Srimad Bhagavatam – 11.12.8 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 6 June 2021
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
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om 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 11 Chapter 12 Verse 8.
ŚB 11.12.8
केवलेन हि भावेन गोप्यो गावो नगा मृगा: ।
येऽन्ये मूढधियो नागा: सिद्धा मामीयुरञ्जसा ॥ ८ ॥
kevalena hi bhāvena
gopyo gāvo nagā mṛgāḥ
ye ’nye mūḍha-dhiyo nāgāḥ
siddhā mām īyur añjasā
Synonyms
kevalena — by unalloyed; hi — indeed; bhāvena — by love; gopyaḥ — the gopīs; gāvaḥ — the Vṛndāvana cows; nagāḥ — the unmoving creatures of Vṛndāvana such as the twin arjuna trees; mṛgāḥ — other animals; ye — those; anye — others; mūḍha-dhiyaḥ — with stunted intelligence; nāgāḥ — Vṛndāvana snakes such as Kāliya; siddhāḥ — achieving the perfection of life; mām — to Me; īyuḥ — they went; añjasā — quite easily.
Translation
The inhabitants of Vṛndāvana, including the gopīs, cows, unmoving creatures such as the twin arjuna trees, animals, living entities with stunted consciousness such as bushes and thickets, and snakes such as Kāliya, all achieved the perfection of life by unalloyed love for Me and thus very easily achieved Me.
Purport
Although innumerable living entities achieved liberation by association with the Lord and His devotees, many such personalities also executed other processes such as austerity, charity, philosophical speculation, and so on. As we have already explained, such procedures are secondary. But the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana such as the gopīs did not know anything except Lord Kṛṣṇa, and their whole purpose in life was simply to love Lord Kṛṣṇa, as indicated here by the words kevalena hi bhāvena. Even the trees, bushes and hills such as Govardhana loved Lord Kṛṣṇa. As the Lord explains to His brother, Śrī Baladeva, in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.15.5):
aho amī deva-varāmarārcitaṁ
pādāmbujaṁ te sumanaḥ-phalārhaṇam
namanty upādāya śikhābhir ātmanas
tamo-’pahatyai taru-janma yat-kṛtam
“My dear brother Baladeva, just see how these trees are bowing down with their branches and offering obeisances to Your lotus feet, which are worshipable even by the demigods. Indeed, My dear brother, You are the Supreme God, and thus these trees have produced fruits and flowers as an offering to You. Although a living entity takes birth as a tree due to the mode of ignorance, certainly by such a birth in Vṛndāvana these trees are destroying all darkness in their lives by serving Your lotus feet.”
Although many living entities achieved the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa by associating with the Lord and His devotees in various ways, those who take Lord Kṛṣṇa as everything are situated in the highest process of spiritual realization. Therefore the Lord has not bothered to mention in this verse those who achieved perfection through mixed processes, but rather glorifies the unalloyed devotees of Vṛndāvana, headed by the gopīs, who knew nothing but Lord Kṛṣṇa. The residents of Vṛndāvana were so satisfied in their relationships with Lord Kṛṣṇa that they did not pollute their loving service with mental speculation or fruitive desires. The gopīs served Lord Kṛṣṇa in the conjugal rasa, or relationship, whereas according to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura the cows loved Lord Kṛṣṇa in vātsalya-rasa, or the love of parents for a child, because the cows were always supplying milk to child Kṛṣṇa. Unmoving objects like Govardhana Hill and other hills and mountains loved Lord Kṛṣṇa as a friend, and the ordinary animals, trees and bushes of Vṛndāvana loved Lord Kṛṣṇa in dāsya-rasa, or with love of a servant for his master. Snakes like Kāliya also developed this love in servitude, and after relishing their loving service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, all of them went back home, back to Godhead. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, all those inhabitants of Vṛndāvana should be considered eternally liberated souls, as expressed by the word siddhāḥ, which means “having achieved the perfection of life.”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
There was a big long list of persons who had achieved the Lord. And some were even animals like Hanuman and Garuda. But here we have another verse dedicated to the people of Vṛndāvana. So we have not only people, we have trees and bushes and snakes and cows.
And this verse is to glorify a different type of bhakti. And that means its kevala, it is not just pure, but completely spontaneous. So that is the nature of Vṛndāvana. If one goes to Dwaraka, Kṛṣṇa is also there but the devotees serve in a slightly different way. We see that Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa’s father, prays to Kṛṣṇa and then he thinks of him as the Supreme Lord. And Kṛṣṇa has to remind him, actually I’m your son also, so you should actually see me as your son, there’s nothing wrong with that. Of course, either case, seeing Kṛṣṇa as the Lord or as the son is all devotion. But when it’s mixed with the idea that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, then the intensity of the bhāva decreases. So here, the bhāva in Vṛndāvana is unmixed with the idea that Kṛṣṇa is Supreme. And therefore it is more intense. And it is so intense that it not only gives advantage to the people, but even to the animals and the trees.
Of course, we should also distinguish the humans from the animals and the plants. Generally, rasa is described in relation to human beings. Human beings can communicate.
Of course, we can say that people can communicate with animals and dogs, etc., but it is limited. And therefore, our attachment to them is less than our attachment to human beings. So in the material world, we establish rasa with another human being. So the same takes place in the spiritual world. There is a relationship between Kṛṣṇa and the plants, Kṛṣṇa and the cows, etc., but we usually describe the rasa in relation to the human beings. In discussing the various rasas of Śānta to Madhurya in Nectar of Devotion, Rūpa Gosvāmī gives examples, and the examples are all people.
The relationship between people creates a mature rasa. Neverthless this is spiritual rasa, so we cannot treat it like material rasa. We cannot say that the animals and plants are ignorant because of karma. We can say that about material trees and animals, but not about those in the spiritual world. Everything in the spiritual world is cit, full of consciousness. There is no ignorance in the spiritual world. Nevertheless, we see that there are trees and animals as well as human beings there. And the trees are limited in their action. The animals are limited in their relationship with the human beings. So we can say that this is Krishna’s arrangement for pastimes.
So of all the entities, the human beings in the spiritual world they display rasa. But that rasa is different in different places. So in Vṛndāvana, that rasa is very intense and pure. And that intensity spreads to the animals and the plants. So the trees and the animals in Vaikuntha or in Dwaraka are also spiritual. But we see that there is a predominance of the powerful aspect of the Lord there. And therefore the relationships of Prema there are restrained by that feeling of reverence for the Lord. In Vṛndāvana, that restraint is not there even for the animals and the plants. And therefore even the animals and plants are considered to be worthy of worship. So Brahma prays, let me be a piece of grass in Vṛndāvana. Of course, generally we don’t aspire for that bhakti, we don’t aspire to be an object or a low entity. We aspire to serve Krishna with the spiritual body. In that way the rasa can fully develop. So therefore when we perform worship, we think of the personalities in Vṛndāvana, that is the cowherd boys, the gopis and parents etc.
So there is a mixture of different rasas in the spiritual world. But the display of rasas is more variegated in Vṛndāvana. So in Vṛndāvana we have many people with Madhurya rasa, many with Vatsalya, many with Sakhya, many with Dasya and many with Santa. In Vaikuntha it is, majority is Dasya rasa. And Madhurya is confined to Lakshmi. In Dwaraka we have of course all the queens with Madhurya rasa. We have Vasudeva, Devaki and a few others with Vatsalya rasa. And we have some with Sakhya rasa but most again with Dasya rasa. So in Vṛndāvana we find a greater variety. And the variety of rasas is there but the intensity is greater. So the Vatsalya of Nanda and Yasoda is superior to that of Vasudeva and Devaki.
The prema of the Gopis is superior to the prema of the queens in Dwaraka. So in this way the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana have the highest type of prema. So this is the actual message of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Krishna in his Vṛndāvana pastimes with the people of Vṛndāvana represents the highest possible goal. This will produce the highest bliss. And therefore this is the natural choice of our goal. Therefore the subject of the Bhagavatam is Krishna. And the pastimes of Krishna in Vṛndāvana are the central portion of Bhagavatam. So by hearing and studying Srimad Bhagavatam we can begin to develop attraction for Krishna and the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. So to do that we practice sadhana.
So in our particular Sampradaya, Gaudiya Sampradaya following Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we give prominence to the worship of Krishna. And the study of Srimad Bhagavatam. So by hearing the pastimes of Krishna in Bhagavatam we are more likely to develop attraction for Krishna. And in this way we get privilege of attaining the highest type of rasa. Out of humility of course the devotees will pray, let me be a blade of grass in Vṛndāvana. At the same time of course the devotees aspire to serve the Lord with a body and senses. So this will naturally develop, that spiritual form will naturally manifest with the development of bhakti. By performing our activities with our senses and mind in sadhana bhakti we begin to manifest spiritual senses in bhava bhakti. So when we attain prema then our spiritual form has naturally developed. And then we serve Krishna eternally in that form.
So though we have all these various choices here, our Acharyas and Caitanya Mahaprabhu have pointed out Madhurya rasa as the highest. The prema of Dwaraka is more intense than the prema of Vaikuntha. But the prema in Vṛndāvana is more intense than that of Dwaraka. And then the prema of the Gopis is more intense than all the other premas in Vṛndāvana.
And among all the Gopis the prema in Radha is the highest prema. So therefore we worship not just Krishna but Radha and Krishna. So that is of course the central theme of Bhagavatam and that’s represented in our temples, we have Radha and Krishna deities. It’s also represented in Nama Kirtan because we chant Hare Krishna. Hare refers to Radha and Krishna. So therefore in chanting the name we are actually invoking Radha and Krishna. So this helps us develop a relationship with Radha and Krishna. So therefore Madhurya rasa becomes prominent in the followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Nevertheless we also see that not all the devotees are in Madhurya rasa in the Gaudiya Sampradaya. Some may be in Vatsalya or Sakhya or Dasya. In the spiritual world again we see there are various rasas in Vṛndāvana. So various people aspire for these various rasas and they can attain them. So therefore there is some choice in spite of the fact that we do emphasize Madhurya rasa in our Sampradaya. In any case we can reach full satisfaction by worshipping Krishna in Vṛndāvana because there is a wide variety of rasas.
In the Nectar of Devotion in describing the trees and things like that Rupa Goswami says in general these things don’t really have rasa. It is like rasa but very dilute. A tree cannot express itself fully with Krishna. We see that Krishna is very clever and he jokes with his Gopis and this produces rasa. But Krishna cannot do that with animals or the trees. Generally they don’t speak our language. So therefore the relationship also is more distant because of that. So therefore that is called Upa rasa not rasa. But then again those who do have rasa will project rasa upon these objects. So the Gopis will project rasa upon the trees and the river. So they will say, ‘Oh the river is so devotional because it is offering its lotuses to Krishna’. The trees are offering their fruit to Krishna. The shrubs are weeping in ecstasy because the sap is flowing from their stems. So if a person is in ecstasy then he also sees everything else in terms of that ecstasy. So therefore the Gopis of Vṛndāvana will project rasa upon the cows and the deer and the birds and the plants, river. Certainly everything in Vṛndāvana is serving Krishna but it’s those Jīvas that have a human form there that have this developed rasa. And this is the aspiration of devotees.
Hare Krishna.
Q & A:
1.) The residents of Vraja were so satisfied in their relationship with Lord Krishna that they did not pollute their loving service with the mental speculative or fruitive desires. The question is Guru Maharaj, the question is what they would have done in the present day context of pandemic where we have so many restrictions. How the Vrajavasis would have served the Lord?
Now we have pandemic but in Krishna’s time they had Kamsa and Jarasandha and all these demons [Laughs]. But the people of Vṛndāvana were always thinking of Krishna so they didn’t care about these things. So the devotees in the material world if they surrender to Krishna they don’t mind the inconveniences of the material world. They derive bliss from thinking of Krishna so they don’t think about what’s happening to their material body.
2.) Maharaj you mentioned about devotees praying to be even a plant or something like shrub in Vṛndāvana. Brahma is praying like that. Is that also considered Rāganuga-Bhakti? Because when you’re actually a shrub or a plant the degree of service to Krishna would be quite limited. So from that perspective how do we understand that Maharaj?
Raganuga bhakti is defined as to follow after the inhabitants of Vrndavana in their particular mood. So we can say that grass is also a inhabitant. But I also mentioned that rasa does not fully develop there. So therefore the devotees choose residents of Vṛndāvana who have developed rasa and they try to follow after them.
Devotee : Thank you Maharaj.
3.) Quoting the text from purport that the Lord comes to propagate the message of kingdom of God either personally or His own incarnation. When such incarnations or sons of God are not making propaganda for going back to Godhead only within human society. Their work is also going on within all societies amongst demigods etc. Does it mean other than human beings Lord takes incarnations in animals, plants, trees etc. and deliver them as well and they become animals, trees and plants in the spiritual world?
So the general principle is human birth gives the possibility of spiritual advancement. Therefore the human being should fear going down to a lower species. We have examples of the Lord delivering a tree or a rock or anything but in general it’s the human beings that reach the spiritual world. So animals and plants cannot do sadhana. They are fully dependent on mercy. The human being depends upon mercy of course but also on sadhana.
So sadhana is the main way in which we advance. So generally it’s the human beings that practice.
4.) Quoting from Laghu Vaishnava Toshani. Is that there are three types of Prema. Prema with predominance of longing like for the parents, like Yasoda and Nanda and the Gopis. And Prema with the predominance of familiarity for the Gopas. And Prema without discrimination like cows and all that. That Prema when it becomes intense even elsewhere produces a direct appearance of Krishna. How can the cows with their nature of less intelligence attain Prema for Krishna even if it is in a much lesser degree.
Well as I said everything in the spiritual world is spiritual so therefore [Laughs] there is some relationship with Krishna there. And it’s all conscious as well. Nevertheless there is degrees of relationship. So in general those who have the human forms have a more intense relationship and the other forms do not. So therefore we generally describe Prema in relation to the human forms.
Devotee : Thank you Maharaj.
5.) This is with reference to the queens of Dwaraka that they were kidnapped by the thieves who were none other than Krishna as per Ashtavakra Muni’s curse. The queens ultimately went back to the heavenly planets or spiritual world as some of the queens were originally denizens of heaven. Similarly Manikriva and Nalakuvera also went back to heavenly planets only after having association of Krishna. Were they not qualified to go to the spiritual world?
So they go back to Swargaloka because they have a term of office as Devata so they have to fulfill that. So the Lord appoints a Devata for a certain period of time. So even if you have Prema you still have to sit there and do your duties for that allotted period.
Devotee : Thank you Maharaj.
6.) Sometimes we hear that the paraphernalia such as Chakra of the Lord appear as devotees in the Lord’s earthly pastimes. Does it mean that they express their rasas differently in the spiritual and material worlds? For instance Tulasi Devi in the spiritual world appears as a plant in material world. The plants in Nidhivan and Seva Kunj Vrindavan are just plants or are they spiritual personalities?
So in the spiritual world everything is spiritual they are not just plants because they are conscious. It’s not like a material body, a plant or an animal or a human being. But still, as a plant or an animal or whatever, their relationship with the Lord is quite limited. So it’s spiritual, it’s eternal, it’s got bliss in it, but it’s limited. Some personalities have two forms. So Tulsi Devi has the plant form and she also has the human form. And some objects also have a form like the chakra is a personality, it’s also a weapon. Some of the Shaktis in Vaikuntha have personal form as well.
Devotee : Thank you Maharaj.
7.) In all other universes, the structure and the appearances like the 14 planetary systems and other features are similar to this universe or does this structure differs from universe to universe?
It’s not much described about this, but we do have a description that there are Brahmas in other universes and they may have a thousand heads [Laughs]. So that means the universe must be much bigger and much more complex. So that means the general structure is the same, but there may be some details which are different. Just like we have bananas, but then we have different types of bananas. Thank you Maharaj.
8.) Dandavat pranam Maharaj. In Gaudiya Vaishnava Parampara, Radha Krishna is the primary deity, but in Mayapur, Panchatattva has been made the primary deity. On what basis?
Oh, well actually Radha Krishna is the primary deity, but [Laughs] they came first [Laughs]. We also have the birthplace of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, so you get some more prominence there.
9.) Can we say the devotees on the earthly planets are more fortunate as they can go to Bhauma Vrindavan or spiritual world, whereas the denizens of heaven even after associating with Krishna cannot go to spiritual world without completing their tenure in the heavenly planet?
Yes, there are also other reasons why it’s more fortunate on earth. Krishna performs his pastimes on earth in Vrindavan [Laughs]. So people on earth get very, let’s say, personal association with the Lord. Another reason is that Swarga Loka is nice and peaceful and whatever, but there’s a danger of getting complacent and conditioned by Sattva guna. On earth we have a mixture of happiness and distress, so one is more likely to be reminded that living in a material world is not such a good goal.
Devotees: Thank you Maharaj. Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaja ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!