Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.3.15 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Jun 5, 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 3 Verse 15.
ŚB 2.3.15
स वै भागवतो राजा पाण्डवेयो महारथ: ।
बालक्रीडनकै: क्रीडन् कृष्णक्रीडां य आददे ॥ १५ ॥
sa vai bhāgavato rājā
pāṇḍaveyo mahā-rathaḥ
bāla-krīḍanakaiḥ krīḍan
kṛṣṇa-kṛīḍāṁ ya ādade
Synonyms
saḥ — he; vai — certainly; bhāgavataḥ — a great devotee of the Lord; rājā — Mahārāja Parīkṣit; pāṇḍaveyaḥ — grandson of the Pāṇḍavas; mahā-rathaḥ — a great fighter; bāla — while a child; krīḍanakaiḥ — with play dolls; krīḍan — playing; kṛṣṇa — Lord Kṛṣṇa; krīḍām — activities; yaḥ — who; ādade — accepted.
Translation
Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the grandson of the Pāṇḍavas, was from his very childhood a great devotee of the Lord. Even while playing with dolls, he used to worship Lord Kṛṣṇa by imitating the worship of the family Deity.
Purport
In the Bhagavad-gītā (6.41) it is stated that even a person who has failed in the proper discharge of yoga practice is given a chance to take birth in the house of devout brāhmaṇas or in the houses of rich men like kṣatriya kings or rich merchants. But Mahārāja Parīkṣit was more than that because he had been a great devotee of the Lord since his previous birth, and as such he took his birth in an imperial family of the Kurus, and especially that of the Pāṇḍavas. So from the very beginning of his childhood he had the chance to know intimately the devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa in his own family. The Pāṇḍavas, all being devotees of the Lord, certainly venerated family Deities in the royal palace for worship. Children who appear in such families fortunately generally imitate such worship of the Deities, even in the way of childhood play. By the grace of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, we had the chance of being born in a Vaiṣṇava family, and in our childhood we imitated the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa by imitating our father. Our father encouraged us in all respects to observe all functions such as the Ratha-yātrā and Dola-yātrā ceremonies, and he used to spend money liberally for distributing prasāda to us children and our friends. Our spiritual master, who also took his birth in a Vaiṣṇava family, got all inspirations from his great Vaiṣṇava father, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda. That is the way of all lucky Vaiṣṇava families. The celebrated Mīrā Bāī was a staunch devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa as the great lifter of Govardhana Hill.
The life history of many such devotees is almost the same because there is always symmetry between the early lives of all great devotees of the Lord. According to Jīva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit must have heard about the childhood pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa at Vṛndāvana, for he used to imitate the pastimes with his young playmates. According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit used to imitate the worship of the family Deity by elderly members. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī also confirms the viewpoint of Jīva Gosvāmī. So accepting either of them, Mahārāja Parīkṣit was naturally inclined to Lord Kṛṣṇa from his very childhood. He might have imitated either of the above-mentioned activities, and all of them establish his great devotion from his very childhood, a symptom of a mahā-bhāgavata. Such mahā-bhāgavatas are called nitya-siddhas, or souls liberated from birth. But there are also others, who may not be liberated from birth but who develop a tendency for devotional service by association, and they are called sādhana-siddhas. There is no difference between the two in the ultimate issue, and so the conclusion is that everyone can become a sādhana-siddha, a devotee of the Lord, simply by association with the pure devotees. The concrete example is our great spiritual master Śrī Nārada Muni. In his previous life he was simply a boy of a maidservant, but through association with great devotees he became a devotee of the Lord of his own standard, unique in the history of devotional service.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, the topic of course is devotional service, and here we get a nice example of devotional service. Devotional service is best explained by seeing the activities of the devotees. Now we have many types of activities we can do in devotional service. But it is all concentrated somehow serving the Lord. And all these different services with different senses and different parts of the body are all very powerful to produce the final result, which is Prema.
And there are many different Angas of Bhakti engaged in different senses, but you don’t have to perform all of them, you can perform even one very prominently. So, in Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami describes 64 Angas, and then he says there are 5 principal ones. And he also gives a list of 9 people who perform a particular type of devotional service and got perfection. Of course, the 9 are also included in the 64. But he gives this example to show that a person can perform one Anga prominently. So, enlisting the Angas, then he gives the person. So, for Shravana, it is Parikshit Maharaj, for Kirtan, it is Sukadeva Goswami. So, these are the Angas of Bhakti that they are famous for. But it does not mean they did no other Anga of Bhakti. So, here for instance we see Parikshit Maharaj practicing worship of the deity, Archana. Parikshit Maharaj practicing worship of the deity, Archana.
Nevertheless, different devotees may make one particular Anga of Bhakti very prominent. And they may become famous for that particular Anga. But of all the different Angas, of course, the main idea is that there is always concentration on Supreme Lord. The goal of all these different Angas of Bhakti by engaging different senses is to concentrate on the Lord so that we serve the Lord eternally. So, in this way, we have choices of which type of service we want to do with one particular Anga or another particular Anga. So, this gives a great flexibility to the process of Bhakti. So, some devotees by their nature are more inclined to speak, others are inclined to listen or study. So, there are different propensities of individuals and that is covered by the different types of Bhakti you can do.
Similarly, we say that the most prominent Anga of Bhakti is Nama Sankirtana, because this is the Yuga Dharma. So this is emphasized very greatly by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the example of doing Kirtan all the times. And we see, he was also hearing Bhagavatam [Laughs]. He would visit the deity of Jagannath every day. So, he was doing all the other Angas of Bhakti as well. So, we say ‘Hari Namaeva Kevalam’, but that does not exclude doing the other processes. So, we cannot say you chant Hare Krishna and don’t remember the Lord [Laughs]. That’s useless [Laughs]. We can’t say, you chant the holy name and don’t read Bhagavatam. That doesn’t make sense. So, usually we do many of the activities together. Usually, we may combine these five principal ones.
And that we see very nicely incorporated in ISKCON. So, we chant the holy name. And there’s emphasis on that as our main sadhana. But, there’s also an emphasis on Sravana. So, every day we hear Srimad Bhagavatam. There’s an emphasis on Archana. Every day you go to Mangalarthi. And of course, ISKCON is for giving shelter to devotees. So, we have Sadhu Sanga. And then it encourages the devotees to build temples around the world. So, if they cannot live in the holy dome, at least they can associate with the temple. So, in this way, Srila Prabhupad, within ISKCON, arranged for these five principal items very nicely. And if we follow these programs, then we have a nice system for progressing in devotional service.
The example here is Parikshit Maharaj, who was a king, a great king. But, from childhood, he had a natural inclination to worship Krishna. So, he was very fortunate that from childhood itself, he was attracted to the Lord. Of course, we know that when he was in the womb, he got darshan of the Supreme Lord. And the Supreme Lord protected him in the womb. So, he was a very special Jiva.
So, Prabhupad mentions here at the end of the purport about the Sadhana Siddha and the Nitya Siddha. So, the Nitya Siddha is always the devotee of the Lord in the spiritual world and sometimes he appears in the material world. So, his very nature is always to serve the Lord, to remember the Lord. The Sadhana Siddha is the person who does Sadhana Bhakti, because he is in the material world with the material body. But, eventually he gets perfection. And then, once he gets perfection, then there is no difference between the Sadhana Siddha and the Nitya Siddha. When the sadhaka attains that perfection, then he is eternally in that particular perfection.
So, what is the difference between the Sadhana Siddha and the Nitya Siddha? In the spiritual world – no difference. They are all devotees. And, they are not thinking of the past. So, they never think, well, this devotee was from the material world. That one was not from the material world. They don’t make distinctions like that, because there is no past. There are differences between the devotees, according to their intensity of Bhakti and the different qualities of their Bhakti, etc. But, they are all eternally engaged in pleasing the Supreme Lord. So, the only difference is from our point of view in the material world. So, we make distinctions between a person who is a Nitya Siddha and a person who achieved that position of being a Siddha.
So, Sadhana Siddha means that we practice Sadhana Bhakti in order to get that perfection. And, the Nitya Siddha has no Sadhana. He is eternally Siddha. So, as far as all the people in the material world, we can say that all of them would have to do Sadhana, because they are not eternally associates of the Lord. So, for all the people in the material world, it is a great emphasis put upon Sadhana. Without doing Sadhana, we don’t get perfection. And, the Sadhana is Bhakti Yoga. So, as I mentioned previously, the subject matters of the Vedas are Sambandha, Abhidheya and Prayojana. So, the Abhidheya is Sadhana Bhakti. And, what is the Prayojan? That is the Siddha position – Prema. So, in the spiritual world, they don’t need the Abhidheya. They don’t need the Sambandha. They are just Siddha [Laughs]. But, the Jivas in the material world are covered by ignorance. So, they need knowledge. That is the Sambandha. And, they need a goal and a process to get to the goal.
So, it is scripture that will make all of this very clear. So, the scripture makes clear, there is a goal. The goal is not simply to sit in the material world. But, on our own, in the material world, using our senses and our mind, we cannot understand what that goal is. So, we depend on scripture to give us a definition of what is that goal. And then, to attain that goal, we cannot manufacture a process. Scripture also gives us a process. So, therefore, we do need the scripture to get all of this knowledge. And, in Sadhana Bhakti, we get that knowledge through Shravana process. So, Srila Prabhupad put a great emphasis upon this Shravana process. It is through this process that we get all the aspects of knowledge that we need to get that perfection. If we follow the proper process, then we get the Siddha. And, we follow the proper Sadhana to get it. And, if we don’t follow the proper process, we don’t get that goal. So, scripture clarifies all of this for us. And, therefore, we do have to depend on scripture for our advancement in devotional service.
Okay. Hare Krsna !
Q&A
1) Maharaj, you are explaining regarding this Nitya Siddha. But, from Brihad Bhagavatam, we know that when Gopakumar reached Goloka Vrindavan, Krishna introduced him. Krishna introduced Gopakumar to all His friends. So, how to understand that? Because, that means he was not there before. Now, he has newly came. And, there is a feeling of that, there is a new person in our group. You know, that feeling is there, correct, in a spiritual world.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: That he is new ?
Devotee: Yeah, because he was not there before.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, when he first goes there, then Krishna introduces him. Oh, he is the friend of so and so. So, he says, okay, that’s it.
Then, they know him [laughs]. So, then from that on, they know him. So, he is no longer new ! As I said, in a spiritual world, there is no past. Of course, for certain aspects of lila, they have some memory of something.
But, when a new person goes there, then they recognize him. And, then suddenly, he is all present. So, then he is just there. And, he is there eternally. And, they think like that.
2) Maharaj, you are explaining this sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana. And, you are saying in the spiritual world, there is no abhidheya or there is no Sambandha. Only prayojana is there. But, abhidheya in the material world is not perfect, it is imperfect. This is Bhakti in abhidheya. But, same abhidheya carried forward in the spiritual world in perfect way. But, abhidheya remains correct. Abhidheya, which is Bhakti, that remains.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah. It is not a process. It is like Prema as compared to Sadhana Bhakti. So, we have Sadhana, Bhava, Prema, three types of Bhakti..
Devotee: But same bhakti, right ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: It is Bhakti, but it is Prema.
Devotee: We dont’ call as abidheya ? We call it prema ??
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, there is only one Bhakti. But, we divided up into Sadhana, Bhava and Prema to show its level of maturity. So, as a plant grows from a seed, then it gets big and it has leaves, then it gets flowers, then it gets fruit. It is the same plant. So, we really can’t distinguish them, but ultimately the final result is the fruit ! So, the same way Prema is the mature form of Bhakti. And, we don’t say the fruit is the leaf or anything like that. So, the Sadhana is somewhat different, but it is the same thing [laughs].
So, the Angas of Bhakti remain. Hearing, chanting, association, whatever. So many things are there now in the spiritual world, but we don’t call it abhidheya. Now, we do these processes of hearing and chanting to advance in devotional service. So, they are means. In the spiritual world, they become Anubhavas. Anubhava is one of the five aspects of Rasa. So, Anubhava refers to the different actions which express our Prema. So, now we do the actions of hearing and chanting to get Prema. And, in the spiritual world, they do Kirtan and hearing to express their Prema [Laughs]. So, in one sense, in the spiritual world, the different actions of Bhakti are one with Prema. And here, the actions are different.
Bhakti itself is eternal. So, we never give up the Bhakti. We do Bhakti now and we do Bhakti in the spiritual world. But now, the way we do it is a little different. So, we call this Sadhana.
There we call it Prema.
3) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, we see, association of devotees is one of the prominent Anga. But for sometimes, if there is some quarrel in between the association, naturally, mind says, like, stay away and don’t associate with them. But we know, only association can lift one up. But the question is, how to be more enthusiastic among the association, even after the quarrels. Like, should we sit and speak or like, how to take it easily and get full advantage of the association?
So, it all depends on the particular situation. But quarrels generally arise because we do have anarthas.
Kali Yuga is called the age of quarrels because there are so many anarthas. And we can say that we can’t always blame one person because there may be two-sided quarrel. That means we all have anarthas. The process of Bhakti is to destroy anarthas. And we destroy anarthas and we perform Bhakti by associating with devotees [Laughs]. So the quarrels, we can say, negate the whole process of Bhakti. So, somehow or other, we have to prevent or minimize the quarrels. We can take that as an aspect of anartha-nivruthi.
4) Hare Krishna Maharaj, Maharaj, in this verse we say and purport also it is mentioned that Parikshit Maharaj was a devotee from childhood and he was practicing this. And we see his life that he remained a devotee and Prabhupada writes in Vaishnava culture also, if a child is there who is born in a Vaishnava family and they start practicing from the childhood and they continue. But today’s circumstances, we see also that children born in a Vaishnava family or born with a devotee’s parents are practicing Sadhana Bhakti, still children deviate when they grow young. Is it because of their anarthas or desires? Or is it because that Maya Devi is so strong that by showing them she always tries to attract people in the material world. What makes them deviate from the Vaishnava philosophy?
Well, we have… So we have both types of examples. Great devotees coming out of demonic families [Laughs] like Prahlad. And then we have the opposite. We have the most sinful people like Vena coming out of good father [Laughs].
So what Prabhupada is stating here is a favourable general principle.
But as I said, there are many factors which may decide ultimately how a Jiva decides his course of life. The parents may be devotees but they may raise the child wrong so something happens and then he doesn’t become a devotee. By some arrangement of karma, he may be a Jiva who doesn’t have any Bhakti but he gets a good fortune to be born in that family but doesn’t take advantage. Ultimately, though we can think of the past and the childhood etc. as wonderful factors, ultimately, the main influence is Bhakti itself. So a person with no Bhakti by the power of Bhakti can become a devotee.
5) Maharaj, we see in case of Nithya Siddha devotees they descend from spiritual world to this material world by the desire of the Lord as a part of compassion. So, do they sometimes feel that they are actually from the world of the Lord or it is always by the Yoga Maya that it is covered and they feel that they are a part of this world and they become very humble?
So, we have examples of devotees who are Nithya Siddhas. Not only Nithya Siddhas, but even Shaktiavesh Avatars like Narada Muni or Parasuram, they are in the material world and it looks like they just identify themselves as an ordinary person like Narada Muni was the son of a maid servant and took to devotional service etc.
6) Maharaj, as far as these exalted devotees are concerned who descend from this spiritual world they come to this material world and is it that from day one they are always exhibiting pure devotional activities or is it that after a particular time it starts manifesting?
Well, in the case of Narada Muni we see that no, but he was like the son of a maid servant and then at a certain point, he lived with these devotees he took Prasad, then he became a devotee so it wasn’t that he was perfect from the beginning [Laughs].
But because he is a Shaktivesh avatar eternally, then all of this is some sort of pastime !
7) Maharaj, that means is Bhakti is destined?
Well, it is not karma, Karma is a material principle and Bhakti is a spiritual principle. So it is not karma. So in that sense it is not by karma.
But if you have done devotional service in past life or got mercy of devotees in past life that carries on in this lifetime. We have got the mercy of devotees so we can carry on in this lifetime that is called Bhakti Sukrti [Laughs].
8) If in the spiritual world, when the devotees don’t think about the past how a Guru and disciple will have an eternal relationship in spiritual world?
So, in the spiritual world everybody has relationships and the relationship does not depend upon the past. So if there is a relationship between a Guru and a disciple in the spiritual world it is not that they are remembering I was so and so person, he was so and so person, they simply have a relationship in the spiritual world, that’s all.
9) Are the Ashta-sakhis and similar associates also classified as Nithya Siddha Jivas because they also belong to us or do they belong to a special category?
Well, of course everybody in the spiritual world who was not a Sadhana Siddha is a Nithya Siddha. But then we have a special class which we call the Shaktis of the Lord. And Radharani is not considered a Jiva, She is considered to be Hladini Shakti. And the Hladini Shakti of course has many expansions. So not clearly stated by the Goswamis I believe but we can say that those Ashta-sakhis are like expansions of Radha, Hladini Shakti.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!! HDG AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad Ki Jai !!