Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.18.50 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Dec 24, 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 50.
ŚB 1.18.50
प्रायश: साधवो लोके परैर्द्वन्द्वेषु योजिता: ।
न व्यथन्ति न हृष्यन्ति यत आत्माऽगुणाश्रय: ॥ ५० ॥
prāyaśaḥ sādhavo loke
parair dvandveṣu yojitāḥ
na vyathanti na hṛṣyanti
yata ātmā ’guṇāśrayaḥ
Synonyms
prāyaśaḥ — generally; sādhavaḥ — saints; loke — in this world; paraiḥ — by others; dvandveṣu — in duality; yojitāḥ — being engaged; na — never; vyathanti — distressed; na — nor; hṛṣyanti — takes pleasure; yataḥ — because; ātmā — self; aguṇa-āśrayaḥ — transcendental.
Translation
Generally the transcendentalists, even though engaged by others in the dualities of the material world, are not distressed. Nor do they take pleasure [in worldly things], for they are transcendentally engaged.
Purport
The transcendentalists are the empiric philosophers, the mystics and the devotees of the Lord. Empiric philosophers aim at the perfection of merging into the being of the Absolute, mystics aim at perceiving the all-pervading Supersoul, and the devotees of the Lord are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Personality of Godhead. Since Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān are different phases of the same Transcendence, all these transcendentalists are beyond the three modes of material nature. Material distresses and happinesses are products of the three modes, and therefore the causes of such material distress and happiness have nothing to do with the transcendentalists. The King was a devotee, and the ṛṣi was a mystic. Therefore both of them were unattached to the accidental incident created by the supreme will. The playful child was an instrument in fulfilling the Lord’s will.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse is an explanation of the behaviour of both Pariksit and the sage. And it says that they are not affected by the dualities of the world. And thus they do not feel pain, nor do they rejoice. So at all times, what we call dualities are present in the world. We define the world in terms of opposites. And ultimately it depends on our own perception. So, some things are defined as very nice and very good, because they give us happiness. Other things are defined as very bad, because they give us distress. But everybody is distressed or happy by different things. So some people like sweet things, some people don’t like sweet things. Some people like chillies, some people don’t like chillies. So the idea of what is good and bad is relative to the individual person.
But as Bhagavad Gita explains, people are controlled by these dualities. And they become bewildered by them. So because something is very desirable, I would do all sorts of activities to get that object. And if something is disagreeable, I would do all sorts of activities to destroy that object. And all these actions based on dualities give rise to karma. And thus we get bound up in the material world. And the origin of all that is our perception of duality. And of course this is caused by the identity of a Jiva with his material body. Some things give pleasure to the body, some things give pain to the body. So we identify with the body, why? because of ahankara. How do we get the ahankara? Of course we cannot trace out, because it was a previous birth with the previous ahankara, previous birth like this, so more or less we can say it is without beginning in the material world. But the philosophers, they will explain that ultimately all of this ahankara, identity with material body is caused by avidya, ignorance. And if we define that ignorance, we will have several definitions. And one definition of course, ignorance means, I think I am the body. But that is the equivalent of ahankara again. So then what causes that? Ultimately we say this is a weakness in the Jiva himself. Jiva can make mistakes. And thus the Jiva makes this mistake of thinking he can enjoy nicely in the material world with the material body, so therefore he identifies with matter and then he has dualities.
So, to get rid of the repeated births and the suffering and ultimately the actions and then the dualities behind that, we have to get rid of the ignorance. How do we get rid of ignorance? Knowledge. So this is where we get Jnana Yoga, we practice knowledge to get rid of ignorance, dualities, karma and suffering. So we get rid of the ignorance, and what is the ignorance? I am the body. So that knowledge means, I am not the body. But then if I am not the body, what am I? So, the human being can speculate about this, and many people do, and they come up with different answers.
So I am not the body, what am I? I am nothing, that is Buddhism, nothing exists. If we look in the Upanishads and Vedanta Sutra, then what are we? Atma. So this is a statement often repeated in the Vedic literatures. And of course in Bhagavad Gita, we see this is stated in the second chapter itself. So this is the main goal of Jnana. So of course, the devotees, and of course other people as well, will get their knowledge or Jnana from Vedas. And if we go to the Vedas, we see there is other knowledge, not just Atma. So definitely Bhagavad Gita talks about Atma, and then it also talks about Ishvara, Supreme Lord. So we have two types of knowledge: Knowledge of Atma, and knowledge of Supreme Lord. However, even we talk about Supreme Lord, who is Supreme Lord? And then if we go to scripture, we’ll find even there, there are three different ideas.
So that is explained here in the purport, one can be transcendental and spiritual, but you could realize three aspects: Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan. But these are all non-material, and they’re all one. And the scripture will praise all of these aspects, sometimes it praises Brahman, sometimes it praises Paramatma, sometimes it praises Bhagavan. In that sense, the Vedic literature is quite generous, because they allow a wide range of realization. And they do not say, only this idea of God is correct, everything else you can’t do. So they say now you could worship as Brahman, Paramatma, or Bhagavan, so you’ve got choice. And we see that many religions of the world, generally, they have an idea of Brahman, and somewhat idea of Paramatma.
So in religion, the God idea is that God has no form, no qualities, no activities. So this is called Brahman. And Islam and Christianity are somewhere between this Brahman and a little bit of Paramatma. Unlike Brahman, Paramatma has activities. So, God is Paramatma, creates and destroys material world. So, most religions will also agree with that. However, the Vedic literature says, yes, Paramatma is creator and destroyer of the world, but he also has form. The next realization is Bhagavan, He also has form, what is the difference between Paramatma and Bhagavan? The activities and qualities of Paramatma are limited to material world. God who is the witness, creator and destroyer of the material world is Paramatma. So Bhagavan also has form, qualities and activities, but the activities are not in the material world at all.
This may be a little surprising to some people, some people say, well, God doesn’t create and destroy the world, what does He do? And the answer is, He plays. Just like we have people and they have jobs and they are working all day, 12 hours, 14 hours a day. But then they go home. So they go home, they also have activities. The activities are quite different. Those activities give much more joy. And the principal reason these activities give joy is because that person is developing personal relationships with others. But this is what happens in the spiritual world. The Lord is doing activities, but nothing in relation to creating and destroying the material world, He is developing relationships with devotees.
So this form of Bhagavan has greater bliss than the other forms. They are all blissful, because they are not material. But outside the material world, there are levels of bliss. So the impersonal conception of Brahman with no form and qualities is the lowest bliss. Realization of Paramatma gives higher bliss. But realization of Bhagavan gives the most bliss. So the individual has a choice, he can go for bliss, more bliss or most bliss. And because it’s all Supreme Lord, they are all good. But the logical or reasonable choice would be, everybody wants the most bliss, so therefore we choose Bhagavan.
So to realise these different aspects of God, there are different methods. Just like if you want to be a doctor, you have to study medicine, if you want to be a lawyer, you have to study law. So if we want to attain Brahman, the Lord with no form and qualities and activities, we practice Jnana Yoga. And in Jnana Yoga, we renounce and we discuss Vedanta. If we choose Paramatma realization, then we practice Astanga Yoga. And if we want realization of Bhagavan, we practice Bhakti Yoga. So there are specific methods to get specific realizations. And we cannot invent our own method. So these methods are described in the scriptures. And if we follow the method correctly, we get the result, we get realization. So it’s all spiritual, but nevertheless, within that realization, there are different degrees of bliss.
So Srimad Bhagavatam is recommending, we should go for realization of Bhagavan, and therefore we practice Bhakti Yoga. So many people will say, we prefer Brahman because Brahman is infinite, if we choose Bhagavan, He has a form, form is limited. But we should not think because Bhagavan has a form, therefore He is limited. Certainly in the material world, form is limited. Even if we take the biggest entity in the material world, the universe, it’s limited. However, spiritual form is completely different.
Of course, normally we think of Bhagavan like Krishna or Vishnu, having a medium-sized form. But simultaneously, that form can be bigger than the biggest and smaller than the smallest. And scripture tells us, this form cannot be measured. Not only that, that form is there, which has no measure, nevertheless we can conceive of it as a form, also it’s not one form, it’s many forms. So usually we think, okay, God has a form, then we say, well, what does that form look like? And then most people will think, okay, God has a form, and they’ll think of a human-like form. Even though we think of human form, this human form also is unlimited, it’s not like our form. But God can have unlimited forms. So He can have a human-like form as Ramachandra. Or a human-like form as Krishna. Actually, it’s one Supreme Lord, but He has different forms. And those forms will be a different colour, so Rama is green, Krishna is blue. And they can do different activities. So Rama rules the kingdom, Krishna plays with the cows. But God is not limited to human forms, so God can be Matsya avatar, fish, He can be Varaha, boar avatar, He can be Anantashesha, a snake, He can be Kurma, a turtle, He can be Hayagriva, a horse. He can be Hamsa avatar, a bird. So, in this way, the Lord has unlimited forms, with unlimited colours, with unlimited activities. And all these forms are unlimited in size. They’re all beyond material conception.
So, in this way, this idea of Bhagavan has no limits. He has unlimited forms, unlimited qualities, unlimited activities, unlimited colours, and unlimited dimensions. And the devotee can choose to worship any of these forms. And it’s all considered to be proper. So in this way, the Vedic literature presents a very broad concept of the Supreme Lord, which can accommodate all sorts of people. Nevertheless, Bhagavatam says that though all those forms are there, and they’re all spiritual, they’re all Bhagavan, nevertheless, the supreme form which gives the supreme bliss is Krishna.
So that is what is presented here, Sukadeva will speak to Pariksit. Pariksit Maharaj asked Sukadeva Gosvami ‘what should I do now that I’m going to die?’ So we don’t get a material answer like go to the hospital, get a doctor. You hear Srimad Bhagavatam, you learn all about Krishna. In other words, you try to attain the highest realization of God, this will give you the highest bliss eternally.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, you explained regarding this Brahman, to realize the Brahman, normally you need the Jnana, therefore the Jnana Yoga, so question is that, see we have many Upanishads, except one Upanishad, all the Upanishads explain about the Brahman, except Gopala Tapani Upanishad, others only explain about Krishna, but all the other Upanishads dedicated to normally Brahman only, and we also know that Upanishads are like essence of the Vedas, so why it is so,so much Upanisads dedicated to Brahman?
If we take the commentaries of the Acharyas, they will say that if we examine Chandogya Upanishad or Brihadaranyaka Upanishad or Mundaka Upanishad, then you will also see, yes it talks about Atma, Brahman, but it also talks about Supreme Lord with form. And in Svetasvatara Upanishad, of course, more directly it talks about the form of God. Nevertheless, the appearance is that it is prominently speaking about the impersonal Brahman. But even that word Brahman can also refer to the Parabrahman, Bhagavan.
So therefore, the Brahma Sutras talk about, okay, we have to inquire about Brahman. And then the Acharyas say, what’s Brahman? So then Ramanujacharya says, it’s Narayana [Laughs]. Nimbarkacharya says, it’s Krishna. And then to defend that interpretation, they start quoting different scriptures and different definitions of what Brahman means. So therefore, there’s an appearance that is talking about impersonal Brahman, but not necessarily, even in the main Upanishads. So the Upanishads are called the Jnana Khanda of the Vedas. But that Jnana has two parts to it. And one aspect is the Brahman, impersonal aspect, the other is the Bhagavan aspect. So the Brahma Sutras were written to clarify the meaning of the Upanishads.
Then the Mahabharata, including Bhagavad Gita, and the Puranas, including Bhagavatam, were written to clarify the Brahma Sutras and the Upanishads. And as we see here in the first canto itself, it is told how the Bhagavatam is the final conclusion of all of that. And as we’re talking now, it accepts there is Brahman realization, impersonal aspect of God with no form, qualities and activities, fine, but there’s also the Paramatma feature, there’s also the Bhagavan feature. So, of course, at the beginning of the Bhagavatam, it says, this is conclusion of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, this the natural commentary on the Brahma Sutras, ‘Atato Brahma Jijnasa’, and then it says, everything comes from Brahman. So, therefore, whatever is in the Vedas, the Upanishads are also in Bhagavatam, and the conclusion is more clearly stated in Bhagavatam.
2.) You explained in the class that Paramatma is limited to the material world. But we also know that Paramatma, like you said that Garbodakasayi Vishnu is the Bija for all the avatars. And also as Garbodakasayi Vishnu is Paramatma for all the Brahmanda. But all the avatars also have their own planets in the spiritual world. So how can we say that Garbodakasayi Vishnu is the source for all the avatars, but all the avatars are those who are playing the role in the material world, they also have their planets in the spiritual world. How can we say they are limited then?
So one of the functions of Garbodakasayi Vishnu is of course to produce Brahma, who creates all of the planets and the bodies for the living entities. In the spiritual world, there is no need to create bodies or anything or planets, they are already there eternally and are spiritual. Garbodakasayi Vishnu is the means by which avatars appear in the material world. Those avatars are not carrying out material functions. But definitely they are appearing in the material world to help Jivas. But they are functioning in the material world. These forms are eternal.
Those same forms are in the spiritual world. But even Garbodakasayi Vishnu, Mahavishnu, are also in the spiritual world, Shankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, they look exactly the same [Laughs]. But when they are in the spiritual world, their function is a little bit different. They don’t have to deliver the fallen souls because there are no fallen souls there. What are they doing? They are having pastimes with devotees.
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, In the Siddha Lokas, the demons who are killed by Krishna and the sages who meditate on the impersonal Brahman, they attain the Siddha Loka. In what form are they in Siddha Loka, Maharaj?
So in Brahman, the Atma is there, he is not destroyed, but he has no particular form. He doesn’t want a form. He likes formlessness.
4.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, we see in the 3rd chapter of Bhagavad Gita, 40th verse, where Krishna is explaining where the lust is seated. So he explains about the senses, the mind and the intelligence. And in the Purport, Srila Prabhupada is explaining that how the senses and then the mind becomes the repository of all the sensual desires. And then how the intelligence becomes the capital of sense gratification. And then Prabhupada is writing that intelligence is just next to the soul and because of this lusty intelligence, the soul acquires false identification. So apparently, it all starts with the, of course, with ignorance, but then this desire for sense gratification and the soul identifies itself as material body.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : What’s the question?
Devotee : So the source apparently seems to be the desire to enjoy material objects, the sensual objects. And because of that, the intelligence helps the soul to understand that it’s not spirit soul, but material body.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : What’s the question?
Devotee : I don’t know, Maharaj. So, I mean, the question, not as such, it’s just an observation that how Prabhupada explained the mechanics of how the soul acquires the false ego. Yeah.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : So ultimately, it’s not the, we don’t blame the mind or the senses because they are insentient. They can only get their consciousness from the Atma. So, body, senses, mind are all material, all matter is ignorance. One sense, but ultimately, if we’re talking about awareness and knowledge and consciousness, etc., that resides in the Atma. But though the Atma is conscious, he can also make mistakes. He can be in ignorance. And what is the ignorance? Of course, the ignorance is, ultimately, he doesn’t choose the Supreme Lord [Laughs].
So, if one chooses not to serve the Supreme Lord, what does he choose? So, he says, ultimately, let me enjoy by myself. So, that’s the first ignorance. And then, to assist the Jiva to enjoy by himself, he gets a false ego, he gets a material body, and then he thinks, I’m enjoying. So, the false ego and the senses and the mind intelligence are assistants to help him get the enjoyment. They’re always contributing factors, but ultimately, it is the Jiva behind that who is ignorant.
Devotee : So Maharaj in this , Thank you for that.
5.) So, Maharaj, thank you for that. In this section, when Arjuna is asking, what impels one to commit a sinful activity as if being driven by force, Krishna is not saying ignorance. Krishna is identifying the enemy as lust.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Which turns into anger. And anger is ignorance, tamo guna. But of course, even Rajoguna and Sattvaguna are ignorance [Laughs]. Ultimately, all desires arise or only arise from false ego that identifies with the body and the mind [Laughs].
6.) Maharaj in false ego also, there is different level. In that, forgetfulness is coming first. Is it right, Maharaj?
Well, of course, there are all sorts of ignorance. Even, as I said, Sattvaguna is also part of ignorance [Laughs] because it is also part of one guna. But then we can say forgetfulness and bewilderment, etc., are aspects of that ignorance.
7.) Jnani’s destination is Brahmajyoti. Bhakta’s destination is Goloka Vrindavan. What is the destination of yogis who attain Paramatma realization?
Paramatma yogis also want liberation. So, though they realize the form of Paramatma, they also don’t appreciate it. So, they would like to merge into the Paramatma or into the effulgence of Paramatma.
Devotees : Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatham ki Jai !!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ji Jai !!! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai !!!