Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.13.57 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 19 April 2025 !
ŚB 1.13.57
स वा अद्यतनाद् राजन् परत: पञ्चमेऽहनि ।
कलेवरं हास्यति स्वं तच्च भस्मीभविष्यति ॥ ५७ ॥
sa vā adyatanād rājan
parataḥ pañcame ’hani
kalevaraṁ hāsyati svaṁ
tac ca bhasmī-bhaviṣyati
Synonyms
saḥ — he; vā — in all probability; adya — today; tanāt — from; rājan — O King; parataḥ — ahead; pañcame — on the fifth; ahani — day; kalevaram — body; hāsyati — shall quit; svam — his own; tat — that; ca — also; bhasmī — ashes; bhaviṣyati — will turn into.
Translation
O King, he will quit his body, most probably on the fifth day from today. And his body will turn to ashes.
Purport
Nārada Muni’s prophecy prohibited Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja from going to the place where his uncle was staying because even after quitting the body by his own mystic power, Dhṛtarāṣṭra would not be in need of any funeral ceremony; Nārada Muni indicated that his body by itself would burn to ashes. The perfection of the yoga system is attained by such mystic power. The yogī is able to quit his body by his own choice of time and can attain any planet he desires by turning the present body into ashes by self-made fire.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
This verse describes quitting the material body. So, as explained in the Purport by Srila Prabhupad, the yogi quits his body because of his own desires. Most people do not do it by their desire. In fact, they don’t want to leave their body. Everyone is trying to keep their body alive. So, this is the difference between a person practicing spiritual life and a materialist.
Because of this attachment to the body, we end up with problems. We end up with problems in this lifetime. And of course, we have to struggle to maintain our body. But then there is the problem of what happens after we die. So, that’s another problem. Of course, if we don’t believe anything happens, you just die and that’s the end of everything. No problem. But some people say, okay, we have another body afterwards. We have an afterlife. So, then there’s a concern about that.
And that is why, even in very ancient societies or primitive societies, they have this worry and therefore they have some ceremonies. So, one of course is, to do something with that dead body. So, they all have procedures for that. Some societies, they bury the body. Some societies burn the bodies. But all of these preparations and arrangements they made have something to do with the concern for what happens to that person after they’re dead [Laughs]. And similarly, we find in the Vedic tradition, there are elaborate Shraddha rites for a dead person. And all of this is, because of concern for what happens to that person afterwards. Of course, if they have affection for that person who’s dead, they want them to have better afterlife. So, we see many societies that bury the dead, and then they provide all sorts of nice things with them. They have nice jewelry, and food, and clothing to go with them. Of course, in Vedic tradition, they don’t believe any of that is very significant. And thus, they burn the body. And everything in this life, they cannot take with them. But still, the concern is, what body they’re going to get next.
But they also know that, you cannot take anything from this life with you. So, what’s the use of making a treasure house and taking it with the body in the tomb? It doesn’t make any sense [Laughs]. So, the best thing they can do is, try to relieve that person of bad karma. Bad karma means hellish existence or a very miserable body. So, the Shraddha rites are performed in order to prevent that person from going to hell or attaining a miserable body. And after 13 days of the ceremonies, hopefully the person is ready to get a good body. So, this is the arrangements in the Vedic literature. However, Vedic literature also says better not to get any body at all. Don’t worry about getting another body. Escape from getting any body in the material world. So, therefore, Jnanis and Yogis, they practice complete detachment from everything in the material world.
The other goal is, not just to take another body, but to get a spiritual body. And the spiritual body is attained through the process of Bhakti Yoga. So, we have different choices. Don’t believe in anything and just live this life and die and forget about everything. And if we do believe in another life, still don’t care, just care about this life, doesn’t matter what happens next in life. But that is also foolish. If you’re renting a house and the landlord says, well, I want my house back, you better get out. So, then you say, well, give me one month. And so, if you’re intelligent, within that one month, you look for another house. And you look for a place which is nice and cheap or whatever is according to your ability, whatever is suitable. But then the unintelligent person will just not think about it. After one month, he gets kicked out of the house, where does he go? So, he doesn’t know at all where to go. He has no house.
Of course, by the law of karma, it gets chosen for him anyway [Laughs]. So, intelligent person will therefore prepare for the next life. But more intelligent person will think all of this is useless. Let’s get out of this whole idea of going from body to body. So, those persons practice jnana or yoga. But the most intelligent person, then he will think, well, yes, good to end all of this going from body to body. But why don’t I develop spiritual body? So, that person practices bhakti yoga. So, according to our interest, we choose different processes. Generally, people in the gunas will choose the karma yoga process. Others in sattva will choose Jnana or Yoga. Those who get mercy of devotees, they will choose bhakti. So, all of these alternatives are offered in the Vedic literature. According to one’s nature and one’s qualification, one makes a choice. So, the Vedas don’t force everybody for one process and one result.
At the same time, Vedas also recognize that all of these different processes are not the same. The goal is not the same. Definitely, they’re all planning to give you a certain destination. Just like you buy a ticket, you can get to Bangalore. Buy another ticket, you get to Trivandrum. So, each process will have a particular result. And people choose different results. And they can’t expect anything else. So, if you buy a ticket for Bangalore, don’t expect to end up in Delhi. So, if you do karma yoga, don’t expect to get liberation from that. So, of course, intelligent person will choose the best goal.
Of course, ultimately, in the material world, it’s confusing because there are many goals. They choose one goal. They say, oh, this is a better goal. So, choose that. What’s a better goal here [Laughs]? So, that is why in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, this is many-branched. In fact, ‘Anantas’ – unlimited goals in the material world, unlimited worships, unlimited processes, unlimited Devatas to get different material desires fulfilled. So, karma yoga bewilders a person. Because we get attracted to different material goals. And then we choose this goal or that goal or whatever. Go to Bangalore, go to Delhi, go to Tokyo, go to Beijing, go to Los Angeles. All sorts of choices you got. And one gets completely absorbed in these different places. With these different bodies. Of course, then we have a person who says, let’s not go on anywhere on earth. Let’s go to the moon [Laughs]. Go beyond the earth, whatever. But if a person is so absorbed in this, he’ll never think of going anywhere else other than the earth.
But of course, scripture says, even going to the moon, going to Jupiter, going to the sun, that’s also material. So, get out of the whole material world. Of course, that is very difficult. So, we have difficult processes to do that. We have Jnana and yoga. Someone can do it, but it takes great endeavor. So, after all the effort, one succeeds getting out of the material universe. But then the question is, then what? And there’s no answer. You end up in liberation. Nothing happens. So, of course, scripture gives us an answer. You go beyond that, and you enter into another universe, spiritual universe. But you can only do that by the process of bhakti. But the qualification is that one, of course, you should not have any material desires. And you should not even have the desire to escape from the material world. In other words, most people cannot understand this, because they say, how is it possible not to have any desire at all? But the answer is that it’s not that we have no desire, but we don’t have desire for ourself. That also looks impossible.
Because when we say desire, it means, I desire something for myself. So, the only way we can have desire, which is not direction to ourself is, to have desire to please the Supreme Lord. But the only way we develop that desire is, if we have some love and affection for the Lord. So, that is why, we have the cultivation of bhakti. Definition is ‘anu-silanam’. Which means a continual cultivation of a relationship with the Lord, which is favorable, done with great liking. But with no desire to get anything. So, this requires that the Jiva has to reorient himself. Instead of being self-centered, he has to make Krishna the center. And instead of directing himself to material objects to get his pleasure, he has to direct himself to a spiritual object for the Lord’s pleasure. So, that requires a lot of training. Jiva has to completely transform his way of seeing everything. So, that is done through the different activities of bhakti yoga. And when we perfect that process, then the Jiva completely does everything for the Supreme Lord. And then we are qualified to enter the spiritual world.
So, material universe is very big. It requires effort even to go anywhere on earth. But to get to the edge of the universe, which is so great effort, no human being can do that. It is possible, but if you put in a lot of effort, it is possible. The yogis have a method to get out of this. They can go to any planet, any universe. Still, it takes effort. So, instead of putting forth that effort to go someplace in the material world, the devotee concentrates on going to the spiritual world. But the result is that, whatever efforts put into bhakti, It takes him to somewhere which is impossible to attain even by the greatest material effort. And he accomplishes that simply by changing his consciousness. So simply by changing consciousness he goes completely beyond material world into the spiritual world.
So Prabhupad wrote this book ‘Easy journey to other planets’. And there he says well you try to go by rocket ship to Mars or whatever, very difficult. So yogi by sadhana he can go there or if you follow process of karma yoga through punya, you give up this body get another body you can go there. Ultimately the most advanced yogi can get beyond the material world, but he cannot get into the spiritual world. So that is available only to a person practicing bhakti yoga. So the devotee does not have to worry about next body. Through the process of bhakti, automatically he develops spiritual body he doesn’t have to worry about another material body. In fact, he doesn’t have to worry even about a spiritual body. He doesn’t strive for salokya or sarupya. He simply dedicates himself to serving the Lord. And the Lord rewards that. The Lord supplies everything favorable for that service. So the Lord supplies everything that the devotee needs.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A:
1. Hare Krsna Maharaj, in the case of Dhrtarastra, did he attain moksha ? And where did he go ? Where the people attained moksha / liberation go ? And from that place, can you again fall to the material world ? or From that place, you can go to Krishna loka, to have a loving relationship with Krishna ? If you please can explain..
So the Vedic literature and Upanishads and even Bhagavatam will describe liberation as Jiva getting free of subtle body, gross body, karma etc. If you do that perfectly, then you’re called liberated and no more birth, no more death, no material material bodies. Completely peaceful. So now different philosophies will give different explanations of what is that liberated state.
So the Buddhists will say, ‘nirvana’ which means nothing. So of course, Upanishads are a little more positive, they’ll say, it is ‘Brahman’. So you attain a state not of nothing, but of something called ‘Brahman’ which means an eternal conscious entity. And according to mayavad philosophy, the Jiva gives up his Upadis and he’s no longer a Jiva, he becomes brahman. According to other philosophies, the Jiva remains a Jiva but he enters into the brahman and has an experience of oneness with brahman. If a Jiva can attain that state of brahman perfectly, then that is an eternal state and that is the promise of the Upanishads.
However Bhagavatam says that, if a Jnani or Yogi does not worship the Lord but rather offends the Lord, he may think he’s liberated, but he’s actually not. So he falls back into the material world again. In other words, he may attain a state of ‘Jivan mukta’ with his material body, but he doesn’t worship the Lord then he gives up his body, he cannot enter brahman, comes back to another material body. So the vaishnavas consider, this type of mukti as to be a rather inactive state. And Ramanuja considers it to be a false state, the Jiva cannot attain a state of just consciousness. You need to be conscious of something, so therefore that is not real liberation. So, when the Ramanuja refers to liberation, it means going to the spiritual world. It is also freedom from gross body, subtle body, ahankara, karma, birth, etc. So of course we say there are five types of liberation and so you may get salokya, sarupya, sarshti, etc.
2. Maharaj, , after the death of a soul, it is said that, it takes 13 days to give the judgment, why does it take 13 days to decide what kind of body one gets in next life?
Through the ceremonies the Jiva gets gradually purified of his sinful reactions in 13 stages. We could say, until he’s ready to relieve himself of any hellish existence and get another human body, basically that’s. But why 13 days, I don’t know. Particularly but they’ve just defined it in that way. And of course different Jivas according to their karma, may quickly get another body or it may take a long time to give another material body.
The buddhists say it takes 49 days, so they do ceremonies for 49 days and then you get another body [Laughs].
Devotee: There’s explanation regarding this, getting the different kind of bodies by the soul, like an example is given, like while walking, you walk with you one feet on the ground always and we then take another step, that means the soul getting another body is already decided when he lives?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, bodies are determined by our karmas. But we have so many karmas, not only the activities of this life but all previous lifetimes as well. So, the shraddha ceremonies at least try to get rid of you of the most sinful reactions of this lifetime [Laughs]. They can’t get rid of all your karmas, that’s not possible. All they can do is modify results. So they can relieve some of your suffering.
Devotee: In 3rd canto, Kapiladeva is explaining, regarding this.. how soul is going / how soul is driving from this body and taken to the Yamaloka. It’s almost suffering, so much suffering. But it is said that, there are two processes given, one is how it gets the next body and the other is, the way it goes through to get that body. So the two processes are given. But that’s not mentioned also, soul wait here, till this 13 days etc.
In Bengal, different people observing different, different time. Some people observe 13 days, some people 15 days, some to 21 days, some people – 30 days. So how to understand this ? And then there is also Pitru loka, the soul go to the pitru loka, and it stays there till this 13 days or 21 days after that soul go for judgment and then Yamaraj decides, where he is supposed to go might be hell or heaven or upper planets, so there are different concepts there, but it’s based on the some shastra, definitely, it is not that someone whimsically say something like that.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, some of it is sastra. Some beliefs that people have may not be scriptural [Laughs]. Some of the belief may be simply family traditions. Of course we’ll see in Bhagavad gita and Upanishads and Vedanta sutra, it also gives another path, you go upwards to the moon planet and then you come down again. So this person of course we assume is not committing sinful activities doing some punyas and he goes to heavenly planet then falls down again. And then we have the other person who goes by the path of light and he gets liberated from the material world, then we have the people that don’t do the pious activities don’t follow scripture, then they end up [Laughs], in all sorts of different results, hellish existence or whatever and maybe 13 days.. maybe five years maybe what.., we don’t know.
3. Hare Krsna Maharaj, Maharaj my question is the relevance of antishri, the puja or whatever is done at the time of death for from the context of devotees. So how much is it relevant? Because the challenge is to find a Vaishnava prokit to do it. Because I have seen devotees family, they’ll get some prokit from outside and they will be worshipping all the kinds of devi, devatas, everybody and i don’t know what all he’s doing. So that may be in my understanding, that may be more risky, So i mean how important / significant it is?
So we see even in the case of Dhritarashtra, no ceremonies [Laughs]. Prabhupad says, it’s not necessary. So, what do we speak of a person who’s practicing bhakti? Krsna says ‘ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ’ [BG-18.66], – so the devotee really doesn’t have to worry about, hellish existence or whatever. And of course the Lord says, ‘nehābhikrama-nāśho ’sti pratyavāyo na vidyate’ [BG 2.40], so whatever you do in devotional service, saves you from lower bodies also. So those shraddha ceremonies are for people that are not doing bhakti.
So if a devotee does those ceremonies for relative or whatever, he can do it. But unfortunately, there is worship of pitrus and so many things, in there, that becomes offense. So alternative is, to worship Supreme Lord. And we can worship pitrus by offering vishnu prasad to the pitras. But of course, even that is not necessary. We see that ajamila was saved from yamadudas, by uttering the name of Narayana accidentally. So we could actually advise everybody in the material world, name your son after Vishnu or Krishna, automatically they are safe from hell [Laughs].
4. Maharaj, i have one more related question. It is explained that if there is a devotee in the family then 21 generations are delivered or seven generations are delivered. So what type of a devotee he should be ? Is it at the prema level or sadhaka or neophyte ? For what type of devotee that benediction is provided ?
So it doesn’t specify. So but obviously doing pure bhakti rather than mixed bhakti is better and to be a more advanced devotee is better than to being a neophyte devotee. Nevertheless, any devotee of any sort has some power to purify. But of course, obviously it’s pure doing pure bhakti and is elevated more purification is there.
Devotees: Grantharaj Sri Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai. HH Bhanu Swami Mahraj Ki.. Jai !!