Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.12.10~11 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Athenes, Greece | July 13, 2025 |
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya
prabhu nityananda
sri-adwaita gadadhara
shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1, Chapter 12 Verse 10
ŚB 1.12.10
अस्त्रतेज: स्वगदया नीहारमिव गोपति: ।
विधमन्तं सन्निकर्षे पर्यैक्षत क इत्यसौ ॥ १० ॥
astra-tejaḥ sva-gadayā
nīhāram iva gopatiḥ
vidhamantaṁ sannikarṣe
paryaikṣata ka ity asau
Synonyms
astra-tejaḥ — radiation of the brahmāstra; sva-gadayā — by means of His own club; nīhāram — drops of dew; iva — like; gopatiḥ — the sun; vidhamantam — the act of vanishing; sannikarṣe — nearby; paryaikṣata — observing; kaḥ — who; iti asau — this body.
Translation
The Lord was thus engaged in vanquishing the radiation of the brahmāstra, just as the sun evaporates a drop of dew. He was observed by the child, who thought about who He was.
ŚB 1.12.11
विधूय तदमेयात्मा भगवान्धर्मगुब् विभु: ।
मिषतो दशमासस्य तत्रैवान्तर्दधे हरि: ॥ ११ ॥
vidhūya tad ameyātmā
bhagavān dharma-gub vibhuḥ
miṣato daśamāsasya
tatraivāntardadhe hariḥ
Synonyms
vidhūya — having completely washed off; tat — that; ameyātmā — the all-pervading Supersoul; bhagavān — the Personality of Godhead; dharma-gup — the protector of righteousness; vibhuḥ — the Supreme; miṣataḥ — while observing; daśamāsasya — of one who is dressed by all directions; tatra eva — then and there; antaḥ — out of sight; dadhe — became; hariḥ — the Lord.
Translation
While thus being observed by the child, the Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul of everyone and the protector of the righteous, who stretches in all directions and who is unlimited by time and space, disappeared at once.
Purport:
Child Parīkṣit was not observing a living being who is limited by time and space. There is a gulf of difference between the Lord and the individual living being. The Lord is mentioned herein as the supreme living being unlimited by time and space. Every living being is limited by time and space. Even though a living being is qualitatively one with the Lord, quantitatively there is a great difference between the Supreme Soul and the common individual soul. In the Bhagavad-gītā both the living beings and the Supreme Being are said to be all-pervading (yena sarvam idaṁ tatam), yet there is a difference between these two kinds of all-pervasiveness. A common living being or soul can be all-pervading within his own limited body, but the supreme living being is all-pervading in all space and all time. A common living being cannot extend its influence over another common living being by its all-pervasiveness, but the Supreme Supersoul, the Personality of Godhead, is unlimitedly able to exert His influence over all places and all times and over all living beings. And because He is all-pervasive, unlimited by time and space, He can appear even within the womb of the mother of child Parīkṣit. He is mentioned herein as the protector of the righteous. Anyone who is a surrendered soul unto the Supreme is righteous, and he is specifically protected by the Lord in all circumstances. The Lord is the indirect protector of the unrighteous also, for He rectifies their sins through His external potency. The Lord is mentioned herein as one who is dressed in the ten directions. This means dressed with garments on ten sides, up and down. He is present everywhere and can appear and disappear at His will from everywhere and anywhere. His disappearance from the sight of the child Parīkṣit does not mean that He appeared on the spot from any other place. He was present there, and even after His disappearance He was there, although invisible to the eyes of the child. This material covering of the effulgent firmament is also something like a womb of the mother nature, and we are all put into the womb by the Lord, the father of all living beings. He is present everywhere, even in this material womb of mother Durgā, and those who are deserving can see the Lord.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse is describing how the Lord vanquish Brahmastra just as the sun evaporates dew. So Supreme Lord was this size – little small size, but he is able to vanquish this Brahmastra. So Pariksit saw this and he says, who is that person [Laughs]. And the actual word used here is, he looked at him – ‘paryaikṣata’ which is actually Pariksit [Laughs]. ‘Paryaikṣata’ means he looked very carefully at him, ‘paryaikṣata’ – he looked at him, that is the verb form, but actually, that is the name of Pariksit also [Laughs]. So Pariksit saw this person who was very beautiful and also very powerful. And then the Lord disappeared [Laughs].
So the Lord can appear and disappear at his will. He can be any size – small size or big size. But in all cases, he is the most attractive and most powerful. So at first the Lord is described in the second verse as immeasurable – no one can measure the extend of the Lord in terms of size and power. Another word used to described here is – ‘vibhu’, which means the all pervading one. And of course he is also called ‘Bhagavan’. And also ‘dharma-gub’, which means protector of those who follow dharma. So all these words are descriptions of the answer to the question by Pariksit – ‘who is this person’ ?
So the Lord manifests himself in different ways, we know, he is Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. So of course, Prabhupad translates as ‘ameyātmā’ – the unrestricted, immeasurable atma as the all pervading super soul, Paramatma. So this Lord is atma, he pervades everywhere. So Prabhupad explains in the Purport, the Jiva is also atma, he pervades his body, but not everywhere. So both the individual atma and Supreme Lord are different from matter or prakriti. And that is because that is atma, they pervade with consciousness. So the Jiva pervades the body, by his consciousness. The Paramatma pervades the whole material world with his consciousness. So they are similar, but also different.
The other word here ‘Bhagavan’ of course means that the Person who is endowed with 6 ‘bhagas’ or wonderful qualities. Such as ‘sri’ and ‘aishwarya’ and ‘virya’, ‘vairagya’ etc. In other words, the Lord has all knowledge and all powers and all beauty. Another analysis of the word ‘Bhagavan’ means – one who possesses these 3 different qualities. So, what are the qualities? – ‘Bha’, ‘Gha’, ‘Van’. ‘Bha’ refers to ‘Bhartara’ – one who supports or nourishes. So the Lord nourishes the bhakti of the devotee. The word ‘Gha’ stands for ‘Gamayatta’. So that means the Lord makes the Jiva go to the spiritual world. He arranges for the Jiva to get a spiritual body. He arranges for his service in the Spiritual world. And the word ‘Va’ stands for ‘Vas’, which means to live. So the devotee lives in the Lord and the Lord lives in the devotee. Which means, the Lord is always thinking of the devotee and the devotee is always thinking of the Lord.
So in this definition, we can understand, the Lord has a very personal relationship with each devotee. So that is quite different from Paramatma, who is neutral. Of course He has all knowledge, He is all pervading. But He witnesses everything and permits everything. Of course Paramatma is non different from Bhagavan, so He is all compassionate. But He shows His compassion in a little different way. Prabhupada mentions that the Lord is the indirect protector of the unrighteous or the demons. How does He protect them? He gives them karma to rectify them. Just as the government protects the criminals by putting them in jail [Laughs] to cure them [Laughs], that’s His protection [Laughs].
So when that same Paramatma begins to respond to the devotees, then He is actually Bhagavan. And when that Paramatma has a relationship with the devotees, then in that case He becomes Bhagavan. He can have exactly the same form. Vishnu form has four arms, Paramatma in Vaikuntha, Bhagavan also has four arms also, which is exactly the same. However, in the Spiritual world Bhagavan’s function is simply to interact with his devotees. And Paramatma pervades the whole material world, supervises it and ultimately destroys it. So Paramatma is related to Jivas in the material world. And Bhagavan is related to the Jivas in the spiritual world. In any case, Paramatma is merciful, Bhagavan is merciful, but the mercy takes a different form. So that form of Bhagavan is the object that the devotees worship. By worshipping that form, the devotee develops Prema. And the result of Prema is Ananda or bliss.
The Yogis limit their worship to the form of Paramatma. This is also a form of the Lord, so that is praiseworthy. Some what better than Jnani [Laughs], who doesn’t worship the Lord. However, that Yogi does not establish a personal relationship in Bhakti. Therefore, he doesn’t go to the spiritual world [Laughs]. So where does he go? So most of the Yogis are also influenced by Jnanis. And their goal is not Prema in Vaikunta and service, but merging in mukti. So though they get to see the Lord, which is a great blessing, they want to merge into Him or if they don’t merge into Paramatma directly, they merge into his effulgence [Laughs]. So thus the Jnani and the Yogi are both criticized. They don’t get a spiritual form in the spiritual world and serve the Lord eternally. The only plus point is, they get out of the material world. And they get free of material identity, lust, anger, greed, material bodies and karma. So they get free of lust and greed. So in that sense, they are superior to karma yogis. But they are inferior to the bhakti yogis.
So Pariksit was able to see this beautiful form of Bhagavan. Of course He is also Paramatma [Laughs], but because He responded so nicely to save Pariksit, therefore He is Bhagavan. And then He disappeared. So the Lord can manifest His form and make it disappear as well. So Pariksit got very great blessing in the womb, because he got to see the Lord. But then, when he was born, he didn’t see the Lord. The Lord had disappeared in Dvaraka [Laughs]. So he is something like a Narda Muni, who was able to see the Lord in a small boy meditating or whatever, he saw the Lord, and then Lord said, ‘I will not show myself to you in this lifetime.’ So Pariksit, because he had seen the Lord in the womb, he did not forget that. So he was always inspired by this form who had saved him. So that as a child and as an adult, he was always a great devotee. And of course, ultimately, he got to receive Srimad Bhagavatam.
Bhagavatam is another form of the Lord. Though he did not see Krishna directly, because Krishna had disappeared, he got to see the form of Krishna through the Bhagavatam. Not only that, he got to see the form of Krishna, and he also got to see the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan. Even Pandavas, people of Dvaraka, didn’t see the pastimes of Vrindavan. They were not qualified. They got to see Dvaraka pastimes instead. But through Bhagavatam, Parikshit got the privilege to see the pastimes of Vrindavan.
So of course, this became an opportunity for the people of Kali Yuga also to experience the pastimes of Vrindavan. So in this first canto, the sages ask, Krishna has disappeared, he has taken Dharma with him. Now it’s Kali Yuga, what do we supposed to do? So the answer given is that Srimad Bhagavatam has appeared for giving light to Kali Yuga. So this is the form of Krishna in Kali Yuga. And Parikshit was the qualified person to hear it from Sukadeva. So he was a very qualified person [Laughs]. And that is indicated by his getting the dharshan of the Lord in the womb.
Devotee: Hari bol !! Hare Krsna !! Thank you, Maharaj. Thank you for your nice explanation.
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, many sages also along with Parikshit Maharaj, listened to Srimad Bhagavatam. Did they get the opportunity, like Parikshit Maharaj, to see the pastimes and receive the blessings of the Lord and go back to the spiritual world?
So, some were qualified to understand Bhagavatam. Some were not so qualified. So, it’s explained that there are sections explaining Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Astanga Yoga. Why? That was for these other peoples [Laughs]. Other people were interested in those things, so Sukadev put that in, so at least they would listen. Some of those people would get absorbed in that and not go any further. Others start paying attention when they hear these things, but then they also hear the other topics and get interested in those also.
In any case, those who were too materialistic, got cheated of the highest truth. So, Bhagavatam is compared to Mohini Avatar. Mohini Avatar fooled the demons and took the nectar and gave it to the devatas. So, Bhagavatam fools the materialists [Laughs] and they get attracted to these other subjects and they miss the real pastimes of Bhagavatam. On the other hand, those who are devotees, who have taste for Bhakti, they will understand the real essence of the Bhagavatam – that is the pastimes of Krishna !
2.) Maharaj, it is very interesting that yesterday you described that at the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, they used to give initiation without ceremony, only giving to them instructions.
Even nowadays, like in other matts, not in Gaudia matt, but in.. let’s say, Gopal bhatta Goswami’s Radharaman, the descendants of Gopala Bhatta Goswami, still today, they give diksha mantra / initiation in this way, without ceremony [Laughs]. We see in the Brahad Bhagavatamrta, that Gopa Kumar got diksha mantra that way. This is the mantra, finished [Laughs].
Devotees: His Holiness Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai! Ganga Prabhu Ki Jai!