SB 10.52.43-44 by HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj on Dec, 12 2024 @ ISKCON Japan
ŚB 10.52.43
yasyāṅghri-paṅkaja-rajaḥ-snapanaṁ mahānto
vāñchanty umā-patir ivātma-tamo-’pahatyai
yarhy ambujākṣa na labheya bhavat-prasādaṁ
jahyām asūn vrata-kṛśān śata-janmabhiḥ syāt
Translation
O lotus-eyed one, great souls like Lord Śiva hanker to bathe in the dust of Your lotus feet and thereby destroy their ignorance. If I cannot obtain Your mercy, I shall simply give up my vital force, which will have become weak from the severe penances I will perform. Then, after hundreds of lifetimes of endeavor, I may obtain Your mercy.
Purport
The divine Rukmiṇī’s extraordinary dedication to Śrī Kṛṣṇa is possible only on the spiritual platform, not in the fragile world of mundane affection.
ŚB 10.52.44
brāhmaṇa uvāca
ity ete guhya-sandeśā
yadu-deva mayāhṛtāḥ
vimṛśya kartuṁ yac cātra
kriyatāṁ tad anantaram
Translation
The brāhmaṇa said: This is the confidential message I have brought with me, O Lord of the Yadus. Please consider what must be done in these circumstances, and do it at once.
Purport
When the brāhmaṇa arrived, he broke the seal of a confidential letter written in the privacy of Rukmiṇī’s quarters and meant only for Lord Kṛṣṇa. By using the term guhya-sandeśāḥ, the trustworthy brāhmaṇa, personally selected by Rukmiṇī, here affirms that he has not violated the confidentiality of this message. Only Lord Kṛṣṇa has heard it. Since the marriage of Rukmiṇī was fast approaching, Śrī Kṛṣṇa would have to act immediately. The term yadu-deva indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa, as the Lord of the powerful Yadu dynasty, should make His decision and then mobilize His followers if necessary.
HH BHANU SWAMI MAHARAJ:
So in these verses, the Brahmana concludes the letter written by Rukmini. So in this last verse 43, she says that if I can’t attain you somehow, I will have to marry this Sisupala, I will give up my life. And after hundreds of births, then maybe I will get your mercy. So such dedication is a sign of Prema. So the definition of Prema is that it overcomes all obstacles.
But then there are higher stages after Prema, there is Sneha and Pranaya and Raga. So each of these stages is more intense. So when one gets to the stage of Raga, then the definition is that the person is willing to give up their body for Krishna. So that’s why we have these expressions, I will give up my life and after a hundred births I will get your mercy. Of course, we know that Rukmini has a spiritual body, so there is no question of her dying. However, she has this sentiment, this strong feeling that she must give up her life for Krishna.
And we see this same sentiment in the people of Vrindavan. And I mentioned the incident with Kaliya. So when Yasoda saw Krishna in the coils of the snake Kaliya, then she wanted to jump into the river and try to save Krishna and sacrifice her own life. So these are the sentiments of the devotee, and Krishna responds to that. And thus, nobody dies. Krishna rescues Rukmini, and instead of dying, she gets life.
So in the material world, we have a similar situation. Sometimes lovers are so attached to each other, they will die. So we have the famous story of Romeo and Juliet. And I think in Japan also there are some famous stories [Laughing] like that. But in these stories, everybody dies [Laughing]. Romeo and Juliet both die. So they sacrifice themselves for love, but then they actually do die. In the spiritual world, nobody dies.
However, in the spiritual world, they do have this strong feeling that they will sacrifice themselves for Krishna. So situation is different from the material world, because the object of love is Krishna. And Krishna responds to the expression of love of the devotee. So though there appears to be difficulties in the relationships with Krishna, ultimately everything is resolved into bliss.
And that does not happen in the material world. There is no guarantee that any problem is going to be solved. And often we get opposite results. Nothing is resolved. So the characteristic of the spiritual world is Ananda. And that is eternal. The characteristic of the material world is happiness and suffering – sukha, dukha. And nothing resolves into eternal bliss. So all we can do in the material world is tolerate the situation. But if there is majority of suffering, then this becomes very very disturbing and uncomfortable. Nobody likes it.
So Supreme Lord gives a solution. If you follow the principles of Dharma, you will not get majority of suffering, but you will get majority of happiness, material happiness. But it will never be eternal happiness. So that is the limit of Dharma. It cannot guarantee eternal happiness. It gives you a balance where you have more happiness than suffering. And one is always subject to birth and death.
So intelligent people, of course, will not be satisfied with this condition. And therefore, the Supreme Lord supplies other methods, Jnana Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, and Bhakti. And if we do Bhakti Yoga, then we can get the bliss. If we practice Jnana, we can get rid of material suffering. So the Supreme Lord offers us different solutions to the problem.
If we stay in the material world, we follow Dharma, we get more happiness than distress. If we want a position of no distress at all, no more birth and death, we do Jnana Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga. If we want bliss, then we practice Bhakti Yoga. So, in other words, Krishna gives us some choices. And we are free to choose what situation we want. And we can even change from one process to the other. So that is the mercy of the Supreme Lord.
So the Bhakti gives bliss. And people will say, well, we get Brahman, liberation, that’s also bliss. But what is the bliss in Brahman? And if we examine closely, the bliss is, freedom from material suffering. So it’s a peaceful situation, and some people will say, well, that’s blissful. But most people will also understand that bliss means something else, not just absence of suffering. So real bliss means to establish a relationship. But in Brahman, there is no relationship. Brahman is denial of any relationship. So it’s very difficult to get out of Brahman and go further to Bhakti. So that is why it is advised to give up the process of jnana when we are doing sadhana and do Bhakti in the material world.
So we practice establishing a relationship with Krishna. And to help us, we have nice descriptions of the attractive features of Krishna. So Krishna is full of all wonderful qualities.
And he has the most attractive, beautiful features. So His form and His qualities and His activities become attractive to the devotee. So this helps to establish that loving relationship.
So in this verse, Rukmini mentions about the lotus feet of Krishna and the lotus eyes of Krishna. So Krishna’s feet are compared to lotuses and His eyes are compared to lotuses. So we may wonder, why is everyone so obsessed with lotuses? Lotus is a material flower. So of course, when we describe Krishna, we will use terms which look material. Peacock feather, flute, blue colour, yellow cloth, it all looks material. So this is a reason why impersonalists don’t like to worship forms of God, because it looks like they have material features.
So when the devotee hears these descriptions of Krishna, devotee should not think of these as material objects or material qualities. So in the material world, we have lotuses and peacocks and blue colour, etc., in the spiritual world, we also have lotuses and peacocks and blue colour, yellow colour, etc., but they’re all spiritual there. So, in spiritual realization, the devotee will realize the spiritual form and spiritual qualities of Krishna. We will understand the difference between material blue and spiritual blue.
But these descriptions are there for us, even we do have, still have material conceptions, in order to guide us in the proper direction. So therefore, when we read these descriptions, we should not attribute material qualities. Rather, these descriptions will give us an indication of the spiritual beauty of Krishna. The nature of spiritual qualities is that, the spiritual beauty is also non-different from the spiritual qualities. In the material world, beauty is one thing, qualities are different. You could be beautiful, but have bad qualities. But when we realize the beauty of Krishna, then we also start realizing the wonderful qualities of Krishna.
And the most remarkable thing is that, in the name of Krishna, we also have His form, His qualities, and His pastimes. So, the word “Krishna” is also spiritual, not a material sound.
So that spiritual sound can manifest Krishna’s form, His qualities, and His activities. So by chanting the name Krishna, we can realize the pastime of Krishna stealing Rukmini. So the name of Krishna is very powerful.
Of course, on one level, it can destroy all your karmas, etc. In this verse, the statement is that, the great souls and even Shiva, they desire to bathe in the dust from Krishna’s lotus feet, and then they destroy all of their ignorance and karma. But the Lord gives much more than simply destroying your material ignorance and karmas. So, Rukmini is praying not for that, she is just praying for association with Krishna.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A
1) Why Rukmini is saying after hundreds of births she will attain Kṛṣṇa ?
The nature of Prema, or Bhakti in general, is that the devotee feels completely unqualified. And thus they put themselves in a very low position and they think not immediately but after many many births that they will get Kṛṣṇa s’ mercy.
2) Do we have any references on who the brāhmaṇa was?
Well, no, we don’t have any reference on any other story or anything involving the same brāhmaṇa, just some trustworthy person.
So, obviously, because he is participating in Kṛṣṇa ‘s pastimes, he is also a very elevated soul. Anyone who has participated in Kṛṣṇa ’s pastimes is a great devotee.
3) If we say that Bhakti is more important than austerity and all these things, but Rukmini is also saying that I will do the same thing, give up the body and Dhruva also did the same thing, so how to understand this?
So often there are statements like this that one performs austerities for many births to attain Kṛṣṇa. But often our ācāryas will explain that this is not the Tapasya like starving etc.
Rather, it is intense worship of Kṛṣṇa. So, in the 11th Canto, Kṛṣṇa is saying this himself, I am not so much attracted to austerities, study of the Vedas, sāṅkhya, jñāna, etc., as I am attracted to Bhakti.
So, if you want to get the mercy of Krishna, to control Krishna, we have to do Bhakti, not austerities.
We see in the beginning of the Bhagavatam, in the third canto, we discuss this in the second canto also, that Brahma did tapa. But what was this tapas?
Meditating on the Supreme Lord.
So, in other words, that meditation is also Bhakti.
It is said that in describing Vasudeva and Devaki’s three births, there Krsna says they did tapasya. But, they also did Bhakti. So, it was a combination. But then, Drona and Dhara also wanted Kṛṣṇa as their son. They did not do tapasya, but they worshipped the Lord.
As a result, they became Nanda and Yasoda. So, because of mixture of austerity with the bhakti, Vasudeva and Devakī had a different relationship with Krishna than Nanda and Yaśodā, not so intense.
4)If we want to do tapasya, what can some people do? Like without eating Ekādaśī or Caturmāsya?
So sometimes it is also mentioned that by tapas you develop bhakti, so our ācārya’s give another explanation that tapa means follow ekādasi because that is Vaiṣṇava vrata.So we can always do the Vaiṣṇava vratas, it’s not a problem, it’s part of bhakti.
However, if we put too much emphasis upon the austerity and the vairāgya, the nectar of devotion explains that the heart dries up. So one can become proud of one’s austerity. And the bhakti will decrease instead of increasing through that.
5) Sometimes, I saw a famous Japanese monk, he did 1,000 heavy austerities. But by this austerity, he became very humble, super humble. But still, it’s not necessary to cultivate bhakti right?
Hmm.
6) I think the central point of bhakti is saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam to satisfy the Lord, but oftentimes it appears that we forget that point, that very point, that we need to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. So do you kindly give us some insight like why it happens and how can we remember that point?
The principle of bhakti is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa and not to satisfy ourself.
But because we’re starting the process of bhakti, the sentiments for Krishna will be less and the anarthas will be more. So therefore, our execution of bhakti will not be perfect.
But by practice, we go through anartha nivṛtti of the niṣṭhā, ruci, and āsakti. Gradually, the surrender to Kṛṣṇa becomes more and the surrender to māyā becomes less.
So, to help us, we have knowledge. With that knowledge, we get an idea of how to practice bhakti properly. If we practice properly, we get better results. So in this way, gradually, our surrender to Kṛṣṇa and doing everything for Kṛṣṇa will become stronger and our actions for our self-interest will become less.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai ! Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai ! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki.. Jai!! !!