Srimad Bhagavatam 10.3.25 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Melbourne | 13 March 2026
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-vihārī
gopījana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-rañjana
yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 10 Chapter 3 Verse 25.
ŚB 10.3.25
naṣṭe loke dvi-parārdhāvasāne
mahā-bhūteṣv ādi-bhūtaṁ gateṣu
vyakte ’vyaktaṁ kāla-vegena yāte
bhavān ekaḥ śiṣyate ’śeṣa-saṁjñaḥ
Synonyms
naṣṭe — after the annihilation; loke — of the cosmic manifestation; dvi-parārdha-avasāne — after millions and millions of years (the life of Brahmā); mahā-bhūteṣu — when the five primary elements (earth, water, fire, air and ether); ādi-bhūtam gateṣu — enter within the subtle elements of sense perception; vyakte — when everything manifested; avyaktam — into the unmanifested; kāla-vegena — by the force of time; yāte — enters; bhavān — Your Lordship; ekaḥ — only one; śiṣyate — remains; aśeṣa-saṁjñaḥ — the same one with different names.
Translation
After millions of years, at the time of cosmic annihilation, when everything, manifested and unmanifested, is annihilated by the force of time, the five gross elements enter into the subtle conception, and the manifested categories enter into the unmanifested substance. At that time, You alone remain, and You are known as Ananta Śeṣa-nāga.
Purport
At the time of annihilation, the five gross elements — earth, water, fire, air and ether — enter into the mind, intelligence and false ego (ahaṅkāra), and the entire cosmic manifestation enters into the spiritual energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who alone remains as the origin of everything. The Lord is therefore known as Śeṣa-nāga, as Ādi-puruṣa and by many other names.
Devakī therefore prayed, “After many millions of years, when Lord Brahmā comes to the end of his life, the annihilation of the cosmic manifestation takes place. At that time the five elements — namely earth, water, fire, air and ether — enter into the mahat-tattva. The mahat-tattva again enters, by the force of time, into the nonmanifested total material energy, the total material energy enters into the energetic pradhāna, and the pradhāna enters into You. Therefore after the annihilation of the whole cosmic manifestation, You alone remain with Your transcendental name, form, quality and paraphernalia.
“My Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You because You are the director of the unmanifested total energy, and the ultimate reservoir of the material nature. My Lord, the whole cosmic manifestation is under the influence of time, beginning from the moment up to the duration of the year. All act under Your direction. You are the original director of everything and the reservoir of all potent energies.”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, here, Devaki is displaying her awareness that Krishna, who has appeared as her son, is manifesting all of the material universes. And thus, she recognizes that He is the Supreme Lord, full of all powers. Of course, the power to manifest universes is actually insignificant for the Supreme Lord. And therefore, it is said that Krishna directly does not do this. In the spiritual world, Krishna also has these other forms, which we call expansions, or aṁsa, or sva-aṁsa. So, we have Krishna, then we have Vishnu forms, with the chatur-vyūha expanding in various ways. And one of those expansions expands into the material realm, and that is Maha Vishnu. And it is this Maha Vishnu, who is outside of Vaikuṇṭha, who glances over prakṛti and manifests all of the billions of material universes.
So, in other words, it is not the Lord directly, but through his puruṣa form as Maha Vishnu that He manifests everything. And how does Maha Vishnu manifest everything? He glances [Laughs]. He doesn’t have to exert any energies. He casually glances. And far away in the distance, matter suddenly transforms into mahat-tattva, ahankāra, senses, sense objects, and gross material elements. And then they start combining into universes, billions of universes. And then Maha Vishnu expands into each universe as Garbhodakasayi Vishnu. And Garbhodakasayi Vishnu creates Brahmā, who creates all of the planetary systems and all the bodies for the living entities. And then Garbhodakasayi Vishnu expands into Kshirodakasayi Vishnu and Kshirodakasayi Vishnu expands into all the jīvas in the material world. And all this is done as a secondary work.
Meanwhile, in the spiritual world, the Lord is going on with his lila, in Vaikuṇṭha and in Goloka, without giving regard at all to the creation of the material world. And then Maha Vishnu glances out, and He takes a breath, and then He breathes in, everything is destroyed again [Laughs]. So it’s all done in a very, let’s say, effortless way by the Supreme Lord in His expansion of an expansion of an expansion. That’s how the whole of the material realm is manifested. So we’ll see this repeatedly described in Bhāgavatam and other literatures.
What is the point, ultimately of describing this material world? Ultimately, it’s not significant at all. Prabhupada in one place says, it is like a little cloud in the vast sky that appears and disappears like that. So it’s actually not significant at all. Yet, we will see that throughout the Bhāgavatam, here in the tenth canto, but starting in the second canto, third canto, fourth canto, and fifth canto, there’s repeated descriptions of how the Lord creates this material world and expands into different forms.
And we’ll see that in the second canto, there’s an analysis of the Bhāgavatam. And it says, of course, there are ten topics. Ultimately, the topic is Krishna, who is called Āśraya, the shelter and cause of everything. But besides that, there are nine other topics. And if we look at these nine topics, they all have to do with creation of the material world and destruction of the material world. So, nine topics dealing with the material world, one topic dealing with Krishna in the spiritual world. So it sounds a little unbalanced [Laughs]. So the majority of the Bhāgavatam that you have to study when you’re taking, what is it? Bhaktivedanta? Or which course is it? Bhakti vaibhava? Bhaktivedanta?
Devotee: Bhakti Vaibhava.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Bhakti Vaibhava, you have to go through all the cantos of the Bhāgavatam [Laughs]. Most of it is all talking about material nature [Laughs], how the world is created, etc. Starting, you know, second canto, third canto, fourth canto, so many things. So, and of course we see that, what are the topics? Sarga, and visarga, and sthāna. These are creation, sub-creation, and geography of the universe in fifth canto, all material topics are there [Laughs]. And then, of course, the ninth topic is nirodha, destruction of the universe.
So, we have all these topics about creation, destruction of the material worlds, and only one topic for Supreme Lord, technically speaking [Laughs]. However, not so totally true. Within the material world, of course the Lord creates the material world, that’s the whole idea of these topics, sarga, visarga, etc. Lord creates the material world directly and indirectly. And, He does not, even though He is completely oblivious of the material world, while He’s performing His pastimes in the spiritual world, He also very effectively takes care of the material world. And that’s why He expands into, you know, Kshirodakasayi Vishnu as Paramatma and He’s witnessing all the activities of all of the jīvas in all the universes individually.
So, down to the minutest level, the Lord is observing everything in the material world, inspite of the fact, simultaneously, He’s not involved at all and He’s sitting in the spiritual world doing His pastimes [Laughs]. So, He’s also observing each jīva, and each of his activities, each of his desires, each of his actions, He’s observing everything, all the jīvas. So, He’s like, in one sense, a micromanager [Laughs]. So, He’s so micro, that He can observe everything, every second, that the jīva is thinking, and all the actions of the material body, everything He is, in that sense, He’s a manager. But He’s also not, He’s completely aloof, because He just observes everything. And He arranges for you to do your things, so, He’s not really interfering with each jīva at the same time. So, the Lord is also aloof, inspite of the fact that He’s witnessing all the jīvas in the material world.
And what does He do? He helps them fulfill their material desires. Apart from that, the Lord does also not give up the world, because it shows that the Lord, by His arrangement, takes care of the material world in various ways, not leaving it just to haphazard chance. So, therefore, there is discussion of how the Lord offers protection to the jīvas and particularly human beings.
So, after discussing these different topics, sarga, visarga, sthana, then there is a topic called poshana, which means nourishment and protection. And so that’s to do, not within the material world or spiritual world, but in the material world, how the Lord, even inspite of the fact that He’s kind of indifferent to the material world, He protects the jīvas in the material world. And He does this in many ways.
So the way that is illustrated in the sixth canto is that the Lord offers His mercy to the jīvas, and especially to the human being, even if they’re the most unqualified. And the example is given of Ajāmila, most unqualified for getting any mercy, because he was so sinful and whatever. But he chanted the name Nārāyaṇa, that was the mercy shown. And through that, he destroyed all of his karmas, was purified of his sins, and he went to Vaikuṇṭha [Laughs].
So the Lord does not abandon the jīvas in the material world, inspite of the fact that He’s neutral and He’s observing as Paramatma and helping you attain your material desires. He’s also got spiritual interests by, through the name. So the Lord is not indifferent to the jīvas in the material world, and He doesn’t just help you increase your prison, your sentence in the prison house by [Laughs] prolonging your karmas, etc. But He also makes attempts to get you out. So chanting the holy name is one way. But that’s not the only way.
We see that there’s another topic called uti, which means impulse. So this describes the impulses in the material world. So basically there’s two. There’s the demonic influence, which causes material enjoyment and destruction of everything. And then there is the opposite, that is, the spiritual influence, which is following dharma and following spiritual processes, protecting the Vedas etc. And the Lord favors the latter in the material world.
And how is it illustrated? Example is given in the seventh canto of Narasimha Dev protecting Prahlada against the demon Hiranyakasipu [Laughs]. So the Lord will come even personally into the material world, not just in the form of His name and devotional service, but also personally appears to counter the influence of evil in this material world. So that’s another topic discussed.
Not only that, so He comes as avatar, but He doesn’t come all the time as avatar. So the Lord makes another arrangement. That arrangement is that He empowers jīvas in this material world to institute the Lord’s spiritual plan. So one way He does this is, of course, He empowers devatas to rule over and manage sattva-guṇa, and He empowers the manus and their descendants to rule over human population, to see that they don’t go wild and fall into tamo-guṇa, establishes dharma, and teaches bhakti. So that’s what Manu and his descendants do.
So this is another way in which the Lord takes active interest in the material world, by empowering rulers to control the population, make sure that they don’t commit too many sinful activities. So that’s another way, through the manus and their descendants. So that’s, of course, the manus last throughout the day of Brahma, for every day of Brahma there are manus ruling throughout the whole day for whole of Brahma’s life. So therefore there’s continuous guidance given there. So that’s during the manvantara periods. So this is, again, the Lord’s interest in the material world.
So, of course, besides that then, of course, the Lord does appear as lila avatars to inspire the jivas of the material world. So these lila avatars are discussed from 3rd canto, 4th canto, 5th canto, 6th canto, 7th, 8th, 9th, all the way through. These avatars are described in the different manvantara periods when the manus reign. So we get all the avatars like Matsya and Kurma and Narasimha and Vamana and Varaha appearing, and these are discussed in the different cantos. Until in the 9th canto then, finally it comes to discussion of moon dynasty and Krishna, finally appearing, and then it’s 10th canto.
So in this way there’s a discussion of all the ways in which the Lord appears personally or indirectly by empowering manus and sages, etc and devatas. So these are the ways in which the Lord is not indifferent to the material world.
Then, of course, He also encourages the jivas not just to practice dharma, He encourages them to get out of the material world, and therefore there are teachings about mukti which is discussed in the 11th canto. And then finally the Lord is discussed in relation to destruction of the material world. That is narrowed in the 12th canto.
In this way the Lord is present during creation, and during the whole maintenance the Lord is manifested as bhakti and the holy name, empowering the manus and their descendants, empowering the devatas, empowering the sages, etc, coming as various avatars within the material world to inspire the jivas and give teachings. And then finally He destroys the whole material world [Laughs]. So this is a discussion of the creation and destruction of the material world. That’s the majority of the contents of the Bhagavatam. But within that we do have a discussion of how the Lord takes interest in the jivas in the material world, inspite of the fact that actually He’s completely separate and carrying on His pastimes eternally in spiritual world. So simultaneously He’s, with these different means, He is taking care of the jivas in the material world also.
So, of course, the ultimate topic, the tenth topic, is this asraya, which is a description of Krishna. So though we do have Maha Vishnu expanding into Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, who produces Brahma, who creates all the bodies for living entities, including the devas and the manus, etc, the Lord expands further into Kshirodakasayi Vishnu and acts as Paramatma in the heart of each jiva. So the Lord is doing this, and this shows how the Lord is defined as the supreme living entity in relation to the material world, at least. So He is in the material world, supervises the material world, observes the material world, destroys the material world, and He remains, aloof, as is said here, He remains, viśiṣyate or śiṣyate, He remains after everything is destroyed.
So this is the definition of the Supreme Lord. Which is also actually described even in the catuh sloki, where it talks about, the Lord only, I exist only, everything else is created and destroyed, I exist only, finally. Same concept is there. This is the definition of the Supreme Lord, independent of material creation and destruction. So that is one way of looking at the Supreme Lord, as the number one entity, giving a definition of the Supreme Independent Lord, who is a conscious creator and destroyer, whatever, but he remains unchanged after creation, after destruction, He is always there.
So in this way, at least, we get a description of the Supreme Lord, which we can then accept as the final, absolute truth. But, the point of Bhagavatam is to go further than that, and that’s why we do have this tenth topic called asraya. So that topic is particularly about Krishna. So how is that related to creation of the material world? Krishna obviously does not create the material world directly. He has nothing to do with it. He is appearing within the material world śiṣyate. But simultaneously, He is beyond the material world, and that’s exactly what Devaki is saying. She is addressing Krishna, who has just been born, and saying, yeah, you are here, but you actually are beyond the material world, and when the whole material world is destroyed, you remain. She identifies Krishna as this supreme entity.
However, the whole point of Bhagavatam is not only to discuss how Krishna is there, but to show how He is swayam Bhagavan. So all the forms of Bhagavan are in the spiritual world. They are all one, ultimately. But among them, Krishna is the chief person. He is the number one among all those different forms of Bhagavan. So the point of the tenth canto, particularly, is to point out how Krishna is swayam Bhagavan, which will distinguish Him from all the others. So though these expansions here of Maha Vishnu, Garbhodakasayi Vishnu and Kshirodakasayi Vishnu and Brahma in his lifetime, and all these, definitely powerful, independent Supreme Lord but these are ultimately manifesting as by-products of Krishna.
So though we have sarga, visarga, all these things, topics discussed, the supremacy of Supreme Lord, beyond that, beyond Maha Vishnu, then we have spiritual world, on top of spiritual world we have Krishna [Laughs]. So the idea is to glorify Krishna. So though Krishna is the sweetest form, which is the major distinguishing factor of Krishna, distinguishing from other forms, He has four sweet qualities, that does not mean, because He is sweet, that He is powerless.
So normally, wherever, Krishna is very sweet, but then He is ineffectual, not very strong [Laughs]. But Krishna is both, He is the sweetest, He is also the most powerful. So whatever is in Maha Vishnu, all the powers in Maha Vishnu, Garbhodaksayi Vishnu, Kshirodakasayi Vishnu, whatever powers are in the Lord of Vaikuntha, are also present in Krishna. But Krishna has more power than that. So not only is Krishna the sweetest, He is also the most powerful. That, of course, is also illustrated in the pastimes of Krishna Himself.
One example is when Brahma doubts the, he is used to the powerful form of Vishnu or whatever, then He sees Krishna joking around with the cowherd boys, and eating food with His hands and all this. And he says, this cannot be Supreme Lord, how can this be [Laughs] Supreme Lord? He is just informally eating His food with His left hand even [Laughs], contaminated [Laughs]. So then he says, I’ll test Him. So he tests Him and steals all the calves and cowherd boys and locks them in a cave. And then he comes back after a few moments, which is almost one year, and he expects Krishna to be all confused and say, where did my calves and cowherd boys go? And then he sees Krishna is not confused and He is playing with the calves and cowherd boys. And he says, how is this? And he looks in the cave, and they are sleeping in the cave, and he looks out and he sees them playing.
And then he wonders, well, which ones are the real ones [Laughs]? The real ones are playing with Krishna, or the ones that are in the cave are the real ones? And he gets really confused. And then he looks at those calves and those cowherd boys and then he sees that they turn into Vishnu forms. Millions of Vishnu forms who are creating universes. And obviously, then Brahma is created within the universe, and Brahma is creating all the planets, and devatas within the universe, etc. So there’s billions of Vishnu forms, there’s billions of Brahmas, there’s billions of devatas, billions of Shivas, all emanating from Vishnus. And there are millions of these Vishnus. So then Brahma says, I’m not the only Brahma here [Laughs], there’s billions of Brahmas also. But then he looks again, and then suddenly all those Vishnu forms merge into Krishna.
And who is Krishna? Just a little boy, five years old, with a rice ball in His hand, a yogurt rice in His hand, with His flute tucked in His belt, and He’s sitting there smiling [Laughs]. And then Brahma finally realizes, oh, this little boy who lives in Vrindavan is the source of all the Vishnu forms who create all the universes, including all the Brahmas. So he realizes that Krishna is more powerful than any Vishnu form. But at the same time, He doesn’t look like it because He’s just a small five-year-old boy, dressed as a cowherd boy. So in that way, he realizes that Krishna is the ultimate powerful Supreme Lord. He’s simultaneously understands, He’s also that sweet form.
So this is one illustration of Krishna’s power illustrated in tenth canto. The other example that comes to mind is when Maha Vishnu steals all the sons of the brahmana, and then Krishna and Arjuna have to go, and they go up to the causal ocean, they see Vishnu, and Vishnu says, hello, how are you [Laughs]? And then He talks to them for a while, and then offer their obeisances and they go back. And then Arjuna is a little bit wondering, how, why, why is all of this happening [Laughs]? And then he realizes that this is to show that ultimately even Vishnu is desirous of seeing Krishna. And therefore He goes through this elaborate thing of stealing all the brahmana’s sons, which is no offense to a brahmana, in order to see Krishna, because he can’t come to Dwaraka.
So in this way again, Vishnu becomes a servant of Krishna, and Krishna is the ultimate form. So in this way, Bhagavatam ultimately illustrates Krishna is the most powerful form, and also the sweetest form of all. However, in the material world, people who don’t have any faith in God at all, develop a little faith if they see the power of God. And therefore, in general, the first definition of God is He’s the all-powerful one, who controls everything, and He creates everything. So that’s the common concept around all the religions of the world, God is the creator.
So for that reason, the Bhagavatam also concentrates on showing how Supreme Lord is the controller of the material world, and at the same time is not affected by the material world at all. And that’s illustrated in this verse, where the Supreme Lord is there, and for the whole of Brahma’s lifetime He remains, and then He destroys the material world, and all the elements described here merge back into prakriti and disappear, and who’s left? Supreme Lord is left [Laughs]. So this is the powerful aspect of the Lord, in relation to material world.
So, that’s one way of accepting the Supreme Lord, it’s illustrated here, it’s illustrated in these different topics like sarga and visarga and sthana, etc. But then the other aspect is the sweetness of the Supreme Lord. So, that is particularly described in the 10th canto, particularly the first 40 chapters of the 10th canto. That gives the sweetest aspect of Supreme Lord. So we can balance these two aspects of the Lord out, but we always remember that Krishna has both, supreme sweetness and supreme power. Okay, any question there?
Q & A :
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, thank you very much for the class. You mentioned about the sequence, the 10 topics which are in Bhagavatam. Now, in our understanding from Prabhupada and Sridhar Swami explains the 10th topic as asraya, the 10th canto. So I heard from somewhere that Jiva Goswami hasn’t changed the order because when we take this topic, we are changing the order basically, sarga, visarga, etc, when we go, because if you go in sequence, then the asraya becomes the last, the 12th canto, but we change the order to explain. So I heard that Jiva Goswami didn’t change the order and still he explained. So, is there any light on that?
Actually, Jiva Goswami says we cannot identify each canto with a topic, a particular topic, even if it’s out of order or whatever, because all cantos have all topics, ultimately [Laughs]. That’s one thing. And we have 12 cantos and we only have 10 topics, so you can’t really force that either. So that’s his conclusion. So he says that you can’t really identify. However, Vishwanath Chakravarti and Sridhar Swami, they more or less identify topics with cantos, starting with, you know, third canto, which is sarga. It’s obvious, you know, it’s all about Maha Vishnu glancing, etc. And then visarga, the creation of Brahma. It’s kind of obvious that these are the main topics. And then the fifth canto, also obvious, it’s about the geography of the universe with all the planetary systems and Bhu-mandala and Mount Meru and all this. That’s the geography of the universe, sthana. These are quite obvious, the first three. And then poshana is with, you know, six. And then manvantara is obvious also for eighth. And ninth, of course, not so obvious, may be, because Īśānukathā is all throughout the Bhagavatam, but then particularly it’s all the, you know, Ramachandra particularly in the ninth canto. And twelfth canto, obviously, is destruction, four types of destruction. So those kind of fit very nicely. Of course, we find it a little bit out of order because the tenth topic doesn’t come at the end. It comes [Laughs] after the ninth topic, you know, before the twelfth. So this is how Sridhar Swami and Vishwanath, they kind of identify the topics. Now, as for the explaining why the tenth topic doesn’t come at the end, it comes in kind of at the, you know, third from the end or whatever [Laughs]. He doesn’t give an explanation for that as far as I see. But we do have in the Bhagavad Gita, for instance, Vishwanath describes, okay, first six chapters dominate, deal with karma yoga, last six chapters with jnana yoga, and middle chapters with bhakti yoga. But then bhakti should come at the end again. So we should have first six chapters about karma yoga, second six chapters about jnana yoga, and last six chapters about bhakti yoga. We don’t find that or we find it reversed. We have bhakti in the middle. So, Vishwanath Chakravarti’s reasoning is that bhakti is put in the middle to show that both karma yoga and jnana yoga need the association of bhakti to succeed [Laughs]. So therefore, physically, the middle six chapters are touching the first six chapters and the last six chapters [Laughs]. They show the dependency of both karma and jnana upon bhakti. That’s his explanation for that. He doesn’t really apply it to the Bhagavatam, however [Laughs].
Devotee: Thank you.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Thank you for the nice class. Maharaj, you mentioned that Lord Krishna creates this material world and He takes so much interest in the jivas that He protects them and performs His lila. So then why is the material world said to be a place of miseries like we call it duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bg. 8.15]. Is the purpose of the material world to take us out?
Well, from the jiva’s point of view, the material world is a place of enjoyment. It’s supposed to be. And the jiva expects to. Why? Because he’s in ignorance [Laughs]. So the jivas sit in the material world expecting to enjoy. They get bodies so they can experience material enjoyment. So they get material bodies with material senses, material mind, material intelligence and false ego, so they can identify with the material world and say, I am enjoying materially [Laughs]. So that’s out of ignorance the jivas do this. So from the objective point of view, the view of an intelligent person or view of scripture is that, this is rather useless because the enjoyment itself is temporary. The bodies are temporary. And we’re subject to karma. We enjoy but then we do sinful activity. We have to suffer. So it’s not pure enjoyment. It’s not eternal. And ultimately it’s got nothing to do with the atma, the jiva. It’s a false. It’s like living in an enjoyment dream [Laughs]. It’s like a person in coma or something and he’s living in his dream and he’s dreaming something but actually he’s suffering in his body [Laughs] and sitting in the hospital or whatever. So it’s not real enjoyment for the self. It’s an illusion of happiness created by ahankara in the material body out of ignorance of the jiva. So therefore it’s not actual happiness but the jiva is expecting to get happiness. And the suffering that the jiva encounters is not the responsibility of the Supreme Lord. It’s in proportion to the actions of the jivas. That is, we get karma. And we get karma because we do acts and we’re responsible for the results. So the suffering is the responsibility of the jiva. You don’t want to suffer? Don’t do sinful acts [Laughs]. Do more punyas, go to swargaloka, go to Brahmaloka. You have minimum 0.0% suffering in Brahmaloka. So if you follow, avoid sins and do your punyas, you get to Brahmaloka. Not so much suffering. So in that way, there’s various adjustments in the material world created by the Lord so that you don’t have to suffer and you can get enjoyment. But of course, that material enjoyment also even in Brahmaloka is temporary. And you don’t, you can’t stay there forever. Brahma’s planet disappears after the two [Not clear], whatever [Laughs], gone. And then you have to get another material body, whatever. So therefore, the Lord also provides spiritual processes to get out of the material world by which the jiva, not the material body and ahankara, the jiva himself can experience bliss. And how to do that? The bliss is created by rasa. Rasa is created by bhakti. So when we serve the Lord, when we develop relationship, then we can get bliss, get spiritual body, and we can reside in the spiritual world eternally. So that’s the ultimate purpose of the material world for the Lord, to deliver the jivas from the material world. And He provides all these opportunities throughout the day of Brahma to do that with the holy name, with the avatars, with the sages and teachers and devotees and all these different means, manus and their descendants. Inspite of that, most of the jivas don’t take too much interest [Laughs]. And they stay in the material [Laughs] world [Laughs]. Why because the Lord cannot force them. He lets them choose. He gives the devotees and they put mercy, but still, jivas are a little bit stubborn so they stay in the material world. But with the perseverance of the devotees and the mercy of the Lord, then some of them gradually rise up and they get out of the material world and go to spiritual world.
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj.
3.) Maharaj, Krishna is beyond the material elements and Goloka Vrindavan is also beyond the material contamination like mind, intelligence, ego. So my question is, how does a jiva develop this idea or enviousness to enjoy separately from Krishna, to have this material enjoyment?
So, very basically, when we first get introduced to Krishna consciousness, we have this idea that we have a Supreme Lord who is completely independent, spiritual, whatever, like this. And we have prakriti, which is completely unconscious and really can’t do anything on its own. It depends on the Lord to manifest, so Maha Vishnu glances over it and creates material worlds. And then we have jivas, who are called tatastha shakti or borderline energy, who are conscious, like the Lord, can do activities, etc, can experience happiness, whatever. But they are not one, like the Supreme Lord is one. They are many. And they are individuals with their own individual sense of identity and consciousness. And they are called tatastha because they can be influenced by ignorance. Supreme Lord cannot be influenced by ignorance. He is not a small particle. So, the jiva is subject to ignorance, also dependent on the Supreme Lord. The Lord is independent, not subject to ignorance. So, there is a difference between the jivas and the Supreme Lord. So, that tatastha nature of the jiva does not doom the jiva to be in eternal ignorance. But it is always a possibility. So, the jivas who are in the material world can remain in the material world infinitely, if they so desire [Laughs]. And those who are here now have been here since beginningless time. Those who desire to get out, get that desire by mercy of devotees, etc, and gradually, they work their way through bhakti yoga and they get out of the material world. So, that’s how the tatastha operates. Those jivas in ignorance have a possibility of getting out of ignorance if they get a little inspiration from devotees, plus, they also choose to perform bhakti and get out of the material world. Difference, however, is that jivas are in the material world. They have possibility of getting out. So, that is explained in the introduction to Bhagavad Gita where Srila Prabhupada says that we have the five factors, that is, prakriti, time, jivas, Supreme Lord and karma. All of which are eternal. No beginning, no end. So, Supreme Lord has no beginning, no end. Prakriti has no beginning, no end. Jivas have no creation, no end, etc. Time has no beginning, no end. But, jiva, karma of the jiva has no beginning but can have an end [Laughs]. So, the karma of the jiva is caused by his ignorance. So, he says that’s anadi, no beginning but can have an end. So, the jivas in the material world simply have to accept the position of being here and we can’t trace out a beginning. But we take to the process of bhakti then we can end it. So, that’s how the jiva can be tatastha. But the thing is that, once the jiva gets out, he doesn’t come back. Why? He is still tatastha but he doesn’t come back. Why? Promise of the Lord [Laughs], Lord says, you come to me, you don’t come back [Laughs]. But, that’s also explained in a practical way by Jiva Goswami in the Paramatma Sandarbha. The jiva situated in the spiritual world is a little bit different from the jiva in the material world. Both are tatastha still, the jiva. They are small particles depending on the Lord in either case. But then, why the jiva in the spiritual world is not affected by ignorance whereas the one in the material world is? So, his answer is those in the spiritual world are a little bit different. They are endowed with the chit shakti of the Lord which is the other. Krishna has three shaktis, the chit shakti, tatastha shakti jiva and external energy, bahiranga shakti. So, this tatastha shakti which is the nature of the jiva in the spiritual world has an addition of the chit shakti. So, this guarantees he stays there and doesn’t fall in the material world. In other words, that chit shakti gets kind of intrinsically part of that jiva. And, he is different from the jiva in the material world that doesn’t have the chit shakti. So, that chit shakti allows that jiva in the spiritual world to have knowledge versus ignorance and to experience ananda. But.he is kind of stuck with the jiva, so he doesn’t leave that position in the spiritual world.
4.) Maharaj, you mentioned that everything depends on the mercy of Krishna. You were mentioning also that, we come into the material world and when we desire to leave, then we can go out by the process of bhakti. So, I was having a conversation with one devotee once on a similar topic. So, even that desire to get out of the material world depends on the mercy of Krishna. And, anything we do, the conversation we were having was that, if we have to increase our devotional service or bhakti, there has to be mercy. If we don’t get mercy, we can’t do anything. So, how do we explain the mercy part at the same time, you know, we have to do our part as well. But, doing our part also depends on mercy. So, how do we understand this?
Yeah. So, the qualification for bhakti is faith, sraddha. We have to have conviction in the scripture, willingness to follow the instructions of the bhakti scriptures, etc. So, to get that faith in the scripture, then you need mercy of devotees. But because you don’t have faith, you don’t approach devotees. So, then the only way you get the mercy of the devotees is accidental mercy. Not that you want it. The devotee has to trick you into getting it [Laughs]. Because you will avoid it. If the devotee is saying, I’m going to be merciful to you, then you will run away and say, I don’t have any faith in Krishna, so I’m not gonna take your mercy. So, the only way you can get the faith is by the mercy. But you don’t have any faith to get the mercy. So, the only way you can get the mercy is to get tricked into having the mercy so to speak [Laughs]. So, it’s accidental mercy. So, in other words, if you are hungry and you take some prasadam, but you don’t know it’s prasadam. If you know it’s prasadam, you may not want to take it. If you don’t know it’s prasadam and you eat it because you’re hungry, then you get the mercy of the Lord and gradually, after taking a lot of prasadam [Laughs] for many lifetimes, then you get faith. So, that’s just one example. You could just see the Jagannath in the face in the ratha yatra because your car got blocked by the traffic jam and you’re all angry. Then you look up and you see the form of Jagannath [Laughs] because you’re in a traffic jam. So, then that gives you a little bit of impetus to faith. But it’s accidental, so it takes many lifetimes, to get accrued many, many accidental events which are caused by the devotees, those mercy of the devotees, in order to get the faith. So, therefore, the bhakti does not have a material cause. On the other hand, if we are not choosing bhakti but we want jnana and liberation, that can operate within the material world. If you get to sattva guna, the nature of sattva guna is to inquire about atma and to control your senses and be satisfied internally rather than externally. So, in this way, the Lord is a little merciful without, you know, depending on the mercy of devotees, you can get to jnana and proceed towards liberation by just purifying yourself in the material world and getting to sattva guna. Of course, if you use the karma yoga process, it becomes quicker to get to the sattva guna. But that’s operating within material world. So, material world itself and sattva guna gives you an opportunity to get, strive for liberation at least. Without much spiritual stuff that’s kind of inbuilt in material nature and you don’t really require the direct influence of devotees or Supreme Lord for that. You do have to endeavour, of course, to control your senses, may be follow the varnashrama system and karma yoga, etc. So, some endeavour is there. The process of bhakti depends only on the mercy of devotees which produces the faith, etc. That does not depend on the gunas. So, the person at tamo guna can accidentally take the prasadam or the person at sattva guna also could accidentally take the prasadam, whatever, it doesn’t really matter [Laughs]. And so, anybody at any guna could get the mercy of a devotee and then, you know, get faith and then practice the bhakti. So, in that sense, there is a dependence in bhakti for developing the faith. And then once we get the faith, then we will willingly approach a devotee to get knowledge of bhakti, etc. So, that’s a little bit endeavour in one sense. We got faith and then we got to manifest that in some sort of action. That’s our decision at that point. Once we do that, then we get mercy again because then the devotees will explain scripture to us and give us the process of bhakti. Once we got that, then again, we have to put endeavour to practice the bhakti. We can’t just say, well, yeah, I got the mercy of the Lord, I got the mercy of the devotees, I got the opportunity of knowledge and then just look at the book and not read it [Laughs], not practice it [Laughs]. So, you should put some sort of endeavour into it also. And the more endeavour you put, the more your bhakti increases. But of course, the mercy of the Lord, mercy of the devotees is always present also but if we don’t put forth any effort, then something can happen. As we see in the case of Ajamila, chants the name of the Lord Narayana accidentally, he gets effect, destruction of karmas. So, that much you can get. But if you actually want to get prema, then you have to put endeavour into that, special endeavour and practice pure bhakti and get knowledge of the scripture, etc. So, there is a little bit of effort on the devotee there. Mercy is always necessary, but then the effort of the devotee also is required.
5.) Thank you, Maharaj. I had two questions. One was in relation to the tenth topic, the asraya tattva, dasānām iha lakṣaṇam, that verse is there in the second canto navānām iha lakṣaṇam [ŚB 2.10.2]. Now, my question is, all the different puranas, do they all have Krishna as the asraya tattva? Because all the puranas have the same ten ingredients right, sarva, visarga?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes, they have the topics.
Devotee: Same ten topics?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: But it may not be Krishna, it could be Vishnu [Laughs].
Devotee: Okay.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, the Bhagavatam speciality is Krishna, is that. The others do not distinguish. It’s just Bhagavan and it could be any of the forms.
Devotee: Yes Maharaj. And my second question was about, we know the jiva is anu, Bhagavan is vibhu. Bhagavan doesn’t ever get influenced by avidya. The tatastha jiva has the capacity to get influenced like that. My question is, that the jiva, although tatastha, is nonetheless the superior energy of the Lord. How is this that, what is the nature of this avidya, is this also, it has to be a shakti of the Lord, this whole avidya, asmita, abhinivesh, this whole sequence of things. So, how is it that the jiva got influenced? I know he is anu, we are anu, so we have the ontological capacity to get influenced by avidya. Nonetheless, we are spiritual. Is this avidya also spiritual, superior or at par with us?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: No, so we have the other shakti of the Lord, bahiranga shakti [Laughs]. That’s what the avidya is. It consists of prakrti in all of us evolutes, which is the substantial part. And then we get the more subtle aspects of bahiranga shakti or maya, such as karma, time, avidya, etc. And of course that manifests, the avidya will manifest eventually as your ahankara, etc. And then the material elements, gross and subtle, which will cover the jiva. And then the jiva becomes full of ignorance due to that. The constitution of the jiva is never prakriti or never ignorance. He remains a particle, a conscious particle with a sense of I, etc. So that’s, can never be destroyed in any circumstance. But because of the covering of ignorance, then it may be almost as if he is not conscious, as if he is small bacteria or a virus or something or whatever [Laughs]. And the more he elevates his, like in a human form, then consciousness becomes more active like this, like a plant, which is almost blossoming or whatever like that as compared to a seed. So when the covering becomes a little bit less, then the natural qualities of jiva manifest a little more, a little more, a little more. So they go through different species, consciousness, intelligence, awareness, get more and more and more until we come to the human being. So the human being is a state where, then, because of the level of consciousness and lesser coverings, we can actually accept scripture, if we’re lucky [Laughs]. So basically, it’s a matter of the, jiva has his nature, but jiva is also an individual with his own sense of I. And each individual jiva is separate from each jiva with a sense of individual I. So they do have their individuality. Some will prefer to be in the spiritual world, some in the material world because there’s infinite jivas with infinite propensities. And those in the material world, some jivas have propensity for greater ignorance, some for lesser ignorance etc, because of simply their individual nature. But through the process of bhakti, you can get rid of all the coverings actually, and then you have the jiva in it’s pure state.
6.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, thank you so much for the beautiful class. Please accept my humble obeisances. Prabhu, sorry, Maharaj, that you were explaining to Brahma Kunda prabhu’s question that, all this mercy also, sometimes it can be accident. And I heard that accident is only in mundane world. In spiritual, there is no accident. Everything is Krishna’s mercy. So can you please?
Yeah. When we talk about accidental mercy, ultimately it means, one, is that the devotee acts accidental in the sense that, it is not caused by the choice of that individual ignorant jiva to get mercy. In that sense, it’s accidental [Laughs]. In other words, he has no interest in spiritual life, no desire to meet devotees, no desire to see a ratha yatra, no desire to take prasadam but he gets it anyway. In that sense, it’s accidental because we don’t have a causal explanation from that jiva’s point of view. From the point of view of the devotee, of course, the jivas, the devotees like to expose everybody to Krishna consciousness and then they happen to meet that person. So in that sense, it’s not so accidental because the jivas do have a desire. But then ultimately, we have to ask, well, how come some of the jivas get the prasadam and some don’t [Laughs]? So of course, we’re limited in the material world. We cannot be everywhere at once. We cannot have ratha yatra 24 hours a day. We have it once a year or something. So therefore [Laughs], in that sense, we can say may be it’s chance that the jiva just happened to come near the ratha yatra and saw Jagannath or got some prasadam or whatever. Ultimately, that, of course, we could say is may be Krishna’s arrangement also. That He’s also got His hand there because He is taking mercy on a certain jiva or whatever like that. But we can also not say that the Lord is favourable to some jivas, not to others. So we have 20 different jivas equally in ignorance and then the Lord is merciful to one so that He can get the prasadam and the other can’t. It doesn’t make sense either [Laughs] because the Lord should be equal to everybody [Laughs]. So ultimately, we have no explanation other than the devotees make endeavour in the material world and some jivas, due to the devotees’ endeavour, get the chance, that’s all. They get an opportunity. Whether it is Lord’s arrangement there or whatever, we don’t know [Laughs].
Devotee: Maharaj, can we say that is also may be they must have had some pious activities previous life, so that is why even though this life, they don’t have desire, so it’s coming as a mercy. Even seeing Jagannath, Lord Jagannath also mercy.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, actually, our Acharyas say that punyas or pious activities are material. So they cannot cause bhakti. So the only thing that can cause bhakti is bhakti because it’s non-material. So it cannot be cause. In other words, you can be a pious brahmana for 20 million years, that does not guarantee you become a devotee. You may, but then the devotee may be merciful to a chandala, he becomes a devotee, not the brahmana [Laughs]. Or he may be merciful to the brahmana, the brahmana is not interested. So it’s not that the punya, which is the brahmana is full of punya and the chandala isn’t. That would not be the determining factor, the punya.
Devotee: Sorry, Maharaj, not punya. May be they must have done some spiritual activities in their previous life, so that is in this life they don’t have any desire, but it’s coming back. So?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah. If you do have some spiritual, then it would have to be accidental again. Previous accidental. So you built up on your previous accidental, or what we call accidental [Laughs], devotional activities and gradually you develop faith. And when you get faith, then you intentionally seek out devotees. So before that, we can say there may be some influence of those accidental things that build up. Or it could be either also.
Devotee: Thank you so much Maharaj.
7.) Hare Krishna. Maharaj, you mentioned the pastimes of Lord Brahma and for an instant he was thinking that Krishna is, he is competing with Krishna. And in the Nectar of Devotion, it’s mentioned that, after that, when Lord Brahma saw the cowherd boys, the duplicates, then he was stunned and he was offering prayers, he was faltering, his voice was faltering and he was so humiliated. So all these symptoms are described in being symptoms of bhava. So, is it that he, there’s some contamination, so he was feeling this competition, but then otherwise he’s in bhava, like the living entities in the post of Brahma, are they in bhava stage?
Oh well, our particular Brahma actually is a pure devotee and is head of our sampradaya, so we can’t say he’s in maya or anything like that [Laughs]. And it’s described that actually at the beginning of Brahma’s life, the Lord promised him you will never fall into maya, so therefore, he has to be a pure devotee. So then how did he make this mistake and try to test Krishna? So it’s explained that actually this is not maya as real maya, we can say yogamaya or the will of the Lord for this particular pastime. So we cannot blame Brahma for that. So he remains as a devotee in any case [Laughs].
8.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. In the Padma Purana it says 400,000 varieties of human species and those who, half is don’t follow the Vedic tradition and remaining follow the Vedic tradition. How to understand that previously coming in contact with Krishna consciousness many don’t follow the Vedic tradition. Now we follow the Vedic tradition. So the transmigration of the species is the consciousness transmigration of the [Not clear]?
So in terms of material advancement following the varnashrama system and ultimately becoming sattvic as a brahmana, that’s considered to be the highest, to get to sattva guna and be situated there. But bhakti actually is not sattva guna at all. It’s higher than that. And it does not require sattva guna. In other words, we don’t require punya and being a brahmana to get to bhakti. So the nature of bhakti is such because it’s spiritual, it doesn’t require any particular guna. So then a person who’s following varnashrama, even if he’s a chandala or a mleccha or a dog eater or whatever, he can also take to bhakti and he can surpass the whole varnashrama system, he can surpass sattva guna and that’s stated directly in Bhagavatam. So therefore, bhakti is not dependent upon the gunas or upon Vedic system or whatever ultimately. It transcends that and it’s more powerful. So therefore, only requirement is faith and we get the faith from mercy of devotees. So if the devotees are merciful to the chandalas or whatever rather than to the people following Vedic system they are the ones who take to the bhakti, not the people following [Laughs] the Vedic system [Laughs]. Okay Hare Krishna.
9.) Sorry maharaj the last, last question. It’s very short I just wanted to understand if there is any difference between the chit potency of the Lord that the spiritual souls in the spiritual world are empowered with compared to the normal jivas that by nature, the jivas are sat, chit, ananda. So that chit potency of the Lord is different from the chit quality of the soul?
Yeah we have the chit shakti or the swarupa shakti of the Lord which has it’s three divisions of sandhini, samvit and hladini. This operates in the spiritual world. The Lord manifests it whatever and produces spiritual world, name, form, qualities in spiritual world. Now rasa results from that. Bliss results from that in the spiritual world. Bhakti itself is composed of hladhini and samvit shaktis which are part of that chit shakti. And when the jiva gets prema then these are, become part of the jiva and then he is qualified for spiritual world. He doesn’t fall from that position. So that’s the chit aspect there. The other use of the word chit is knowledge. So the jivas by nature are conscious. So they do have that aspect of knowledge. But in the material world they are covered by ignorance. So we have jivas here who may have material knowledge but they don’t have spiritual knowledge [Laughs] at all [Laughs]. So therefore, the chit aspect is manifest in the material world as material knowledge and though the jiva is supposed to be ananda, he doesn’t experience ananda in the material world, he gets something which we call material happiness which is like a dull reflection, which we experience through our ahankara and our material senses and our brain and whatever like that. So the sat-chit-ananda, of course, the jiva is sat by nature but he doesn’t believe it in the material world [Laughs]. He’s covered by ignorance, he thinks I’m a material body and I’m gonna die [Laughs]. So the sat-chit-ananda aspect is very muted in the material world and transformed into temporary phenomenon.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!