Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.12.33 by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj @ ISKCON Chennai on 4 February 2025
ŚB 1.12.33
tad abhipretam ālakṣya
bhrātaro ’cyuta-coditāḥ
dhanaṁ prahīṇam ājahrur
udīcyāṁ diśi bhūriśaḥ
Translation
Understanding the hearty wishes of the King, his brothers, as advised by the infallible Lord Kṛṣṇa, collected sufficient riches from the north [left by King Marutta].
Purport
Mahārāja Marutta: one of the great emperors of the world. He reigned over the world long before the reign of Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira. He was the son of Mahārāja Avikṣit and was a great devotee of the son of the sun-god, known as Yamarāja. His brother Samvarta was a rival priest of the great Bṛhaspati, the learned priest of the demigods. He conducted one sacrifice called Saṅkara-yajña by which the Lord was so satisfied that He was pleased to hand over to him the charge of a mountain peak of gold. This peak of gold is somewhere in the Himālaya Mountains, and modern adventurers may try to find it there. He was so powerful an emperor that at the day’s end of sacrifice, the demigods from the other planets like Indra, Candra and Bṛhaspati used to visit his palace. And because he had the gold peak at his disposal, he had sufficient gold in his possession. The canopy of the sacrificial altar was completely made of gold. In his daily performances of the sacrificial ceremonies, some of the inhabitants of the Vāyuloka (airy planets) were invited to expedite the cooking work of the ceremony. And the assembly of the demigods in the ceremony was led by Viśvadeva.
By his constant pious work he was able to drive out all kinds of diseases from the jurisdiction of his kingdom. All the inhabitants of higher planets like Devaloka and Pitṛloka were pleased with him for his great sacrificial ceremonies. Every day he used to give in charity to the learned brāhmaṇas such things as beddings, seats, conveyances and sufficient quantities of gold. Because of munificent charities and performances of innumerable sacrifices, the King of heaven, Indradeva, was fully satisfied with him and always wished for his welfare. Due to his pious activities, he remained a young man throughout his life and reigned over the world for one thousand years, surrounded by his satisfied subjects, ministers, legitimate wife, sons and brothers. Even Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa praised his spirit of pious activities. He handed over his only daughter to Maharṣi Aṅgirā, and by his good blessings he was elevated to the kingdom of heaven. First of all, he wanted to offer the priesthood of his sacrifices to learned Bṛhaspati, but the demigod refused to accept the post because of the King’s being a human being, a man of this earth. He was very sorry for this, but on the advice of Nārada Muni he appointed Samvarta to the post, and he was successful in his mission.
The success of a particular type of sacrifice completely depends on the priest in charge. In this age, all kinds of sacrifice are forbidden because there is no learned priest amongst the so-called brāhmaṇas, who go by the false notion of becoming sons of brāhmaṇas without brahminical qualifications. In this Age of Kali, therefore, only one kind of sacrifice is recommended, saṅkīrtana-yajña, as inaugurated by Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
So this chapter is mainly about the qualities of Parikshit. But at the end of this chapter we will see that Maharaj Yudhishtir was planning to carry out an elaborate horse sacrifice. For that purpose, he needed to collect a lot of wealth. And the next verse mentions he wasn’t just doing one horse sacrifice, he was doing three horse sacrifices and each of these sacrifices required a great amount of wealth. So he sent his brothers out to collect all that wealth from the various places.
And then in relation to that we have this whole description in the purport of King Marutha. So Marutha is mentioned, because he had a mountain of gold [Laughs]. Of course Marutha appeared long before. Later on in the Bhagavatam there is a history of the different dynasties in the 9th canto and there Marutha is described, so that was much much previous. He also ruled for a thousand years. So he was no longer there at this time of Yudhishtir but the wealth was still there.
So they went to the north it says here. If we look at the map according to Bhagavatam, Bharata Varsha is on the bottom of Jambudvip. Then there is a line of mountains, that’s the Himalayas. Then there is two Varshas above that with mountains in between. Above that is Mount Meru. So that’s more north [Laughs]. Above that there are more mountain ranges and then more Varshas, three more Varshas till we come to the other side, more ocean on the other side. So these are the Varshas are actually considered heavenly planets.
It is said there are Devatas after they fall from Svargaloka they come to these places and live another heavenly life on earth planet. But it is impossible for the normal person, Bharata Varsha to go to the other Varshas. Each is ruled by a different king. Sometimes however one of the kings from Bharata Varsha rules over the whole Jambudvipa, so he rules over nine Varshas. So each of these Varshas is complete in itself, It supports itself and it has its own wealth. And in this way each Varsha is very prosperous.
The Bharata Varsha is rather peculiar. Bharata Varsha experiences all sorts of changes. It is Bharata Varsha that experiences yuga cycles. So on Svargaloka no yuga cycles. On the Svarga planets on earth – that’s the other Varshas, no yugas [Laughs]. But in Bharata Varsha then we get all these changes taking place. In that sense it is a little more difficult to manage [Laughs]. So of course this is that we can say one of the disadvantages of Bharata Varsha [Laughs].
But then there also some plus points for Bharata Varsha. And one of them is that the Lord often appears in Bharata Varsha, rather than other Varshas. And thus Ramachandra and Krishna, they appear in Bharata Varsha. So this will offset the negative factors of changing yuga cycles etc. But it is also said that even the Devatas would like to come to Bharata Varsha. So why is that? Because we have Kali Yuga [Laughs]. Of course Kali Yuga is not very attractive to them. But in Kali Yuga we have the Yuga dharma which is Nama Sankirtana.
Nama Sankirtana is the easiest process to go directly to the spiritual world. So even the Devatas become attracted to the Kali Yuga and Bharata Varsha. So in this way Supreme Lord makes all sorts of arrangements for the Jivas and the human beings. And we see in Bharata Varsha, because there are yuga cycles, he gives different dharmas for different yugas. So in Satya Yuga we have meditation. In Treta Yuga we have yajnas or homas. In Kali Yuga we have Nama Sankirtana. In Dwapara Yuga we have deity worship. In Kali Yuga we have Nama Sankirtana.
Of course that doesn’t mean that if it’s Satya Yuga they don’t do Kirtan, they don’t do homas. Yes they can do, but the prominent method for most people is meditation. And all these processes you should understand are dedicated to the Lord. So therefore, through meditation they attain the Lord. They don’t attain Brahman or anything else. But there is difference in the process because the people have different qualifications.
So if one is very qualified, with controlled senses, then one can immediately meditate. So in Satya Yuga the majority of people were in Sattva guna, there were no varnas even. Everybody was very sattvic so they could naturally meditate. But they meditated on the form of the Lord. And through that they attained the Lord. So they don’t need external things. They go inside, meditate, see the form of the Lord and they attain the Lord.
In Treta Yuga there is some impurity and therefore we get divisions of varnas. And the common method for advancement is Yajna. Here Yajna means making offering into fire, Agni, with mantras. But we are not worshipping Agni, we are worshipping Vishnu. And Agni is simply fire, is simply the representation of Vishnu. So in this process the mind doesn’t have to be so strong because we have an external object to worship. You can say the negative aspect from our point of view is you have to chant all the mantras properly and carry out the proper procedures, then you will see Vishnu in the fire and He will receive your offerings. But most of the people were qualified so it was not so difficult to do.
In Dwapara Yuga more impurity, half impurity. So therefore people are less qualified. So they also have external means but now we have an actual form of the Lord not just fire. So that’s the deity form. Still there are rules to follow, there are mantras to use. If you don’t follow the rules and chant the proper mantras, again the Lord won’t appear in the deity form.
In Kali Yuga people people are even more impure – one quarter purity, three quarters impurity. So people find it difficult to follow all the rules of deity worship. So there is a special form in Kali Yuga, worship through chanting the name of the Lord. We call it Mahamantra or whatever but actually technically it is not mantra because mantras require qualification and rules, strict rules for chanting. So in Kali Yuga we simply chant the name of the Lord.
So even the rules for mantras are not applied for just chanting the name. But interestingly enough there is no loss in the Shakti of the name of the Lord. So it is easier process. But another remarkable feature is there in the name. It’s more powerful than mantras and yajna and meditation. It’s the quickest process to get the highest realization. For that reason the Devatas in Swarga Loka say let us be born in Kali Yuga and Bharata Varsha we will chant the name of the Lord then we get very quick results. So therefore the recommendation for the people of Kali Yuga is Nama Sankirtan, not deity worship, not meditation or yajnas. So this is the message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
So people are often attracted to doing yajnas. But in Kali Yuga it is Sankirtan yajna. So it is the simplest because it’s simplest, people will think oh it’s too simple. But though it is simple it is the most powerful. So this should be the main attraction for the people of Kali Yuga. Of course the word yajna, usually we say okay yajna means to offer things into fire. But it actually means worship. Yajna comes from ‘yaj’ and ‘yaj’ means to worship. So we can worship using the mind, that is meditation. We can use fire and mantras for yajna as in Treta Yuga. We can worship the Lord in the form of the deity as they do in Dwapara Yuga or we can worship the Lord by chanting His name in Kali Yuga.
So by all these processes we attain the Lord but the Kali Yuga process is the most efficient, the strongest, the best. So why should we become attracted to some other process, if this is the simplest process? Of course we don’t reject any process. We don’t even reject Jnana Khanda with Jnana Yoga or Karma Khanda. It’s all part of the Vedas, Vedas are the Supreme Lord. Nevertheless the intelligent people will choose the best process. And the best process, particularly for Kali Yuga, is Nama Sankirtana. So this is the message we have here in the Bhagavatam. It’s the message in the Bhagavad Gita and other devotional literatures. So that is the principle of our movement. And we should not be distracted by other processes.
Hare Krishna.
Q & A
1) Maharaj, You were explaining regarding this Bharata Varsha, even within Bharata Varsha we have seven more khanda also so but whatever we see right now with our eyes this is the Bharata Khanda, the other six Khandas we cannot see. Is it possible for a person to go to other Khandas also?
So, Varsha is accessible to the human beings as we know. If you want to go to the other Varshas, you need different sets of Punya [Laughs]. So, we can go to different parts of Bharata Varsha, but of course we may have to put effort into going to these different places. But to get to the other places, it’s almost impossible unless you get some special Punyas.
Devotee: What about other Khandas?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, as I said, because we are human beings and we have similar Punya, we can go there, but we may have difficulty in going because we don’t have maybe enough Punyas. We get enough Punyas, we can go there. So, it’s easier than going to another Varsha.
2) Maharaj, in Satya Yuga, normally people are more pious and sattva guna. And if you see the way, before 20 years and right now, the population is increasing like anything. So, in Satya Yuga, population was less because due to the sattva guna?
So, Bhagavatam does not mention about population numbers in different yugas or in different manvantaras [Laughs]. We do know at the beginning of Brahma’s day, the Prajapatis are there to increase population. So, obviously the population is not enough. So, they have to increase the population. According to the Archaeological records or whatever, we can saw that population is increasing whereas you know 5,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago, the human population was less. But, of course, we don’t know what was there 100,000 years ago, 200,000 years ago. Modern science says nothing [Laughs]. Humans didn’t exist. There were just some primitive other forerunners or whatever like that. So, there is a different conception there in modern history of human population.
So, our Satya Yuga would be like four million years ago. And it was a prosperous place with kings and kings obviously had their citizens to rule [Laughs]. But modern science says there were no human beings at all 4 million years ago. Human beings evolved, I don’t know, 50,000 years ago or something maybe. So, completely different concept. Of course in the modern world there are some people in the western world who also have this theory that previously 5000 years ago, there were more advanced civilization, but they all got backed up. So, that’s a counter culture theory.. whatever.. which is not accepted by main science.
3) We see the history from Srimad Bhagavatham, that people of Satya Yuga even Dvapara yuga like the way Kali Yuga is advancing, we can say that it is degrading, like technology and other things. But this technology and other things was not existing in other three Yugas. But, in Kali Yuga, recently, it is developing like anything. So, can you say that Kali Yuga people are more blessed than other Yugas?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: More blessed?
Devotee: Blessed than other Yugas.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: For technology?
Devotee: Yes.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, we can just say that the technology in Kali Yuga is gross. The technology in other Yugas was subtle. That’s all.
4) Maharaj, in Mahabharata war, 64 crore warriors have been killed, Pandavas side and Gauravas side. But, other than these warriors, children and women were also there in the country. But, Prabhupada mentioned that all the warriors were killed. Only Pandavas remained there. So, how can we understand the population also in that time?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, the number of people killed is considering soldiers in the battle of Kurukshetra. Not the whole population. So, besides the soldiers, the Kshatriyas, then we’ll have the Vaishyas, Sudras and Brahmanas. They were not killed. But, we can calculate the population from that, I suppose [Laughs].
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj. The process of perfection in Dwapara Yuga is deity worship. So, what is the advancement stages in the deity worship? How do they advance? Like, in our this thing, we have Shraddha to Prema. So, how do they perfect their life by doing the deity worship?
So, in all Yugas, you do Bhakti. We can say that all the Yugas, Jnana and Homa and deity worship and Sankirtana are all types of Bhakti. And you get Prema. So, you go through different stages to Prema and in any of these Yugas.
6) Maharaj, four lakh human species are there out of 84 lakhs. How it is being categorized?
I believe this includes not just us. This will include all entities who have similar level of intelligence, such as Yakshas and Rakshasas and Bhuthas and Gandharvas and Siddhas and Charanas and Vidyadharas and Devatas and Rishis and all the upper planets. They look kind of human, but they are also different because their punya levels are different and you have to get different births for those things.
So, we have all sorts of living entities who have human-like intelligence or whatever. But they are not classed exactly like us because of their slightly different bodies and compositions of the bodies etc.
7) Hare Krishna. When there is no yuga cycle other than Bharata Varsha how to understand total annihilation during maha pralaya for entire planetary system?
So, the Yuga cycles go on for Bharata Varsha throughout the day of Brahma thousand times. Other places don’t have Yuga cycles, but they continue and they live and they die etc. And then everything is inundated and closed at the end of the day of Brahma. Then it is revived the next day. And then at the end of Brahma’s life, everything is destroyed. That’s all.
So, we can measure in terms of Yuga cycles, but for Brahma, he measures in terms of days, which is one thousand Yuga cycles and Devatas have different cycles etc.
8) A butcher is killing animals and selling it. Meat eaters are coming and buying it with a desire to eat meat. So, can we say one who have the desire to eat meat is more violent than the person who directly involved in violent act of killing animals? Because meat eaters are the root cause for the violence of killing animals.
So, I don’t think that the scripture gives an exact amount of sin for each one, but everybody involved not only in the eating of meat, but in the selling of the meat, in the killing of the animal etc., there are so many persons involved. So, they are all sinful.
So, the person who kills can say, well, this is my job and I am just killing because I sell the meat and I get some money. But he has a choice whether he wants to take that job or have a different job.
9) Even in ISKCON, there are yajnas for Narashima cathurdasi, Gita Jayanthi, Diksha ceremony, so devotees also do for their health sake, they do Sudarsana Yajna etc., so, how to understand that Sankirtan Yajna is the only Yajna?
Actually, ISKCON is a little bit unusual. We do more Yajnas than other Gaudiya groups [Laughs].
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Yajnas are absent. In certain ceremonies and rituals and deity worship, the Yajnas are prescribed. For instance, in installing a deity, according to Pancharatra, there are certain Yajnas prescribed.
The other type of Yajna is Samskara Yajnas. And the Samskaras are originally Vedic. So, therefore, along with the Samskara, Vedic mantras are used and there is a Vedic Yajna. So, traditionally, the people following Lord Chaitanya, they mainly did Nama Sankirtan, but as far as their household affairs, they would do all the Samskaras, so they would do Yajna for that.
As far as Diksha, generally they don’t do Yajna. In Pancharatra Diksha, yes, there are some Yajnas prescribed. Haribhakti Vilas also has some Yajnas in Diksha, but generally the Gaudiyas didn’t do so. So, when Lord Chaitanya got His mantra, or Nityananda got His mantra, or Jhanava gave out Diksha, they didn’t do Yajnas at all.
10) In Satya Yuga, has any person attained spiritual world by doing Nama Sankirtan? Are there any examples in the scriptures on this?
Well, of course, anyone at any time can do any process, and if you get perfection, you can go to the spiritual world, as long as it is pure Bhakti. But some of the stories we don’t know what Yuga they were in. So, when did the story of Mrigari the hunter and Narada Muni take place? We don’t know what Yuga it was in, but he chanted the name and he got Bhava in three months [Laughs].
Devotees: Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!