Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.13.59 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | April 21, 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 Bhagavatham Canto 1 Chapter 13 Verse 59.
ŚB 1.13.59
विदुरस्तु तदाश्चर्यं निशाम्य कुरुनन्दन ।
हर्षशोकयुतस्तस्माद् गन्ता तीर्थनिषेवक: ॥ ५९ ॥
viduras tu tad āścaryaṁ
niśāmya kuru-nandana
harṣa-śoka-yutas tasmād
gantā tīrtha-niṣevakaḥ
Synonyms
viduraḥ — Vidura also; tu — but; tat — that incident; āścaryam — wonderful; niśāmya — seeing; kuru-nandana — O son of the Kuru dynasty; harṣa — delight; śoka — grief; yutaḥ — affected by; tasmāt — from that place; gantā — will go away; tīrtha — place of pilgrimage; niṣevakaḥ — for being enlivened.
Translation
Vidura, being affected with delight and grief, will then leave that place of sacred pilgrimage.
Purport
Vidura was astonished to see the marvelous departure of his brother Dhṛtarāṣṭra as a liberated yogī, for in his past life he was much attached to materialism. Of course it was only due to Vidura that his brother attained the desirable goal of life. Vidura was therefore glad to learn about it. But he was sorry that he could not make his brother turn into a pure devotee. This was not done by Vidura because of Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s being inimical to the Pāṇḍavas, who were all devotees of the Lord. An offense at the feet of a Vaiṣṇava is more dangerous than an offense at the lotus feet of the Lord. Vidura was certainly very liberal to bestow mercy upon his brother Dhṛtarāṣṭra, whose past life was very materialistic. But ultimately the result of such mercy certainly depended on the will of the Supreme Lord in the present life; therefore Dhṛtarāṣṭra attained liberation only, and after many such liberated states of life one can attain to the stage of devotional service. Vidura was certainly very mortified by the death of his brother and sister-in-law, and the only remedy to mitigate such lamentation was to go out to pilgrimage. Thus Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira had no chance to call back Vidura, his surviving uncle.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse describes Vidura’s response to hearing all of this. So it says, he responded with joy and sorrow. So it says, ‘harsa-soka-yutah’, which means he had two different emotions. So, ‘harsa’, of course, because ultimately, Dhrtarashtra got benefit from Vidura’s instructions. As a result of his instructions, he became detached, he left the house, and he began yoga practice. So, he was able to attain a high level of detachment in that yoga process. So because he made some progress, Vidura was very happy. So then why should he lament? So, of course, getting liberation, or almost getting liberation is, one sense good. But devotees of the Lord also disregard liberation.
And in fact, this is one quality of bhakti, ‘moksha-laghutakrit’, to think of liberation as useless. This is considered to be one of the unique qualities of bhakti that distinguishes it from Jnana, yoga, or karma. We know the common purusharthas are artha, dharma, kama, and moksha. So ultimately, liberation is the goal. But devotees reject that. Jnanis and yogis strive for it. So this looks a little bit contradictory. So not only do the devotees disregard it, they regard it as useless. So what is the goal for the yogi, is not the goal for the devotee.
So the phrase used is ‘moksha-laghutakrit’, Laghu, of course, means light, unimportant. So ‘laghuta-krit ‘means to regard it as very light, insignificant. So there’s a good reason for that. So, we have verses in the Bhagavatam that describe that. The devotee experiences such joy on serving the Lord, that the joy of liberation becomes like a drop of water in the desert. So the Jnanis and yogis are striving for a drop of water. And the devotees get a whole ocean of water. But it’s not an ocean of salt water, it’s an ocean of nectar.
So, the experience of bhakti and realizing and serving the Lord is greater, much greater than the experience of liberation. And that is expressed in one other unique quality of bhakti, the fifth quality. And that fifth quality is ‘sandrananda’. That means intense bliss. So, in bhava, of course, there is bliss and even the experience of bhava makes liberation like a drop of water in the desert. But in prema, the experience of this is sandra, very, very intense. So, a person in bhava stage takes liberation as useless because he experiences bliss with the Supreme Lord. But a person in prema has sandrananda, very intense bliss, much more than that in bhava. So there is comparison given. So we have the sun. How many rays of light does the sun have? We cannot count the rays of the sun. So the experience of prema is like the sun with all of its rays. And bhava is like one ray of the sun. So we cannot even compare the experience of bhava and prema. The experience of prema is so much more. Then the experience of liberation in comparison to bhava is so much different. So in any case, a person in bhakti completely disregards this bliss of liberation.
So, for the devotee, to attain liberation, is a cause of lamentation. Because, of course, there is very little happiness there. And what is the reason? There is no realization of the Lord, no service of the Lord. In liberation we don’t see any form of the Lord. So what to speak of serving the Lord, we don’t even see the Lord. So that is why it is said that another bhakti characteristic is ‘sudurlabha’, very very rare. Or we can say impossible to attain, Krishna is impossible to attain. He is impossible to attain for the Jnanis and yogis. Of course, they don’t even want to attain him. They reject his form. So, instead of accepting his form, the maximum they can accept is a small ray of light from his toenail. So that is their brahman realization. So, therefore, you can perform Jnana and yoga forever but you never realize the Lord. Of course, there is also a good reason for that. It is said in Upanishads that the Lord will reveal himself when He wants to. So Jnanis and yogis offend the Lord, so why would the Lord want to show His form?
On the other hand, the Lord is pleased with bhakti. Therefore, He shows His form to the devotee. But the Supreme Lord does more than that. The devotee does not just want to see the form, he wants to serve that form. So therefore, the Supreme Lord allows the devotee to serve Him. How is that possible? The Lord gives him a spiritual form so he can serve. So, of course, then the Lord has to respond.
As Bhagavad Gita says, accordingly as you surrender to the Lord, the Lord surrenders to the devotee. So, if the devotee serves the Lord, then the Lord has to serve the devotee. So that is the sixth quality, unique quality of bhakti mentioned in Nectar of Devotion. That is ‘Krishna-akarshini. Which simply means that Prema attracts Krishna. What it means is that Krishna begins to serve the devotee. Of course, we know Krishna means all attractive. Everybody is attracted to Krishna. But the opposite happens, Krishna is attracted to the devotee. Krishna is most attractive. And therefore, Krishna shows most attraction for his devotees. So this is something which is very unique to bhakti. Of course, we can say it is also intrinsic to bhakti itself. Because bhakti means a reciprocation between the Lord and the devotee. So that is the highest goal of all. And if one attains that, it is worthy of praise. And if one does not attain it, it is a cause for lamentation.
Of course, if one attains liberation, it is better than staying in the material world. And thus, Jnana is always praised more than karma yoga is praised. So, if one attains liberation, for normal people, that is worthy of praise. But from the devotee’s point of view, no, it is not so praiseworthy. Better than attaining liberation is prema. So therefore, we see in this verse that Vidura, because he is a devotee, he was lamenting.
Of course, in the Purport Prabhupada also explains the reason. Dhrtarashtra got the association and teachings of the great devotee, Vidura. Generally, by such association, one should get prema. So why Dhrtarashtra didn’t get prema? He committed devotees aparadha, Vaishnava aparadha. Of course, he also offended the Lord, but worse than that was, offending the devotee of the Lord. And this creates great obstacle in progress. So, it creates obstacle to bhakti. Normal sinful activities give you bad karma, hellish existence. By offending devotees, we destroy our bhakti. Or if we have no bhakti, and we commit offense then we make our position worse, very difficult to attain bhakti.
And thus, though great devotee like Vidura gives mercy, somehow because of the offense, Dhrtarashtra could not get the full effect. Prabhupada also mentions here, well, it’s the Lord’s decision. Lord doesn’t want to give him prema. Why? Because he offended devotees. So, though Vidura gives mercy, Supreme Lord does not give mercy. Therefore, difficult for a person like Dhrtarashtra, who has committed offenses, to get prema.
Hare Krsna!
Q&A
1) Maharaj in the Bhagavatham 5th Canto [ŚB 5.6.18] it is said “muktiṁ dadāti karhicit sma na bhakti-yogam” and here also we see that bhakti is ‘sudurlabha’, the 5th quality. So, that means this verse is applicable for only this jnani or karmi or this is applicable for the devotees also? That means, he gives liberation, not bhakti and here also, bhakti is sudurlabha. You said that sudurlabha is applicable for the Jnani. So, that verse is also applicable for the Jnani or bhakta’s also?
We say bhakti is very rare, or prema is rare, or Krishna giving Himself is very rare. So, it is rare or impossible actually for Karmis, Jnanis and Yogi. Of course, to attain liberation, Lord has to give a little mercy. Simply by their own attempts, the Jnani and Yogi cannot get liberation.
The Lord will give liberation, if they do not commit offense. But, He will never give them prema. However, those who worship with bhakti, they will get prema. So, in the verse, in the nectar of devotion, where it says sudurlabha, so, generally it means very rare. That is the bhava stage, very rare when you can see Krishna, because Jnanis and Yogis cannot get. So, it is unique to bhakti. We can say, compared to sadhana bhakti, it is also rare.
Many people do sadhana bhakti, very few attain the stage of bhava and see Krishna. However, it does not mean they are excluded, they will come to bhava by following the process. Because it will take some time, then it is somewhat rare.
2) You are saying that, you know, Prabhupada quoted in the purport, that although Vidura wanted to give, but Supreme Lord did not give the prema to Dhrtarashtra. So, we see that, although the Lord does not give prema or bhakti, unless one is qualified and whereas devotees, they are independent, they can give mercy to anybody.
But, in the case of Dhrtarashtra, although Vidura wanted to give, although he is independent, but he could not do that. Because here Lord is interfering, because he has offended His devotees. But if Vidura wants, he can counteract that also. Or if Dhrtarashtra understands and repents for the offence, then this offence can be counteracted also. Can he counteract the offence?
Of course, we see in special cases, when Krishna kills Putana, big offender, no offence, well, at least she gets to the spiritual world. That’s a very special case of Krishna Himself.
We see, of course, Krishna can give the demons, body in the spiritual world, but usually he will just give liberation, bhakti. Krishna kills demons, who are aparadhis’, they get generally liberation which is better than what other forms of the Lord give. Rama kills the demons; He doesn’t get liberation. In this case, of course, Dhritarashtra was not killed by the Lord. So he got the mercy of Vidura.
And mercy was enough that at least he became detached. But to get prema, you have to develop bhakti. Bhakti starts from a seed and a faith and then a seed and has to grow.
But if one commits offences, it may be very difficult even to plant the seed. And even if it is planted a little bit, difficult to make it grow.
But certainly devotees can be merciful, but ultimately it is also the endeavour that the aparadhi does. If it is a good endeavour, then to some degree get rid of those offences, but it takes time. But unfortunately in the case of Dhritarashtra, it was not much time. It was the end of his life anyway [Laughs].
3) Maharaj, there is a mention about the praiseworthiness of liberation but there is also even danger in that liberation Maharaj, that it is not praiseworthy. There is always a danger in liberation.
The danger in the liberation is that, if you attain it then you cannot see the Lord. Then you don’t have a body. So there is no question of doing devotional service. So in the material world we have a body of course it is not so nice because we are subject to karma etc., but at least we can do bhakti. So in the material world we do bhakti using our material body. In the spiritual world we do bhakti using our spiritual body. And in liberation you don’t have a material body, you don’t have a spiritual body. You can’t do anything. [Laughs]
So, therefore the devotee never wants to attain that state. So he would rather be in the material world serving with his material body than being liberated with no body at all.
4) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, thank you for a very wonderful explanation of this verse. So one thing is that Vidura did not really give the seed of devotion. And we also see Maharaj that Dhritarashtra had no repentance for whatever had happened. Apparently in the verses it is not described because it is mentioned that they went to the banks of Ganga and performed Ashtanga Yoga. But a person who reforms usually there is repentance and then there is acceptance of devotional service. So Maharaj, we see Jagai Madai, probably they have also done great offenses against the Vaishnavas and the Brahmanas. But they were delivered and they were given love of God.
So, possibly if Dhritarashtra was in Kali Yuga, he would have received blessings of God. Then things would have been different. Is it Maharaj?
One thing is if the Lord personally appears, then He can do anything. In the case of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, He is also a special appearance of the Lord. And one of the specialties is that He is merciful even to the aparadhis’. And thus we have examples like Jagai and Madai.
In the case of devotees of the Lord, they are also very merciful. They try to be merciful even to the aparadhis’. But still Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself gives the warning that the Vaishnava aparadh is the mad elephant offense. So that makes advancement in bhakti very very difficult, even if we have mercy of devotees[Laughs].
Of course in Madhurya Kadambini and in Harinam Chintamani, there advice is given.
If you commit Vaishnava aparadh, then there is a certain procedure you follow. The main problem is that a person who commits Vaishnava aparadh, you lose the taste of bhakti. But the main way you get rid of the apparadh is by performing bhakti. So you need the medicine to cure but you don’t want to take the medicine. So what can be done? But if that person by some determination or influence of devotees decides to take the medicine, then it will begin to have effect gradually.
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, sometimes, like in ISKCON per se when the devotees are taking so managerial decisions and in that other devotees get offended So the result will be similar Maharaj, like offending the devotee or it is different in that case?
So the serious effect of aparadh comes when we act or say something against a devotee with ill intent. For instance, if somebody does a mistake and we say it, they may get offended. But if we make a criticism or something he even didn’t do then that’s worse.
And of course if one is very materialistic and anybody says anything and you get offended so, what can we do about that? So, therefore the general rule is we should speak the truth not avoid speaking the truth. Some people may react badly to that what can we do? Of course that is the principle of satya, but there is another word called virudha but that is also speaking the truth but speaking the truth sweetly. [Laughs] So, we speak the truth in such a way that the person can accept it and follow the instruction.
Devotee: Maharaj, just a little more clarity. So you said that if it is done with ill intent, so what if the devotee feels that it is done with ill intent or envy? I mean from the management side it may not be so, but the person who is at receiving end, he feels that it is unjust and it is happening because of some ill intention.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, as I said, in the material world, people will tend to think that I am innocent and everybody else is guilty. I have not done anything wrong and everybody else is doing everything wrong. This of course is not conducive for bhakti. We see the great devotees, they say I am the lowest of the low, I am the most sinful, I am most faulty. Such an attitude is present that they just blame everybody else from the beginning of their bhakti. It will be very difficult to advance in bhakti at all.
6) Maharaj, in prema also different level is there. Vidura in what level in prema? So how can I understand that?
It is not described so much what level he is at, but he is a devotee not in Vrindavan… related to the Dwarka pastimes. So he has bhakti of Dasya mixed with aishwarya.
7) Just in case, if some devotees for a moment criticize a preacher who is preaching in an indirect method, is it considered as an offense?
Well, if we criticize a person for preaching, it doesn’t make too much sense. Now we can preach in many different ways, but it’s not that one way is only correct, everything else is wrong. So, therefore if someone is preaching, that should be praised. If they get a nice effect from their preaching, it should also be praised. Thank you Maharaj.
8) Suppose we promise a devotee something and if you are unable to fulfill that promise, is that considered as an offense?
Well, it depends on what we promise. We should not make false promises. And of course it’s better we avoid making material promises. It’s safest if we simply quote scripture which gives spiritual promise.
9) What are all the similarities and dissimilarities between the fragmental bliss attained by a Jnani and a bliss attained by a person who has achieved Sayujya Mukti and a bliss being attained by a person who is in Bhava stage?
So the bliss of liberation is the bliss of having no material body, no karma. So it’s a state of peace. So some people can call that bliss. But in devotional service we don’t call that bliss. Bliss results from a relationship with the Lord which appears in Bhava stage.
Thank you Maharaj.
Devotees: Grantaraj Srima Bhagavatham ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!