Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.14.37 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | May 20, 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 Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 14 Verse 37.
ŚB 1.14.37
yat-pāda-śuśrūṣaṇa-mukhya-karmaṇā
satyādayo dvy-aṣṭa-sahasra-yoṣitaḥ
nirjitya saṅkhye tri-daśāṁs tad-āśiṣo
haranti vajrāyudha-vallabhocitāḥ
Synonyms
yat — whose; pāda — feet; śuśrūṣaṇa — administration of comforts; mukhya — the most important; karmaṇā — by the acts of; satya-ādayaḥ — queens headed by Satyabhāmā; dvi-aṣṭa — twice eight; sahasra — thousand; yoṣitaḥ — the fair sex; nirjitya — by subduing; saṅkhye — in the battle; tri-daśān — of the denizens of heaven; tat-āśiṣaḥ — what is enjoyed by the demigods; haranti — do take away; vajra-āyudha-vallabhā — the wives of the personality who controls the thunderbolt; ucitāḥ — deserving.
Translation
Simply by administering comforts at the lotus feet of the Lord, which is the most important of all services, the queens at Dvārakā, headed by Satyabhāmā, induced the Lord to conquer the demigods. Thus the queens enjoy things which are prerogatives of the wives of the controller of thunderbolts.
Purport
Satyabhāmā: One of the principal queens of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa at Dvārakā. After killing Narakāsura, Lord Kṛṣṇa visited the palace of Narakāsura accompanied by Satyabhāmā. He went to Indraloka also with Satyabhāmā, and she was received by Śacīdevī, who introduced her to the mother of the demigods, Aditi. Aditi was very much pleased with Satyabhāmā, and she blessed her with the benediction of permanent youth as long as Lord Kṛṣṇa remained on the earth. Aditi also took her with her to show her the special prerogatives of the demigods in the heavenly planets. When Satyabhāmā saw the pārijāta flower, she desired to have it in her palace at Dvārakā. After that, she came back to Dvārakā along with her husband and expressed her willingness to have the pārijāta flower at her palace. Satyabhāmā’s palace was especially bedecked with valuable jewels, and even in the hottest season of summer the inside of the palace remained cool, as if air conditioned. She decorated her palace with various flags, heralding the news of her great husband’s presence there. Once, along with her husband, she met Draupadī, and she was anxious to be instructed by Draupadī in the ways and means of pleasing her husband. Draupadī was expert in this affair because she kept five husbands, the Pāṇḍavas, and all were very much pleased with her. On receipt of Draupadī’s instructions, she was very much pleased and offered her good wishes and returned to Dvārakā. She was the daughter of Satrājit. After the departure of Lord Kṛṣṇa, when Arjuna visited Dvārakā, all the queens, including Satyabhāmā and Rukmiṇī, lamented for the Lord with great feeling. At the last stage of her life, she left for the forest to undergo severe penance.
Satyabhāmā instigated her husband to get the pārijāta flower from the heavenly planets, and the Lord got it even by force from the demigods, as a common husband secures things to please his wife. As already explained, the Lord had very little to do with so many wives to carry out their orders like an ordinary man. But because the queens accepted the high quality of devotional service, namely administering the Lord all comforts, the Lord played the part of a faithful and complete husband. No earthly creature can expect to have things from the heavenly kingdom, especially the pārijāta flowers, which are simply to be used by the demigods. But due to their becoming the Lord’s faithful wives, all of them enjoyed the special prerogatives of the great wives of the denizens of heaven. In other words, since the Lord is the proprietor of everything within His creation, it is not very astonishing for the queens of Dvārakā to have any rare thing from any part of the universe.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, this verse is a praise of the Supreme Lord. Because He is supreme, all of the benefits from worshipping and serving any other being are included in the worship of Krishna. So even a devotee in practice, if he has faith, the faith means that by worshipping the Lord, everything is fulfilled. By worshipping the Lord, we don’t have to do anything else. One becomes completely satisfied. So, the opposite of that would be, yes, we worship the Lord, but then we feel, I want something else, and then we worship someone else as well. Of course, we do have such persons in the material world, they are called fools. So, he will say, ‘I will worship Vishnu, but I also worship Shiva, and Durga, and Ganesh, and Kartikeya, and many others. And just in case, I don’t get everything from Vishnu, the others will supply me. So that is lack of faith. One who has a very firm faith that by worshipping the Lord, everything is supplied, then that person is considered a better devotee.
Now, the Lord, because He is Supreme Lord, He can supply anything. So generally, we define everything in terms of happiness. So people get happiness from material objects. One way of doing that is to worship Devatas and do karma yoga, and we get material objects. But Krishna also says in Bhagavad Gita, yes, you worship the Devatas, but that’s not the proper worship. Ultimately, everything is supplied to the Devatas by the Supreme Lord, so we should worship the Supreme Lord. Those who are more intelligent understand that happiness from material objects is temporary, so it’s not satisfying. So, then they strive for liberation. So, you can perform Jnana Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga and get liberation. But ultimately, the liberation is supplied by Supreme Lord, not those processes. So, some people want to be happy by attaining that liberation. Others, they understand that highest happiness is by serving the Supreme Lord. And by serving the Supreme Lord, they attain Prema, and they get eternal happiness.
So the Devatas can give material happiness, but even that material happiness depends on Supreme Lord. Other persons perform Jnana Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga, they get liberation, but the attainment of liberation is also dependent on Supreme Lord. So the Lord very easily can give any material benediction and liberation. But He also gives Prema, that is rare. So, the Lord can give anything. So, a person who has conviction in that, he has firm faith. One who does not have such firm faith, then he will start worshipping Devatas, etc., to get material benedictions. So, all the associates of the Lord, they have this understanding, simply worshipping the Lord, that’s the highest happiness. Though the Lord can supply material happiness or liberation, the devotee does not request those things. Desire for those things creates obstacle to Prema. So therefore, the devotees often express, ‘I don’t desire any material benedictions, I don’t desire liberation, I don’t desire Yoga Siddhis, all I want to do is serve the Lord’. So, all the devotees surrounding the Lord have this type of mentality.
However, we will see, Satyabhama is asking for a Parijata flower from Svarga Loka. If she is completely satisfied with serving Krishna, why does she desire a material object like a Parijata flower? So, it appears to be, this is some mixture in the bhakti, it is not so pure. But we know that Satyabhama is the principal queen. So therefore, she can have no contamination in her Prema. Then why does she want a Parijata flower? Ultimately, we will see that this pastime of wanting the Parijata flower and Krishna fighting with Indra is to illustrate that Krishna is superior to all the Devatas. Whatever facilities are given to Devatas are ultimately given by the Supreme Lord. And thus, at any time, He can take them. And even Indra protested, didn’t matter, Lord took anyway. And of course, Krishna had to use some force. But there is no fear that Krishna will get defeated. Very easily He can defeat Indra, because He puts Indra in his place, He gives him a position. So this pastime illustrates the supreme position of Krishna. So Indra may think, Parijata flower belongs to me, but actually it belongs to Krishna.
So as this verse states that because the queens were so devoted to Krishna, they got everything that could be accomplished by anybody in the material world. So, Krishna is willing to give the queens of Dvaraka, anything that belongs to the Devatas and other higher entities. But we also know that ultimately all these things that the Devatas have, are material. And thus, they’re insignificant in comparison to the privilege of serving the Lord’s feet.
Of course, Devatas are also servants of the Lord. So they all get blessings from the Lord. But the inhabitants of Dvaraka, particularly the queens, they are special servants of the Lord. The queens were constantly with Krishna. So this shows their very special position. Krishna goes to the heavenly planet to get the Parijata flower and fight with Indra, but He doesn’t stay there. But He was constantly with the queens of Dwaraka. Actually, the people of Dwaraka, particularly the Yadus, sometimes they will complain. In Brhad Bhagavatamrta, it is explained that Narada Muni went there because the Yadus are constantly with the Lord, so they must be the best devotees. So they say, no, that’s not really so. Yes, we see Krishna every day, He comes into the assembly for one hour, then He disappears. Where does He go? He’s constantly with the Queens. So, therefore the Queens have very high position as devotees. And Krishna will fulfill any desire that they have.
Hare Krsna!
Q&A
1) In Dwaraka, Krishna was present simultaneously in all the palaces. Do the Queens know this?
Actually, each Queen thought that Krishna is only with me. Even people of Dwaraka didn’t understand. All they see is one Krishna coming into the assembly, showing Himself in public and then disappearing. But it’s described that when He went into the assembly, all the forms and all the palaces would leave the Queens and they would join into one form, that form would go into the assembly. When He came back, then He would divide up into forms and go back into the palaces but nobody could see that. So, it’s explained in the 10th Canto of Bhagavatam that one time Narada Muni went to see Krishna in Dwaraka and He went to the first Queen Rukmini and saw Krishna with Rukmini. Then very quickly, with the speed of the mind, he went to another palace and he was surprised because Krishna was there. Then he went to another palace, Krishna was also there. It looked like the same Krishna. And it didn’t look like He was even aware that He was in the other palaces. So, even Narada Muni was astonished at the Lord’s inconceivable Shakti. So, each Queen thought that Krishna was with her alone and they didn’t understand that He was with all the Queens simultaneously.
2) Maharaj, we hear like Govardhan lila, that time Indra was bewildered. After that, this past time Maharaj, so again when Lord wanted Parijata, so they are getting ready to fight. How we understand Maharaj, they are again bewildered. Indra was again bewildered Maharaj?
So, it is explained that yes, after Govardhan lila he apologized and offered prayers to Krishna. But then our Acharya’s comment, it looks like he did not really understand Krishna still [Laughs]. Unless later on he actually fought with Krishna. So then we may question, well, Devatas are supposed to be devotees there in Sattva guna, and they get empowered by the Supreme Lord, etc. How can they commit aparadha like this? Of course, one answer is that yes, they are devotees, quite high as devotees, still they have material bodies, they have ahankara, so therefore sometimes they may get afflicted. Of course, even Brahma gets afflicted. Even we say Shiva gets afflicted, he is fighting with Krishna [Laughs]. However our Acharyas have also explained that ultimately we should understand all of this is not the fault of the Devatas or Brahma. So they are not falling under maya. Rather, they are influenced by the Lord’s yoga maya.And the yoga maya creates some illusion for the Lord’s pastimes. But of course, through these pastimes, the Lord illustrates how all the Devatas up to Lord Brahma can have faults.
3) Maharaj, Indra and Brahma, they are affected by yoga maya and in this lila, devotees, they get into two groups. Who is higher than this one? They are debating like that. So these two groups are elaborately telling about that this devotee is nice, this devotee is nice, like that. But Krishna is enjoying these both devotees, how they are describing Krishna. So how can I understand this?
Well, devotees always glorify other devotees. Why not [Laughs]? So the Devatas and Brahma are devotees ,they have their followers, they are also devotees. So they can always glorify each other. You see, Shiva is glorifying the devotees of Vishnu. So the devotees may be anywhere on Svargaloka or Brahmaloka or whatever, but as they are all devotees, then they get glorified.
4) Maharaj, it says that devotee was affected by yoga maya and they doing some small mistakes. That is also part of Lila. So how we understand Maharaj? We understand like this, if someone surrendered to Krishna and someone devotee of Krishna and they are doing mistake by mercy of Lord, they are also part of pastimes. The devotee, when devotee doing mistakes, so we understand that only like pastimes of this part of pastime. How do you understand?
Yeah, it depends. Obviously, if they are exalted devotees, we cannot blame them. But if we take a devotee in the material world doing sadhana bhakti, he cannot say, well, it’s all yoga maya. All my mistakes are yoga maya. It doesn’t make any sense. These are all devotees in Bhagavatam who are direct associates of the Lord. So they’re very exalted. They personally see the Lord. So in the material world, devotees cannot see the Lord. Those are the people doing sadhana bhakti. In the material world, devotees cannot see the Lord. Devotees doing sadhana bhakti cannot see the Lord directly. No, they are still influenced by anarthas.
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj, in Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu, it is mentioned, sometimes we are not able to offer seasonal flowers to the Lord. So that is also one of the offense. So how to understand?
Well, of course, in the modern world, seasonal flower doesn’t always make sense because we have greenhouses [laughs]. But there is a prescription in Archana. If you don’t have an item, you can substitute water. And though you’re offering water, you meditate on offering a flower. And if you don’t have anything, even water, then you simply meditate on offering to the Lord. This is called Manasa Puja. This is considered to be superior to offering external objects like flowers, etc.
6) Hare Krishna Maharaj. It is said that in the Purport, that in the last stage, Satyabhama went to the forest and performed severe penance. How does this relate with the pastime of Krishna stealing the queens in the guise of a cowherd after entrusting them to the care of Arjuna?
Well actually later in Bhagavatam it is explained that the main queens, hearing of Krishna’s departure, they all entered fire. After that Arjuna took the remaining inhabitants of Dwaraka and then he was bringing them back and that’s when the cowherds stole the women.
7) Is it not mixed devotion if one is convinced that simply by worshipping the Lord one gets highest happiness and thereby disregarding material happiness and liberation? Because the focus on this type of tension in worship is on getting highest happiness rather than not to give happiness for the Lord. So how to understand the statement in scripture that simply by worshipping Supreme Lord alone one gets the highest happiness?
So the highest happiness means Ananda, bliss. But Ananda is a result of Rasa. And what is Rasa? Rasa means establishing a relationship and serving the Lord. So in that service of course there has to be great purity. If we serve but it is not pure, it is not anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, then we won’t get that Prema and we won’t get the Ananda. So for the devotee himself his goal is to serve the Lord purely. But the reward he gets from doing that is ananda. And with that ananda then the Jiva is completely satisfied.
8) Maharaj, is there no cause and effect relationships in spiritual world since the causal ocean is present only in the material world?
Well usually cause and effect as we usually use the words are results of material world. And of course this implies change or transformation. And we know in spiritual world there is no change, no transformation. But then if the spiritual world had no change or anything, nothing would ever move, there would be no action. So everybody would be petrified and Krishna would be standing there doing nothing. So there is an appearance of change, there is an appearance of day and night, there is an appearance of activity. All this goes on through the internal Shakti of the Lord. Of course we see devotees serve with pure prema and then that’s cause and what happens we get bliss, effect so if that doesn’t happen we won’t have any experience in the material and spiritual world. So, there is a type of cause and effect in the spiritual world in order to facilitate pastimes, rasa and bliss.
9) Hare Krishna Maharaj. As mentioned here, Krishna can give anything for his devotees. Then why many of the devotees are suffering by lack of material needs? I would like to understand this Maharaj.
Krishna can give anything, but if the devotee is serious, He will give something, anything in the material world, if it is favorable for his development of bhakti. He will not give if it is unfavorable. And if you have something and it is unfavorable, He will take it away. Or He may give something. So it all depends on the position of the devotee. So, generally of course we say all devotees of Vishnu are all poor, devotees of Shiva are very rich. But Shiva appears very poor, Vishnu appears very rich. But in Bhagavatam we have many examples of devotees who are also very rich. Yudhisthira ruled the kingdom, the Manus and their descendants rule the whole earth. And Dhruva and Prahlada got kingdoms from the Supreme Lord.
10) Sadasiva is eternally present, then what happens to those who worship Sadasiva? Do those Jivas also eternally serve Shiva? If so, then how to understand this is not liberation?
So those who serve Shiva and who is expansion from Vishnu, they can get liberation. But even Shiva says Vishnu is the giver of liberation [laughs]. Of course, I said previously that if you do Jnana Yoga but you don’t worship Vishnu, you cannot even get liberation. So one cannot attain liberation if one offends Vishnu. So one can worship Shiva for liberation, sure, but one should also worship Vishnu.
11) Maharaj, it is said that a Jiva who has a material body,has ahankara by default. Should a devotee who aspires to become a Sadhaka, to get Krishna Prema, come out of ahankara?
Well, ahankara, as well as mind, material intelligence, which are part of the subtle body, as well as your senses, etc., sense objects, part of the gross body, all of these will bind you to the material world. So, not only for Prema, even for liberation, you have to get rid of ahankara, or subtle body, gross body, everything. But this is achieved very easily through the process of bhakti. So, when one goes through sadhana bhakti, one destroys the karmas, etc., when one gets to bhava, one destroys ahankara.
12) Is Yogamaya the lila Shakti of the Lord?
Well, the two are related, but obviously Yoga maya means that power which makes things visible or invisible to the devotees. The lila Shakti arranges for pastimes. In doing so, it may involve hiding things from the devotees or making things appear. In doing so, it may involve hiding things from the devotees or making things appear.
Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!