Srimad Bhagavatam 10.87.14 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | 4 May 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 87 Verse 14.
ŚB 10.87.14
śrī-śrutaya ūcuḥ
jaya jaya jahy ajām ajita doṣa-gṛbhīta-guṇāṁ
tvam asi yad ātmanā samavaruddha-samasta-bhagaḥ
aga-jagad-okasām akhila-śakty-avabodhaka te
kvacid ajayātmanā ca carato ’nucaren nigamaḥ
Synonyms
śrī-śrutayaḥ ūcuḥ — the Vedas said; jayajaya — victory to You, victory to You; jahi — please defeat; ajām — the eternal illusory potency of Māyā; ajita — O unconquerable one; doṣa — to create discrepancies; gṛbhīta — who has assumed; guṇām — the qualities of matter; tvam — You; asi — are; yat — because; ātmanā — in Your original status; samavaruddha — complete; samasta — in all; bhagaḥ — opulences; aga — nonmoving; jagat — and moving; okasām — of those who possess material bodies; akhila — of all; śakti — the energies; avabodhaka — O You who awaken; te — You; kvacit — sometimes; ajayā — with Your material energy; ātmanā — and with Your internal, spiritual energy; ca — also; carataḥ — engaging; anucaret — can appreciate; nigamaḥ — the Vedas.
Translation
The śrutis said: Victory, victory to You, O unconquerable one! By Your very nature You are perfectly full in all opulences; therefore please defeat the eternal power of illusion, who assumes control over the modes of nature to create difficulties for conditioned souls. O You who awaken all the energies of the moving and nonmoving embodied beings, sometimes the Vedas can recognize You as You sport with Your material and spiritual potencies.
Purport
According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, the twenty-eight verses of the prayers of the personified Vedas (texts 14-41) represent the opinions of each of the twenty-eight major śrutis. These chief Upaniṣads and other śrutis concern themselves with various approaches to the Absolute Truth, and among them those śrutis are supreme which emphasize pure, unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Upaniṣads direct our attention to the Personality of Godhead by first negating what is distinct from Him and then defining some of His important characteristics.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī interprets the first words of this prayer, jaya jaya, to mean “please reveal Your superexcellence.” The word jaya is repeated out of either reverence or joy.
“How should I reveal My excellence?” the Lord might ask.
The śrutis answer by requesting Him to mercifully destroy the ignorance of all living beings and attract them to His lotus feet.
The Lord says, “But Māyā, who imposes ignorance on the jīvas, is full of good qualities [gṛbhīta-guṇām]. Why should I oppose her?”
“Yes,” the Vedas answer, “but she has taken on the three modes of nature to bewilder the conditioned souls and make them falsely identify with their material bodies. Her modes of goodness, passion and ignorance, moreover, are tainted [doṣa-gṛbhīta] because You are not manifest in their presence.”
The śrutis go on to address the Lord as ajita, implying that “only You cannot be conquered by Māyā, whereas others, like Brahmā, are defeated by their own faults.”
The Lord responds, “But what proof do you have that she cannot conquer Me?”
“The proof lies in the fact that in Your original state You have already realized the perfection of all opulences.”
At this point the Lord might object that merely destroying the ignorance of the jīvas will not suffice to bring them to His lotus feet, since the jīva soul, even after his ignorance is dispelled, cannot attain the Lord without engaging in devotional service. As the Lord states in His own words, bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ: “I am attainable only through devotional service.” (Bhāg. 11.14.21)
To this objection the śrutis reply, “My Lord, O You who awaken all energies, after creating the intelligence and senses of the living entities, You inspire them to work hard and enjoy the fruits of their labor. In addition, by Your mercy You awaken their ability to pursue the progressive paths of knowledge, mystic yoga and devotional service, allowing them to advance toward You in Your aspects of Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, respectively. And when jñāna, yoga and bhakti mature, You empower the living beings to directly realize You in each of Your three aspects.”
If the Lord were to ask for authoritative evidence to support this statement by the personified Vedas, they humbly reply, “We ourselves are the evidence. On some occasions — such as now, the time of creation — You consort with Your external, Māyā potency, whereas You are always present with Your internal energy. It is at times such as the present, when Your activity is outwardly manifest, that we, the Vedas, can recognize You in Your play.”
Thus endowed with authority by their personal association with the Supreme Lord, the śrutis promulgate the processes of karma, jñāna, yoga and bhakti as various means for the conditioned souls to employ their intelligence, senses, mind and vitality in search of the Absolute Truth.
In many places the Vedas glorify the transcendental, personal qualities of the Supreme. The following verse appears in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (6.11), the Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad (Uttara 97), and the Brahma Upaniṣad (4.1):
eko devaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu gūḍhaḥ
sarva-vyāpī sarva-bhūtāntarātmā
karmādhyakṣaḥ sarva-bhūtādhivāsaḥ
sākṣī cetāḥ kevalo nirguṇaś ca
“The one Supreme Lord lives hidden inside all created things. He pervades all matter and sits within the hearts of all living beings. As the indwelling Supersoul, He supervises their material activities. Thus, while having no material qualities Himself, He is the unique witness and giver of consciousness.”
The Supreme’s personal qualities are further described in the following quotations from the Upaniṣads: Yaḥ sarva-jñaḥ sa sarva-vid yasya jñāna-mayaṁ tapaḥ. “He who is all-knowing, from whom the potency of all knowledge comes — He is the wisest of all” (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 1.1.9); sarvasya vaśī sarvasyeśānaḥ: “He is the Lord and controller of everyone” (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.22); and yaḥ pṛthivyāṁ tiṣṭhan pṛthivyā āntaro yaṁ pṛthivī na veda: “He who resides within the earth and pervades it, whom the earth does not know.” (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.7.3)
The Lord’s role in creation is mentioned in many statements of the śruti. The Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.2.4) states, so ’kāmayata bahu syām: “He desired, ‘I will become many.’” The phrase so ’kāmayata (“He desired”) here implies that the Lord’s personality is eternal, for even prior to the creation the Absolute Truth experienced desire, and desire is an attribute unique to persons. The Aitareya Upaniṣad (3.11) similarly states, sa aikṣata tat-tejo ’sṛjata: “He saw, and His power sent forth the creation.” Here the word tat-tejaḥ refers to the Lord’s partial expansion Mahā-Viṣṇu, who glances upon Māyā and thus manifests the material creation. Or tat-tejaḥ may refer to the Lord’s impersonal Brahman feature, His potency of all-pervasive, eternal existence. As described in Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā (5.40):
yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-
koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi-vibhūti-bhinnam
tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is endowed with great power. The glowing effulgence of His transcendental form is the impersonal Brahman, which is absolute, complete and unlimited and which displays the varieties of countless planets, with their different opulences, in millions and millions of universes.”
In summing up this verse, Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī prays:
jaya jayājita jahy aga-jaṅgamā-
vṛtim ajām upanīta-mṛṣā-guṇām
na hi bhavantam ṛte prabhavanty amī
nigama-gīta-guṇārṇavatā tava
“All glories, all glories to You, O unconquerable one! Please defeat the influence of Your eternal Māyā, who covers all moving and nonmoving creatures and who rules over the modes of illusion. Without Your influence, all these Vedic mantras would be powerless to sing of You as the ocean of transcendental qualities.”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So we have Srutis or the Vedas are here praising the Lord. The original question of Parikshit is how can the Vedas describe the Lord? So here, they are describing the Lord [Laughs]. Of course, these are descriptions in the Bhagavatam. And if we look in the Srutis themself, the Vedas, we will not find these prayers.
Devotee: Could you say please?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: We do not find these prayers exactly in the Vedas. So what the Srutis say are Upanishads. That’s describing Supreme Lord, Brahman, etc [Laughs]. However, Upanishads are difficult to understand. So Vedavyasa wrote the Bhagavatam to explain the meaning of Upanishads, explain the meaning of Brahma Sutras. So we can ask the question, what is the importance of the Vedas?
Why do we have to put so much emphasis on the Vedas? In one sense, we don’t. We just study the Bhagavatam [Laughs]. So our answer is, while we are actually studying the Vedas, we study the Bhagavatam because we are getting the essence, the real conclusion of the Vedas. However, other philosophers will protest. And they will say, you have to show us how Bhagavatam is saying the same thing as Upanishads [Laughs].
So therefore, our Acharyas often quote the Upanishads to explain the verses of Bhagavatam. Of course, we can still ask, well, why, why do we put so much emphasis upon Vedas? The reason is, they are the original scriptures. They are eternal. It says, the Jiva is eternal, Prakriti is eternal, Vedas are also eternal. Of course, the Vedas appear in every universe. However, it is like the Supreme Lord Krishna appears in every universe, but He is also eternal.
So, the Vedas are actually never created, but they appear from the mouth of Brahma. Other scriptures, like the Puranas, are written by Vedavyasa at a certain time, so they have a beginning. So, for that reason, some people will put more emphasis on the Vedas, because they are eternal, Puranas are temporary manifestations. However, because they have the same meaning, then we can say, well, they are the same [Laughs]. So, that is the conclusion, the argument of our Acharyas.
Others, the impersonals like Shankaracharya, will say, no. Sruti is the highest proof. And if Puranas, or Mahabharata, or other works, Smritis, etc., contradict, then we’ll take the authority of Sruti over them. So, in other words, they will use Lakshana to interpret the Puranas to say the same thing as their conclusion on the Vedas [Laughs]. However, the Vaishnavas say no, the Puranas are saying the same thing. There is no contradiction. So, all the Vaishnava Acharyas say, Puranas describe Bhagavan, the Lord with form, qualities, and activities. Upanishads also describe Bhagavan with form, qualities, and activities.
The impersonals say, no. The Upanishads speak only of impersonal Brahman, no qualities, form, activities. So, Shankaracharya has written commentaries on ten Upanishads, which he says are most important and he gives impersonal interpretations. Our Acharyas will say, the same Upanishad says, no, your meaning is wrong [Laughs].
So, we see here in the commentary, we have many quotes from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, Mundaka Upanishad. These are Upanishads that Shankaracharya has written impersonal commentary on, but here, we’ll see, it’s expressing personal Bhagavan. Of course, then, the impersonalists will argue, oh, Upanishads say that, but they’ll use Lakshana to say it’s not actually personal [Laughs]. Here Lakshana means, not direct meaning. They’ll give it a non-direct meaning, and say, it means something else [Laughs].
So all these statements that say the Lord creates the world, he knows everything, he controls everyone, it’s poetic language, metaphor, it doesn’t actually mean that [Laughs]. And for that reason, we see in the Caitanya Caritamrta, Lord Caitanya is talking to the impersonalists and says we do have to use direct meaning as much as possible. We can’t just, anytime we feel like it, start interpreting things. So impersanlists will take Upanishads, and based on Upanishads we have Vedanta Sutras which give meaning to Upanishads. But, the Vaishnava Acharyas will take the same Brahma Sutra and give personal meaning. For instance, we got the first verse, athāto brahma-jijñāsā [Vedanta Sutra 1.1.1], we should inquire about Brahman.
So, impersonalists will say, yes, after you’ve experienced karma and karma yoga and swarga loka, etc., you should reject that, and you should try to merge into impersonal Brahman. But, Ramanujacharya, who was the first major Acharya to refute or argue with Shankaracharya, says, no, Brahman means Narayana. And, Nimbarkacharya and Baladeva Vidyabhusana say, Brahman means Krishna [Laughs]. So, the Brahma Sutras then, the Vaishnava Acharyas give meaning to the Brahma Sutras, to show that it’s all about Bhagavan.
So, when Parikshit asks this question to Sukadeva, can the Vedas describe the Absolute Truth, Brahman, it’s also a question, is that Brahman personal or impersonal? So, in his prayers to the personified Vedas, we’ll see, Brahman is impersonal. So, in his prayers to the personified Vedas, we’ll see a lot of the verses are simply stating that this Supreme Brahman is personal. He has qualities, He has activity, He has form.
So, this verse is addressing the Lord, and when Maha-Vishnu was waking up or whatever, and it’s saying, okay, that’s glorifying Supreme Lord, and say, may you be ever excellent. May you manifest your excellent qualities eternally. So, this is the meaning of the word Jaya. Of course, normally, we say Jaya means be victorious [Laughs]. But our Acharyas usually explain that Jaya means, please manifest your excellence eternally. So, one of the ways in which the Lord can manifest his excellence is described here. You defeat Maya [Laughs]. The Jivas on their own cannot defeat Maya. Even Brahma cannot defeat Maya. But the Lord can easily defeat Maya.
So, this verse describes that the Lord actually has, it says here, second line, samasta-bhagaḥ, He have all wonderful qualities. Lord has all wonderful qualities. And, he’s also got akhila-śakty-avabodhaka. He manifests all Shaktis. And He manifests the material world. So, in this verse, we see that the Srutis are accepting that the Lord has activity, and He has Shaktis. And, He controls the material world. So, the material world is not illusory, it’s real. The Shaktis of the Lord are real.
Devotee: What did you say about Shakti?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: They are real. And, the Lord Himself, with His Shaktis and His activities and His qualities, is real. If everything was unreal, then the whole verse would be meaningless. How can you glorify the Lord for illusory things [Laughs]? So, in other words, the Srutis can describe that Supreme Brahman, because Supreme Brahman has form, qualities and activities, which are real.
Devotee: Can you say again? Sorry.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: The Srutis can describe this Supreme Brahman, because a Supreme Brahman has form, qualities and activities. Of course, in a verse like this, the Lord’s qualities and activities, etc., are relating to Maya. So, it’s talking about the Lord conquering over Maya, and in the purport we see the Lord creating the material world, etc., controlling the material world. So, this is one aspect of the Lord, as Maha-Vishnu and Garbhodakasayi Vishnu [Laughs]. However, with His internal energy, of course, the Lord manifests hyis pastimes as Krishna, described in the rest of the tenth canto.
So, in the last line here, it says that the Lord is playing with Ajaya, with Prakriti, manifesting the material world, and it says He’s playing with Atmana, his internal energy, by which He manifests and has activities in the spiritual world. But both interacting with external energy and internal energy are aspects of the Supreme Lord with form, qualities, and activities.
Okay, Hare Krishna.
Q & A :
1.) [Question not audible].
Here in the purport, I think at the beginning, it says, Jiva Goswami saying that actually the Srutis are speaking, and each verse is representing a different Upanishad. 28 verses, 28 different Upanishads speak [Laughs]. So, of course, there are 108 Upanishads. Of those, Shankaracharya says that ten are the most important, and he wrote commentary on those. And of those, of course, some are the longest Upanishads, and it’s Chandogya and Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, very, very long, the longest Upanishads. Some are short, Isopanishad is short, Mundaka Upanishad is not so long. But these Upanishads also have a lot of statements which can be taken as impersonal [Laughs]. However, there are other Upanishads which we call Vaishnava Upanishads, so they’re glorifying Vishnu and Krishna [Laughs]. One of them is Gopala Tapani Upanishad [Laughs]. So, this is a glorification of Krishna and Krishna Mantra [Laughs]. So, our Acharyas have written commentaries on that. Vishwanath has a commentary, Jiva has a commentary, Prabodhananda Saraswati has a [Laughs] commentary. So, there’s quite a few commentaries on Gopala Tapani Upanishad, but not, Shankaracharya doesn’t comment on that one. And, of course, people will say, well, where is Krishna mentioned in the Vedas [Laughs]? So, our Acharyas will say, Gopala Tapani Upanishad is Sruti [Laughs]. So, our Acharyas often quote in their commentaries Gopala Tapani Upanishad [Laughs]. But they will also quote verses like here from Mundaka Upanishad and Brhadaranyaka Upanishad that show the Lord has activities and qualities.
Devotee: All of those are Sruti?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes.
Devotee: Sruti, which means eternal and never change?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yes. Yes. No question? Okay.
Devotee: Difficult to ask question [Laughs].
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: [Laughs] Hare Krishna.
2.) There is one, in the purport, it is written, she has taken, “Yes,” the Vedas answer, “but she has taken on the three modes of nature to bewilder the conditioned souls and make them falsely identify with their material bodies. So this represents what? Like it represents the Maya’s power or?
Yes, this is Maya. So, Maya is energy of the Lord, also a servant of the Lord. But, she has a rather strange duty of [Laughs] putting the Jivas in illusion [Laughs]. This is why she says, I conquer, you should conquer over Maya. Even though Maya belongs to the Lord and His servant, she has this negative quality of bewildering Jivas. So, therefore, the Srutis may conquer over Maya as if it were an enemy, but actually it’s Shakti of the Lord [Laughs]. For the Jivas, it becomes the enemy, not for the Lord.
3.) [Not clear] says that Krishna cannot manifest in the presence of Maya. So, if Maya is there, Krishna cannot be there, right? That is one statement. Three modes. If three modes are there, Krishna cannot manifest there.
Well, He is everywhere, but Jivas cannot see Him. Atleast of course, nitya siddha Jivas [Laughs] or Jivas in Prema can see but others cannot see because they are covered by maya.
4.) Hare Krishna. Sruti, like here, the Srutis are talking. So, Srutis, like this is maybe personality of the Sruti?
Yeah.
Devotee 1: How it is like?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Like we have Devatas of fire and water and whatever. Even we have Upadevatas for the trees and the mountains and whatever like in general [Laughs]. We are [Laughs] worshiping the mountains and trees, so we have Upadevatas and that’s material, of course. So in spiritual world also, things are represented by personalities. So some of the Shaktis of the Lord have personalities like Yogamaya Shakti or whatever like that. I think the 16 major Shaktis in Vaikuntha are also personalities. They are like expansions of Lakshmi. So, therefore the Vedas also have a personal form.
Devotee 2: So, this is scripture, I want to say, emphasis, like Sruti also, Smriti also, praise the Lord, glorifying the Lord. So, that is conclusion. So, that is very important because Sruti itself describes and glorifying the Lord, that’s why.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Hmm.
5.) So, there is one statement that Maya has good qualities in the purport, Maya has good qualities. So, what are the good qualities of Maya?
Doṣa-gṛbhīta-guṇāṁ. It is accepted as false [Laughs].
Devotee: But Maya who poses ignorance on the Jivas is full of good qualities. Gravita gunan. Why should I oppose her, the Lord says.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, that’s interpretation of dosha, grbhita, gunam. So, yes, the good qualities from material point of view, like Sattvaguna, but ultimately it is also dosha. It is also faulty, it is material [Laughs]. Apparently good qualities. So that’s, in other words, there is an exchange here. Maya has gunas, some of the qualities are good, why condemn her? Actually, the qualities are to put the Jiva into Maya. So, the answer is, she has taken on the three modes of nature, the mood of the conditioned souls. The qualities are actually not good. So we can say, why criticize Maya because we have Satya Loka, we have Swarga Loka, such nice places. So don’t criticize her [Laughs].
6.) In the Srutis like in 10th canto, we have the pastimes of Krishna specifically. So, in Srutis also there is an explanation of these pastimes of Krishna? Or like how it is they explain the pastimes also?
Well, we have Gopala Tapani Upanishad, so there are mentions, you know, Radha and others. Not detailed pastimes, but at least they get mentioned, and the whole thing is about the mantras of Krishna.
Devotee: Sruti and Upanishad are the same?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: They are part of it. Upanishads are part of Sruti. So, we have Brahmanas, Aranyakas, which are Karma Kanda. We have Jnana Kanda, Upanishads, and the Samhita section, which is Upasana Kanda and a part of Vedas. Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads, and Samhitas.
Okay. Hare Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!