Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.12.18 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | 6 Jan 2025
ŚB 1.12.18
श्रीराजोवाच
अप्येष वंश्यान् राजर्षीन् पुण्यश्लोकान् महात्मन: ।
अनुवर्तिता स्विद्यशसा साधुवादेन सत्तमा: ॥ १८ ॥
śrī-rājovāca
apy eṣa vaṁśyān rājarṣīn
puṇya-ślokān mahātmanaḥ
anuvartitā svid yaśasā
sādhu-vādena sattamāḥ
Translation
The good King [Yudhiṣṭhira] inquired: O great souls, will he become as saintly a king, as pious in his very name and as famous and glorified in his achievements, as others who appeared in this great royal family?
Purport
The forefathers of King Yudhiṣṭhira were all great saintly kings, pious and glorified by their great achievements. They were all saints on the royal throne. And therefore all the members of the state were happy, pious, well-behaved, prosperous and spiritually enlightened. Under strict guidance of the great souls and spiritual injunctions, such great saintly kings were trained up, and as a result the kingdom was full of saintly persons and was a happy land of spiritual life. Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira was himself a replica of his ancestors, and he desired that the next king after him become exactly like his great forefathers. He was happy to learn from the learned brāhmaṇas that by astrological calculations the child would be born a first-grade devotee of the Lord, and more confidentially he wanted to know whether the child was going to follow in the footsteps of his great forefathers. That is the way of the monarchical state. The reigning king should be a pious, chivalrous devotee of the Lord and fear personified for the upstarts. He must also leave an heir apparent equally qualified to rule over the innocent citizens. In the modern setup of the democratic states, the people themselves are fallen to the qualities of the śūdras or less, and the government is run by their representative, who is ignorant of the scriptural mode of administrative education. Thus the whole atmosphere is surcharged with śūdra qualities, manifested by lust and avarice. Such administrators quarrel every day among themselves. The cabinet of ministers changes often due to party and group selfishness. Everyone wants to exploit the state resources till he dies. No one retires from political life unless forced to do so. How can such low-grade men do good to the people? The result is corruption, intrigue and hypocrisy. They should learn from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam how ideal the administrators must be before they can be given charge of different posts.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So here King Yudhisthira is inquiring about the future of the child who was just born, and is Pariksit. And we’ll see this was customary in those times, especially for royal families. In fact, the royal families usually employed astrologers for many purposes. So, these brahmanas, they made predictions about the devotional qualities of Pariksit. And then, Yudhisthira is asking also about how he would be as a king, how he would pass on the reputation of the family as a royal family.
So we see in Bhagavatam and in other works like Mahabharata and Ramayana that the kings were hereditary. And one of the purposes of Bhagavatam is a certain subject matter called Manvantara, which means the reign of Manus. So, 14 different families rule in one day of Brahma. So, at the beginning of the day, Svayambhuva forms a dynasty and that continues for 71 Yuga cycles. Then a second Manu takes charge, then the third one, fourth one, fifth one etc., all throughout the day of Brahma.
So, these Manus and their descendants are special Jivas. They have been empowered by the Supreme Lord. They are called Vibhutis of the Lord. Of course, as well as the Manus and the descendants, we also have Devatas and Sages. They are also specially empowered by the Supreme Lord. But they are not Avatars, they are Jivas like other Jivas.
We see some Jivas called Saktyavesa Avatars, they are also given powers by the Supreme Lord. But in the Saktyavesa Avatar, those endowments of powers are eternal. The Manus, the Devatas and the Sages are posts and every 71 Yuga cycles we get a whole new set of Devatas and Manus and whatever.
However, we don’t find anyone taking the place of Narada Muni. He is eternally Narada Muni. So the Saktyavesa Avatars are very special Jivas with spiritual bodies. Whereas, the Manus and the descendants, the Devatas and the Rishis, they have material bodies. But the Lord also gives them special powers. So, the Supreme Lord gives to Manu and his descendants the power to rule over the human population. So, of course, the Supreme Lord creates the material world because the Jivas are rebellious against the Supreme Lord. But the Lord also gives guidance to the Jivas within the material world in the form of the kings and their descendants.
So, the dynasties are traced from the beginning of the day of Brahma. So, in the 3rd Canto, 4th Canto, 5th Canto, etc., starting from Svayambhuva Manu, we get a description of their activities and those of their descendants.
Finally, we get to the middle of the day of Brahma and we get Vaivasvata Manu and his descendants appearing. And in the 9th Canto, the descendants of the Sun and the Moon are traced out. In one family, we get Ramachandra, Avatar of the Lord. In another, we get Krishna in the Moon Dynasty.
But in the descendants of Vaivasvata Manu, we also get the Pandavas.
Of course, we also get Duryodhana [Laughs], a whole group of people who were also born in the same family. So, simply by being in the family does not make one qualified to be the king. And that was the whole contention between the Pandavas and the followers of Duryodhana. Same family ultimately, same dynasty, but Krishna willed that Yudhisthira and the Pandavas be victorious. Of course, the Pandavas have a special position. Not only they are descendants from this family, but they are also eternal associates of the Lord. And they have a very special relationship with Krishna. So, in this first canto, the whole story of Yudhisthira ascending the throne, etc., is told. So, he was victorious in the battle of Kurukshetra, he became the king, but they needed dynasties. They needed offspring. And the only offspring left was Pariksit. So, they were overjoyed when he was born. So, once he was born and he grew up, then Yudhisthira could retire.
Of course, there was also misfortune at this time, because Kali Yuga was about to begin. And we see that Pariksit had to face this problem. Nevertheless, he shows himself to be a great king. So, he fulfilled the predictions that are made here, which Yudhisthira is inquiring about, will he be a good king? So, certainly, he became a very great king.
So, in the family of Manu, in the descendants of Manu, we get leaders who are qualified. So, they are qualified to rule. Others may be qualified with devotion, but they may not be qualified to rule. So, the Pandavas were qualified to rule, plus they had devotion. Duryodhana came in the same family, had good qualities, he was a great warrior also, but he was not a devotee. So, therefore, the king should have both qualities, power to rule, power as a devotee.
So, the brahmanas already predicted – yes, this Pariksit will be a great devotee of the Lord. But, he will also be a great king. So, he was very qualified to take over the kingdom. Others may be qualified as great devotees, but they are not qualified to rule. So, we have brahmanas, they may be devotees also, but they do not rule. So, the ruling of the kingdom is given to the Kshatriya.
However, as I pointed out, the Kshatriya is not just born in the Kshatriya family. He should come in the dynasty, descended from Manu, in order to rule. So such persons are specially empowered by the Lord. They have ability to rule, they know dharma, plus they are devotees. Of course, we see some members of the family turned out to be the opposite, like Duryodhana, or like Vena [Laughs]. Technically Kamsa also came in the same dynasty [Laughs]. So simply being born in the dynasty is not the highest qualification for becoming the king. So it is one qualification, he has to come in the proper dynasty, but he should also be knowledgeable of proper dharma.
And proper implementation of dharma is dependent on devotion. So, this combination is what makes the ruler. So the whole purpose is to organize human society, so that the people can gradually advance.
So, the Lord, once He creates the material world, does not abandon it. He makes ample arrangements by empowering the Manus and the descendants to rule. And He gives the scriptures, the dharma shastras, as their textbook. So, in this way, He sets up a whole system where we get good rulers to continue to nourish the population. So, this of course is the general population. The population consists of all sorts of people in mixtures of gunas.
So, the king should protect them all. But, as well as protect, he has to nourish them. So, not only physical protection, he must also spiritually nourish them. The two things must go together. If dharma is completely divorced from bhakti, then it becomes asuric varnashramaa dharma. That is what Dhrtrastra did, he established a kingdom based on asuric varnashrama. Looks very nice, no Krishna. So, because of that, this whole battle of Kurukshetra took place.
And finally, the offspring was there in the form of Pariksit. So, in this way, there was great joy in the kingdom and in the royal family. So, from this, we should understand, to institute the system is a great task. It requires empowered people to establish the system and maintain and continue it. And the Lord made arrangements for this.
Unfortunately, the line of Manus began to disintegrate with the advent of Kali. And the last descendent of Manu decided to retire, he didn’t want to do the job, So he went to the Himalayas. So we are left in kali Yuga without the king, without the descendents of Manu, without the leaders who establish Dharma, varnashrama. So, we cannot expect in Kali Yuga, that dharma will prosper, we see of course it keeps declining. Though this is true, the lord still does not abandon the population. He still comes as avatar. In Kali Yuga, we get Buddha avatar, we get Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we get Kalki. So, we get three avatars.
And, we also get another dharma. The Yuga dharma is not Varnashrama, the Yuga dharma is Nama Sankirtana. So, though the dharma, the normal dharma of Varnashrama cannot be maintained because the king is not there and there is no empowerment to people properly.
And, Kali Yuga gets worse and worse. Still, process of bhakti can continue. It takes the form of Nama Sankirtana. So, through this, we actually get the highest dharma. So, the supreme Lord makes arrangement in all cases.
Hare Krishna.
Q & A [Not clear]