Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.28 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Damodaradesh (Dubai) | 15 October 2025
jaya rādhā-mādhava kuñja-vihārī
gopījana-vallabha giri-vara-dhārī
yaśodā-nandana vraja-jana-rañjana
yamunā-tīra-vana-cārī
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Jaya Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Prabhupāda Jaya Prabhupāda
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale
śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine
namas te sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe
nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe
jaya śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānanda
śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 8 Verse 28.
ŚB 1.8.28
manye tvāṁ kālam īśānam
anādi-nidhanaṁ vibhum
samaṁ carantaṁ sarvatra
bhūtānāṁ yan mithaḥ kaliḥ
Synonyms
manye — I consider; tvām — Your Lordship; kālam — the eternal time; īśānam — the Supreme Lord; anādi-nidhanam — without beginning and end; vibhum — all-pervading; samam — equally merciful; carantam — distributing; sarvatra — everywhere; bhūtānām — of the living beings; yat mithaḥ — by intercourse; kaliḥ — dissension.
Translation
My Lord, I consider Your Lordship to be eternal time, the supreme controller, without beginning and end, the all-pervasive one. In distributing Your mercy, You are equal to everyone. The dissensions between living beings are due to social intercourse.
Purport
Kuntīdevī knew that Kṛṣṇa was neither her nephew nor an ordinary family member of her paternal house. She knew perfectly well that Kṛṣṇa is the primeval Lord who lives in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul, Paramātmā. Another name of the Paramātmā feature of the Lord is kāla, or eternal time. Eternal time is the witness of all our actions, good and bad, and thus resultant reactions are destined by Him. It is no use saying that we do not know why and for what we are suffering. We may forget the misdeed for which we may suffer at this present moment, but we must remember that Paramātmā is our constant companion, and therefore He knows everything, past, present and future. And because the Paramātmā feature of Lord Kṛṣṇa destines all actions and reactions, He is the supreme controller also. Without His sanction not a blade of grass can move. The living beings are given as much freedom as they deserve, and misuse of that freedom is the cause of suffering. The devotees of the Lord do not misuse their freedom, and therefore they are the good sons of the Lord. Others, who misuse freedom, are put into miseries destined by the eternal kāla. The kāla offers the conditioned souls both happiness and miseries. It is all predestined by eternal time. As we have miseries uncalled-for, so we may have happiness also without being asked, for they are all predestined by kāla. No one is therefore either an enemy or friend of the Lord. Everyone is suffering and enjoying the result of his own destiny. This destiny is made by the living beings in course of social intercourse. Everyone here wants to lord it over the material nature, and thus everyone creates his own destiny under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. He is all-pervading and therefore He can see everyone’s activities. And because the Lord has no beginning or end, He is known also as the eternal time, kāla.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, Kunti continues praising the Supreme Lord by showing His different, how He controls everything. When we define a Supreme Lord, that means He is the highest person, no one controls Him, He controls everything else. So, literally when we say Isha, which means Supreme Lord, that means controller. So in the material world, we also have controllers. So a husband controls a wife and children. A king controls his citizens. Individual controls his body and senses. But somebody also is controlling even the greatest person in the material world. So one of these controllers is time.
So everyone is a controller, but everybody dies. So time is said to be the person who produces your death. No one can prevent passing of time. With the passing of time, people age, they grow old. And then they die. No one can prevent this. Of course, nobody likes to get old, nobody likes to die, but there’s no escape. So we may struggle, but no one has ever succeeded in conquering old age and death. But time also belongs to material world. And material world is controlled by the Supreme Lord.
So, sometimes, like in Bhagavad Gita, it says that the Lord is time. Of course, this means the Lord controls time. Time is also the shakti of the Lord. And the shakti and the shaktiman, that is, Krishna is the shaktiman and time is the shakti, they are considered to be non-different. And therefore, as I said, Krishna says, I am time, the destroyer. So Krishna identifies Himself with time, but ultimately it’s His shakti. All shaktis have a shaktimans. Energy is there, controller of energy must be there. So Supreme Lord is the shaktiman, the possessor of all shaktis. This means that Krishna is never controlled by time. He is never subject to old age and death.
We see that Krishna, of course, when He appears in the material world, Krishna appears to change. He is a little baby, then He is a little boy, five years old, then He grows up, then He is eight years old. So He changes and then He reaches kaisora age. After He reaches kaisora age, He stops aging. However, though Krishna appears to grow and age somewhat in the material world, actually He is not controlled by time. His baby form is eternal. His kaisora form is eternal. So, Krishna can have appearance of growing up and changing but actually He is always eternal.
Of course, in the spiritual world, though there is no time, there’s also an appearance of time. Krishna wakes up in the morning, He goes out in the fields, He eats His lunch at noon, He returns from the fields in the evening, He goes to sleep at night. It looks like there is time there. But this appearance of time in the spiritual world is also under the control of Krishna. Again He uses his shakti in the spiritual world to create an appearance of time. Why does He do this? Through this appearance of time, we have lila, pastimes of the Lord.
What is the purpose of pastimes? To experience bliss and give bliss to the devotees. So, time is simply an instrument of Krishna to produce bliss in the spiritual world. That is very different from time in the material world. Time in the material world destroys all the bodies of the living entities. So Brahma has a long lifetime, but he also has a material body. And though Brahma lives a long time, he has to give up the material body. At a certain time, he dies. So this whole cycle of creation and destruction in the material world is under time. Time is under the control of the Supreme Lord. We see that creation and destruction take place in a very orderly manner.
We have a rotation of yugas, satya, treta, dwapara, kali one thousand times in the day of Brahma. At the end of Brahma’s day, then all the worlds up until svargaloka are destroyed. Next day of Brahma, they’re created again. Next night of Brahma, destroyed again. This goes on for one hundred of Brahma’s years. And when Brahma dies, everything in the universe is destroyed completely. So Maha Vishnu breathes in, everything is destroyed. And when Maha Vishnu breathes out again, material world is again created.
So, creation, destruction take place, but all planned by the Supreme Lord. So the Lord is the controller of time. So that is kala here. Kunti is saying that Krishna is kala, but because He controls time. And then she says, you are Isha, you are the controller. So, by saying controller, then He is the ultimate, the highest controller. Devatas are also controllers, Brahma is also controller, but Krishna is Supreme controller. When we say that Krishna is the controller, we should not think that Krishna has to everyday go through so much trouble to control everybody. We see that we have governments of the world controlling people. Every day they have to meet to see how to control everybody.
Krishna controls everything, but He doesn’t have to put any effort into it. When He has to create a material world, He puts forth no effort. Simply thinks, let the material world be created. And it’s created. So, He does it through His shaktis. And He also gives these shaktis to some jivas, like Brahma and Shiva. Of course, sometimes Shiva is a jiva, sometimes Shiva is Supreme Lord Himself. But Supreme Lord empowers devatas, He empowers sages. He empowers Manus. And they are the kings who rule the world. And Supreme Lord empowers devotees to spread bhakti. So in this way, the Lord is all powerful, but He shows His power through empowering others.
So there are many controllers, but Supreme Lord is the highest controller. Of course, when we talk of controller, we may think negatively, controllers like to exploit everybody. But Supreme Lord does not do this. It says in the third line, Supreme Lord is equal to everybody. He’s not thinking of how to exploit anyone. So in this way, the Lord rules, but He rules perfectly. Of course, as Bhagavad Gita says, yes, the Lord is equal to everyone, but He favors His devotees. So, this is not a fault. This is a good quality. So the Lord is equal to everybody, doesn’t unnecessarily for no reason hate somebody or love somebody, but if an individual shows affection for the Lord, the Lord shows affection for that person.
So how does the Lord know that a particular jiva is favorable and has affection? In the second line, Kunti says that Krishna is vibhu. Vibhu means He is all-pervading. He is everywhere. He knows everything. So He knows who is a devotee, who is not a devotee. So because the Lord favors the devotee, the process of bhakti is very powerful. It is a means of getting Krishna’s mercy. And thus, in Chapter 12 of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, by His mercy, He delivers the devotee from the material world very quickly.
At the beginning of Chapter 12 of Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks, what is better? Should I do bhakti yoga or should I do jnana? And Krishna answers, bhakti is quicker and easier. And thus, after explaining karma, jnana and yoga, at the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, just do bhakti yoga. So this is the way in which we can approach the Lord, not because He is the controller of everything, but because He is the most merciful. He responds to the devotees.
So, the Supreme Lord is in this position of controlling and showing mercy forever, eternally. He shows His control over the nature by creating and destroying material worlds. That’s one aspect, time and He does this eternally. But simultaneously, eternally, He is showing mercy and delivering jivas from material world through bhakti. So, the Lord is the controller, but we see people in the material world are suffering. So we’ll say, well, Krishna is making people suffer. Then He cannot be God. How can God be so cruel? So the answer is, that it’s not the Lord that creates the suffering for the jivas. The jivas create their own suffering. But of course, Krishna is also the jivas because there is shakti. The shakti and the shaktiman are non-different.
So thus, in the last line, Krishna says, I am also quarrel, fighting between living entities in this material world. Material world, with all of its qualities, is also shakti of the Lord. And therefore, the Lord can be said to be also material world and all the problems of the material world. However, though, there are problems in the material world, the Lord always tries to solve the problems. So, for that purpose, the Lord gives scriptures. And first of all, He tries to stop the quarreling. How? By giving karma yoga. He supplies rules called dharma. If people follow the rules, they don’t fight anymore. They become peaceful.
But, how are people to follow the rules? So, the Lord empowers a king to enforce the rules. These kings are descendants from Manus who were empowered by the Lord. So, jivas create all the suffering in the, quarrels in the material world and the Lord helps them solve that by empowering Manus to enforce dharma. But, creating peace in the material world is not a final solution. So though, we can stop the quarreling etc. dharma does not stop the process of birth and death. So, to stop the process of birth and death, Krishna supplies jnana yoga and astanga yoga. And He empowers sages to teach this.
However, simply to escape from the material world is not enough. We have to get to the spiritual world and get bliss. So, Krishna supplies the process of bhakti, so that one can get to the spiritual world and get bliss. So, this is the arrangement of the Lord to get the jivas out of the suffering and quarrel that they produce in the material world. In this way, the Lord is equal to everyone, He is trying to solve all their problems. The Lord is perfect. The jivas in the material world are imperfect. But, the Lord wants the jivas to be perfect, so He supplies these methods of karma yoga, jnana yoga, astanga yoga and bhakti yoga. And thus the Lord has no fault.
Okay. Hare Krishna. Any question?
Q & A:
1.) Hare Krishna prabhu. So, prabhu, Maharaj told that Shiva is jiva and at the same time, Shiva is Jiva and Bhagavan svayam. So, I didn’t understand that point.
So, usually, Shiva is an expansion of the Supreme Lord, non-different from Vishnu, not a jiva. And thus, in Nectar of Devotion, Rupa Goswami describes that Shiva has 55 qualities, regular jivas have 50 qualities. One of those 5 extra qualities is that Shiva has eternal body. So, he doesn’t take a material body subject to birth and death. He is not a small particle of consciousness like a jiva. However, he is distinguished from Vishnu because, he manifests less qualities.
So, Rupa Goswami also mentions that Shiva has 55 qualities, Vishnu has 60 qualities, 5 extra qualities. So, Krishna manifests more powers than Shiva. One of those powers is that Supreme Lord produces universe from His breathing, as Maha Vishnu produces all the universes. Shiva does not do that [Laughs]. Another difference is that, this Vishnu is the source of all the avatars that come in the material world. So, this is usually the form of Shiva.
However, when in some universes, sometimes, Supreme Lord appoints a jiva and empowers him to act like Shiva. Usually, the Lord appoints a jiva to be Brahma. But sometimes, the Lord also takes the role of Brahma. Usually, Supreme Lord appoints jivas to be the devatas, like Indra. Sometimes, the Lord Himself becomes Indra.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, prabhuji’s question is that in order to transcend from jnana yoga to bhakti yoga, how can we progress in a determined manner?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Jnana yoga to bhakti?
Devotee: Yes, Maharaj.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh. Well, jnana yoga has some plus points and some minus points. So, in Chapter 4 of Bhagavad Gita and Chapter 5, Krishna is praising jnana. And the reason is that one is very detached from the material body. Mind is very pure. So, this is good for practicing spiritual life. However, there is also some negative point. The jnani may be attached to liberation. And if one is very attached to liberation, it becomes more difficult to get to prema. So, the definition of pure bhakti is that we should not mix with desires for liberation. So, we encourage pure bhakti. We should have no desire for material enjoyment, no desire for liberation. So, jnana can proceed to bhakti under certain conditions. If jnana is used simply to maintain purity, fine. But, if we strive for liberation, we often also begin to offend the Lord. When we aim for liberation, we say Brahman is Supreme and Brahman has no form, qualities and activities.
Devotee: Maharaj, you said something more after that?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, yeah. Brahman has no form, qualities, activities. But if we accept the Lord, He has form, qualities, activities. And so then the jnani will think, I don’t want to attain Supreme Lord because I can’t get liberation [Laughs], He has His form, qualities and activities, this is all material. Why should I worship the Lord? So, if the jnani develops a very negative attitude towards the Lord, that is difficult for him to get to bhakti. By good fortune, some jnanis do not have this bhakti negative attitude. And therefore, if they get the mercy of devotees, they progress to yoga. So, we have the case of Sukadeva. Sukadeva was described as atmarama. He was enjoying the bliss of Brahman. But, he did not reject Bhagavan. And when he heard Srimad Bhagavatam from the disciples of Veda Vyasa, then he developed attraction for Krishna, Bhagavan. Of course, Krishna is very special. More than any other form of God, Krishna has most attractive qualities and pastimes. So, even those who are fixed in jnana, can become attracted to Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!