Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.15.13 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 10 June 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
ŚB 1.15.13
तत्रैव मे विहरतो भुजदण्डयुग्मं
गाण्डीवलक्षणमरातिवधाय देवा: ।
सेन्द्रा: श्रिता यदनुभावितमाजमीढ
तेनाहमद्य मुषित: पुरुषेण भूम्ना ॥ १३ ॥
tatraiva me viharato bhuja-daṇḍa-yugmaṁ
gāṇḍīva-lakṣaṇam arāti-vadhāya devāḥ
sendrāḥ śritā yad-anubhāvitam ājamīḍha
tenāham adya muṣitaḥ puruṣeṇa bhūmnā
Synonyms
tatra — in that heavenly planet; eva — certainly; me — myself; viharataḥ — while staying as a guest; bhuja-daṇḍa-yugmam — both of my arms; gāṇḍīva — the bow named Gāṇḍīva; lakṣaṇam — mark; arāti — a demon named Nivātakavaca; vadhāya — for killing; devāḥ — all the demigods; sa — along with; indrāḥ — the heavenly King, Indra; śritāḥ — taken shelter of; yat — by whose; anubhāvitam — made it possible to be powerful; ājamīḍha — O descendant of King Ajamīḍha; tena — by Him; aham — myself; adya — at the present moment; muṣitaḥ — bereft of; puruṣeṇa — the personality; bhūmnā — supreme.
Translation
When I stayed for some days as a guest in the heavenly planets, all the heavenly demigods, including King Indradeva, took shelter of my arms, which were marked with the Gāṇḍīva bow, to kill the demon named Nivātakavaca. O King, descendant of Ajamīḍha, at the present moment I am bereft of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by whose influence I was so powerful.
Purport
The heavenly demigods are certainly more intelligent, powerful and beautiful, and yet they had to take help from Arjuna because of his Gāṇḍīva bow, which was empowered by the grace of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The Lord is all-powerful, and by His grace His pure devotee can be as powerful as He may desire, and there is no limit to it. And when the Lord withdraws His power from anyone, he is powerless by the will of the Lord.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, many of these verses are showing how Arjuna was endowed with power by the Supreme Lord. This applies not only to Arjuna, but to all the devotees of the Lord. The devotees recognize this, and they show their gratitude to the Lord. Of course, even the non-devotees get their powers from the Supreme Lord. All the Jivas are able to perform activities because of the Supreme Lord. Even the material elements, which have their particular powers, like fragrance or form or whatever, all this comes from Supreme Lord. So, in Chapter 10 of Bhagavad Gita, and also in 11th Canto of Bhagavatam, Krishna describes how He is the taste of water and the form and fire etc. He is intelligence among the intelligent. He is ability in men. Of course, even the bad qualities [Laughs]. Krishna says, I’m the cheater, the best of the cheaters [Laughs]. So, all the abilities of the human being and even the animals and plants that do things is caused by the Supreme Lord.
Of course, a lot of this is indirect. Elements display certain qualities, because these qualities originate with the goodness of nature, which arise from Prakriti. So, all the qualities that manifest within the material world, ultimately arise because of Prakriti. Prakriti is the Bahiranga Shakti of the Lord. So, it’s described that this Bahiranga Shakti or Prakriti by itself is also useless. So, in several places like Chaitanya Caritamrta, it’s described that Prakriti is like the skin on the neck of the goat. Which means on the neck of the goat, there’s some loose skin that looks like an udder, but you can’t get any milk from it. Nothing happens [Laughs]. So, that is why it’s repeatedly stated in Upanishads and even in Bhagavatam that Prakriti becomes active by the glance of the Lord. This is what Bhagavatam explains that Prakriti becomes active by the glance of the Lord. Without the influence of the Lord, Prakriti does nothing. And when He glances, then Prakriti begins to manifest Gunas and material elements and universes. Ultimately, it arises because of the Supreme Lord. And Prakriti itself is arranged by the Supreme Lord.
So, we may also ask, why does the Lord have to glance at material energy? So, actually, He doesn’t have to look at it at all. So, our Acharyas explain that glancing of the Lord means will of the Lord. He doesn’t have to look at material energy at all. Simply by His will, He can will the energy to begin to manifest. So, when He wills, then all the material elements manifest, the universe’s elements, bodies for living entities manifest. Once they are manifested, then everything acts by the will of the Lord. So, material elements manifest certain qualities by the will of the Lord. Wind blows by the will of the Lord. Sun shines by the will of the Lord. Fire burns because of the will of the Lord. So, all of this happens because of the Supreme Lord.
Then, we also have Jivas within the material world. Where do the Jivas come from? So, it is described that when creation takes place, the Lord places the Jivas into Prakriti. Prakriti does not produce Jivas. Of course, we can say even the Lord does not produce Jivas. They are eternal. But they all rest and sleep within the Lord. When the Lord so desires, He wakes them up and places them in Prakriti. If He doesn’t wake them up and place them in Prakriti, they sit within Maha Vishnu sleeping. So, only by the will of the Lord, do the Jivas enter into Prakriti. And we know that along with the Jiva, we have Paramatma. So, this Paramatma helps the Jivas fulfill their desires in the material world. He arranges for their survival. He arranges for their reproduction.
And He also arranges for their destruction. Similarly, with the whole of the material world, at a certain point, the Lord decides to destroy everything. So, all the material elements dissolve into Prakriti. So, the Jivas are left without gross body or subtle body. All the Jivas merge into the Supreme Lord. And therefore, no universes, no bodies are manifested. All this takes place by the will of the Lord.
To do all of this, the Lord does not have to exert any energy. In the material world, if we want to do an activity, we have to exert energy. And if we keep exerting energy after some time, we become tired. But the Supreme Lord does not have to exert energy. He never becomes tired. Everything simply happens by the will of the Lord.
So, for devotees in the material world, first they have material bodies, gross and subtle. So, these are also operating by the laws of material nature under Prakriti. So, the Lord generally does not interfere with those laws. So, the devotee has to eat and breathe and drink water like other living entities. However, the Jiva within the body is different from the other Jivas. The Jiva is favorable to the Lord. The result of that is, the Lord takes special interest in that Jiva. And the interest in the Jiva is demonstrated by the powers that he gives to that particular Jiva.
So, by empowering the devotees or Jivas, then they can do extraordinary activities. Even the Devatas are devotees of the Lord. And whatever powers they have are also given by the Supreme Lord because they are devotees. The great sages are also empowered by the Supreme Lord. Brahma is empowered by the Supreme Lord. In fact, Brahma is called a Guna Avatar. Devatas are not called Avatars generally, except when the Lord himself becomes Indra. Otherwise, they are called Vibhutis of the Lord. Some Jivas, of course, have special positions, they are called Shakti-avesha Avatars. They are given special power, like Devatas and Sages, but this power is eternal. So, these Jivas have eternal bodies and with eternal Shakti of the Lord. Now, the normal Jivas who perform Bhakti, they may not be like Devatas or like Shakti-avesha Avatars, but they are also favored by the Supreme Lord with special power.
So, Arjuna recognizes that all of his powers, whatever remarkable things he could do, was because of Supreme Lord. Of course, we would say, well, these powers should also be eternal. But here we see, Arjuna’s powers were all taken away. So, in one sense, taken away, but this is temporary. But in past times, the Lord can give or take away powers as he pleases. So, for this particular past time of his disappearance, he shows that all the powers of Arjuna are coming from Supreme Lord, and therefore, if he wants to, he can take them away [Laughs]. We also know, in the other universes where Krishna have past times with the Pandavas, Arjuna has all of his powers again. And in the spiritual world, Arjuna is there, he has all of his powers. So, this past time simply illustrates that the Lord can withdraw his powers whenever he wants [Laughs].
So, as I said, the Lord favors the devotee. And according to the type of devotee, he will give different powers. Sometimes, he may give powers because that particular devotee wants powers. So, that’s why he gives powers to Devatas and Lord Brahma. Those who are on a higher level, don’t want any powers. Yeah, Supreme Lord feels obligated to give something to the devotees. And the reason for this is, the Lord likes to see the devotee glorified. So, the Lord desired that Yudhishthira, his great devotee, rule the world. One purpose, of course, was to restore Dharma. But the other reason is, to show the world the wonderful qualities of Yudhishthira. All the people appreciated and they glorified Yudhishthira. So, the Lord gives qualities and powers to the devotee, and then the devotee gets glorified by everybody else. Yeah, the Lord is pleased that people honor the devotees. Of course, these people who honor the devotees, they also become devotees. So, in this way, the Lord creates inspiration for the devotees. Inspiration in the material world for taking to the path of bhakti.
So, as I said, the devotees don’t really want powers and qualities, whatever, they only want to serve the Lord. Similarly, Jiva is powerless. So, the Lord gives the devotee the ability to serve purely. And thus, all of his wonderful activities and qualities and powers are coming from Supreme Lord. So, thus we say that advancement in bhakti ultimately is because of mercy of the Lord. In chapter 12 of Bhagavad Gita, when Arjuna asked the question, which is better, Brahman and Jnana or Bhakti-yoga? Krishna answers, Bhakti is superior. It is much easier and quicker. And then Krishna explains, he says, I personally deliver the devotee. Of course, process of bhakti is necessary, but once the devotee does the process, the Lord helps the devotee. So, the Lord says, very quickly, I will deliver the devotee. So, therefore, through the process of bhakti, we invoke mercy of the Lord. If we don’t do any bhakti, of course, the Lord is somewhat merciful. If we do bhakti, the Lord is very merciful.
So, we have the combination of our endeavors, mercy of the Lord. So, the devotee always realizes this. And therefore, we always see in Bhagavatam, the very great devotees, they are always begging for the mercy of the Lord. What mercy do they want? They simply want the ability to serve the Lord perfectly. And certainly, the Lord agrees to do that. So, He gave facility to the Pandavas to serve nicely.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A
1) First, you explained regarding this, when Lord unmanifested, all the Jivas goes back to the body of Lord Mahavishnu and sleeps there. So, my question is that, since soul is in four states, how does the soul take rest there without any activities?
So, when pralaya takes place, all the material elements, including the subtle elements and the subtle body are destroyed. So, there is a Jiva with no gross body and no subtle body. So, we have our states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. But all this is connected with the gross body and the subtle body. If they are not there, we won’t have that anymore. But the fourth state actually is beyond the material world. That’s some realization. So, those Jivas who enter into Mahavishnu have not achieved that realization otherwise, they would be liberated. So, we cannot say, therefore, they are in the fourth state, in the Mahavishnu. And for that reason, when the Lord manifests material world again, those Jivas go back into the material world and suddenly their karmas reappear from previous lifetime. They get stuck back on them in their subtle body and gross body. So, in Mahavishnu is something like the third state, the deep sleep state.
So, sometimes even the deep sleep state is kind of equated with the fourth state because there is no activity in your mind or whatever. But then you wake up and you come back to your body with all your desires and karmas, etc. So, in the deep sleep state, we can say that for a short period of time, the gross body and subtle body are not functioning. But nevertheless, your karmas are still there, everything is still there. And then again, you go back into waking state, everything continues. So, when everything is destroyed and Prakriti is sleeping and whatever, then the Jivas are in like this deep sleep state and everything is suspended, but the karmas are not destroyed, and they are waiting for them. So, when the Jivas awaken and the Lord sticks them into Prakriti, then immediately their karmas stick back on them again and they enter into bodies.
Devotee: So, in the Mahavishnu body, we take the Jiva as a deep sleep state. That means, although there is subtle body and gross body are not there. So, when the next manifestation starts and the soul again gets the subtle body and gross body according to previous karma and other things. So, the question is that, where is the impression that all the karmas and everything remain once the Jiva goes to the body of Mahavishnu?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Those not really described in the scriptures where those karmas reside, but it is made point that they are not destroyed. So, we can say they are inactive, and they are with the Jiva, but in no way influencing the Jiva in that state.
2) Here we see before Arjuna had so much power and Arjuna accepted that it was because of the Supreme Lord and now when the Lord took from him the power temporarily, then he became powerless. So, someone might ask question also like this you know that the Jivas are in the spiritual world and he was endowed with svarupa shakti of the Lord, when Lord wills He can withdraw that energy also. Question is, does the Lord withdraw the energy? Same thing can happen in the spiritual world also.
So, yes, in the spiritual world, the Lord can do whatever he wants. And of course, He does things in the spiritual world which are favorable for developing pastimes. And the Lord can appear or disappear at will. So, He may disappear, but it is a short period of time, because if it is too long, then this will disrupt the rasa. And for the Jivas in the spiritual world, He has the power to take away powers or add powers or whatever.
For the Jivas in the spiritual world, he has the power to take away powers or add powers or whatever. We even see with Balaram, for one year, during the stealing of the gods, Balaram also got bewildered, He didn’t know His power of knowledge got taken away. So, in the spiritual world, we have a type of maya, yoga maya. And when yoga maya acts, those Jivas get their power of knowledge taken away. But it’s never permanent.
3) Thank you Maharaj. Maharaj made a point that in case of the Supreme Lord, just by His will, things happen and He doesn’t have to exert energy, He does not become tired. In the case of examples like Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, when He was in old age, apparently looked good. And again, Srila Prabhupada in his old age, they were able to accomplish extraordinary seva for the society. So, what kind of shakti, what is the power Maharaj? Just the bhakti shakti, they are able to accomplish this. Though externally they appear not good.
So, if devotees are in this material world and they have prema, then they still have a material body. So, that creates some sort of obstacle. If they are Nithya siddha devotees living in the material world, they don’t have material body at all. In the spiritual world, no material body at all. So, in the spiritual world, old age is not an obstruction. There may be elders in the spiritual world that may be for pastimes.
In the material world, if we do have a material body, then at a certain time the body grows, matures, decays and then dies. But those devotees are not really aware of that body. They are absorbed in past times with Krishna. So, of course, that external body acts as some sort of obstacle. At a certain point, Lord will take that away and then they are free they only have a spiritual body.
4) Maharaj, you mentioned that all the living entities, they get the power from the Supreme Lord. So, the demons, they get the power, but they use that power to destroy the Lord Himself or cause harm to the devotees. So, why does the Lord use such power which causes harm to the devotees? Demons like Hiranyakashipu was causing harm to Prahlad. So, why does the Lord use such power to the demons that cause harm to the devotees?
Of course, we can say that he got the blessing from Brahma and we can also say that ultimately all the powers of Brahma must come from Supreme Lord. However, we see that the Lord does give individual free will to Brahma. And even to Shiva or other devatas. And sometimes they give blessings to demons and the demons do very destructive things. So, of course, sometimes this is for illustrating something. It’s a pastime. The Lord will permit demons to do certain things in order to show and glorify the devotees.
Other times, of course, it’s not that the Lord directly permits, but He’s allowing the Jivas to exercise their free will. So, we see at the beginning of Brahma’s creation, he creates demons and devotees. Why? Because He was born according to his karma. We can say that God is controlling karma. But the Lord doesn’t really interfere with the law of karma.
So then, who creates the demons? Ultimately, the demons create the karma by which they get particular demonic bodies. So, in other words, the Jivas, by their free will, create all these different demonic bodies etc.,
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj, what is the final goal of Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam? What is the lesson that we have to learn?
So, if we look at Bhagavad Gita, the final lesson is – Surrender to Me. And the whole purpose of Bhagavatam is the same, Surrender to Krishna.
6) When we chant the Krishna’s name, we call it as Nama Sankirtan. And then we say Lila, also Lila Kirtan. But when we do both Nama and Lila together, do we call it in a different name? Like both Nama Sankirtan and Lila together?
Well, if Lila Kirtan means we describe a pastime, let’s say, the pastime of lifting the Govardhan Hill and we put it into singing, that becomes Lila Kirtan.
The names of Krishna are obviously there, but they are put within sentences. When we do Nama Kirtan, it’s only the names of the Lord, no sentences at all.
7) Shall the servant realize God is equally pleased when he chants Hare Krishna Mantra and other services like sharing Krishna Katha? How can a servant realize God is equally pleased by his chanting and other services?
Even the Lord is pleased with Ajamila saying the name of the Lord.
So, it is said in Bhagavatam, if you chant while being bitten by a snake, beaten by sticks, falling off a cliff or whatever, even then, the Lord is pleased and you get some good effect from it. So ultimately, we can know from scripture. Of course, by chanting the name seriously, then we will go through different stages of bhakti, ultimately, we get bhava and prema, so we realize Krishna. So, we only advance because of mercy of the Lord.
8) You mentioned when Jiva gets into Vishnu, they don’t have gross or subtle body. Then what happens to this mind, intelligence and ego?
Well, mind, intelligence, ego etc. is part of the subtle body. They are elements. All the elements merge into Prakriti.
9) In Maha Vishnu, when the Jiva is in deep sleep, the karmas are stuck to the soul. How they again come back when they wake up?
So, all depends on the will of the Lord. But Supreme Lord also acts because of desire of Jivas. So, after resting for some time in Maha Vishnu, the Jivas start to wake up. So, therefore, when they start to wake up and get restless, the Lord places them into Prakriti along with their karmas.
10) Though Krishna is the source of all living entities, they become Nitya Siddha or Nitya Bhadda because of their free will. So, are they becoming Nitya Siddha or Nitya Bhadda because of their free will?
There is no becoming, because it is eternal. So, we can say they are eternally choosing to serve the Lord eternally.
11) Does chanting of the names of Lord Vishnu and the name of Gauranga Prabhu has the same potency?
Well, Gauranga and Krishna are more or less the same. There is a slight difference. So, it is described that Krishna is predominated by sweetness or madhurya. And Lord Chaitanya is predominated by auvdharya, which means compassion. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu uses his compassion to spread the madhurya rasa.
12) In Chaitanya caritamrita Madhya lila 11.143, it is said each and every Vaishnava copied the two books, by and by the two books of Brahma Samhita and Krishna Karnamrita. So, those two books were copied and were broadcasted all over India. So, will you be able to explain this statement, Maharaj?
See I guess what it means is that, nobody knew about these books previously. So, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu copied them up and then he gave it to His devotees and they began to spread it to other places. And if Lord Krishna hadn’t done that, they would have disappeared. No one would know.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!!!