Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.14.38 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | May 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 Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 14 Verse 38.
ŚB 1.14.38
यद्बाहुदण्डाभ्युदयानुजीविनो
यदुप्रवीरा ह्यकुतोभया मुहु: ।
अधिक्रमन्त्यङ्घ्रिभिराहृतां बलात्
सभां सुधर्मां सुरसत्तमोचिताम् ॥ ३८ ॥
yad bāhu-daṇḍābhyudayānujīvino
yadu-pravīrā hy akutobhayā muhuḥ
adhikramanty aṅghribhir āhṛtāṁ balāt
sabhāṁ sudharmāṁ sura-sattamocitām
Synonyms
yat — whose; bāhu-daṇḍa — arms; abhyudaya — influenced by; anujīvinaḥ — always living; yadu — the members of the Yadu dynasty; pravīrāḥ — great heroes; hi akutobhayāḥ — fearless in every respect; muhuḥ — constantly; adhikramanti — traversing; aṅghribhiḥ — by foot; āhṛtām — brought about; balāt — by force; sabhām — assembly house; sudharmām — Sudharmā; sura-sat-tama — the best among the demigods; ucitām — deserving.
Translation
The great heroes of the Yadu dynasty, being protected by the arms of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, always remain fearless in every respect. And therefore their feet trample over the Sudharmā assembly house, which the best demigods deserved but which was taken away from them.
Purport
Those who are directly servitors of the Lord are protected by the Lord from all fearfulness, and they also enjoy the best of things, even if they are forcibly accumulated. The Lord is equal in behaviour to all living beings, but He is partial to His pure devotees, being very affectionate toward them. The city of Dvārakā was flourishing, being enriched with the best of things in the material world. The state assembly house is constructed according to the dignity of the particular state. In the heavenly planets, the state assembly house called Sudharmā was deserving of the dignity of the best of the demigods. Such an assembly house is never meant for any state on the globe because the human being on the earth is unable to construct it, however far a particular state may be materially advanced. But during the time of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s presence on the earth, the members of the Yadu family forcibly brought the celestial assembly house to earth and placed it at Dvārakā. They were able to use such force because they were certain of the indulgence and protection of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. In other words, the Lord is provided with the best things in the universe by His pure devotees. Lord Kṛṣṇa was provided with all kinds of comforts and facilities available within the universe by the members of the Yadu dynasty, and in return such servitors of the Lord were protected and fearless.
A forgetful, conditioned soul is fearful. But a liberated soul is never fearful, just as a small child completely dependent on the mercy of his father is never fearful of anyone. Fearfulness is a sort of illusion for the living being when he is in slumber and forgetting his eternal relation with the Lord. Since the living being is never to die by his constitution, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.20), then what is the cause of fearfulness? A person may be fearful of a tiger in a dream, but another man who is awake by his side sees no tiger there. The tiger is a myth for both of them, namely the person dreaming and the person awake, because actually there is no tiger; but the man forgetful of his awakened life is fearful, whereas the man who has not forgotten his position is not at all fearful. Thus the members of the Yadu dynasty were fully awake in their service to the Lord, and therefore there was no tiger for them to be afraid of at any time. Even if there were a real tiger, the Lord was there to protect them.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this is at once a praise of the members of the Yadu dynasty as devotees and also a praise of the Supreme Lord. So this verse describes how the Yadus were protected by the arms of the Lord. And under the protection of the Lord, the Yadus offered everything to Krishna. So this is the natural relationship between the Lord and the devotees. However, we should not think that the motive of the Yadus was protection, therefore, to get protection, they serve the Lord. Rather, it’s the opposite, they have no motive, but they serve the Lord. Consequently, because they have no motive, the Lord protects them.
In one sense, of course, the Lord does not need protection, nor does the devotee need protection. In the spiritual world, there is no chance of anyone causing harm to anybody. There is no birth and no death. So often, the spiritual world is called the place of no fear. And the reason for that is, that it is opposite of the material world. So the material world is often called the place of fear.
And what is the fear? The fear is that our body will be destroyed. And even if you get the best body, that of Brahma, that body also gets destroyed. So, fear is inherent in the material world, as long as you identify with your body. So, we can get rid of that fear by knowledge that we’re not the body. So, this is a first step in spiritual development. However, this is not the real goal of the devotee, to get rid of fear.
Certainly, the devotee has no fear, but that is not his goal. So, in the purport, Prabhupada gives an example. So, a person who is asleep has a dream of a tiger, and the tiger attacks him. So the person in the dream becomes frightened. A person standing beside the person sleeping, who is awake, doesn’t see a tiger, he’s not frightened. And if the person wakes up, then he doesn’t see a tiger, and he loses his fear. So, the fear is caused by the illusion of a tiger when you’re sleeping. So, we stop the illusion by waking up. So, similarly, because we are identifying with our body in this material world, we develop fear. When we wake up, no fear. So, that waking up means, we no longer identify our self as material body. So if we can fix that realisation, this becomes liberation. And certainly, it is a step in progress if we are no longer under illusion. So, thus, in the Vedic scriptures, liberation is often praised as the goal.
However, we see in these verses here, we have descriptions of the Supreme Lord. So, this state is a different from the state of liberation. Liberation is getting rid of the illusion of being a material body in the material world. So, in a sense, it is realizing we are not the body. So, on the other hand, realization of the Lord is a step beyond that. So, it’s not about you are body or not your body or whatever, it’s about another person there, Supreme Lord. So, liberation means we realize our true identity. But prema means we recognize another person who is there, that is, Supreme Lord. So, the realization is quite different. We have self-realization, that is, mukti, and then we have realization of Supreme Lord. So, though both are praised in the scripture, the highest goal is realizing Supreme Lord. However, one cannot realize the Supreme Lord, unless one has developed pure bhakti. That means service without any desires.
So, as I mentioned, the members of the Yadu dynasty are not serving the Lord because they expect him to get protection. So, their service is not mixed with any material desire. Of course, they don’t really need protection because they have spiritual bodies. But they also have no desire for liberation. They have no desire to get rid of material bodies because they don’t have material bodies. However, the results of liberation are automatically achieved by the devotee. So, like the person in liberated state, no, not subject to birth and death, so no fear. Karma yogis do karma yoga to get prosperity. But all of that wealth is temporary. The devotees, like the Yadus, they get superior prosperity because everything is eternal. So here, it describes that they got the assembly hall of the Devatas. And though they attain this, it is not their place of enjoyment. They use it in the service of the Lord. So, in this way, the devotees are served by everything because they surrender to the Lord.
The Lord is the giver of bhukti, mukti and prema. The devotee does not desire bhukti or mukti. But he can use the results to serve the Lord. So, this was the position of the Yadus. We see that Yudhishthira attained similar position. He got rulership of the whole world. What was the purpose? So, he could serve the Lord. So, the Lord bestows everything necessary for the devotee. Why? Because the devotee gives everything to the Lord. So, we have the devotee expressing pure bhakti with no material desires or desire for liberation. And we have the Supreme Lord responding in exactly the same way. So, this is a perfect situation. A relationship of pure love which is eternal. And of course, this is the goal of everyone to have an eternal relationship which gives happiness.
But it cannot be achieved by people in the material world. The object of their love is material. And the love that they reveal is faulty. So, if we direct that love to the Supreme Lord who is completely spiritual and perfect with pure bhakti, then we have the ideal relationship which is eternal. So, the Supreme Lord establishes this relationship and He displays this by coming into the material world. People will wonder, oh Supreme Lord, He has a form, what’s the form? So, we can learn about the forms from scripture. However, the Supreme Lord goes further and He reveals Himself in the material world as avatar. And then the jivas of the material world get the opportunity to not only see the form of the Lord, they also see all the devotees and how they serve the Lord. And that is revealed in the pastimes of Krishna, revealed in the 10th canto, and also in the activities of the Yadus serving Krishna in Dvaraka.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A
1) Thank you, Maharaj. Maharaj, when we mention about fearlessness, fearlessness is also due to the fact that one has a knowledge that he is not his body. That is one level of fearlessness. The other level is, identifying oneself as a servant of Krishna. It’s the next level of fearlessness. There seems to be a different level of fearlessness, Maharaj. So, what is the difference in these two levels of fearlessness?
Well, in liberation, the fearlessness is you don’t have a material body and therefore you don’t have birth and death, karma, suffering, etc. So, if one performs bhakti and goes to the spiritual world, the spiritual world is beyond liberation. So naturally, one also doesn’t have material body, karma, suffering, etc.
Of course, in the state of liberation, one cannot say I am fearless because there are no qualities in Brahman like fearlessness or whatever. It’s a state which we can observe, but you have no experience of being fearless because you would have qualities then.
In the spiritual world, the devotee has awareness of himself and other things. But he is not aware of any material body which is destructible, so therefore there is no awareness of fear at all. So, when he is in the spiritual world, then he has awareness of being there eternally. So, there is no opportunity for fear at all. Of course, we do have in the spiritual world secondary rasas, one of which is Bhayana rasa, fear rasa. So, based on the primary rasa, a devotee may develop some fear. He may fear he has offended the Lord. He may fear his service is interrupted but these are temporary emotions which disappear into the primary rasa.
Devotee: Again, in the case of sadhakas, generally we understand devotees don’t have fear, as you mentioned, not to offend Vaishnavas or not to offend the Lord. He should be advancing in spiritual life and there is no way that he can come down in his spiritual life. These kinds of fear are also there. How to understand that, Maharaj? These kinds of fear are there in a sadhaka. One has to advance spiritually and not fall down or making sure that he is pleasing the higher authorities and things like that.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Those who are actually in spiritual life definitely they have to be aware of the dangers of material life. This is particularly emphasized if one practices yoga or jñāna. In bhakti, however, though one can be attracted to material things and fall from position, etc., the emphasis is not upon cultivating fear of the material world, but rather developing attraction for Krishna.
And of course Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, I deliver you from the worst fear. And He says, even if you are in the most sinful activity, you are still My devotee. And in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, I free you from all sins.
2) Should both one’s Siksha Guru and Diksha Guru be Uttama devotees for attaining perfection?
Of course, it’s always best to have the highest qualified devotee as a Guru. As we know in the material world, it’s always best to get the most qualified professor as a teacher. Unfortunately, not everybody gets into IIT or MIT or Oxford or Cambridge or whatever. So we often get what we are qualified for. So at least the devotee should be fixed and be practicing pure bhakti. So this is what we call the Madhyama adhikari. Madhyama adhikari are more available and they actually do preaching work. Uttama adhikari generally are not preaching. So therefore, most of the Gurus are going to be in the Madhyama category.
3) Generally, to love someone means we need to know that person deeply. But as a Sadhaka, we are advised to love Krishna. However, we don’t know about Krishna. So how do we handle this?
The purpose of Bhagavatam is to reveal Krishna with His form, qualities and activities, so we can develop that love. Furthermore, we have deities. So by having deities, we can actually see a form of the Lord. And then we can practice our service to the Lord, to that deity.
4) How to get a spiritual body and be engaged in spiritual service? How to get a spiritual body and be fixed in spiritual service?
So as we practice bhakti, then we are engaging our senses. Of course, now we are using our material senses. By doing so, then gradually we develop a spiritual body with spiritual senses. And in bhava stage, then we realize the Lord with our spiritual senses.
5) From Third Canto, we see that Yadus are experts and they are very well learned. However, they realize the Supreme Lord only as Paramatma?
Well, the Yadus see Krishna personally, so that’s not Paramatma. Many of them are in Dasya rasa. Vasudeva and Devaki and elders are in Vatsalya rasa. The queens are in Madhurya rasa. So with Paramatma, there is no development of any rasa.
6) Only when we become a pure devotee, do we come under the direct protection of Krishna?
Well, what is a pure devotee? So a pure devotee is one who is practicing pure bhakti. He could be practicing sadhana, he could be in bhava or prema. But as I mentioned, generally those in bhava and prema are very rare. So therefore we have to take shelter of those who are doing sadhana bhakti.
7) Generally people term only as Rama Rajyam. We never hear about Krishna Rajyam. Krishna also was ruling. Why is it like that and how do we understand this?
All the avatars are perfect in ruling. Particularly Ramachandra, He ruled for thousands of years. So He is the ideal example of an avatar who was also a king ruling.
8) Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita about ‘sarva-dharmān parityajya’. So being the case, for a sadhaka, what if he may misunderstand that without a guru they can directly surrender?
The rule in Bhagavad Gita says give up everything and surrender to Krishna. But then how do we surrender? Though the instruction is absolute, we do have to have details. So we have to know what surrender is. We need some knowledge. We have to go to scripture.We have to go to devotees. So, anybody can take this instruction…. I surrendered to Krishna, but I tried to make him successful in many ways. Anyway, we definitely need some knowledge. We get that knowledge from devotees.
9) There may be devotees in this world who will be seeing Krishna being the case, they don’t seem to reveal. Why is it so?
Of course, it’s very rare. To reach that stage, then they’ve done a lot of sadhana, then they get to bhava and prema. In doing so they become completely attached to Krishna and they have zero attachment for the body or for material society so they are completely absorbed in Krishna. And they have no interest in the material world. So therefore, you will never see them. They don’t publicize themselves.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!!