Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.18.30 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Dec 03, 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 18 Verse 30.
ŚB 1.18.30
स तु ब्रह्मऋषेरंसे गतासुमुरगं रुषा ।
विनिर्गच्छन्धनुष्कोट्या निधाय
पुरमागत: ॥ ३० ॥
sa tu brahma-ṛṣer aṁse
gatāsum uragaṁ ruṣā
vinirgacchan dhanuṣ-koṭyā
nidhāya puram āgataḥ
Synonyms
saḥ — the King; tu — however; brahma-ṛṣeḥ — of the brāhmaṇa sage; aṁse — on the shoulder; gata-asum — lifeless; uragam — snake; ruṣā — in anger; vinirgacchan — while leaving; dhanuḥ-koṭyā — with the front of the bow; nidhāya — by placing it; puram — palace; āgataḥ — returned.
Translation
While leaving, the King, being so insulted, picked up a lifeless snake with his bow and angrily placed it on the shoulder of the sage. Then he returned to his palace.
Purport
The King thus treated the sage tit for tat, although he was never accustomed to such silly actions. By the will of the Lord, the King, while going away, found a dead snake in front of him, and he thought that the sage, who had coldly received him, thus might be coldly rewarded by being offered a garland of a dead snake. In the ordinary course of dealing, this was not very unnatural, but in the case of Mahārāja Parīkṣit’s dealing with a brāhmaṇa sage, this was certainly unprecedented. It so happened by the will of the Lord.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, here we see the final result of Pariksit’s anger. So he put a dead snake on the shoulder of the sage. Of course, garlands are given as a sign of welcome. So, Pariksit was not welcomed properly. And so, Pariksit responded by not welcoming the sage, or respecting the sage properly, so he put not a garland, but a dead snake on his shoulder.
Now first of all, Pariksit being afflicted by hunger and thirst was rather strange. Then he became angry, that was strange. And to become angry at a Brahmana was also even further strange. Furthermore, the sage was in Samadhi, so this is very, very strange. And then finally, he put the dead snake on the sage, so this is also very strange. So, such conduct is not proper for a devotee, or even a regular king. But for a great devotee like Pariksit to do this was most unnatural.
The qualities of the devotee are superior to the qualities of a Brahmana. And if one is a devotee king or Kshatriya or Vaishya or Sudra or whatever, his qualities are superior to those of a Brahmana. So, if a Brahmana shows some bad quality, we do not respond by showing another bad quality. After all, the devotee develops his good qualities because he is always absorbed in serving the Lord. The Lord is full of all wonderful qualities. The Lord never shows any bad quality. So the devotees are the same.
And if the devotee shows a bad quality as in this case, then we have to explain how is it possible. And thus, Prabhupada again says, it’s the will of the Lord. In other words, we cannot put blame on Pariksit Maharaj. We cannot blame him for hunger and thirst, for anger or for putting the snake on the Brahmana. Of course, this is not stated here in the text itself. But it must be the conclusion based upon logic. If we find fault in a Nitya Siddha devotee, then that’s impossible. Just as we cannot find fault in the Supreme Lord, if we find fault, it’s not a real fault. And thus, whatever fault appears, is not because of ignorance of Pariksit Maharaj, it’s because of Yogamaya of the Lord. So, the Lord sometimes arranges for such irregular activities under Yogamaya for a higher purpose. Higher purpose is to reveal Srimad Bhagavatam to everybody in this world.
Of course, Vyasadeva had written the Bhagavatam already. But, it was the will of the Lord that it should manifest to everyone through the mouth of Sukadeva Goswami. So, why is it necessary to be spoken by Sukadeva Goswami? But, that is also pointed out in the beginning of Bhagavatam, where it says it came from the mouth of Suka. And, of course, it is not stated directly in that verse, but the implication is that Bhagavatam became sweeter.
So, in the purport, Prabhupada explains why it became sweeter. So, he compares the sweetness of the Bhagavatam to mango. Of course, it’s by nature, sweet. So, Bhagavatam also by nature is sweet or spiritually sweet. And of course, this Bhagavatam, unlike material fruit, does not have a seed. It does not have skin. It does not have stringy fibres in it. You don’t have to chew it. You drink it. But you drink through the ears. But it is said when the parrot nibbles on the mango, it becomes sweeter. Similarly, when the Bhagavatam came from the mouth of Sukadeva Goswami, it became sweeter also.
Of course, this is also natural according to the person who speaks scripture, it will have various levels of depth and sweetness. Of course, scripture itself is pure, it is non-different from the Supreme Lord. Just like cow milk is pure. But depending on who speaks the scripture, then it can change its qualities. So, if the Bhagavatam or other scriptures are spoken by a materialist, it becomes poison. What happened to the milk? Well, we know that the snake, if he drinks the milk, then he puts some poison in the milk. And, people hear Bhagavatam, they think they are getting milk or something sweet, and they also get the poison. So, people think they are getting something spiritual, but they cannot distinguish the poison from the milk, so to speak, so therefore, they also take the poison, and then they get contaminated.
So, if a devotee speaks, then no poison. But, devotees are on different levels of advancement and realization. And the higher they are in advancement and realization, then the sweeter, the Bhagavatam becomes. But because Sukadeva Goswami attained the highest level of realization, then Bhagavatam became sweetest. And because it was so sweet, then Pariksit became completely absorbed in hearing that Bhagavatam. And not only he became completely absorbed in it, even Vedavyasa, the author, when he heard through Sukadeva, he became absorbed in it. And even Narada Muni became absorbed in Bhagavatam when he heard through Sukadeva. So therefore, this arrangement is made for Sukadeva to speak to Pariksit Maharaj.
But, up till this point, though Sukadeva Goswami had learned Bhagavatam, he had never spoken it to anyone. So, how to get him to speak? So, he needs a qualified listener. Pariksit Maharaj was the qualified listener. So this was the arrangement by which Sukadeva would speak and Pariksit Maharaj would listen. To make arrangement for that, then we have this whole, Pariksit getting thirsty and then becoming angry and then putting the snake on the sage. So, this was an arrangement or a pretext. By this arrangement, Pariksit Maharaj gave up the kingdom. So he had the opportunity to completely absorb himself in hearing Bhagavatam. Of course, we can say, well, why did he have to get curse and die? So, for a devotee like Pariksit, death is not important at all.
So, Pariksit became absorbed in Bhagavatam, he did not care about death. He was fasting, but he did not mind the fasting, he was unaware of that because he was so absorbed in drinking Bhagavatam. And so, by this, he illustrates for the people of the world, the great attraction that the devotee has for hearing the topics of the Lord. Such that, even though he was a king, he had no attachment to his kingdom and even though he was about to die, he had no fear of death.
So not only did Pariksit hear about the topics of the Lord, he heard especially about topics of Krishna. And Sukadeva Goswami delivered those topics with the utmost sweetness. So, all this was arranged through this particular pastime in which Pariksit acts completely abnormally. But, we don’t blame Pariksit as we do not blame Arjuna for falling into illusion before the battle of Kurukshetra. Rather, we see it’s an arrangement of the Lord and we look at the very positive result. So, just as Arjuna heard Bhagavad Gita and then surrendered completely to Krishna, so Pariksit hears Srimad Bhagavatam and becomes completely absorbed in the sweetness of Krishna.
So, all people should follow this example, take inspiration from it and become completely absorbed in Bhagavatam.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, you have explained that milk becomes poison when materialistic people recite the Bhagavatam or we hear from them. So, what is that poison? Is it their materialistic idea or something else?
So, of course, the opposite is the sweetness. What is the nectar or whatever from scripture? The nectar is that, we become completely absorbed in serving Krishna. The side effect is that, we become completely detached from material enjoyment. So, if a devotee recites, then that nectar becomes visible or experienced. But, if one is not a devotee, not surrendered to the Lord, not accept the Lord, he must accept something else [Laughs].
He could be a mayavadi. He could be a karmakandi. He could be a logician. He could be a gross materialist. And so, when they read Bhagavatam, they don’t really understand and accept the sweetness. So, according to their own impressions, they will describe it differently and there is no sweetness [Laughs]. Consequently people hear that, they do not develop attraction to Krishna. Instead, they develop attraction to whatever that speaker has got in his mind [Laughs]. So, everything, everything other than Krishna is like poison [Laughs].
2.) In the Bhagavatam, because Bhagavatam came from Sukadeva Goswami, that’s why it became like amrita. But we don’t hear anything such kind of things about Bhagavad Gita that Bhagavad Gita came from such a person, so it became like amrita.
Of course, Bhagavad Gita came directly from Krishna’s mouth, so that we can’t have anything higher than that [Laughs].
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. From Vaishnavas perspective we say that, Maharaj Parikshit got bewildered by internal energy. Arjuna got bewildered by the will of the Lord. But, whether there is any indication in that particular episode here or in Bhagavad Gita, that these two devotees got bewildered by the will of the Lord, in the original slokas, whether some guidings are there in that respect?
As I said, for the text itself, it’s not mentioned, oh, they were not actually bewildered, it doesn’t say that. So, we come to that conclusion because these are nitya siddha devotees, so they shouldn’t have any fault. So, if they have some fault, material fault like illusion or lamentation or anger etc., we have to explain, how is it possible for a nitya siddha devotee to have material faults.
The same thing applies to Supreme Lord. If we see a fault of the Lord, how can He have fault [Laughs]? So, Krishna gets shot in the foot by a hunter, then He dies. How is that possible [Laughs]? So, if we accept Krishna is a material being, fine, yes, He gets shot and He dies. We accept that. But, the whole of the Bhagavatam is there to show us that Krishna is the highest form of God, who has no material body and no fault at all.
So, therefore, this story of Krishna getting shot in the foot and dying does not make any sense. So, we have to explain it in another way. So, in the case of Krishna getting shot in the foot, there was an arrangement of the Lord Himself to fool materialists. In this case and in Arjuna’s case, it is not to fool anybody, any materialist, but it is the arrangement of the Lord so that Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita could get spoken.
Devotee: There is one verse in 3rd canto 2nd chapter 10th verse says that, devasya māyayā spṛṣṭā ye cānyad asad-āśritāḥ bhrāmyate dhīr na tad-vākyair ātmany uptātmano harau. So, Prabhupada translated this, Under no circumstances can the words of persons bewildered by the illusory energy of the Lord deviate the intelligence of those who are completely surrendered souls. So, I feel that this verse explains that, those who are surrendered souls, they are never bewildered by this illusory energy. So this verse says like this.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah.
4.) Sometimes we hear that Sukadeva Goswami is Srimati Radharani’s parrot. Is there some reference for that or is it just a folklore?
So, the Goswamis have not mentioned that anywhere in their purports or anywhere. So, it’s coming from somewhere else. I don’t know who, but [Laughs].
5.) You explained how, if you hear Bhagavatam from a non-devotee, you don’t get the sweetness. At the same time, you get what they want. So, whatever they want is not Krishna. So, it‘s poison. But in regard to the sweetness, is it that they don’t experience any sweetness because they have some feelings, they cry and all that, but then Prabhupada says they go home and drink beedi. But they are actually experiencing something. Is there some material thing what they are experiencing?
So, we have material emotions and spiritual emotions. So, the spiritual emotions develop in bhava and prema. Of course, for a devotee even before that, we get some sort of happiness and satisfaction from bhakti. So, this gives us some joy. So, on the other hand, someone who is still identifying with his material body and material senses and mind will get happiness, which is completely material. And if he displays symptoms of ecstasy or whatever when he is a complete materialist, then it must be all fake. So, this is called pratibimba ratyābhāsa in Nectar of Devotion. And that is completely condemned.
But then, there are some people who are not materialists and they are not pretending. They have some devotional sentiments. And from hearing Bhagavatam or explaining Bhagavatam, they may develop some symptoms, which are not fake symptoms. But they are not imitation symptoms meant to fool people. So, this is called chāya ratyābhāsa. So, it is not real sattvika bhavas etc, but at the same time, it is not fake. So, therefore, it’s not real symptoms of bhava or prema, at the same time it’s not imitation. It’s some side effect of their emotional thing, which could may be, say, some mixture [Laughs] of material and spiritual.
Devotee: Is that referring to devotees or non-devotees Maharaj, what you are talking just now?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh yeah, well, they may be devotees, beginning devotees or whatever like that. So, they have, they like to cry a lot or whatever, may be that’s their nature [Laughs], anyway, very sentimental. So, when they hear Bhagavatam, they will cry and whatever like that, but they are not that advanced.
6.) Maharaj, in the ceto–darpana marjanam verse, it is explained how when we cleanse the mirror of the heart, then Krishna manifests, so in one sense it looks like, as we are progressing also, there is a manifestation of the Lord, but on the other hand you are explaining how only in bhava and prema, the bliss is manifested, so what exactly is happening before that, what is the source of the bliss?
So, we are practicing bhakti in sadhana, so that bhakti also is spiritual, it’s not material, it’s the shakti of the Lord, internal shakti of the Lord. And it’s just like the name, name is pure and it is non-different from Krishna, you will get prema, but at the beginning stages, we don’t experience the prema. So, in the beginning stages of bhakti, then we have all these anarthas, we have various obstructions and coverings.
So, this will prevent us, the jiva, from experiencing the non-difference of name or bhakti from Krishna. At the same time, it is still there, where as in karma, jnana and yoga, there is no svarupa shakti of the Lord present at all. So though it is covered and the devotee does not experience bhava or prema or ananda, still there is an experience which is completely different from practicing karma, jnana or yoga.
So, as a person practices bhakti, two things happen. The anarthas decrease and the bhakti in the jiva grows like a plant. So that combination of getting rid of the anarthas and the growth itself reveals more and more of the real nature of bhakti. So at the stage of bhava, enough anarthas are gone and the bhakti is mature enough that it manifests as ananda.
Devotee: So that happiness is a feature of svarupa shakti Maharaj? Is it a feature of svarupa shakti, the happiness that we feel until we reach bhava bhakti?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So bhakti, like the name, is non-different from Krishna ultimately in sadhana, bhava and prema. So, it’s, it’s always full of its potency, but we cannot access it, that’s all.
7.) Maharaj, the question is, Bhagavatam becomes sweeter when Sukadeva spoke. So how do we understand that Sukadeva being the disciple of Vyasadeva became more glorious than the original author? Does it mean devotee based on their level can have higher realization than the author?
Yes, this is a good illustration of the fact that Sukadeva being the son and also a disciple of Vedavyasa had a greater realization. How is that possible? Of course, Vyasadeva himself is the incarnation of the Lord, so we cannot say that he has inferior realization in one sense. However, even in full realization, due to the nature of the particular jiva and the mercy of Krishna, they can develop various types of realization.
So, Sukadeva’s particular realization was that he could appreciate the madhurya rasa expressed in the Bhagavatam. So how is it possible? I would say his own nature is one and the other is the mercy of the Lord. Of course, if another person appreciates sakhya rasa, that cannot be criticized. It is also mercy of the Lord.
So there are variety of devotees in varieties of rasa with various intensities of rasa. And there is great variety in the spiritual world. And of course, that’s there because there are varieties of jivas. And Krishna Himself displays variety of rasas. And in one sense, we cannot say one is superior to the other, but in terms of intensity, ultimately madhurya rasa is placed at the top.
8.) There is a popular belief that Parikshit Maharaj was led to put the snake around the sage’s neck because kali was on his golden crown. How can we see this and how can we understand this?
Well, I don’t know about that. Is that in a purport in Bhagavatam? No, I haven’t heard that. I don’t think the Goswamis explained anything.
Devotee: It is only a belief, Maharaj. It is not in Bhagavatam.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, yeah. It’s a belief. No, it’s not discussed by the Goswamis [Laughs].
9.) How to find we are in which diction internally? Will it come from mind or from intelligence or from supersoul dictation. Kindly clarify in depth.
How to find?
Devotee: Which diction? Okay Maharaj, let us leave the question.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Stage or rasa?
Devotee: Which stage, which stage internally? Which stage Maharaj? How to find we are in which stage of bhakti? Whether it will come from mind or from intelligence or from supersoul dictating from inside? Kindly clarify.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, oneself we can ask, how do we understand Bhagavad Gita? So, we have to use our mind and intelligence. You cannot stop the functions of mind and intelligence and understand by some other method. So, though mind and intelligence are material elements or senses, they can also be useful in the progress of bhakti. And in fact, definition of sadhana bhakti in Nectar of Devotion is, engagement of your senses and mind in serving Krishna. So, if we use our mind, intelligence and our senses in serving Krishna, somehow or other by understanding Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam, it doesn’t have a material effect, it has spiritual effect. Instead of involving us more in the material world, it destroys all our bondage to karma.
10.) How to rectify the fault finding tendency which we have? Soul doesn’t have tendency to find fault but naturally mind finds fault with others. It drags inside us to create wrong opinion about others. So, how can we save ourself from this fault finding activity?
So, fault finding is just one among many anarthas. And all of anarthas are obstacles to our progress in bhakti. And of course, bhakti itself is opposite of all the anarthas. Bhakti means to serve Krishna with no personal motivation. And if we do that sincerely, then automatically, we develop all good qualities and we destroy all anarthas. So, one stage of bhakti is called anartha nivrtti, then we get to nishtha. So, by the performance of bhakti, we begin to destroy the anarthas.
11.) How one can develop humility and become selfless?
Well, these are intrinsic to bhakti itself. So, if we are practicing bhakti, then these should be the qualities that automatically manifest. If they don’t manifest, it means we are not doing bhakti properly. So we have to strive to do bhakti with the proper attitude at all time.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!