Srimad Bhagavatam 10.86.36-45 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | 24 April 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 86 Verse 36.
ŚB 10.86.36
dināni katicid bhūman
gṛhān no nivasa dvijaiḥ
sametaḥ pāda-rajasā
punīhīdaṁ nimeḥ kulam
Synonyms
dināni — days; katicit — a few; bhūman — O omnipresent one; gṛhān — in the home; naḥ — our; nivasa — please dwell; dvijaiḥ — by the brāhmaṇas; sametaḥ — joined; pāda — of Your feet; rajasā — with the dust; punīhi — please sanctify; idam — this; nimeḥ — of King Nimi; kulam — the dynasty.
Translation
Please stay a few days in our house, along with these brāhmaṇas, O all-pervading one, and with the dust of Your feet sanctify this dynasty of Nimi.
Text 37
Translation
[Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued:] Thus invited by the King, the Supreme Lord, sustainer of the world, consented to stay for some time to bestow good fortune on the men and women of Mithilā.
Text 38
Translation
Śrutadeva received Lord Acyuta into his home with as much enthusiasm as that shown by King Bahulāśva. After bowing down to the Lord and the sages, Śrutadeva began to dance with great joy, waving his shawl.
Text 39
Translation
After bringing mats of grass and darbha straw and seating his guests upon them, he greeted them with words of welcome. Then he and his wife washed their feet with great pleasure.
Purport
To provide even this simple welcome, Śrutadeva had to go next door to his neighbors and borrow extra mats. This insight is provided by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī.
Text 40
Translation
With the wash water, the virtuous Śrutadeva copiously sprinkled himself, his house and his family. Overjoyed, he felt that all his desires had now been fulfilled.
Text 41
Translation
He worshiped them with offerings of auspicious items easily available to him, such as fruits, uśīra root, pure, nectarean water, fragrant clay, tulasī leaves, kuśa grass and lotus flowers. Then he offered them food that increases the mode of goodness.
Text 42
Translation
He wondered: How is it that I, fallen into the blind well of family life, have been able to meet Lord Kṛṣṇa? And how have I also been allowed to meet these great brāhmaṇas, who always carry the Lord within their hearts? Indeed, the dust of their feet is the shelter of all holy places.
Text 43
Translation
When his guests were seated comfortably, having each received a proper welcome, Śrutadeva approached them and sat down nearby with his wife, children and other dependents. Then, while massaging the Lord’s feet, he addressed Kṛṣṇa and the sages.
Text 44
Translation
Śrutadeva said: It is not that we have attained the audience of the Supreme Person only today, for we have in fact been associating with Him ever since He created this universe with His energies and then entered it in His transcendental form.
Text 45
Translation
The Lord is like a sleeping person who creates a separate world in his imagination and then enters his own dream and sees himself within it.
Purport
In the illusion of his dream, a sleeping person creates an apparent world, complete with cities populated by the fictional products of his imagination. In somewhat the same way, the Lord manifests the cosmos. Of course, the creation is not illusory for the Lord, but it is for those souls who are put under the control of His Māyā potency. As her service to the Lord, Māyā deludes the conditioned souls into accepting as real her temporary, insubstantial manifestations.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So in the same city as the king, we have Srutadeva, a very poor brahmana. So Krishna visited both of these devotees. And we see that the welcome given by the brahmana, Srutadeva, was very different from that given by the king. So it is customary when the guest comes to any house, palace or house, you have to welcome the person and give them a place to sit. So of course, it is improper to just seat a person on the floor, so you need asana, you need some sort of mat [Laughs]. But Krishna came with all the brahmanas, so then he needed many mats, he didn’t have enough, so he have to go to the neighbour’s house and borrow some mats [Laughs]. And his offering was very simple. Water, grass and Tulasi leaves and lotus.
So this of course, is just according to Bhagavad Gita. Krishna says, offer Me a leaf, fruit and flower. So that’s exactly what Srutadeva offered according to scripture but the important thing is he offered with devotion. And thus, Krishna was completely satisfied. And then Srutadeva began to praise the Lord. Just as the king praised Him, so Srutadeva also praised the Lord. So this is also customary. You offer some water, a seat, some food, whatever, and you offer kind words.
So we see whenever devotees meet the Lord in Bhagavatam, they begin by offering a whole set of prayers [Laughs]. So in these prayers, they praise the Lord for His wonderful qualities and His beauty. And they indicate their surrender by offering respects. Of course, no one is able to fully describe the Lord and praise Him. However, to their capacity, they speak and the devotion is what is important. So we see that the king and Srutadeva were both very skillful at describing the Lord. However, many people may not be able to express themselves properly.
So, Supreme Lord has simplified the process. If you don’t have enough knowledge, you don’t have, no grammar, and you don’t know the proper words, then the Lord gives you an alternative. One simply utters the name of the Lord. That’s the simplest possible [Laughs] expression. It doesn’t involve any grammar. It only requires that you know the name of the Lord [Laughs]. But even if you utter the name accidentally, not knowing anything about the Lord or even His name, still it is effective [Laughs]. And thus, Ajamila uttered the name Narayana simply because that was the name of his son and he got effect.
So, we use the word kirtan. Kirtan means to glorify. The word kirti means fame. Somebody said do kirtan, for glorifying the Lord. We can describe His form and His qualities and His activities. So, we have rupa kirtan, we have guna kirtan and we have lila kirtan. However, if we don’t have knowledge, we can’t do these things [Laughs]. So, the simplest possible kirtan is nama kirtan. And, even if we don’t have all that knowledge of grammar and whatever to describe the qualities and pastimes of the Lord, the Lord is equally satisfied with this, the name. And, in fact, the Lord is even more satisfied with just the name.
So, there’s the story of Gopa kumar in Brhad Bhagavatamrta. So, Gopa kumar got diksha and he got a ten-syllable mantra from his guru. So, the guru said, you have to chant this mantra. But he didn’t explain what it meant. So, Gopa kumar began to chant this mantra, but he did it silently because it was a secret mantra. It was actually the same ten syllable mantra that Caitanya Mahaprabhu got when he got His diksha. So, this was a Krishna mantra, and by chanting it, he became attracted to Krishna. By the power of the mantra, he was able to go to swarga loka, Brahma loka, and Shiva loka, and Vaikuntha.
Even though he got to Vaikuntha, he didn’t feel very satisfied. He saw the form of Vishnu, he appreciated, but he expected the form of Krishna. So Narada Muni appeared to him and he said, well, you are very fortunate, but you are also very rare. You’ve attained Vaikuntha, but you’re not satisfied. You’re aspiring for something that even I cannot get. So he said, if you want Krishna, and you want to go to Krishna’s planet, you have to chant Krishna’s name.
So he had been chanting Krishna mantra, but then Narada Muni says you have to chant His name [Laughs]. Of course, in the mantra there’s also Krishna’s name. So what’s the difference? So, of course, the difference is the expression. Name is simply calling out to Krishna. It’s quite spontaneous. So we can easily express our feelings for Krishna by calling His name. So the mantra has Krishna’s name in it, but Krishna’s name is there with other words.
So mantras are constructed in a special way. They will have, of course, a word that indicates respect, like namaha or svaha. This is the verb. And, of course, we offer respects to Krishna, to Govinda. Words like Krishnaya, Govindaya namaha, etc. And we also have a bija syllable. This is a special syllable connected with the deity. So, the mantra has to be chanted in a special way to get the proper effect. And it is chanted with great reverence. So, of course, mantra is non-different from Krishna because it has Krishna’s name in it. But the expression is somewhat different from just chanting Krishna’s name.
So, Narada Muni said if you want to get Krishna, instead of your mantra, you chant Krishna’s name. So, the same truth is also indicated in Caitanya Caritamrta. There Lord Caitanya says that, by chanting the mantra, you get liberation. By chanting the name, you can get prema. So there again, Lord Caitanya is indicating, name is more powerful. So, though the name is simpler, it’s also more powerful than the mantra. And thus, Lord Caitanya has recommended chanting the name as the main dharma in kali yuga.
So Gopa kumar followed the instruction of Narada Muni and began nama-kirtan. And then, suddenly he ended up in Goloka [Laughs]. In other words, chanting the name of Krishna is the most powerful way of pleasing Krishna and getting His mercy. Of course, we don’t reject any way of praising Krishna [Laughs]. But still, we emphasize nama-sankirtan as the main method.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, thank you for the wonderful class. Maharaj, we see the sloka that ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ [Brs. 1.2.234]. So you can see like our current senses are impure and we cannot get the taste. And you mentioned about Mahaprabhu’s getting mantra from His spiritual master, Iswara Puri Pada. And Mahaprabhu, He was saying that kibā mantra dilā, gosāñi, kibā tāra bala japite japite mantra karila pāgala [Cc. Ādi 7.81]. So can we conclude here that, until and unless we get the mercy from our spiritual master and senior Vaishnavas, we cannot essentially make a good progress and getting the taste from chanting japa. Because we are chanting, I mean long time, but we are not getting the taste. What would be the reason for that? Do we need mercy from, a special mercy from Guru? That is my question.
For normal mantras, which are secret, you have to take diksha. So necessarily you have to get the mercy of the diksha guru to get the mantra. But Caitanya Mahaprabhu says in Caitanya Caritamrta that nama does not depend on diksha. Of course, the mantras are secret. So you are not going to know what the mantra is, unless somebody who knows the mantra gives it to you secretly [Laughs]. So we cannot chant the mantra unless we get it from the guru [Laughs]. The name is not secret, it’s loud. It’s available to everybody. So we don’t have to learn it from the guru because we already get it [Laughs] just by walking on the street or whatever. And we meet people, we encourage them to chant Hare Krishna [Laughs]. So in that way, it does not depend on the mercy of the diksha guru to get the mantra in order to start chanting and get effect. Ajamila chanted name Narayana, no diksha [Laughs]. He had no faith, he had no bhakti, he just chanted the name Narayana and he destroyed all of his karmas. Of course, normally, if we have faith and we begin chanting Krishna’s name, we don’t need diksha for that. But in order to avoid offenses and to chant purely, we need knowledge. Without that knowledge, we can destroy our karmas. However, to get prema, we do need knowledge. So we need the mercy of some guru, not necessarily diksha guru. So that’s why we trace a parampara. If the chanting Hare Krishna was there, we don’t need any parampara, technically [Laughs]. But because we want prema, therefore we need some teaching, some siksha. So we trace a siksha parampara.
2.) Hare Krishna. So her question is for chanting alone, we should not utter the sound or when we chant silently or when we chant loudly or with sound, what is the difference of effect?
So for mantras which are secret, it always has to be silent. For chanting the name, you can do it loudly, medium or silently. As we studied in the Sikshastaka, the name has no rules [Laughs]. Chanting mantras have rules. But for name, you can chant it silently, loudly, privately, publicly, impure, pure, doesn’t matter. You can chant inattentively, attentively. With devotion, with no devotion. However, in chanting the name, if we want prema, then of course, we do need some attention and some devotion and we avoid aparadhas.
Devotee: Maharaj, you prefer to chant silently or with some sounds?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Generally silently.
Devotee: Thank you so much.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: It is said, and of course, not recorded in scripture, that Haridasa Thakur chanted so many rounds every day. One third he did silently, one third semi-silent, and one third loudly [Laughs]. There is a story of kolavecha Sridhar in Mayapur. So all night along, he would be loudly chanting Krishna’s name. So many brahmanas would come and criticize him. You can’t chant loudly, you have to do it silently [Laughs]. But he was so enthusiastic, he couldn’t follow their advice [Laughs].
3.) Maharaj, one question, many devotees ask, to be connected to the parampara, do we need first initiation, second initiation, or no initiation? How we can connect ourselves with the guru parampara?
So if we look at our parampara as traced in Bhagavad Gita, we do it by siksha. However, in ISKCON generally we think you have to connect to the parampara by diksha. This is what people preach, you got to connect to the sampradaya by taking initiation [Laughs].
Devotee: Could you repeat again?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: We teach at ISKCON that you have to connect with our parampara by initiation. But we see our line is not traced by diksha, it’s traced by siksha. So this does not mean that we reject diksha, because we see even Lord Caitanya took diksha. And all the people we’re tracing in the siksha line also took diksha. But the idea is that, the main emphasis for carrying our parampara is through the siksha. And the reason for that is that scripturally speaking, diksha refers to getting the secret mantras. And they’re less important as sadhana than chanting Hare Krishna. So of course, we get those mantras at what we call second initiation. But the funny thing in ISKCON, usually people think they’re initiated with first initiation, not second initiation [Laughs]. But if you were to trace your diksha line, you could not trace it by first initiation, you have to trace it by your second initiation guru [Laughs]. So if you only took first initiation, not second initiation, you could not trace a diksha line, technically. So we call the first ceremony first initiation, but technically, or scripturally, the second is where you get the mantra. So that’s where you trace your parampara. However, most devotees in ISKCON take first initiation and think that is initiation [Laughs]. So in one sense, it’s not, but it’s definitely more important for us. So if you didn’t get second initiation, only got first initiation, you could trace that siksha line. And for us that’s more important than diksha. Of course, we could say that the first initiation is more siksha and less diksha. So, as I said, technically we don’t need diksha for attaining success and chanting the holy name, but at least we need siksha guru. So in that sense, the first initiation would be sufficient. In one place, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati explains that taking shelter of the holy name is more important than getting initiation. Diksha is for people who don’t have faith in the holy name [Laughs]. Of course, then the question will arise, well, do we need first initiation at all? Just siksha guru without first initiation.
Devotee: Those who don’t have faith in name need the initiation.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So Prabhupada in one place says, actually initiation means you accept Krishna consciousness seriously [Laughs]. And taking first initiation is just a formality. So then, of course, some devotee asks, well then we don’t need first initiation also? But then Prabhupada says, ok, yes, but it has some use as well [Laughs]. Of course, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur established the ceremony, but he never called it first initiation at all. Initiation was second initiation. First initiation was not called initiation. So the point is we don’t reject second initiation or diksha as such, and we put more emphasis on the first initiation, which is proper also for chanting holy name. And at the same time, theoretically, we don’t even need that ceremony, but generally ceremonies are good to make things official [Laughs]. If we put too much emphasis on the ceremony, then there’s a tendency to materialize it, to make it material. Just like in school or university, you get a degree. If you get the degree with the official stamp, etc, then you’re accepted, you know [Laughs] by society. And ideally, if you have a degree, you should be qualified with a certain level of knowledge. But then some people want the degree without the qualification [Laughs]. So if you got the degree, you get more respect [Laughs]. So by ritualizing first initiation particularly, then it also becomes some sort of material standard. If I pass that ritual, then I’m accepted by everybody [Laughs]. So people strive for that title without the proper qualification. For that reason, some gurus in ISKCON are a little bit skeptical, and therefore they make the devotees wait for many, many, many years [Laughs] before [Laughs] they get initiation [Laughs], because they don’t think they’re serious [Laughs]. Of course, this is not just an ISKCON problem. We say in all religions the same thing takes place you formalize the religion, then it tends to be a little bit material [Laughs].
4.) Maharaj, one further question. Many people become confused about this initiation, first, second, diksha, siksha. Some people think, I don’t need anybody. I just follow Srila Prabhupada. I read his books. He’s my siksha guru. Can you please establish once and for all, why do we need a living person, a living guru who instructs us?
So when we trace a parampara, we’re tracing one devotee to another devotee to another devotee. So if it’s a diksha parampara, one devotee gives a mantra to another, he gives it to another, he gives it to another. And if it’s a siksha parampara, there, one person teaches, he teaches another, he teaches another. However, in a siksha parampara, we also have siksha taken from a primary Acharya who may not be living. So simultaneously we have a siksha guru who is living, we may have a siksha guru from the past as well like Rupa Goswami or whatever. So in ISKCON, we take Srila Prabhupada, who is the Founder Acharya as our primary siksha guru. And even though, many generations go on, still in the future, those devotees can accept Srila Prabhupada as their siksha guru. But even though we do that, that does not mean that we reject a living guru. There may be cases where a person couldn’t get a diksha guru or a siksha guru for some reason, maybe he lives in Siberia or something or Mongolia or Antarctica or whatever. But you know, some cases may be. Generally, one should accept a siksha guru at least.
Devotee: Siksha guru we should accept?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, living siksha guru. And the reason is that even though we have the teachings of Prabhupada recorded in the books, etc, even that becomes a matter of dispute. People say it means this, people say it means that. So we have to have someone to say, okay, it means this.
5.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. I have a corresponding question. Jiva Goswami had three principle siksha disciples, Narottama Dasa Thakura, Srinivasa Acharya and who else? Shyamananda Prabhu. So we see that in Narottama Dasa’s case, he took permission from Lokanath Goswami. Lokanath Goswami essentially requested Jiva Goswami to give him siksha. And also we see Hrdaya Caitanya Prabhu, he instructed Shyamananda Prabhu to take siksha from Jiva Goswami. So if both the siksha guru and diksha guru, if both are living, is it necessary to take permission from diksha guru to accept a siksha guru? So that is my question, or we can take it by our choice?
In Krishna Bhajanamrta there, Narahari says that, if you accept a diksha guru, if you want to accept a siksha guru after that, you should take permission from the diksha guru. And any knowledge that you get from the siksha guru, you should reveal that to the diksha guru so there is no contradiction in the teachings. Of course, before taking diksha, you may also have siksha gurus. You could not take permission from a diksha guru because you don’t have [Laughs] one at that time. So that is a safeguard, getting permission from diksha guru, so that the teachings are not contradictory. Of course, in ISKCON generally, the teachings are going to be rather the same [Laughs]. We got the same scriptures, etc. So that rule becomes less important to some degree.
Okay. Hare Krishna!
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!