Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.19.12 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Jan 6, 2026
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 19 Verse 12.
ŚB 1.19.12
सुखोपविष्टेष्वथ तेषु भूय:
कृतप्रणाम: स्वचिकीर्षितं यत् ।
विज्ञापयामास
विविक्तचेता
उपस्थितोऽग्रेऽभिगृहीतपाणि: ॥ १२ ॥
sukhopaviṣṭeṣv atha teṣu bhūyaḥ
kṛta-praṇāmaḥ sva-cikīrṣitaṁ yat
vijñāpayām āsa vivikta-cetā
upasthito ’gre ’bhigṛhīta-pāṇiḥ
Synonyms
sukha — happily; upaviṣṭeṣu — all sitting down; atha — thereupon; teṣu — unto them (the visitors); bhūyaḥ — again; kṛta-praṇāmaḥ — having offered obeisances; sva — his own; cikīrṣitam — decision of fasting; yat — who; vijñāpayām āsa — submitted; vivikta-cetāḥ — one whose mind is detached from worldly affairs; upasthitaḥ — being present; agre — before them; abhigṛhīta-pāṇiḥ — humbly with folded hands.
Translation
After all the ṛṣis and others had seated themselves comfortably, the King, humbly standing before them with folded hands, told them of his decision to fast until death.
Purport
Although the King had already decided to fast until death on the bank of the Ganges, he humbly expressed his decision to elicit the opinions of the great authorities present there. Any important decision, however firmly fixed, should be confirmed by some authority. That makes the matter perfect. This means that the monarchs who ruled the earth in those days were not irresponsible dictators. They scrupulously followed the authoritative decisions of the saints and sages in terms of Vedic injunction. Mahārāja Parīkṣit, as a perfect king, followed the principles by consulting the authorities, even up to the last days of his life.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
In the purport, Srila Prabhupad mentions about following a line of authority. Of course, for most decisions at that time, the king was the final authority. But even then, in important matters he would consult his ministers and consult brahmanas. As far as the material world is concerned, this is a good process. And the reason is one person can make a decision but it is not perfect. At the same time if we have many people giving their opinions, who do we follow. Therefore the king has to select some people who do have great intelligence, so he selects ministers who are very intelligent. At the same time, intelligence itself is not always perfect. And therefore there were also the brahmanas there to give advice. And the contribution of the brahmanas is not material advice, but to give advice from a spiritual point of view. So some decisions may be purely material. Other decisions may have spiritual implications so therefore the brahmanas will consider that. So this was a good system because we simultaneously have not just one person but intelligence of many people acting plus a spiritual perspective from the brahmana consultation. So, this of course follows the scriptural view of knowledge.
To establish any science or any philosophy, first of all we have to discuss what do we accept as knowledge. And of course naturally we accept what we see, that’s one called ‘prataksha’. The other of course very commonly used is use of logic which we call ‘anumana’ or inference. This is based upon ‘prataksha’ or sense perception, but it also goes into areas and makes conclusion on things we don’t see. So even the Vedas accept that on a common level, these are valid types of proof. However, we also know that human beings can make mistakes. Literally this is called ‘brahm’ or to mistake one thing for another. We mistake a rope and think it is a snake. So this is not intentional, not seeing properly but unintentionally somehow due to being too dark or conditions or whatever we come to a wrong conclusion. Another problem with our senses is, our senses don’t see everything. We cannot see through walls, we cannot see over you know 50 feet clearly whatever. So if it’s too far away to see we may guess and make a mistake. A third type of mistake is called ‘pramada’ or inattention. This is not really a mistake so much as we just don’t see it, it’s there but we don’t see it. So an object is sitting there, somehow we’re looking around for it we don’t see it sitting right there it’s called ‘pramada’. So we can make a mistake and think one object is another it’s not as if we don’t see the object at all. The other is it’s too far away, it’s too close, it’s too big, it’s too small then we cannot see properly. And then the fourth is you can see it correctly but then you report it differently, it’s called ‘cheating’. So this is not so much perception of the senses but with your mind, then you alter the data. So therefore even on the level of sense perception and inference, it’s not perfect, we can make mistakes.
Of course one way of making less mistakes is, if a group of people all decide it’s like this and then you can say they’re all perceiving in the same way then okay it’s true. But still the system is subject to question and in the future truth may change. This of course is the proof used by science. Then what happens when there are things we can never hope to see, then we cannot conclude anything about them. So this is the realm where ‘shabda’, the third type of proof becomes important. We accept it as perfect and we accept its statements. So if the scripture says you know the universe is so many yojanas wide and the moon is so far up then we accept it. But even more important is the shastra statements on things beyond material, that is Supreme Lord, Jiva, spiritual world, we can never hope to prove these by science or observation or logic, so we have to accept scriptures. So, we have the Vedic literature and we accept that as the highest proof ‘shabda’. What do we accept as ‘shabda’? So the ‘shabda’ defines it Vedas, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Smritis, commentaries on these, these are called ‘shabda’. So we cannot just accept any written thing as ‘shabda’, only certain works are called ‘shabda’.
So the Vaishyas, Kshatriyas and Brahmanas are all allowed to study the Vedas and even the Sudras can hear or study the Puranas and the Mahabharata. However, those who particularly specialize in the study of the scriptures are the Brahmanas. And therefore, they are the authorities when it comes to asking about a spiritual problem. So in the Vedic system, the spiritual and material are not really separated. Though the whole Varanashrama system is rather indirect, nevertheless its ultimate goal is Supreme Lord. And therefore, even though the king is largely handling material affairs, there is a spiritual aspect and this is where the Brahmanas are very necessary. So therefore a wise king will always consult the great sages and Brahmanas.
This decision of the king had two aspects. Because he was the king and ruling then he had to have a replacement or whatever so that’s the material aspect, should he retire or not. And of course if there is a qualified person, his son to take charge then it’s not such a problem. And as for the spiritual aspect of course the main question is, should he value the spiritual aspect over being the king at that time, should he renounce or not? So therefore he asks them well should I do this, this is what he’s asking here. Of course he more or less has made his decision but he’s asking them to agree to this. So, once he’s decided to give up the kingdom and then he’s going to die then the next question is so what is the goal? What should he attain when he dies? And this is where there may be some disagreement because the sages disagree. They call the sages, Munis. Munis mean one who contemplates and it also means one who has his own opinion, that’s different from everybody else’s opinion. Of course we have some false Munis also like Charvaka Muni, the false Muni, he didn’t even accept the Vedas. But even if we have the Vedas, the Vedas also state many things. And different sages on studying the Vedas come to different conclusions.
So the Vedas is called the desire tree of knowledge. So you can take the same scriptures but according to what you desire, you can get different conclusions. So definitely because it is scripture, it cannot be wrong. Nevertheless, we have lower goals and we have higher goals. And even among the higher goals, we have higher, we have highest goal. So the higher and higher we go, it will be more difficult to understand. And there will be less sages capable of giving that knowledge. So that was the case with Pariksit then he asked them once he said I’m going to fast till death and whatever and got the revision, okay what is the goal and then everyone had a different opinion.
Finally, he asked the question to Sukadeva Goswami and Sukadeva Goswami gave a very definite answer and Pariksit Maharaj accepted that. So his answer was Sravanam and Kirtanam of the Supreme Lord. And ultimately Supreme Lord is Krishna. So the Srimad Bhagavatam said to be the highest fruit on the desire tree of the Vedas. It’s highest and therefore it’s also rare, not so many people understand. To be a Vaishnava is rare but to be a devotee of Krishna is even rarer. Of course, rarity is not the only consideration of making it the highest. It’s also the sweetest fruit on the desire tree of the Vedas. It means it gives the most bliss. And of course, bliss is the ultimate goal of the Jiva. So therefore hearing the Srimad Bhagavatam is the ultimate means of getting that bliss for the Jiva. It was composed by Vedavyasa and spoken to Sukadeva and then Sukadeva revealed it to the world. He spoke to Pariksit Maharaj because Pariksit was the most qualified person to hear it. So we had a qualified speaker and we had a qualified listener. And through this we have Srimad Bhagavatam. So, this whole first canto actually is just to show how Bhagavatam got revealed in this way. This canto shows the great qualification of Sukadeva and the great qualification of Pariksit Maharaj. And this conversation gives rise to this scripture.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, you have explained this four kind of truti or faults and among the four kinds of faults, we accept the sabda as authorised. But in sabda also there are two kinds of, you know, things are there, one is apurusheya and purusheya. Purusheya, apurusheya. Purusheya means who has again fault and apurusheya means we can say that, which is coming or Supreme Lord we can say. But still in sabda also there is a fault?
So, in the material world we also have sabda, it is not real sabda but in the material world it functions as sabda. So therefore, a school text book becomes sabda or the news report on TV becomes sabda [Laughs]. So the textbook becomes authoritative because it is authorized by the school [Laughs]. And a school that has highly qualified people may choose proper textbooks. But it is only concerning material knowledge again which is subject to the four faults. So one time in the 1960s, they discovered a new type of caveman in England and they thought this is the oldest caveman [Laughs]. So they put it in our textbook in grade 7 school [Laughs], it is this old authorized puzzle [Laughs]. A few years later, scientists kept analyzing the fossil and they said it is all fake. Somebody faked the whole thing just to get fame [Laughs]. So they had to change the textbook [Laughs].
So in this way we have the material sabda but it is convenient because we can’t know everything, so some people select for us, ok these are the things, you read these things [Laughs]. And then we have the spiritual sabda. We can call it apaurusheya because it is not human but actually some things are written by sages who are human. So the Vedas are called apaurusheya because they are not even written by the Supreme Lord, they are just eternal, nobody writes them. Other works are written by Vedavyasa but he writes them just before kali yuga, so it’s new in one sense. So he is an avatar of the Lord but some works are not written by avataras. So we have the smriti sastras written by Manu and others, they are not Supreme Lord, other people have written. But because they don’t deviate from the principles of the Vedas, then they are accepted as scripture, spiritual sabda. So, the Vedas never change and the Puranas, Itihasas, they will change with the yugas in each day of Brahma. But still their essence is.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, extended question Maharaj. Maharaj, you spoke about the spiritual sabda. Vedavyasa gave us Vedas, Upanishads etc and when it is perceived by Shankaracharya, so the main philosophy of what Vedavyasa has given is, about personal form of the Lord etc but Shankaracharya has perceived it and he has given in Brahma Sutras about the impersonal form of the Lord. How can I understand this?
Well, if we look in Bhagavatam, even Bhagavatam accepts Brahman. Lord is Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. So, it is not that it is rejected. And particularly many Upanishads will concentrate on explaining Brahman. So, of course, when a person reads a scripture, then they can start interpreting it. So, Shankaracharya’s interpretation is only Brahman exists, nothing else exists. Therefore jivas and material energy are false, they don’t exist at all. And of course, he will quote Upanishads for that, nitya, nitya, all that [Laughs], neti neti etc. But then Vaishnava Acharyas will comment and say, no it doesn’t mean that. So, then there is interpretation of scripture also. So, the Brahman is there in the scriptures but one can interpret that in various ways. Shankaracharya says only Brahman exists. Bhagavatam says Brahman is one aspect of the Lord, but it is not the highest aspect of the Lord, Bhagavan is highest.
3.) Maharaj, while preaching Maharaj, main if we meet atheists etc, so, the main argument of atheist is, who don’t believe in God and they say, how can we accept scriptures which was written by someone who has this material defect. So, when we say sabda, praman, anuman etc, they are not believing it. So, what to see, how we can convince, or atleast how we can make them understand this?
Well, they can say sabda may have mistakes but we can also say anuman and pratyaksha has mistakes and they cannot deny that [Laughs]. And we will see in science itself, if we take a 5 year span, theories change, which means one theory was right, one theory was wrong, but then 5 years later it will change again, so what is the truth? Even science itself doesn’t have the absolute truth. And if there is something spiritual which is beyond material realm anyway, how can we discuss it? We cannot. So we are stuck with the choice, okay, we don’t talk about anything spiritual, we talk about material which also is subject to change all the time, or we accept there must be something spiritual and then we will accept works that speak about it. That’s all. So, it’s a matter of faith.
4.) Maharaj, last question Maharaj. Maharaj, we see Bhagavatam 1st canto is translated as creation.
Yeah, technically it’s not.
Devotee: Technically it’s not.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Second and third canto are creation [Laughs].
5.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, we see that Parikshit Maharaj was highly exalted as a devotee and everything. So, why he was looking to elicit the opinions of these sages and later we see that when he asked the question, they had all the different kinds of opinions.
Well, as mentioned here in the purport, the king did not just rely on his own decisions, he would take advice from others. And even if he was an exalted devotee, he did not take himself as exalted, so therefore, he will consult higher authorities, brahmanas and sages. But of course, the other point is that, this is an arrangement of the Lord, so that Sukadeva could appear and manifest the Bhagavatam.
6.) Maharaj, so this particular aspect does it have any bearing on ISKCON leadership?
What?
Devotee: Like an ISKCON leader is taking decisions, is one way like a king or like an administrator taking opinions.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, as we see here, Prabhupada mentions the king was there, but he didn’t take himself as an absolute authority, so he took advice from the brahmanas, of course, from ministers etc. So, similarly, within ISKCON also, we don’t make unilateral decisions, we do so with consultation of others who also have some intelligence. And Prabhupada also set up an authority, so the GBC would be the ultimate decision maker rather than others.
7.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. We were discussing about decision making and consulting superior authorities to come to a decision. Talking about the life of an individual, in matters such as jiva, Ishwara, prakriti and all that, we are able to accept the information that we receive in the scriptures. But in practical decision making on a day to day basis, if someone has to consult seniors, we already have our own opinion and even after consulting superiors, if we are not able to change our own opinion, say for example, to invest in the stock market, so whether it is a speculation or whether it is an investment, different, different opinions come. So, what is the right thing for an individual to decide upon? Use his own intelligence or rely on what others say?
So, if it is a material decision, you depend upon material authorities. If you yourself are a material authority fine, you don’t have to consult others and if you are not, then you consult someone who does know about the subject more.
8.) Even authorised sabda when comes out of the mouth of a non devotee becomes a poison. Though sabda is perfect, but it all depends on who the speaker is. How do we understand this?
So, as scripture says, if Hari katha comes out of the mouth of a non-Vaishnava, it becomes poison. So subject is perfect and full of spiritual knowledge but if we are not qualified, we will get the wrong message. So, therefore Sukadeva Goswami looked for a qualified listener and he found Parikshit. Same principle operates in the material world. A second grade student studying 1 plus 1 equals 2 will not understand a higher mathematics book [Laughs].
Devotees: Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatham ki Jai !!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki Jai !!! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai !!!