Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.12.22 by HH Bhanu Swami Mahraj @ ISKCON Chennai on 20 Jan 2025

ŚB 1.12.22

mṛgendra iva vikrānto
niṣevyo himavān iva
titikṣur vasudhevāsau
sahiṣṇuḥ pitarāv iva

Translation

This child will be as strong as a lion, and as worthy a shelter as the Himālaya Mountains. He will be forbearing like the earth, and as tolerant as his parents.

Purport

One is compared to the lion when one is very strong in chasing an enemy. One should be a lamb at home and a lion in the chase. The lion never fails in the chase of an animal; similarly, the head of the state should never fail in chasing an enemy. The Himālaya Mountains are famous for all richness. There are innumerable caves to live in, numberless trees of good fruits to eat, good springs to drink water from and profuse drugs and minerals to cure diseases. Any man who is not materially prosperous can take shelter of these great mountains, and he will be provided with everything required. Both the materialist and the spiritualist can take advantage of the great shelter of the Himālayas. On the surface of the earth there are so many disturbances caused by the inhabitants. In the modern age the people have begun to detonate atomic weapons on the surface of the earth, and still the earth is forbearing to the inhabitants, like a mother who excuses a little child. Parents are always tolerant to children for all sorts of mischievous acts. An ideal king may be possessed of all these good qualities, and the child Parīkṣit is foretold to have all these qualities in perfection.

HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :

So, here’s a whole series of verses in which the Brahmanas praise Pariksit on his birth. So it was customary that a king or a wealthy person, wanting to know the character and future of a son, would call astrologers and they would make predictions. And we see the case also of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When he was born, then they called the astrologer and then he gave predictions. This of course is based upon karma.

So, it’s not that astrology is making a separate prediction, it is simply predicting what the karma of an individual is. So, of course, when the astrologers speak, they will say, okay, Shani is very bad here, or Mars is very bad here, Mangala dosha, etc. So, we may think the planets are to be blamed.

But actually they are only giving results based upon your previous activities. So now you have to suffer in a marriage with the Mangala dosha, because previous lifetime you did something to somebody married or something, to a wife. So, we always accept the law of karma as one of the factors for the human being.

However, when we come to astrology, the astrologer may not be a good astrologer, so he gives you the wrong karma [Laughs]. So in that sense, astrology in the modern age at least is not infallible. But whether the predictions are good or bad, or accurate or not, still, karma is going to have its effect. So, because of karma, certain things will happen in life. And those events are almost unavoidable. Nevertheless, we also do have our life that we are living.

And we can make the karma worse or better, depending on our activities. So, if you have bad karmas in this lifetime, due to past sinful activities, if you do more sin in this lifetime, your karmas get worse. If you have bad karmas in this lifetime, but you do punyas in this lifetime, you will get less effect from your karmas. So, these punyas are what we call prayaschitta or atonement. We counteract the bad effects by doing a punya. And that is one of the purposes of recommending punyas.

Of course, not only they will get rid of the bad effect of previous karmas, by doing punyas, you accrue good karma for next life. So, what will determine whether we do a sinful activity in this life, or a punya? If we say karma, then there is no free will at all in this life, and everything is karma [Laughs]. And so we blame karma for everything.

But the purpose of scripture is to give us good intelligence. What is the use of scripture? If it was my karma to do all sinful activities, I won’t listen to scripture [Laughs]. So, therefore, though the karmas are there, we do have opportunity to counteract that, but we need good intelligence.

Of course, unfortunately, people due to bad karma, sometimes don’t have good intelligence [Laughs]. But even in that case, they can take advantage of the intelligence of scripture and other people. And that’s why, one of the good qualities of the Sudra, who is in Tamo guna – ignorance, is that he is willing to listen and follow higher authority.

So if he follows the direction of scriptures, even if he doesn’t understand, if he is willing to follow, fine, he can get rid of his bad karmas. So, in this way, the law of karma is there, and our individual actions are there to modify the karmas. Of course, later on, in the Bhagavatam, Sukadeva Goswami actually condemns prayaschittas [Laughs]. So as far as karma yoga is concerned, fine, but as far as higher spiritual life – no, it is not so effective. It (Praysachitta / atonement) does not destroy karma, it modifies karma.

Of course, people who have less intelligence say, well I don’t care, give me good karma, that’s all. I want karma, let me have good karma. I don’t care about no karma, just good karma. More intelligent person, especially if he goes to scripture, will understand that good karma is also not perfect. That’s we see people who have very good karma, they go to Svarga Loka. Then what happens? They fall from Svarga Loka. Finished [Laughs]. Then they have to do little more punyas to go to Svarga Loka again.

So this idea of atonements and good karmas etc. is condemned and it’s compared to an elephant bathing in the river, coming out of the river and then throwing dust all over his body [Laughs]. So he gets rid of the bad karma caused by sinful activity and then he goes back and commits another sinful activity and then he has to do another prayaschitta to get cleaned up in the river, then he comes out, then he commits another sinful activity, gets dust all over his body again, then he has to do another prayaschitta [Laughs].

So, the atonement or a prayaschitta gets rid of some of the bad effects, but it does not remove the cause of the karma. What is the cause of karma? We get karmas, why? Because of our activities. We do sinful activities, we get bad karma. We do punyas, we get good karma.

Why do we do the sinful activity or the punya?

Because of desire. Desire to enjoy in this world.

Why do we have the desire?

So the scriptural answer is ignorance. We don’t know who we are, we don’t know the Supreme Lord. And thus we want to enjoy for ourselves in this material world.

So cause is ignorance, how do we destroy ignorance? Answer is knowledge. So therefore jnana is glorified in these scriptures. We see in chapter 4 (of Bhagavad Gita), Krishna glorifies jnana yoga, by this you can burn up all your karmas. So if we do prayaschittas, we don’t destroy karma, we just get more good karmas, that’s all. By jnana we destroy all karmas.

When we destroy all karmas, what happens? We get moksha – liberation. So though so many scriptures, karma scriptures will glorify punyas, avoid sinful activity, jnana is higher. So in jnana scriptures, they glorify jnana yoga. So in one sense, this is a solution to the problem.

But several times in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna also rejects jnana. So at the end of chapter 6, He said better than jnana is bhakti. And at the beginning of the 12th chapter, which is the end of the section on bhakti yoga, then Arjuna asks, which is better – jnana or bhakti? And Krishna says, jnana is difficult. Why? Because we have to give up all desires. We have to give up all actions. But we have a material body, but material body is always doing activities. And the mind also is always having desires. So it is very difficult to give up desires and action when we have a gross body and a subtle body. We have to practice jnana using this body and this mind. So though it is possible to get liberation through the process of jnana, Krishna says very difficult. So He recommends the process of bhakti. He says (bhakti is) quicker, easier.

So, through the process of bhakti, one can destroy all karmas. And even if one doesn’t have pure bhakti, he can destroy all the karmas. If he has no bhakti, but he does the activities of bhakti, still he can destroy all of his karmas. So Ajamila had no bhakti, but he chanted the name of the Lord, he destroyed all of his karmas. So, destruction of karma and liberation is the goal of the jnani and it takes a long time.

Destruction of karmas and getting liberation [Laughs] is not the goal of bhakti. And it is easily achieved. So, what is the goal of bhakti? So the goal of bhakti is prema. Destruction of karma and moksha is side effect only. So Krishna recommends the process of bhakti, not only because it easily destroy your bad karmas and get liberation, but because it establishes one’s position eternally with the Supreme Lord in prema. How is it possible that bhakti becomes so easy?

We see the kumbh mela going on and all these yogis are there, all covered with ashes and living in the Himalayas for many years, trying to get moksha [Laughs]. How is it possible just chanting the holy name once without devotion you can get same effect [Laughs]? And the answer is through the process of bhakti we get the great mercy of the Lord. And that is not available in karma or jnana or yoga. So by practicing bhakti, we can surpass all the bad karmas very very easily!

So it is not surprising that Pariksit had such great qualities. Why? Because he is a great devotee [Laughs]. So devotion destroys all bad karmas, klesa-ghni etc. and bestows all good qualities. Though here the brahmanas are predicting all these wonderful qualities like tolerance and endurance etc., we should not think that these are material qualities due to karma. They are spiritual qualities that arise because of devotion. And these qualities are useful in serving the Lord.

Hare Krishna.

Q & A

1) Hare Krishna Maharaj. You said bhakti surpasses all the karmas, but even Parikshit Maharaj (at the) time of birth, his astrological predictions are there. Despite his devotional activity of hearing Bhagavatam from Sukhadev Maharaj still he was bitten by the snake. That means the past karma is so powerful, still it will act on the devotee?

So bhakti destroys all karmas, nevertheless the devotees live within this material world. And they do activities and they interact with other people. But we should not think that the activities of these great devotees are the effects and the conditions are karma.

How is it possible that Parikshit could insult the brahmana [Laughs]? How is it possible he gets afflicted by thirst [Laughs]? So these are cases of the Lord’s arrangement. It may look like karma, but actually it’s the Lord’s arrangement. Why did the Pāṇḍavas have to suffer in the forest for 13 years? – Not karma!

So the Lord makes some arrangement and because it looks like the devotee suffers or whatever has bad results, we may think it is karma. But it is not. It’s Lord’s arrangement!

2) Maharaj, sometimes astrological predictions are there for influence of Saturn, Raghu or Ketu. Astrologers say don’t travel this time or take care of your health. Sometimes they are suffering because of astrological predictions. Health are becoming bad. People met with an accident. So the devotee should give value to astrological predictions or not?

So karma is going to be completely destroyed as in the case of Ajamila, but it requires that one has committed no offenses!

If one has committed offenses in this life or previous lifetime and then though we do bhakti, the karmas take a little time to get destroyed. So therefore we could say the predictions of astrology may be true to some extent. So the pattern remains, but because the person is doing bhakti, the effects of that pattern get weaker and weaker!

3) Maharaj, you are explaining regarding this Paapa and Punyam. Normally people say that there is a separate account for the Paapa and separate account for the Punya. And one cannot be counteract by another. So how to understand this? Because see people are committing so much sinful activities – Paapa, and they are trying to counteract it through the Punya. So does it really happen? 

The real purpose of the prayaschitta is not just to do an activity to counteract a sin but to instil some sort of understanding in the person that he’s committed a sin and he should regret it. So if he regrets the previous sinful activity, that is one step in stopping the desire to do sinful activity. If he doesn’t have any regret at all, then he’ll just simply have the same desire and do the same sin again.

So if one does the prayaschitta with some sincerity, then it should have the effect of destroying the effects and also destroying his sinful nature. So that’s have a stronger effect than if he does the prayaschitta, then he has no regret at all [Laughs].

But Bhagavatam criticizes this process because even if you do have the regret and you do the activity properly still, it is very slow process of removing those sinful desires.

4) So if one does prayaschitta, that means he can counteract his sinful activities. Okay, so then what about this different astrological part? Astrology, you know, this all different kind of planets because normally they’re supposed to give the karma to the person but they’re through the prayaschitta destroying. So that means normally these planets, normally they move their own path, you know, so that means there is some kind of change is happening.

So if you go to the astrologer and he sees the bad planet or whatever [laughs], then he will give you a remedy, a prayaschitta for that particular planet [laughs]. So in one sense, planet is angry, he’s giving all bad effects.

So what do we do? We pacify the planet [laughs] by doing the prayaschitta. So we please Shani or we please Mars or something by worshipping them, offering to them or whatever. And so if they’re pleased, they will give less bad effects.

So same with Krishna, you please Him, then He takes away all your karma [Laughs]. Why? Because He’s the source of all the devatas and all the planets and all their effects and all the karma etc.

5) How the sadhus staying in Himalayas at different places for a longer time come to know about the dates of Kumbh Mela like auspicious occasions?

[Laughs] I guess their friends tell them [Laughs].

6) By hearing and studying books, can we be devoid of ignorance? And in regular practice of bhakti, can we avoid ignorance? If this is not possible, what is the main process to be devoid of ignorance?

So the Vedic literature is considered to be non-different from the Supreme Lord. Veda means knowledge. But within the Vedas, there are different types of knowledge.

So the highest knowledge is – knowledge of bhakti. So that knowledge is the best way to destroy all of the ignorance and the karma!

7) Can we say that according to one’s level of surrender, karmas will act? Suppose if a devotee is 50% surrendered, then 50% karma will act. Is this understanding correct?

Well, it is difficult to quantify.

But definitely the more bhakti is there, the more surrendered to the Lord, the less we have karma.

8) Can one trust astrological chart? Can I understand that planets show our last janma’s karma? Can one trust astrological chart? Can I understand that planets show our last janmas karma?

Well, it is not a matter of trust. When you are born, planets are in certain positions. There is no change in that. So the particular arrangement in the sky when you are born is something which is there. It cannot be changed. It cannot be exaggerated or in any way diminished.

So taking a particular combination of planets in the different zodiac signs and houses in the chart, an expert astrologer can give good predictions and a bad astrologer will give bad predictions.

Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai !!