty intelligence.
So, therefore there are some safeguards, so that the intelligence doesn’t stray too much. One of the rules, of course, involves interpretation. How much can we interpret the words of scripture? So, the basic rule is, don’t interpret, just take the words as they are. This is called ‘Abhidha’ – taking the direct meaning. But, we do have to use indirect, that means interpret – ‘lakshana’, in some cases, and so even our Acharyas do that. However, that interpretation or lakshana should always be minor, it should not be the major way in which we get the meaning of scripture. So, in this way, there are other rules as well, and if we follow those rules, then we can minimize getting the wrong conclusion. So, these rules are one way in which we minimize the wrong interpretation. The other is, we go through a parampara. We have one Acharya establishing the correct conclusion, and then he passes that on to others, and they can use logic, etc., but it only supports that conclusion. So, these are safeguards, so that the conclusion of scripture is always kept intact. The reason is that our intelligence is liable to make mistakes, therefore we have these safeguards. Even with all the safeguards, we still have problems. And therefore, Bhagavad Gita says, this knowledge was passed down, but it got lost, so now I am speaking again. So, sometimes the Lord himself has to come in order to set the correct conclusion.
So, anyway, we have scripture as the main proof, and the intelligence is useful, but it can never be independent. One way in which the intelligence becomes independent is to pre-establish its own conclusions. And then we use scripture to support those conclusions, using our intelligence [Laughs]. So, this, of course, is not the correct way. The intelligence should follow after the conclusion of scripture, not make its own conclusions [Laughs]. So, in any case, intelligence is there, it has its use. So, it confirm, looking at the material world, what is in scripture. And intelligence can be used to examine the scripture and come to the proper conclusion. But, then again, we can misuse the intelligence to look at the material world and come to an opposite conclusion. And we can use the same intelligence to go to scripture and come to the opposite conclusion. Thus, we don’t reject the use of intelligence and logic, but we have to use it in the proper way. We have to use it carefully.
If we look at the commentaries of our Acharyas, we will see that they are using intelligence to come to the proper conclusion. So, they will say, the meaning is not this, it is this. So they will say the meaning is not this, it is this. And to support that conclusion, they will use intelligence to give reasons why. And they will use the rules of interpreting scripture to show that. So, they are called Acharya, because they are using their intelligence correctly. So, they are using their intelligence to come to the proper conclusion of scripture. So, the Acharya’s works become valuable to us because we may not have so much intelligence. But, by reading their commentaries, then we can appreciate how they have used their intelligence to get the correct meaning. So, this is the way, in which the Parampara is getting the correct knowledge, the Acharya’s comment, and then we accept those commentaries.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A:
1.) What should a devotee know and what should be the goal of a devotee? Because there are many rules in devotion and one stage is Prema. So, what should be the goal of a devotee?
[Laughs] Well, yes, scripture has many rules, but if we read the scriptures like Bhagavad Gita or Bhagavatam, the rules are not too many. At the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, Surrender to Me. So, that is a very simple rule. Lord Caitanya gives the order to chant the Holy Name. Bhagavatam also says the same thing, simply worship Krishna. So, the final instruction or order is very simple. To support that, then we have some favorable rules to follow.
And different people follow different rules according to their capacity. Of course, if we can follow all the rules, it is very good. At the same time, we cannot say simply because one is following all the rules, one is better than someone who is following less rules. And the reason is that some of the rules are according to qualification.
If one has a lower qualification, one follows less rules. If one has more qualification, one follows more rules. So, definitely, from one point of view, yes, a person who is more qualified is more advanced, a person who is less qualified is less advanced. And therefore, one is following more rules is better devotee, one who follows less rules is less devotee. But at the same time, what is best for a particular person is according to his qualification. As Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, you follow your nature, you do your duty, you don’t do somebody else’s duty. So we have one category to follow those rules and we don’t do other rules, which are higher and you cannot follow. In that sense, if one is following according to qualification, then that make sure good devotee.
2.) And this is a follow up question Maharaj, Is it possible to know that can we achieve our goal in this janma or it will take many janmas?
I think someone asked Prabhupad, he said, oh, foolish question [Laughs]. This is a foolish question. You can attain perfection immediately.
But of course, we see that most people do not immediately get perfection. But of course, that doesn’t mean that they are all foolish. What it means is that according to your qualification, you get the result. If you advance to prema in this lifetime, finally you get the final result. If you don’t, then you get lesser result. Then what determines how far you advance in one lifetime? First, individual effort. But then we also have to see our effort in previous lifetime, previous life time and previous life time.. Another is, getting the mercy of devotees. Another is getting the mercy of Krishna. Of course, Krishna usually gives mercy, when he sees you are making more effort.
So we should not just depend on the method to get immediate result. We also have to depend on our own perseverance and effort.
3.) What is the relationship between faith and intelligence?
Well, we know that intelligence is the ability to distinguish or discriminate. So first we will distinguish this is a dog, this is a cow, this is a human being. That requires some intelligence. Then we can distinguish moral things. This is dharma, this is adharma. And if we get to spiritual level, we say this is body, this is atma. This is all using intelligence. Of course, we have material intelligence and we have spiritual intelligence. So as in this verse, to some extent we can use material intelligence to conclude we are not the body, we are the soul. However, to really get spiritual knowledge, ultimately, we need spiritual intelligence.
So faith or shraddha is a trust that what the scripture is saying is true. If we don’t have that faith, the scripture is useless to us. If we don’t have faith and read Bhagavad Gita, then we’ll say, what use is this book? It’s just talking nonsense theories. Of course, we can have faith in bhakti. Good. Of course, you can also have faith in so many material things. That means.. faith means we have certain trust in that particular object. So, when that faith has its object, the scripture, then it becomes spiritual faith. But, in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes faith in the mode of ignorance, faith in the mode of passion, faith in the mode of love. In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna describes faith in tamo-guna, faith in rajo-guna, faith in sattva-guna. That’s all material. But, even without that material faith, we cannot do much in this world. So based on that faith, a person in Tamo-guna will choose a certain goal, will choose a certain object to worship as a devotee or whatever. Do many things, according to faith. So, when we have spiritual faith, then we’ll accept Bhagavad Gita and we’ll accept that Krishna is Supreme Lord. And that faith does not require us to prove that.
4.) How do we purify our consciousness to be alert to the directions we receive from the Lord in our heart? This is not for philosophical understanding, but daily matters like thinking, feeling and willing, how do we purify our consciousness, to receive instructions from the Lord in our heart – is it with respect to choices we make or with respect to interactions with people?
The question is basically, how do we purify our consciousness to receive the directions of Lord in our heart?
Well, of course, the devotee’s goal is not to receive the instructions of Paramatma. The goal of devotee is to receive the instructions of Krishna, who is higher than Paramatma as explained in this purport. Bhagavan is in charge of Bhakti. And through that Bhakti, we get Prema. So, Paramatma functions to guide the living entities in the material world, so you can carry out your material functions. And in the material world, of course, we have many things to do, and Paramatma is there assisting us in all of that.
So as far as developing bhakti, the main influence is mercy of devotees and mercy of the Lord, which is Bhagavan, not Paramatma. But Paramatma is the witness and the fulfiller of your desires. He helps you fulfill your desires in this world. But arranging for devotional service is all under devotees and Krishna. So qualification for bhakti is faith. Where does faith come from? Mercy of devotees. And mercy of devotees does not come from anything in the material or Paramatma, but comes from Bhagavan [Laughs].
5.) Does bhakti sukriti alone lead to both spiritual faith and spiritual intelligence?
So faith develops from mercy of devotees in previous lifetimes. So in other words that faith is not material faith. With that faith, we accept the knowledge of scripture and we accept the process of bhakti. Of course scripture is also spiritual and the process of bhakti is also spiritual. So in this way it is all spiritual energy of the Lord acting on that devotee. And it is through that that the devotee develops in devotional service. So through this process then bhakti becomes fixed in the jiva. And just as a plant grows, the bhakti grows and manifests different symptoms. So it grows by the activities of bhakti, it grows by the mercy of devotees in Krishna.
6.) What kind of devotional service will result in four kinds of liberation?
So if sayuja is there, that is not through bhakti at all. That is through jnana or yoga. Of course bhakti has to be there, as a minor element.
And if you do karma misra bhakti, then you can get salokya and sarupya. If you do jnana misra bhakti, you can get up to shanta rasa.
7.) Maharaj, the commentaries of acharyas are very pure and faultless. But the jivatma who reads the commentary of the acharyas, the jivatma is having lust in his heart. So his heart is contaminated. So with a contaminated heart, how can a jivatma understand the commentary of acharyas correctly?
Well, just as with scriptures, so with the commentaries also, you have to be qualified. And even if you are qualified, you are likely to misinterpret even the commentary. But the more one is advanced in bhakti, the less likelihood of misinterpreting. In any case, the safeguard there is, to also accept a devotee as a teacher who is higher in bhakti. Then he can give you the correct meaning if you happen to make mistake.
So when we talk about parampara, it means that devotees are handing down the teachings. So they are not only handing down the scriptures, they are also handing down the commentaries of the acharyas.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Haribol!!!