Srimad Bhagavatam – 1.19.19 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Jan 13, 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 19.
ŚB 1.19.19
महर्षयो वै समुपागता ये
प्रशस्य साध्वित्यनुमोदमाना: ।
ऊचु: प्रजानुग्रहशीलसारा
यदुत्तमश्लोकगुणाभिरूपम् ॥ १९ ॥
maharṣayo vai samupāgatā ye
praśasya sādhv ity anumodamānāḥ
ūcuḥ prajānugraha-śīla-sārā
yad uttama-śloka-guṇābhirūpam
Synonyms
maharṣayaḥ — the great sages; vai — as a matter of course; samupāgatāḥ — assembled there; ye — those who; praśasya — by praising; sādhu — quite all right; iti — thus; anumodamānāḥ — all approving; ūcuḥ — said; prajā-anugraha — doing good to the living being; śīla-sārāḥ — qualitatively powerful; yat — because; uttama-śloka — one who is praised by selected poems; guṇa-abhirūpam — as beautiful as godly qualities.
Translation
All the great sages who were assembled there also praised the decision of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, and they expressed their approval by saying “Very good.” Naturally the sages are inclined to do good to common men, for they have all the qualitative powers of the Supreme Lord. Therefore they were very much pleased to see Mahārāja Parīkṣit, a devotee of the Lord, and they spoke as follows.
Purport
The natural beauty of a living being is enhanced by rising up to the platform of devotional service. Mahārāja Parīkṣit was absorbed in attachment for Lord Kṛṣṇa. Seeing this, the great sages assembled were very pleased, and they expressed their approval by saying “Very good.” Such sages are naturally inclined to do good to the common man, and when they see a personality like Mahārāja Parīkṣit advance in devotional service, their pleasure knows no bounds, and they offer all blessings in their power. The devotional service of the Lord is so auspicious that all demigods and sages, up to the Lord Himself, become pleased with the devotee, and therefore the devotee finds everything auspicious. All inauspicious matters are removed from the path of a progressive devotee. Meeting all the great sages at the time of death was certainly auspicious for Mahārāja Parīkṣit, and thus he was blessed by the so-called curse of a brāhmaṇa’s boy.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, this verse describes the sages who had gathered there. The previous verse described the Devatas praising the Lord. This verse describes the great sages. Both the great sages and the Devatas are actually favoured by the Lord, because they’re empowered by the Lord. Sometimes the Lord favours a particular Jiva, and they get special powers which are eternally embedded in the Jiva, these are called Saktyavesa avatars. So, though they are Jivas, because of their great power given by the Lord, they’re put in a special category and called avatar. And Narada Muni is such a Jiva, he has special powers of bhakti. Similarly, Kumaras are jivas, but they are given special power for Jnana.
So, the Lord also empowers other Jivas, not as much as the Saktyavesa avatars, but He gives them some temporary powers, these persons are called Vibhutis of the Lord. So, the Lord empowers Manu and his descendants, so, they are called Vibhutis of the Lord. And while the Manu and his descendants reign for 71 yuga cycles, He also empowers Devatas, Jivas are empowered to become Devatas like Indra. He also empowers some sages with knowledge so these are the great sages mentioned here. And all of these Jivas, they are given these powers for 71 yuga cycles. So, obviously, these Jivas are given special powers because they are devotees of the Lord. So, therefore, both the Devatas and the great sages are present here and they praise another devotee, Pariksit Maharaj.
So, Maharaj Pariksit was a king, but this is not what they are praising. Rather, they are praising the opposite, giving up the kingdom. So, of course, normally the king should do his duty and rule, in this case, Pariksit Maharaj gave up the kingdom, so he wasn’t really doing his duty in one sense, but he gets praised for another reason. Of course, he could be praised because he’s detached from his kingdom. But more important than that, he is praised because he’s a devotee of the Lord. Not only is he a devotee of the Lord, he’s a great devotee of the Lord. And that was illustrated by the fact that he was completely unattached to the whole kingdom. That, of course, is a secondary quality of a devotee. Great sages may be very detached without being a devotee, Jnanis, for instance. But that’s not what is being praised here, the praise is because Pariksit Maharaj is a devotee.
So, of course, there’s a mixed group of sages, some may be empowered with karma, some with Jnana, some with bhakti. Nevertheless, they all appreciate Pariksit Maharaj as a devotee. So just as the Devatas appreciate a devotee because they are a devotee, great sages appreciate Pariksit Maharaj also because they have some devotion. However, the nature of the Jiva, with all sorts of varieties, and the nature of scripture itself is such that we can get great varieties of knowledge and realization. So, because of that, they have different ideas, different opinions. And therefore, objectively, we can also class the sages as lesser, greater, and greatest in knowledge. Just as all devotees are worthy of respect, we have devotees on the lower level, middle level, and higher level, and so we give greatest respect to those on the highest level.
So, Pariksit was on a very high level. So, who is qualified to speak to him? Obviously, we need someone who is on a higher level. But we see that most of these sages here were not on that high level. So, the single person who was most qualified was Sukadeva Goswami. And when he arrived at the assembly, everybody honoured him. They recognized him for his great spiritual advancement. Of course, it may be difficult to recognize him. So, the common people did not recognize his greatness. They thought he was a beggar and a crazy man. He was wandering around everywhere in the forest, in the village, whatever, not speaking to anyone, completely naked. So, people could not recognize his greatness.
Of course, when the sages saw him, they recognized him. So there is one in Bhagavatam, Canto 3, in the teachings of Kapila, he mentions that the conduct of a devotee is that he gives respect to all living entities. And Vishwanath Cakravarti in his commentary mentions that, well, a devotee respects all living entities because among those living entities, some may be great devotees so we don’t even recognize them, so therefore we have to respect everybody. So devotees may see Sukadeva Goswami and say, who is this? He doesn’t have tilak on, how can he be a devotee? He didn’t cut his hair, he’s not taking a bath, how can he be a devotee? So, therefore, the devotee is taught to respect everybody because we don’t know who the great devotee is. And we see that even in recent times, we see Vamsi Das Babaji or Gaura Kishore Das Babaji, people didn’t know, there greatness as devotees, these are like beggars. So, it actually takes an advanced devotee to recognize an advanced devotee.
Of course, as I said, the Madhyama Adhikari, he can make some distinctions. Rupa Goswami says, concerning a Prema Bhakta, we could not even discuss his qualities because they’re unpredictable. It’s very difficult to understand. We see the same in the case of Jadabharat. So, it takes a great person to recognize another great person. So, the sages, not on as high as the same level as him, but they were at such a level they could recognize that he is a superior devotee. And thus they all praised him. Why would they all gather there, the Devatas or the great sages, unless they recognized his greatness? But though they recognized his greatness, they could also not answer his question. So, it was Sukadeva Goswami who could give a satisfactory answer.
So, that is why I said that we have all these different individuals, great sages, Devatas, they have levels of knowledge and they’re very great, they understand scripture, etc. but still, there is higher and higher levels of understanding of scripture and higher levels of realization. And because they’re all devotees and they realize that he is even a greater devotee, they don’t have any envy, rather, they praise him. So, praise is important. It’s a sign of respect. However, the greatest respect is a little different. So, apart from the external respect, etc., the greatest respect is to take knowledge from that devotee. And thus in Bhagavad Gita, of course, Krishna says that you have to give proper respect to the person with knowledge. But offering ‘pranipat’ is not enough. So, just offering respect is very good, but then what you do, you have to inquire and get knowledge. In fact, the whole purpose of surrendering and offering respects is so that we can get the knowledge. And because devotees are on different levels, they give different levels of knowledge. And we give the most respect to the person with the highest knowledge.
So, all these great sages, they welcomed Pariksit Maharaj and then they welcomed Sukadeva Goswami. And while Sukadeva spoke to Pariksit, all the great sages, although they’re very great, they all listened to Sukadeva Goswami. They spontaneously recognized Sukadeva Goswami. They respected him and then they listened to him. So, of course, Pariksit Maharaj was a very great devotee, he is the one who was spoken to. He is a devotee that can completely comprehend all of the knowledge given by Sukadeva Goswami. Others will listen, they may understand, they may not understand. Why? Because Sukadeva Goswami on highest level, Pariksit on the highest level, others are lower. So that combination of the greatest devotees as the speaker and the listener created the sweetest fruit of scripture, Bhagavatam.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, among the sages, there are some Karmi, some Jnani and some devotee also. Normally, it is natural that Karmi glorify their own activities. They think that what they are doing is the best. And Knani also same way. What they are doing is the best. They think like this. But here a little bit unusual, they are glorifying Parikshit Maharaj. Because he’s a devotee, he’s a pure devotee. Normally, they think that what they are doing that is best and they are the best. But it is quite unusual here.
We may generally look at Devatas and sages and think of them as inferior but they’re actually empowered by the Lord. So it means they’re also devotees. Because Brahma is empowered by the Lord, then he carries out his work of creation and becomes absorbed in that. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a great devotee [Laughs]. And the great sages, again, some of them are teaching, you know, karma, whatever, like the seven great sages, basically, they’re teaching karma. And we have others teaching Jnana. And some are teaching, like Narada muni teaching bhakti, but nevertheless, they’re all empowered by the Lord because they are devotees of sorts. So the Kumaras are empowered with Jnana, so they teach Jnana. But actually, they’re also devotees in Santa-rasa [Laughs]. So, by their actions, they may be doing something else, but that doesn’t mean they’re not devotees. So, we have Jaimini, and usually he’s teaching karma-kanda, you know, so he’s real materialistic [Laughs]. But he was assigned by Vedavyasa to teach the Sama Veda. So he cannot just be a Karmi [Laughs]. He’s a great devotee also. But he also carries out his function of, you know, preaching Karma-kanda, etc.
2.) Jaimini, so he’s a karma mimasa. He only wrote the karma mimasa, Jaimini. And also, he’s the author of the Sama Veda. And also, we see there is a [Not clear] Mahabharata, you know, that after Mahabharata war happened. He also wrote that. But I read that Mahabharata, it is quite devotional one. And normally, he explained the devotee’s quality in that book itself. But it is something like that? Because whatever he is assigned, only he’s doing that activities. He’s doing his duty.
Well, it’s just like Shiva [Laughs]. Shiva is in charge of Tamo-guna, in charge of the ghosts, the goblins, and all these low class people and demons and whatever like that. Not because he likes them, but he’s being assigned by the Lord to take charge of Tamo-guna. And then the Lord assigns him to become Shankaracharya to teach Mayavada philosophy [Laughs]. But he’s still a great devotee [Laughs].
Devotee : [Not clear].
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Yeah, he’s doing his job [Laughs].
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, if a pure devotee speaks, he has the potency to change others into a devotee. We also see if Jnani gets association with the pure devotee, he becomes also a devotee. In the assembly, we see there are a lot of types of Yogis, Jnanis were there. So can we take the answer you have given for the first question? Can we take like that? So they are all devotee, but they are teaching the respective class. Can we take that answer?
In the case of great sages, as here the case, yes, they’re all sages and they may be teaching something, but they’re devotees. But we take other people dedicated to Karma-kanda or Jnana, Yoga, etc. In the past and at the present, not necessarily devotees [Laughs]. They may be completely dedicated simply to proving that impersonal Brahman is the highest. So Lord Caitanya says, if you see a Mayavadi walking down the street, you jump in the Ganga and take a bath [Laughs]. On the other hand, Lord Caitanya, when he went to South India, he was visiting all the Shiva temples and dancing in ecstasy [Laughs].
Devotee : Maharaj, this question is to emphasize that Maharaj, Sukadeva Goswami was teaching Bhagavatam, he is a pure devotee. So all the Jnanis or Karmis are associating with Sukadeva Goswami, who is a pure devotee. So I thought that they are being a Jnani and Yogi. So you have answered the question, Maharaj. So they are devotee. Understood Maharaj.
4.) Maharaj, for a neophyte sadhaka, due to his own conditioning, he may not be able to recognize the advancement of different devotees at different levels. So is it safe for his own devotion to consider everyone as a very advanced devotee and respect him?
Well, we respect all living entities and of course we recognize devotees as much as we are able to, then we give them more respect than the others. So the Kanishta does not recognize the devotees at all. The Madhyama can recognize the devotees, distinguish them from materialists, etc. And to some degree also he can recognize different levels of devotees.
So in the Nectar of Instruction, there Rupa Goswami says, some are like Kanishta devotees, at least mentally respect, so we don’t disrespect in any way. And those who are actual devotees, that is Madhyamas, then we give even physical respect. And to those that we can recognize as advanced, then we actually serve them and follow their instructions. But according to our level of advancement, we can only recognize certain levels there. So one who is on Ruchi or Asakthi can recognize other people on that level. A person on a lower level may not be able to recognize. So therefore we respect all devotees, but some we can recognize, then we give them more respect. And we may respect all devotees, but sometimes we make a mistake and they are not a devotee at all [Laughs]. They look like a devotee, but they are not [Laughs]. And that may be because we are looking externals more than internals. But to some degree, one who is on the Madhyama level must make distinctions.
5.) Maharaj, generally, someone at a higher level addresses others in a class, like here Sukadeva Goswami is addressing everybody. So generally it is someone at a higher level who addresses. However in various centers of ISKCON the practise on a rotation different devotees give classes. At which time someone more advanced maybe an audience, so how do we handle that?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Is the question that for the more advanced devotee, we give them more classes? Is that what it means [Laughs]? And we give less classes to the less advanced devotees? Is that what you are saying?
Devotee : No, no. Some situation is that the more advanced devotee may become an audience. So for a speaker, it may become a little awkward.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : So then what is the question?
Devotee : So how do we handle? Because as a system, it is being followed.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : So how does the speaker handle it? I guess the speaker has to do his best [Laughs]. Yeah, yeah of course, the devotees appreciate any topic of the Lord as long as it is bonafide [Laughs].
6.) In yesterdays class you said like even demigods are envious of devotees on earth. In this class we see demigods and munis are very happy about devotion of devotees on earth. So how to understand this?
So that statement about the Devatas creating obstacles because they envy the devotee and they fear his progress could take their position [Laughs]. That’s actually mentioned in the Vedas and is illustrated also in Bhagavatam. On the other hand, we also know that the Devatas and Brahma are actually great devotees of the Lord. So creating obstacles, we could say, is a temporary phenomenon. Ultimately, they are devotees, so therefore they appreciate devotion.
7.) We see Sukracharya is a guru of Asuras. Is he being assigned as a guru by the Lord?
Yeah, so he’s given that post, even though he’s also, Sukra means Venus, so he is related to the planet Venus and Brihaspati is like Jupiter. So these are assignments of the Lord. So he is considered to be the guru for the demons because Sukra means enjoyment [Laughs]. So you worship Venus for material enjoyment [Laughs]. Brihaspati, Jupiter represents scripture and knowledge. So therefore, people who want to get Dharma and whatever, they worship Brihaspati. So of course, these two aspects are there in the material world. Some people go for Dharma, some go for Adharma. And they will either worship Brihaspati or Sukracharya [Laughs].
8.) In this world, everybody needs money to maintain and live a daily life. Meanwhile, how to get contentment in life?
So, in the process of Bhakti, it is recognized that you have to maintain your body. And if you are in a Grhastha Ashram, then you have to not only support your body, you have to support your family. So therefore, you can do that, not Bhakti, but you follow the rules according to Varnasrama Dharma to support your material body. But don’t be attached to it. And simultaneously cultivate Bhakti. As much as you are able to while maintaining yourself and your family.
Devotees : Granthraj Srimad Bhagavatham ki Jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki Jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki Jai!!!