Srimad Bhagavatam 10.86.32-35 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | 23 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 32.
ŚB 10.86.32
sva-vacas tad ṛtaṁ kartum
asmad-dṛg-gocaro bhavān
yad ātthaikānta-bhaktān me
nānantaḥ śrīr ajaḥ priyaḥ
Synonyms
sva — Your own; vacaḥ — statement; tat — that; ṛtam — true; kartum — to make; asmat — our; dṛk — to the eyes; gocaraḥ — accessible; bhavān — You; yat — which; āttha — spoke; eka-anta — with a single aim; bhaktāt — than the devotee; me — my; na — not; anantaḥ — Lord Ananta; śrīḥ — Goddess Śrī; ajaḥ — unborn Brahmā; priyaḥ — more dear.
Translation
You have said, “Neither Ananta, Goddess Śrī nor unborn Brahmā is dearer to Me than My unalloyed devotee.” To prove Your own words true, You have now revealed Yourself to our eyes.
Text 33
Translation
What person who knows this truth would ever abandon Your lotus feet, when You are ready to give Your very self to peaceful sages who call nothing their own?
Text 34
Translation
Appearing in the Yadu dynasty, You have spread Your glories, which can remove all the sins of the three worlds, just to deliver those entrapped in the cycle of birth and death.
Text 35
Translation
Obeisances to You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, whose intelligence is ever unrestricted. Obeisances to the sage Nara-Nārāyaṇa, who always undergoes austerities in perfect peace.
Purport
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī comments that the King offered these prayers to encourage Lord Kṛṣṇa to remain at his home for some days. The King thought, “Since contact with the Supreme Lord can free anyone from misconceptions and doubts, Kṛṣṇa’s presence in my home will fortify my intelligence so that I can withstand the onslaughts of material desires. In His expansion as Nara-Nārāyaṇa Ṛṣi, the Lord always resides in Badarikāśrama for the good of the whole land of Bharata, and so He may also create good fortune for the land of Mithilā by remaining here for at least a few days. Since Lord Kṛṣṇa’s propensity is toward peace and simplicity, He will certainly prefer my simple home to the excessive opulence of Dvārakā.”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So Bahulasva is a king but he’s also a great devotee. And the Lord actually values a person as a devotee more than He values a person as a king. And thus He says that the Lord has more affection for His devotee than He has for Ananta or Lakshmi or Brahma. Definitely the Lord has affection for Lakshmi because she’s His consort. She’s also a great devotee. Ananta acts as the bed of Vishnu, so he’s constantly serving Vishnu. He’s also a great devotee. Brahma is the son of Vishnu. He’s born from Vishnu’s navel. He’s also a great devotee of the Lord.
Here it is said here and in other places as well that actually the Lord prefers His devotees over these great devotees. So this is to show, these statements are there to show that the Lord values bhakti. And being a son or a wife or a servant is less important than the devotion. Of course, we cannot say that Lakshmi and Brahma and Ananta are not devotees, they’re also very great devotees. However, even if one does not have a position as the wife or the son or as the servant, the Lord will respond to a person who has great devotion.
So Bahulasva is a great king, that doesnt matter so much, what matters is he’s a great devotee. Therefore, the Lord will agree to fulfill the desires of every devotee. So, Krishna in Dvaraka has plenty of queens, He has plenty of servants, plenty of devotees there. Yet, He leaves Dvaraka and He comes to see this king Bahulasva. So it’s not because he’s a king but because he is devotee.
There’s a story of Gajendra. Gajendra was a big elephant. And he was enjoying nicely with his female elephants in the water. Then, he was attacked by a crocodile. And crocodile grabbed his leg and the elephant began to struggle. So, the elephant tried to get out of the water, but the crocodile kept pulling him back into the water. So, they struggled in the water for a thousand years. Finally, Gajendra, who was an elephant, remembered some verses praising Vishnu from his previous life.
So, he called out to the Lord, praising Him. Vishnu was in Vaikuntha. He was with Lakshmi, surrounded by many servants. He was enjoying the company of Lakshmi. Suddenly, He stood up and ran away. He jumped on Garuda. And He directed Garuda to come down to the material world to save Gajendra. So because Gajendra was calling, the Lord left Lakshmi. Of course, Gajendra was not even a pure devotee. He was praying to the Lord because he was attacked by the crocodile. But even though he was impure in his bhakti, the Lord responded and He gave up Lakshmi.
So this pastime shows how the Lord is willing to help His devotee. Now of course, this does not mean that Lakshmi is not a great devotee, Lakshmi is the greatest devotee. So how can He give up His great devotees for another devotee who is not even a pure devotee [Laughs]? So this shows how the Lord is attracted to all types of devotees. Of course, we could resolve this peculiar idea of leaving Lakshmi by saying that the Lord never leaves her, so He expands Himself in another form [Laughs]. So in this way, the Lord never gives up any devotee.
Generally, of course, we see that the Lord responds according to the amount of your devotion. So if you have a little devotion, Lord responds a little, if you have great devotion, the Lord responds a lot. And thus we see there are six qualities of bhakti. The last quality is Krishna akarshani. This means that in the stage of prema, the devotee controls Krishna. So if one is merely doing sadhana, one does not control Krishna. But still the Lord is attracted even to these devotees doing sadhana. But He is completely controlled by devotees in prema.
So that is the normal way in which the Lord responds to different types of devotees. But we see sometimes the Lord makes exceptions. So He kills Putana, who is a big demoness, and she ends up in spiritual world. He kills Aghasura, Aghasura ends up in the spiritual world [Laughs]. So sometimes the Lord acts in a very surprising way and gives His mercy to very undeserving people. But we should not think it is better we all become demons and get killed by Krishna than we get to the spiritual world [Laughs]. We don’t have to do sadhana [Laughs]. We cannot take advantage of Krishna’s extraordinary mercy [Laughs]. So these are not normal cases, these are extraordinary cases.
So if one thinks I’ll become a big demon so I’ll go to the spiritual world by being killed by Krishna, this also becomes offense. So if we think that we can take advantage of Krishna’s extraordinary mercy and become a demon [Laughs] and go to the spiritual world, that becomes offensive. It is something like committing sin and then expecting to get rid of all this suffering by chanting the holy name [Laughs]. We should also understand that though Krishna gives extraordinary mercy to Putana and Aghasura, the place they get in the spiritual world is never equal to the position given to serious devotees who practice nicely.
So the prema that a devotee who’s seriously practicing attains is much greater than whatever the demons attain. So this follows the rule that Krishna responds according to the amount of devotion. So the main message here is that Krishna responds to devotees. And that is without regard for their material position. So just as Krishna responded to this king, so He also responded to a poor brahmana. So Srutadeva was a poor brahmana in the same city and Krishna also went to his house. And Krishna was completely satisfied with the service of Srutadeva. His worship and service was very simple because he was poor, but Krishna was completely satisfied. So Krishna was satisfied with devotion, not with any material conditions.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) In any kind of state, devotee, non-devotee, if they pray to Krishna, will they get satisfied?
So Krishna responds to everybody. But if a person is not a devotee, he is a materialist in the material world, even though the Lord is affectionate to everybody, He responds differently than He responds to devotees.
Devotee: For the non-devotees, how He responds? He doesn’t respond?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: He is sama [Laughs], He is neutral. He doesn’t hate them, nor does He favor them. But if one offers to the Lord, the Lord responds. But we see that one can surrender to various degrees. And according to the surrender, the Lord responds. So to a devotee doing sadhana, they may be in anartha nivritti, nishtha, ruchi, or asakti, and then the Lord responds according to their level of advancement. But during this stage of sadhana, the Lord does not reveal Himself. But if one reaches bhava stage, then the anarthas are very, very little, and the devotion is very, very great. So then the Lord responds by revealing Himself.
But if one attains prema, where there is no anarthas at all, and the devotion is 100%, the Lord responds more. So in prema, Krishna becomes servant of the devotee. Rasa fully manifests. And the bliss becomes complete. So we can say in sadhana, certainly the Lord responds to devotee. So the jiva feels some spiritual happiness. If the devotee gets to bhava stage, that devotee can experience bliss. If the devotee attains prema, the devotee experiences intense bliss. So, of course, this is also in response to the capacity of each devotee. So, according to what one can actually appreciate, the Lord responds differently. Hare Krishna.
2.) Why Krishna shows mercy to Putana, Sishupala? Krishna gave great mercy to them even if they are not devotees, exceptional mercy He gave them. So why that kind of scenes are shown to us? What is His intention?
Well, one, Krishna is unpredictable. Generally He follows certain rules [Laughs]. But He can also break all the rules [Laughs]. And we cannot find fault when the Lord does that. So it’s said the Lord can do anything if He wants and He will do nothing if He doesn’t want to do it. And then He will do the opposite also [Laughs]. So therefore, the Lord in that way is unpredictable. Of course, in the case of Putana, why Putana? Why not another demon? And the reason is that Putana dressed up like a Gopi. So of course her intention was to kill Krishna. But because she dressed up like a Gopi and she acted like she was mother of Krishna, trying to feed Him milk, so Krishna became a little compassionate.
In the case of Sishupala, Sishupala, of course, was a big demon also. So, his good quality was that he could not stop thinking of Krishna. Bad quality was he hated Krishna [Laughs]. He could not stop thinking of Krishna, not because he was dedicated to Vishnu, because as previously he was Ravana and [Laughs] Hiranyakasipu whatever, but reason why is Krishna is all-attractive. So, though he hated the Supreme Lord when he appeared as when Krishna appeared, he hated Him with great absorption. And that great absorption over a long period of time purified Sishupala. So, when all of his karmas and sinful desires had been eradicated by concentrating on Krishna even in hatred, then the Lord killed him and he went to Vaikuntha.
So, the example is given of a wasp. A bumblebee. It’s an insect. It grabs another insect and it puts a cocoon around him and traps him. So, that insect is trapped. And that trapped insect is sitting there and he’s living in fear of this wasp all the time [Laughs]. And finally, thinking so much in fear of the wasp, he turns into a wasp and comes out of the thing as a wasp [Laughs]. So, even though Sishupala was a demon and he was thinking of Krishna in hatred, by that constant thinking, he got a form in the spiritual world [Laughs].
It is said that when Krishna kills demons [Not clear], if Vishnu kills them, they don’t get liberation, but they get a nice birth. When Krishna kills demons, they may get liberation in Brahman or they may get a form in the spiritual world, sarupya.
Devotee: So, he was just thinking that Putana case and Sishupala case, Krishna only considers their good qualities, good points like in Putana case, she looks like Gopi and Sishupala’s constant thinking of the Lord, and He becomes very merciful, so He always sees their good points. So, that is a common case between Putana and Sishupala.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, we can say that Krishna is more merciful than the other forms of the Lord. That’s definitely true. The other point is that Krishna is more attractive, so even the demons start concentrating on Krishna, so they get better result.
3.) Maharaj, my question is, sometimes in exceptional cases, if he is not so bad, but also gives bad results, He can be more merciful, but He can be more worse [Laughs]. In some cases, this is exceptional mercy, but in some cases, can He be more bad?
[Laughs] Give more punishment?
Devotee: Punishment should be small, but Krishna gives very high punishment.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, if Krishna kills a demon, they always get good results. They go to Brahman or they get to spiritual world. When Vishnu kills a demon, they may get a nice body like Hiranyakasipu becomes Ravana, Ravana becomes Sishupala. Now any form of the punishment that the Lord gives a demon actually, it’s not a punishment, it’s beneficial for them. Of course, normally, the punishment is simply karma for the normal persons in the material world.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: What he’s saying?
Devotee: He said like about Gajendra you were saying right, Krishna came to save Gajendra. So, he was saying something like, it depends on devotion, but also the intensity of devotion matters, or something like that.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: And which is true. Obviously Gajendra cannot compare to Lakshmi [Laughs]. Yeah, the Lord is very merciful, not even Krishna even Vishnu.
4.) Gajendra case, you said that Supreme Lord responds according to devotion. But according to devotee, devotion is also different? Gajendra’s case, he became very intense based on material suffering because he spent thousand years fighting by his own power. Then finally he realized the limit of his own power. Then he surrendered. At that point, until that thousand years, he never remembered Krishna. But finally, he was fighting for one thousand years. Finally, he became intensely materialistic. Then he woke up. Then he remembered the previous smriti. Then he offered flowers. Then Vishnu responded.
Yeah. So, yes, he wasn’t practicing pure bhakti. This is a case of mixed bhakti, like Dhruva. So in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, those who are in suffering, as in the case of Gajendra, those who want money, as in the case of Dhruva, they’re also my devotees [Laughs]. So the Lord responds to whatever they want in terms of material. He gave Dhruva a kingdom. He rescued Gajendra. Those who practice pure bhakti do not want to get free of their misery. They don’t want material benefits. They only want to serve the Lord eternally. And the Lord rewards that. Of course, these devotees like Dhruva or Gajendra can progress beyond mixed bhakti and get to pure bhakti. Then they also get the best results.
5.) Difference between just worshiping the demigods for attaining material benefits and mixed bhakti. Mixed bhati is better than worshiping devatas?
Yeah. Mixed bhakti is better than worshiping devatas [Laughs].
Devotee: Because they’re purified.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Hmm.
Devotee: And devatas are never purified.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, yeah. So mixed bhakti is better than karma yoga. And pure bhakti is better than mixed bhakti. And prema bhakti for Krishna is better than prema bhakti for Vishnu [Laughs].
Devotee: And Radharani’s bhakti…
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah highest [Laughs].
Devotee: Highest.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Madhurya is the highest. Radha is the highest.
Devotee: How they cultivate such intensity? My final question is, Krishna’s response is based on intention, material motivation etc.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes. Yeah
Devotee: Even Sishupala, they’re very intense. [Not clear].
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: What’s that?
Devotee: How to cultivate such intensity like Gopis? Because in Gajendra’s case, or even in our case, material emergency stimulates intensity. Gopi is always intense. How to cultivate such regular, continuous intensity?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, if we practice vaidhi bhakti, it’s not so intense. If we practice raganuga, it’s more intense [Laughs]. And in raganuga bhakti, you could have dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, madhurya and madhurya is the most intense. So if we practice that type of bhakti, madhurya bhakti then we can attain that intense bhakti. So according to your choice of sadhana, less intense, more intense, and you get also your results, Krishna responds [[Laughs].
Okay. Hare Krishna!
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaja ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!