Srimad Bhagavatam 2.6.29 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 9 October 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 2 Chapter 6 Verse 29.
ŚB 2.6.29
ततस्ते भ्रातर इमे प्रजानां पतयो नव ।
अयजन् व्यक्तमव्यक्तं पुरुषं सुसमाहिता: ॥ २९ ॥
tatas te bhrātara ime
prajānāṁ patayo nava
ayajan vyaktam avyaktaṁ
puruṣaṁ su-samāhitāḥ
Synonyms
tataḥ — thereafter; te — your; bhrātaraḥ — brothers; ime — these; prajānām — of the living creatures; patayaḥ — masters; nava — nine; ayajan — performed; vyaktam — manifested; avyaktam — nonmanifested; puruṣam — personalities; su-samāhitāḥ — with proper rituals.
Translation
My dear son, thereafter your nine brothers, who are the masters of living creatures, performed the sacrifice with proper rituals to satisfy both the manifested and nonmanifested personalities.
Purport
The manifested personalities are the demigods like the ruler of the heavenly kingdom, Indra, and his associates; and the nonmanifested personality is the Lord Himself. The manifested personalities are mundane controllers of the material affairs, whereas the nonmanifested Personality of Godhead is transcendental, beyond the range of the material atmosphere. In this Age of Kali the manifested demigods are also not to be seen, for space travel has completely stopped. So both the powerful demigods and the Supreme Personality of Godhead are nonmanifested to the covered eyes of the modern man. Modern men want to see everything with their eyes, although they are not sufficiently qualified. Consequently, they disbelieve in the existence of the demigods or of the Supreme God. They should see through the pages of authentic scriptures and should not simply believe their unqualified eyes. Even in these days, God can also be seen by qualified eyes tinged with the ointment of love of God.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse talks about vyakta and avyakta. So vyakta means manifest or visible. Avyakta means not visible, not manifested. So sometimes we use the word vyakta to mean the visible universe with planets, etc. Then avyakta refers to prakriti, which is the invisible aspect of matter. But we can also say that avyakta refers to something higher than invisible matter, that is, spiritual world, Supreme Lord. Vyakta can also refer to the Supreme Lord when He appears as avatar and everybody can see Him, and avyakta when His unmanifest pastimes, that we cannot see Him. In this case, the brothers, that is, the sons of Brahma, they worship the person who is vyakta and avyakta.
So Prabhupada explains that here the vyakta will mean the personality such as the devatas. And the avyakta would refer to Supreme Lord in that case. Or if we take it that they worship the Lord in His manifested and unmanifested forms to mean the Lord when He manifests in the material, the Lord when He is in the spiritual, that’s also, makes sense.
So though the Lord is called vyakta when He appears in the material world, those who are unqualified still don’t see Him. So when Hiranyakasipu sees Narasimha Dev, he says, oh that’s Vishnu, but Vishnu is just a material person. However, those who are devotees will say, oh this is Supreme Lord and He is manifested within this material world. But the devotee also may not see the unmanifested form of the Lord. So the devotee sees the Lord in the material world, but then if the Lord disappears, then they say, oh He’s disappeared, but he doesn’t appreciate the Lord has His unmanifested form in the spiritual world [Laughs]. Of course, in that case, if the devotee is qualified, he can see both the manifest and the unmanifest form of the Lord. So, everything is decided by the will of the Lord. If He wants to reveal Himself to a person, the person can see, and if He wants to be invisible, He’ll be invisible. But His desire to reveal Himself is not whimsical. If a person desires to see the Lord, then He will reveal Him [Laughs]. In other words, the Lord reveals Himself to people who are qualified with bhakti. And of course, ultimately, prema [Laughs]. Therefore, the devotee who has premanjana, which means the ointment of prema on his eyes or in his senses, then he can see the Lord. In other words, this person, through his performance of bhakti, has developed a spiritual body with spiritual senses, which are capable of seeing that form of the Lord.
So, therefore, the human being has two modes of perception. Material and spiritual. Spiritual perception will result from the process of bhakti yoga. If you do jnana or yoga, you don’t see anything [Laughs]. There is self awareness as atma. But there is no spiritual eye or spiritual ear or anything because Brahman and atma are just one [Laughs]. If we do karma yoga or nishkama karma yoga, we can develop a very sattvic material body with very sattvic senses, but that’s all material. So we have sattvic body and sattvic senses. We can see sattvic entities, like Devatas or Lord Brahma.
If we are on earth planet, with our material senses, with rajoguna and sattvaguna mixed, we cannot see the sattvic devatas or their planets. And thus, on earth planet, our material knowledge is very limited. One limitation is our senses. With those material senses, we get one type of knowledge called pratyaksha. But we know that that is very limited. Our senses can mistake one thing for another, a rope for a snake, for instance. So that’s one limitation, bhrama. Our senses may be inattentive, and therefore we don’t see something, even though we are capable of seeing it. Our senses are limited. We can’t see through walls, we can only see a certain distance, so therefore we’ll need microscopes or telescopes to help us. Those material instruments also are limited. And of course, beyond that, even if we do perceive something correctly, we can change it using our mind. This is called cheating. And thus, our material perception is faulty. It can give some good knowledge, at the same time it can make mistakes. Based on that knowledge, we infer things, logic, but that will depend on our material senses, which are not perfect [Laughs]. Because of the limitation of our senses, we can’t even see upper planets.
So devatas have finer senses, sattvic senses, they can see more things than we can see [Laughs]. So, that again is a limitation on our senses. And though the sattvic area is very, very subtle and more superior to our level, that level sattva cannot see spiritual world, cannot see the form of the Lord. So, all of our knowledge in this material world, by pratyaksha or by anuman, is limited and imperfect.
So, with these two types of knowledge, we cannot prove or disprove existence of something beyond that [Laughs]. So, then, that’s where science is limited. You can keep extending your sense perception through instruments, like telescopes and whatever, but still it’s always limited.
And, if the scientist will start to purify himself by doing tapasya and renunciation, he could get sattvic senses, he may be able to see swarga loka or brahma loka, but still, limited. Of course, even to get that far, for science, would be a big breakthrough. They may think, oh, that’s God, but actually it’s not. It’s material [Laughs]. So, to get beyond that to the spiritual is very, very difficult. If you were to go beyond sattvic vision, your next step would be Brahman [Laughs]. Everything is one universal consciousness [Laughs]. And some scientists also tend to go in that direction [Laughs]. But to go beyond that to spiritual world, spiritual perception, spiritual form, that’s a further step.
So, how do we prove that such things exist? It’s impossible with our senses. It’s impossible even with sattvic senses. And, even if you get rid of your senses completely, it’s impossible. So, then the only way we can have knowledge is sabda. But, you cannot prove sabda is valid by pratyaksha or anumana. It doesn’t work [Laughs]. So, therefore, a scientist may not accept it at all. So, who will accept sabda? One, completely foolish people [Not clear] [Laughs]. Or, those who have genuine faith in the scriptures.
So, the scientists, of course, will think the two things are the same. The fool and the believer. They are the same thing [Laughs]. So, if you believe in Bhagavatam, you’re a fool [Laughs]. So, definitely, some fools may believe in Bhagavatam or they may believe in anything. But the faith in scripture is very special. And actually, the person who develops faith in the Bhagavatam will have the highest intelligence of all. Not a fool [Laughs]. Thus, in describing the yuga dharma, it says the sumedhasaḥ. The most intelligent people will perform nama sankirtana following the Bhagavatam. Not the fools [Laughs].
So, what will distinguish the person with real faith from the fool? The person with real faith will study that scripture with his intelligence. And he will extract the essence. Like the swan extracting the milk from the water. And, the fool may take anything from scripture and quote it [Laughs]. So, in other words, the one who is qualified with real faith, that is bhakti, then he will examine the scripture carefully and come to correct conclusions based upon authorities like acharyas. So, through that intelligent study, the devotee will understand who is the highest object of worship and what is the process by which we realize Him. And then, he will reject everything else. And, in this way, then he will be able to use that scripture properly to attain the goal. Otherwise, then he will not get the proper understanding of who the Lord is, not the proper process, etc. And, he will do something else and get a different result. So, therefore, a person with faith accepts scripture as the final authority, the sabda. But, he approaches that scripture with, not just faith, with proper intelligence. And, with that intelligence, then his faith will remain steady.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) Maharaj, you are saying that regarding this self-awareness, when one realizes Brahman, so this awareness he is realizing that, you know, I exist, is through whom he is realizing this? Means, you know, how he knows that, you know, I exist, I am soul, that how it is coming from him, that, you know, I am saying that he takes support of himself, means soul, soul is aware, you know, soul is awaring his awareness or something else?
This becomes a problem in Mayavada philosophy. Because, in that state of Brahman, there is no I. So you cannot be aware. I am aware of something, that does not exist. So then they just say it is chinmatra, consciousness itself. Awareness, that’s it [Laughs]. Of course, this gets attacked. This gets attacked by our Acharyas, because awareness cannot exist without an I, without some conscious entity being aware [Laughs]. It’s meaningless [Laughs]. And thus, Ramanujacharya and Madhva both reject realization of Brahman as non-existent, does not exist [Laughs]. Of course, in Bhagavatam and Lord Caitanya, they do accept Brahman as a realization. But, we do not define it in the same way as the Mayavadis define it. So, it’s not just chinmatra, there is an awareness of something. But, it is kind of minimal awareness of self also. But, there is a self there.
2.) In the material world we see, if one wants to understand himself, he takes the help of mind, intelligence and ego. But in this spiritual, why not? Because, for the Brahman, you know, these three things are not there. For the realization of Brahman, mind, intelligence and ego are not there, it is completely free from that. Then how does he realize that I am Brahman?
Our definition of atma, of course, is a case, not a material particle, etc., etc., it’s an entity, particle entity, anu, who has awareness and can gather knowledge of other things. Imperishable, not like material elements of the body. The atma is an experiencer. But all of these being a knower or experiencer depend upon the sense of I. I experience, I perceive. So there’s a spiritual I in the atma. So that is we can say inherent and in the swarupa of atma. And when we get rid of the external you know, ahankara and the mind and the senses, then we can say that I exist as atma, separate from body. But if we don’t do bhakti and we are not expecting anything to see, anything particularly, no spiritual world, no spiritual form, then we just end up in that Brahman state [Laughs]. But if we perform bhakti and we desire to serve the Lord eternally with eternal body and eternal senses, then we develop spiritual body with spiritual senses, then we see the Lord and we will go to the spiritual world.
3.) You said that the inherent ‘I’ness of the soul is also developed according to the practice of the sadhaka because why I’m saying is if jnanis don’t practice bhakti, that ‘I’ness remains inherent but it doesn’t manifest. But whereas for the devotees when they practice bhakti it manifests and develops.
When we accept and perform or do the sadhana of bhakti, automatically we are saying I am the servant of the Lord. When we begin bhakti, of course, I means me with my material body [Laughs]. But when we advance, then we understand, oh, I’m not the body. So then we think, yes, I am the servant of the Lord with my spiritual body. And then, according to who we choose to worship, Vishnu or Narasimha or Rama or Krishna, then we concentrate on serving in a spiritual body suitable for that particular form of God. So if you identify yourself as a worshipper of Rama, you say, I am the servant of Rama, then you begin to think of yourself as a servant of Rama, not as a gopi. So then one develops a suitable form for the suitable object of worship.
4.) This sabda Maharaj, sabda pramana, see, even in sabda pramana, there are two things that are there. One is paurusheya and one is apaurusheya, both are there. But see, in the material world, normally, we get the knowledge, the person who is paurusheya, not from apaurusheya directly, we cannot get it. But that paurusheya, who also has senses, he also might have a fault. How do we accept that what knowledge he is giving is right or wrong? Because he is paurusheya, he is not apaurusheya.
When you say apaurusheya, you are speaking of knowledge. Well, that means the Vedas, apaurusheya, which means it is not produced by any human being. Thus it is perfect knowledge. If it is knowledge from a human being, it is subject to limitation and imperfection, etc. However, some authorities will take apaurusheya as being restricted to the Vedas. So Puranas are not apaurusheya. They are written at a certain time. So the Vedas have no human author in any Yuga or anything or any life of Brahma, because it simply appears in the same form again and again from Brahma and others. No author. On the other hand, Puranas and Itihasa like Mahabharata and Ramayana are written by authors like Vedavyasa at a certain point in a certain Yuga, etc. So they have a beginning. So they are not eternal in that sense. But this distinction does not make the Puranas and the Itihasa lesser than the Vedas. So we say, even though they are paurusheya or the Supreme Lord is Vyasadeva or whatever, or a sage like Valmiki still, we say, equal in authority. But we also limit those works. So therefore we have Vedas, we have Puranas, we have Itihasas, we have Smritis, we have Pancharatra. That’s who we limit. Any other scripture we don’t really accept. And we accept the commentaries which give us the correct meaning of those as authoritative.
5.) In third canto it’s mentioned as that when all these scriptures come out from the Brahma, like four Vedas and Itihasas Puranas also, it also comes out from the Vedas simultaneously with the Vedas come out. So in that sense, how can we say that, you know, if you see the history of the scriptures like Vedas, Puranas, all coming out same time from the mouth of the Brahma, from the four mouths, so how can we say that it is written in some period of time, and that’s why we are saying that it is not equal.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: The ultimate distinction of the Puranas and others from the Vedas is that their words are changeable. And in different kalpas, in different yugas, etc., the words of the Puranas may change in different kalpas of Brahma, and Vedas never change in any lifetime of any Brahma, past, present, future. Same words all the time.
Devotee: Maharaj, just like sometimes we see, in the same pastimes, it’s a different way of presentation.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, so they say different kalpa of Brahma [Laughs].
6.) Maharaj, there are scientists like Ian Stevenson who proved reincarnation and existence of consciousness beyond matter to the scientific community many years back, which you have highlighted in your seminars. Do they progress further and accept spirituality? Any attempts from devotees to preach to search rational minds? Any attempts from devotees to preach to such rational minds?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, scientists like him or people who investigate near-death experience, they will admit that yes, it looks like there is a soul separate from the body. That far they will go. So, that much they will admit that it is second chapter of Bhagavad Gita. But to go beyond that, talk about God, no. There is nothing, their evidence doesn’t prove anything or whatever like that. Now, their proof, of course, is not direct. It is only testimony. Testimony of children or testimony of people that almost died. So, in that sense, it is secondary also [Laughs]. So, of course, as I said, yes, they are favorable in one sense. And not only them, there are neuroscientists also, who also believe that from their studies that soul or consciousness is separate from body. So, that far they will go. Beyond that, of course, they won’t say anything.
Devotee: Is it like, you know, so many materialistic are there, although they know there is atma, but they don’t do anything for that. They know that there is an atma, but they don’t do anything apart from that. They don’t do anything beyond it. Yeah, I am atma, that’s all. But I don’t want to do anything for that. So, scientists are like that only?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Of course, science, modern science, at the moment, is only to examine and say, this exists or this does not exist, etc. But they don’t go beyond that. But those who study near-death experience also understand that those who have these experiences and understand another body, they rise to a higher level of consciousness and they become more peaceful. So, the result also they know is good, beneficial. But in their research, they cannot develop a method. They are merely observing phenomena of near-death and you cannot start giving people near-death [Laughs] to get that experience. So, that’s not a sadhana [Laughs].
7.) Hare Krishna. Maharaj, regarding archa vigraha, deities, so we understood that Lord is Supreme Personality of Godhead and they have one form, like deities, they accept all what we offer, they accept. So, Maharaj, my question is regarding like demigods. So, they also have a same potency to reciprocate and like that temple they have demigods deities. So, they also accept that same way. And what about our Acharyas, Maharaj, Acharyas deities?
Well, the devatas do not have spiritual body. And the results they can give are limited to certain material areas. But as said in Bhagavad Gita, worship Devatas, you go to Devatas. So, you can develop a Devata body also, which is material.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!