Srimad Bhagavatam : 10.52.25 by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj on Dec 3, 2024 @ ISKCON Japan
Text 25
bandhūnām icchatāṁ dātuṁ
kṛṣṇāya bhaginīṁ nṛpa
tato nivārya kṛṣṇa-dviḍ
rukmī caidyam amanyata
Translation
O King, because Rukmī envied the Lord, he forbade his family members to give his sister to Kṛṣṇa, although they wanted to. Instead, Rukmī decided to give Rukmiṇī to Śiśupāla.
Purport
Rukmī abused his position as elder brother and acted with impure motives. He would only suffer for his decision.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj :
So, we see within this family, Rukmini’s family, there was a disagreement. One would expect that in the family, we have such a qualified person as Rukmini, and her brother would also be very qualified. Rukmini surrendered to Krishna. Her brother, Rukmi, hated Krishna.
Of course, her father was also in favour of Krishna, however this brother had a lot of influence. So, normally we expect within a family of good parents, the children will be of good quality. Here, we see, one of the sons was a complete demon.
Of course, we can say within all Krishna’s family, Sisupala was also part of the same family, he was a big demon. We see in ancient times, king Vena was born in the family of Manu himself and he was biggest demon. He was so bad that the Brahmins cursed him to die. In other words, they assassinated him.
So, we expect that within the family we’ll have good persons, if the parents are good. But we cannot always predict what will happen.
So, similarly, we spoke last night about the caste or varna by birth. And we would expect we have Brahmin parents, the children will be Brahminical also. Based on that principle, they determine the varna by the birth. But we see, there’s always cases where this is not true. So, therefore, we cannot apply the rule absolutely.
Furthermore, in other varnas, someone may be born and he may be Brahminical, even if he isn’t born in a Brahmin family. So, that is why, as I explained, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was saying that rather we should determine by the qualities, not just by the birth.
So, actually, we have several different factors. One is the genetic factor, the hereditary factor. And the other is the upbringing, how they’re raised, educated. And out of that, then we would expect to get the qualities as the final result. Unfortunately, even if people are in the proper families, they don’t raise their children in the proper way, so they end up with the wrong result.
The other problem is the marriage itself. Of course, it was mentioned here, there are different types of marriage, Gandharva marriage, we have the Rakshasa marriage, we have the normal one where the parents are raised, different types of marriage are there.
And if done in the proper way, with the proper rules, there’s some guarantee that the couple will match nicely. And then we can predict what type of children will result.
However, if the arrangements are made, or by any means, they arrange the couple, but there are material factors involved, like money, we’ll marry this person, not because of qualities, but because of the money, then we’re going to end up with all sorts of problems in the marriage and the offspring.
And Prabhupada also says because if they don’t do proper samskaras, ceremonies throughout life, then also the children are not proper.
Other principles, everybody in Kali Yuga is born a sudra. Which means that the only way we can get qualities is through proper education. We cannot determine by birth, the family.
So those are some of the factors for Bhaktivinoda Thakur emphasising quality over birth. Of course, this type of system would maybe disturb the present and the past social systems. So generally, businesses were based on family and the sons take up the business of the father, and their grandsons take up the business, etc., so the business continues or whatever, or the profession continues. But if everybody’s changing their profession, you’ve got a big mess.
Of course, we don’t have to enforce this principle or worry about it too much, because that’s what everybody does in Kaliyuga anyway. They just do whatever they want, they don’t listen to the parents anymore.
So, one of the principles we’re supposed to follow, like in ISKCON, is we engage people according to their qualities. And that’s the real varna. But anyway, everyone’s following that principle anyway. They’re doing what they want to do. So that’s the whole question of Varna is taking care of, because everyone chooses their own profession.
So, we may raise them in a Brahminical environment, in Gurukul, etc., they come out of Gurukul, then they go off and do whatever they want. That’s there in ISKCON, but it’s also there in the material world. The parents send their kids to the Gurukul in India, they come out, and then they go and get a job.
We’re with one devotee in England, so he was raised to learn the Vedas, Pāṇini grammar, everything. He learned all the sutras, he learned everything, and he knows Sanskrit grammar inside out. So we would expect him to be a scholar or do some Brahminical preaching or whatever. But he’s not, he’s done computers. He’s done IT in England. So what do we tell him? You’ve got to go back to your Varna.
So the material world is a complicated place. And people pick up their occupation according to what they can get. So we cannot control that too much. Because last time I was saying that, they were saying, OK, at a certain age, we’ll decide what Varna you’re in. But that probably is not going to work in the modern world. We can’t tell them this is your Varna, they’re not going to listen.
So anyway, the idea is that some things are unpredictable. And we saw even in ancient times, the same thing happened, we end up with opposites. Rukmini is Shakti of the Lord, born in the family, same family as the demon brother. So, from a spiritual point of view, we’re not looking so much at material qualities, we’re looking at surrendering to Krishna. So anyone who surrenders to Krishna, they’re a great person. And those who are enemies of Krishna, they are the worst persons. So those who surrender could be in any Varna, any ashram, doesn’t matter, we give the highest respect to those persons.
Q & A
1) Is there any effect of karma? How Karma is affecting a person behaves?
Well, obviously, we’re born in a certain family. That is by karma. We have certain qualities which are determined by our karma.
But then, we go through life, we grow up, we’re doing activities. The choice of our activities is also going to determine our present life. So whatever karmas we have by our activities in this lifetime, we can either improve the situation or make it worse. So we could have good karma in one sense, but due to bad association, we could end up a complete rascal. That was the case of Ajamila.
So he was born in a Brahmin family, he was raised nicely, studied the Vedas, did all the ceremonies and everything, but then he became attracted to the prostitute and he completely changed, he became completely useless person. So he was born in a Brahmin family, he was raised nicely, studied the Vedas, did all the ceremonies and everything, but then he became attracted to the prostitute and he completely changed, he became completely useless.
So we cannot say that his falling down was his karma. What we can say that, his education was not strong enough, his upbringing was not strong enough to prevent him from becoming attracted to the prostitute.
Our Archarya say that, yes he was raised properly or whatever, he did Vedic studies etc, but there is no guarantee that one does not fall, if he did Bhakti, he would get better results.
2) If the parents are very sincere in devotional service, then there is less chance for the children to get deviated? So what do you think, Maharaj?
Yes. Traditionally, yes, the family is a good protection for the children. And even if they go to school and get all sorts of association there, which may be not so good or whatever, if the parents are proper, then they are not much affected by that association at school.
One problem, of course, particularly in the modern world, is that, the parents are never there, so how can they raise the children? Both parents are working. So you don’t have that safety anymore.
The other point is that parents may be there and with the children, but if they put their expectations on the children too much, it’s also going to react negatively. So if the parents are expecting their son to be a doctor or a lawyer, and they’re pressing him like that, then he may just react the opposite.
3) Could you briefly explain the necessary the samskaras required to do during pregnancy for devotee mothers?
Well, the pre-birth samskaras, there are several. There is the Garbhadana samskara, impregnation. There is the Garbhodana samskara, impregnation.
There is Pumsavana samskara, making a male child, a ceremony for that. Another was Simantonayana, parting the hair of the pregnant mother.
4) Do these samskaras have effects?
Well, if they’re done properly, with the Vedic mantras, by a proper person, they would have an effect. Of course, there’s also a psychological effect. So the ceremonies are some sort of comfort for the woman, the pregnant woman. She gets some security. In other words, concern for the child is there by the family.
Devotee: Effect to the child ?
No, to the mother. The effect is on the mother.
Devotee: Then what do you say?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So she becomes peaceful. It’s a peaceful mind, the mother.
Devotee: Then?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Then, of course, the child will also be peaceful. Now, of course, in the modern world, ceremonies are probably not done properly, whatever. So the problem is to just chant Hare Krishna.
People were asking in the early days, OK, what are we doing for Garbhodana samskara? So they said, should we follow Manu Samhita?
Devotee: Manu Samhita ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, Manu Samhita. So Prabhupada said, you just chant Hare Krishna.
5) Still they recommend, we use to do our Garbhodana samskara by chanting 50 rounds ?
Something like that.
6) Maharaj, in this example Rukmi and Rukmini, we cannot say like, if the parents are devotees, the children will become devotees ?
There is no prediction. Yeah. Parents may be devotees, son is not a devotee. Parents are demon, son may be a devotee. As in the case of Prahlad. Father was a big demon, and Prahlad was a big devotee. We cannot predict like that. That’s why, we can’t make a rule that, according to birth, everything is going to happen.