Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.62.31~33 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | May 8, 2025!
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 10 Chapter 62 Verse 31.
ŚB 10.62.31
स तं प्रविष्टं वृतमाततायिभि-
र्भटैरनीकैरवलोक्य माधव: ।
उद्यम्य मौर्वं परिघं व्यवस्थितो
यथान्तको दण्डधरो जिघांसया ॥ ३१ ॥
sa taṁ praviṣṭaṁ vṛtam ātatāyibhir
bhaṭair anīkair avalokya mādhavaḥ
udyamya maurvaṁ parighaṁ vyavasthito
yathāntako daṇḍa-dharo jighāṁsayā
Synonyms
saḥ — He, Aniruddha; tam — him, Bāṇāsura; praviṣṭam — entered; vṛtam — surrounded; ātatāyibhiḥ — who were carrying weapons; bhaṭaiḥ — by guards; anīkaiḥ — numerous; avalokya — seeing; mādhavaḥ — Aniruddha; udyamya — raising; maurvam — made of muru iron; parigham — His club; vyavasthitaḥ — standing firm; yathā — like; anṭakaḥ — death personified; daṇḍa — the rod of punishment; dharaḥ — bearing; jighāṁsayā — ready to strike.
Translation
Seeing Bāṇāsura enter with many armed guards, Aniruddha raised His iron club and stood resolute, ready to strike anyone who attacked Him. He resembled death personified holding his rod of punishment.
Purport
The club was not made of ordinary iron but of a special kind called muru.
Text 32
जिघृक्षया तान् परित: प्रसर्पत:
शुनो यथा शूकरयूथपोऽहनत् ।
ते हन्यमाना भवनाद् विनिर्गता
निर्भिन्नमूर्धोरुभुजा: प्रदुद्रुवु: ॥ ३२ ॥
jighṛkṣayā tān paritaḥ prasarpataḥ
śuno yathā śūkara-yūthapo ’hanat
te hanyamānā bhavanād vinirgatā
nirbhinna-mūrdhoru-bhujāḥ pradudruvuḥ
Synonyms
jighṛkṣayā — wanting to grab Him; tān — them; paritaḥ — on all sides; prasarpataḥ — approaching; śunaḥ — dogs; yathā — as; śūkara — of hogs; yūtha — of a group; paḥ — the leader; ahanat — He struck; te — they; hanyamānāḥ — being struck; bhavanāt — from the palace; vinirgatāḥ — went out; nirbhinna — broken; mūrdha — their heads; ūru — thighs; bhujāḥ — and arms; pradudruvuḥ — they fled.
Translation
As the guards converged on Him from all sides, trying to capture Him, Aniruddha struck them just as the leader of a pack of boars strikes back at dogs. Hit by His blows, the guards fled the palace, running for their lives with shattered heads, thighs and arms.
Text 33
तं नागपाशैर्बलिनन्दनो बली
घ्नन्तं स्वसैन्यं कुपितो बबन्ध ह ।
ऊषा भृशं शोकविषादविह्वला
बद्धं निशम्याश्रुकलाक्ष्यरौत्सीत् ॥ ३३ ॥
taṁ nāga-pāśair bali-nandano balī
ghnantaṁ sva-sainyaṁ kupito babandha ha
ūṣā bhṛśaṁ śoka-viṣāda-vihvalā
baddhaṁ niśamyāśru-kalākṣy arautsīt
Synonyms
tam — Him; nāga-pāśaiḥ — with the mystic nāga noose; bali-nandanaḥ — the son of Bali (Bāṇāsura); balī — powerful; ghnantam — as He was striking; sva — at his own; sainyam — army; kupitaḥ — angered; babandha ha — he captured; ūṣā — Ūṣā; bhṛśam — extremely; śoka — by sorrow; viṣāda — and discouragement; vihvalā — overwhelmed; baddham — captured; niśamya — hearing; aśru-kalā — with teardrops; akṣī — in her eyes; arautsīt — cried.
Translation
But even as Aniruddha was striking down the army of Bāṇa, that powerful son of Bali angrily caught Him with the mystic nāga-pāśa ropes. When Ūṣā heard of Aniruddha’s capture, she was overwhelmed with grief and depression; her eyes filled with tears, and she wept.
Purport
The ācāryas explain that Bāṇāsura could not actually capture the powerful grandson of Lord Kṛṣṇa. However, the Lord’s līla-śakti, or pastime potency, allowed this to happen so that the events described in the next chapter could take place.
Thus end the purports of the humble servants of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda to the Tenth Canto, Sixty-second Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “The Meeting of Ūṣā and Aniruddha.”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, we see in this story that Aniruddha actually is a grandson of Krishna, but actually is another form of the Supreme Lord. We have what is called the Catur-Vyuha: Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradyumana, and Aniruddha. So these forms are famous not only within the Gaudiya Sampradaya, but they are well known among Sri Vaishnavas or whatever because they are mentioned a lot in Pancharatra Sastras. And of course, in the Pancharatra scriptures, these forms are in Vaikuntha. However, here we see these are in Dwarka. So the original Catur-Vyuha is Krishna and the other three and then they have their expansions in Vaikuntha.
So it’s explained in the Caitanya Caritamrita that those four Vaikuntha forms expand until there are 24 forms in Vaikuntha. Furthermore, Sankarsana expands into Mahavishnu. And then we get Garbhodakasai Vishnu, Ksirodakasayi Vishnu, this is Pradyumna, Aniruddha. These are actually considered to be forms of Paramatma. So the Lord is in spiritual world in Vaikuntha as Bhagavan, then He expands His Paramatma forms. In this way, the Supreme Lord rules over spiritual world and material world.
But we see here in the Bhagavatam that the origin is actually Krishna, and his expansion is Sankarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha. So it’s described here, how Aniruddha gets captured by Banasura and his ropes, his mystic nāga-pāśa ropes. So how can the Lord get defeated? How can he get tied up? That means Supreme Lord is not as powerful as the demon. So therefore, how can that be true? Nevertheless, we cannot say this is a false story. So then explanation is, as explained in the Purport, that it’s the Lord’s Lila Shakti that causes so-called defeat of Aniruddha by Banasura. So, though the Lord can never be defeated by anyone, nevertheless, for pastimes, sometimes we see that events like this will take place. So not only for the expansions of the Lord, like Aniruddha or Pradyumna, but we’ll see even the Supreme Lord gets defeated.
Of course, we have the principle that the Lord is controlled by His devotee. So, Krishna becomes a charioteer of Arjuna. Krishna gets tied up by Mother Yasoda. So for people in the material world looking at that, they find this a little bit confusing. How can the Lord be servant of anybody? How can He get tied up? Then the answer is, the Lord is controlled by His devotees. Of course, we could also criticize that how can the Lord, who is supreme, be controlled by anybody, even devotees? And the answer is, the Lord has great affection for His devotees. And because He has a great affection, if the devotee desires something, the Lord will do it.
For those who have Vatsalaya rasa, the Lord becomes the child, the son of Mother Yasoda and Nanda. And then, they completely control Him. So that’s because of affection for the devotee. And, of course, the devotee is not taking that role to be, let’s say, over-Lording it, or whatever like that, it’s also an expression of that devotee’s affection. Over-Lording, it is not just a desire, like false ego, and being a controller. It’s a desire to serve the Lord. So we cannot criticize a devotee for wanting that, nor can we criticize the Lord for responding to that. So it’s not a bad quality for the Lord to be controlled by the devotee, it’s a very good quality. Rather, our Acharyas say that the Lord’s quality of Bhakta-Vatsala, that’s his greatest quality. Of course, we will not see such control by the devotee of the Lord, to extreme extents, like Mother Yasoda and Krishna, in other forms of the Lord, but we see it in Krishna. Certainly, Vishnu is also controlled by his devotee, because that’s the nature of Prema itself.
So in Nectar of Devotion, the six unique qualities of Bhakti, the sixth one is Krishna- Akarshini, that the devotee, in Prema attracts the Lord and control Him. So it exists for Vishnu, or Rama, or anyone. And thus we will see that, when Durvasa was afflicted by the Sudarshana, he goes to the Lord, and the Lord says, well, you have to go to my devotee, he’s the control of my Sudarshana. So that shows how Vishnu is under the control of his devotee. However, with Krishna, we will see that the extent that the devotee controls the Lord is extreme. So therefore, we have an example like Krishna getting tied up by Mother Yasoda, we will not see that with other forms of the Lord. Of course, we will not even see Vatsalaya Rasa expressed in Vaikuntha. Vishnu doesn’t have any mother and father. Of course, we do see in the avatar forms, Rama has parents, and a few others have parents, a little Vatsalaya, but not so much. But even that Vatsalaya is actually largely tinted by Dasya also. So therefore, that’s why we put Krishna in a unique position. So due to the affection for the devotees, then Krishna may take a subordinate role, lesser, lower, He becomes lower, and the devotee becomes higher.
However, this case is a little different, because Banasura is not a devotee. So therefore, it’s not that Aniruddha gets tied up because he’s showing affection for Banasura. Does Aniruddha have affection for Banasura? No, so it can’t be that it’s out of affection that he gets tied up because he’s an enemy, not a friend, not a devotee. So then how is it that he’s a supreme lord and he gets tied up? And we cannot even say that Aniruddha agrees to get tied up. It’s not that he’s voluntarily doing it. So therefore it’s explained that it’s Krishna’s Lila Shakti doing it. So of course, Aniruddha is another form of the Supreme Lord, but nevertheless Krishna is a supreme form. And therefore He can exert His Lila Shakti to do things that even Aniruddha has no control over. So this Lila Shakti is part of the internal energy of Krishna, antaranga Shakti or Cit Shakti. So this Shakti means the power to create pastimes. And the purpose of the pastime is finally to create great variety in the spiritual world and finally rasa.
So we see in this case, Aniruddha gets tied up and then Usha is in distress. So she’s separated, this is a type of Vipralambha. And then in the next chapter we see how Krishna and the Yadus come there and there’s a big battle with Banasura. Finally, Banasura surrenders and becomes a devotee. And Aniruddha gets married to Usha. So all this is arranged so this pastime can take place. So it gives variety to the love between Usha and Aniruddha. It gives an opportunity for Krishna to show His virya, His prowess. And it also shows His mercy because finally Banasura gives up his pride. So it also shows that ultimately Krishna is the highest form.
In the story of Brahma getting bewildered, we see that Balarama gets bewildered. So Brahma gets bewildered, no problem because he’s Devata and Jiva. But for one-year Balarama didn’t know that Krishna had expanded Himself into all the cows and cowherd boys, he was also bewildered. How can the Supreme Lord get bewildered? Balarama is the Supreme Lord. Balarama also wondered how is it possible. So he said, I’ve been fooled for one year. So he said, it cannot be demons, cannot be sages, cannot be Devatas who are bewildering me. So therefore the only one left was Krishna, He can bewilder me. So, Krishna will bewilder Balarama, so He can have His pastime. So not only a pastime of defeating Brahma, but also to give an opportunity to all the people, the elders, to have Krishna as their son for one year and express their vatsalya. So all the elder cowherd people, the men and women, they have vatsalya for Krishna. But that could not be fully expressed, of course that was there, but it could not be fully expressed, because Nanda and Yasoda are taking care of Krishna. So by expanding himself as all the cowherd boys, all the elder cowherd men and women had Krishna as their son for a whole year. So in this way, Krishna’s Lila Shakti and Yogamaya actually controlled even the devotees and even forms of the Supreme Lord. And in fact, His Shakti is so strong that it even controlled Krishna.
So there’s an example in the Aghasura pastime. So Aghasura opened his mouth and was there, and the cowherd boys saw this, and said, oh, look at this, it looks like a big snake.
It also looks like a big cave. So, let’s run into the cave. So Krishna is saying, ‘stop, stop, don’t go in’. But the cowherd boys ran in with all the cows, and they didn’t hear Krishna. So, then Krishna wondered, why are they not listening to me? And then He realized, ah, it’s My Lila Shakti is working. So even He’s controlled by this Lila Shakti. ‘I cannot even stop them because My Lila Shakti is saying, don’t do it’. So in this way, the Lord performs his pastimes in combination with His internal energy, and that creates a great variety of pastimes.
Ok, any question there?
Q&A
1) Can you explain Dasa Lila, how to control Krishna?
So the nature of Dasa is, the Lord is superior, and the devotee is inferior, and he acts as a servant. But this is a relationship of affection. So it is not a one-way relationship, which the servant serves and the master is there and doesn’t respond. So, as a master, Krishna shows affection for that devotee who is a servant.
So Ambarisha was in Dasya Rasa with Vishnu. But Vishnu, very generous, becomes controlled by His devotee, so He says, here is my Sudarshan Chakra, you take it, do anything you want with it.
So to that extent, He is controlled by his devotee. So the extent, of course, that we see the Lord controlled by His devotee in Dasya Rasa, is not so prominent until we come to Krishna. And it becomes more as we go into Sakhya Rasa, Vatsalya Rasa, Madhurya Rasa.
2) I have a question, Maharaj. So the first shloka, Aniruddha Dandadhara, he has a punishment, a club for punishment. But Banasura tries to punish him. This is very contradictory, because externally, Aniruddha must get punished because he breaks Dharma. But Aniruddha stands up as Aniruddha Dandadhara and punishes him. This is contradictory. Externally, the Dharma, Aniruddha is like a criminal. Could you explain this point?
Of course, you can talk about Dharma, but ultimately, Aniruddha is a form of the Supreme Lord, like Krishna. Krishna has to be punished because He went off with the gopis. Throw Him in jail. So, we have regular dharma, Lord usually follows that. We also have Parodharma and that’s stronger than regular dharma. Following Prema is a higher principle than following regular Dharma.
Krishna with the gopis or Aniruddha with Usha is the highest Dharma. And anyone who opposes it, they’re adharma. They get the punishment.
3) The word Madhava is translated as Aniruddha. Why in this case use the word Madhava?
So Madhava, the meaning can be a descendant of the Madhu dynasty. So it could mean any member of the Vrishnis, in fact, or the Yadus. Another meaning of Madhava is ‘Ma’ means Lakshmi, consort of the Lord and ‘Dhava’ means husband. Vishnu is the husband of Lakshmi, Krishna is the husband of Rukmini, or in this case, Aniruddha is the husband of Usha.
4) There is a story about Nagapasa, like a snake’s rope. In the time of Lakshman, Indrajit also used Nagapasa. Nagapasa here is the same as Nagapasa there.
So, we often see in these battles the Nagapasas come up. So, it’s a type of rope.
Naga means snake, so snake ropes, literally snake ropes. Here in the translation it says mystic Nagapasa, so it appears that they’re not just ordinary ropes, they’re, we have mystic power or some powers by which you can trap people with those ropes, so they’re a little bit special, a little stronger than normal ropes.
Devotee: Maybe the same used by Indrajit.
5) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Thank you for the wonderful session. You mentioned that the Lord is under the control of His devotees. So, I was thinking about the book it was written by your grace that is Madhurya Kadambini. It is mentioned that devotion is independent, and it is said that even Krishna cannot give devotion, and by impurity also one cannot get devotion. So could you explain what actually makes oneself a devotee? So for the first chapter, you translated it very nicely, but this was a little confusion, so could you explain what makes oneself a devotee? What makes someone as a devotee? Because bhakti is independent, and there is some reasoning from Viswanatha Chakravarthi Padh, like bhakti is independent, and it kind of comes from, even the Lord also cannot give bhakti. So I couldn’t understand that properly. The first chapter of Madhurya Kadambini, it says that devotion is independent. It also says that even God cannot give devotion. It also says that bhakti exists. How bhakti is developed, that is my question. I hope Maharaj can get my question.
Bhakti is independent. So when we say bhakti is independent, the main meaning there is it does not depend on karma or jnana or yoga. We may have the misconception, first I have to become sattvic, then I can do bhakti. That is a misconception. That means bhakti is dependent on sattva guna. That’s wrong. Rather it is the opposite. Karma yoga, jnana yoga, ashtanga yoga depend on bhakti. If you don’t have any bhakti in your karma yoga, you can’t go to Svarga Loka. If you don’t have any bhakti in your Jñāna yoga, you cannot get liberation.Bhakti is nirguna, it is above material nature. Bhakti is actually part of Krishna’s internal energy, Cit shakti, Svarupa shakti. Bhakti is independent of material world. Karma, jnana, yoga arise from the gunas. So in that sense it is independent.
Now, of course, if it is internal energy, ultimately it depends on Shaktiman, Krishna. So it is not independent in that sense. We just said Krishna is controlled by His devotee. Why the devotee? Because the devotee has bhakti. So bhakti comes from svarupa shakti, svarupa shakti controls Krishna. So in that sense we can say it is independent of Krishna and controls Krishna.
So bhakti manifests in the material world. Of course Krishna can directly come and give devotion, but it normally manifests through devotees. Of course, from Krishna He has svarupa shakti, svarupa shakti has bhakti in it, bhakti comes to the devotee and the devotee distributes that. But, the Lord does not tell the devotee, you have to give the mercy here, you have to give the mercy there. He gives it to the devotee and the devotee can distribute where he wants. In that sense, not completely under the control of the Lord, but under the control of the devotee.
So why is that? Because the Lord is controlled by his devotee, so He lets His devotee do what He wants.
Devotee: So bhakti, you translate it as bhakti is the cause of bhakti, but from today’s explanation I understand that bhakti can be the cause of bhakti if we associate it with devotees. Is it the correct understanding, Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah. Well, why are they devotees? Because they have bhakti and they give bhakti to others.
Devotee: I understand. So, Maharaj, is there any factor of ajnata shukriti in there or just the association of devotees?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Oh, OK. So why do the devotees, who do they choose to give out mercy to? That’s probably the question. The general principle is, don’t preach to the faithless [Laughs]. So we don’t give out mercy to the faithless. So we give to the faithful.
Where does the faith come from? So generally the faith will come from ajnata shukriti in previous lives. Where does the ajnata shukriti come from? From devotees. So somehow devotees do things like they make prasada, they give it to somebody, and that’s their ajnata shukriti, they eat the prasadam Or they arrange a Ratha Yatra festival and somebody sees Jagannath’s face go by, and that’s their ajnata shukriti. But it involves devotees, but it’s not direct preaching. So the bhakti in the devotees causes the ajnata shukriti, which later leads to faith, and then they get direct preaching by a devotee again. So it’s again back to devotees’ mercy.
So therefore the devotee has two functions. To preach to the faithful and to arrange for ajnata shukriti for the faithless.
6) Maharaj, about sakthis, Yeah, yeah, but they’re very spontaneously works, right? [question not clear]
Yeah, obviously it’s not really independent, it’s in cooperation with Krishna and His desire for Rasa and whatever, so it fulfills Krishna’s desires.
7) Now we discussed about the relationship between Krishna and the devotee. Devotee is independent, Krishna gives independence, like the same relationship between Krishna and the lila shakti, right?
Yeah, so Krishna gives independence to his Bhakti Shakti or to his Lila Shakti, do what you want.
Devotee: Then increases the Rasa. Yeah.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!!