Srimad Bhagavatam – 10.78.1-4 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | November 8, 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 vāsudevaya
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 10 Chapter 78 Verse 1.
ŚB 10.78.1-2
śrī-śuka uvāca
śiśupālasya śālvasya
pauṇḍrakasyāpi durmatiḥ
para-loka-gatānāṁ ca
kurvan pārokṣya-sauhṛdam
ekaḥ padātiḥ saṅkruddho
gadā-pāṇiḥ prakampayan
padbhyām imāṁ mahā-rāja
mahā-sattvo vyadṛśyata
Synonyms
śrī-śukaḥ uvāca — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said; śiśupālasya — for Śiśupāla; śālvasya — Śālva; pauṇḍrakasya — Pauṇḍraka; api — also; durmatiḥ — evil-hearted (Dantavakra); para-loka — to the next world; gatānāṁ — who had gone; ca — and; kurvan — doing; pārokṣya — for those who have passed away; sauhṛdam — act of friendship; ekaḥ — alone; padātiḥ — on foot; saṅkruddhaḥ — infuriated; gadā — a club; pāṇiḥ — in his hand; prakampayan — making tremble; padbhyām — with his feet; imam — this (earth); mahā-rāja — O great King (Parīkṣit); mahā — great; sattvaḥ — whose physical power; vyadṛśyata — was seen.
Translation
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Acting out of friendship for Śiśupāla, Śālva and Pauṇḍraka, who had all passed on to the next world, the wicked Dantavakra appeared on the battlefield in a great rage, O King. All alone, on foot and wielding a club in his hand, the mighty warrior shook the earth with his footsteps.
Text 3
Seeing Dantavakra approach, Lord Kṛṣṇa quickly picked up His club, jumped down from His chariot and stopped His advancing opponent just as the shore holds back the ocean.
Purport
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “When Kṛṣṇa appeared before Dantavakra, his heroic march was immediately stopped, just as the great furious waves of the ocean are stopped by the beach.”
Text 4
Raising his club, the reckless King of Karūṣa said to Lord Mukunda, “What luck! What luck — to have You come before me today!
Purport
Śrīla Śrīdhara Svāmī explains that after having waited for three lifetimes, Dantavakra, formerly a gatekeeper in Vaikuṇṭha, could now return to the spiritual world. Therefore the transcendental meaning of his statement is: “How fortunate! How fortunate I am that today I can return to my constitutional position in- the spiritual world!”
In the next verse, Dantavakra will refer to Kṛṣṇa as mātuleya, a maternal cousin. Dantavakra’s mother, Śrutaśravā, was the sister of Kṛṣṇa’s father, Vasudeva.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So, in this chapter again, we see how Krishna kills many demons. One of the reasons for Krishna appearing in the material world was to kill demons. In the Bhagavatam, there, the demons are often described as to be a burden on the earth, a heavy load on the earth. So, of course, the earth supports everything. Earth supports the mountains, and the trees, and the water, and the oceans, all living entities [Laughs]. However, when there are a lot of demons, this creates a greater stress on the earth. In the first canto, we see how Parikshit was chastising Kali. And Kali was attacking a bull. And there was a cow beside the bull crying. So this is a symbolic story in which the bull represents dharma, and the cow represents the earth. So, this comparison of earth and dharma to the cow and the bull shows that the human being is very important, or the conduct of the human being is very important for the welfare of the earth.
So, dharma is for human beings, not for animals or plants. So, dharma is a set of rules of human conduct. And if those rules are followed, earth is happy. And when the rules are not followed, then the earth suffers. So, personification of Kali yuga was breaking all the legs of the bull. So, only one quarter of dharma was left, which means that three quarters of adharma was present. And thus, the cow was lamenting. So, what this means is that, if human beings don’t follow the principles of dharma, the earth does not give its proper products such as water, food, etc. Another worse thing is, if the human beings don’t control their senses, the earth stops giving its products. So, this is a very simple principle and a very logical principle.
And we see that this principle has been operating in the world over long periods of history. So, often archaeologists, they dig up ancient civilizations. They find these ancient civilizations. They dig up and they find rocks and buildings and bones and [Laughs] artifacts and so many things. And then, at a certain point, suddenly those civilizations disappeared. And it was not due to war. So, the archaeologists were puzzled. Why did they suddenly disappear? They’ve been there for a thousand years or five hundred years, and suddenly within one hundred years, nobody left. What happened [Laughs]? So, of course, it’s all speculative what happened, but one of the logical conclusions is that, civilization got too big and they uprooted all the plants and did everything, and there was nothing left [Laughs]. So, they couldn’t support the civilization anymore, because they destroyed the land [Laughs]. In other words, a human being has to be very careful how he interacts with nature [Laughs]. And if you start taking too much from the earth, then the earth stops giving. So, this we see in the present world, there’s all sorts of concern about human beings destroying the environment. But it’s not new. It’s been happening in ancient civilizations as well. But then we see that people really don’t learn their lessons.
So, even though we have evidence that human beings are destroying the environment, and consequently we have [Laughs] less available facilities for human beings, still people don’t want to stop, very difficult to control people [Laughs]. So, very very difficult for the world to control all different nations. And so, ok you’ve got to stop this. It’s too much pollution, whatever, very difficult. Nobody wants to do it. Why? Because of greed. So, the rules of dharma are there to help control all of this greed of the human being. And of course, people generally don’t want to control their senses [Laughs]. So, therefore, you need a strong ruler to enforce things. So, in the first canto, it’s described how Parikshit was able to control this adharma, the spread of adharma. This, of course, means that the king himself has to control those senses and has to follow dharma properly. So, unfortunately, after king Parikshit, gradually, the rulers lost their qualification. They were not controlling senses, not following dharma. So, therefore, civilization began to fall apart.
So, 5,000 years ago, the devatas found that all these demons were there, and they were just giving big disturbance to the earth. So, that’s why they told the Supreme Lord, you must do something, and then Krishna appeared [Laughs]. So, in the 10th canto, in describing the pastimes of Krishna, we’ll see that many of these pastimes are killing demons [Laughs]. So, why, why the Lord has to kill so many people [Laughs]? So, the reason is that, He was trying to restore balance on the earth.
Of course, the Lord has other purposes as well, when He comes into the material world. So, when Krishna kills a demon, yes, there we will get, you know, dharma is protected, but the other purpose is that the Lord shows His wonderful qualities. So, we see Krishna killed Salva, and He did so in a very astonishing manner. So, Supreme Lord should have 100% strength. He cannot be killed or wounded. Nothing can happen to Him [Laughs]. He doesn’t get tired. So, when He is fighting them, we see all of these qualities manifested. But we should never think Krishna killing demons means that Krishna hates demons. No, He doesn’t hate anybody [Laughs]. So, one of the qualities that distinguish the Lord from everyone else is that when the Lord kills a demon, demon does not go to hell, he doesn’t suffer, he gets nice results [Laughs]. So, if, when Narasimha Dev kills Hiranyakasipu, he doesn’t go to hell, he gets born again as Ravana, enjoys nicely [Laughs]. So, this is one of the qualities that distinguishes Vishnu forms from Shiva and Jivas [Laughs], one of the five qualities, when He kills a demon, he doesn’t go to hell [Laughs]. But then, when Krishna kills a demon, something even more astonishing happens. The demon gets liberation or goes to the spiritual world. So, this shows that the Lord doesn’t hate even the demons [Laughs]. So, when He kills a demon, it’s also mercy. So, by great mercy, a Jnani or a Yogi gets liberation. Simply by getting killed by Krishna, a demon gets the same goal [Laughs]. So, therefore, the Lord, by killing the demon, shows many different qualities.
The Lord shows His great strength and skill. He also shows his great mercy. Though the Lord is merciful to the demons also, He is even more merciful to the devotees. So, He kills the demons to protect the devotees. He killed Salva, because Salva was attacking His devotees in Dwaraka. So, by that act of fighting demons, the Lord also shows His great attraction to His devotees. Of course, when the devatas went to request the Lord to come as avatar to destroy demons, that’s also showing compassion to the devatas, who are also devotees. And of course, though Krishna killed so many demons, still, that’s not His main activity. So, even more attractive than His activities of killing demons, it’s Krishna’s pastimes with His devotees such as, lifting Govardhana Hill or having Rasa-Lila. So more than killing demons, Krishna is more attracted to responding to His devotees in pastimes of love.
Okay, Hare Krishna.
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, Krishna, He protected, established the dharma, appeared 5000 years before, thereby killing the demons and protecting the devotees, then what about in between, then Caitanya appeared again.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: More demons come after that [Laughs].
Devotee: Could you explain about that, how different is Krishna and Lord Caitanya?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So the Lord comes with many purposes. Sometimes, He may need to kill some demon, like Varaha comes and kills Hiranyaksha. Other times He just teaches, so He comes as Kapila Dev, He gives instructions, comes as Vyasadeva, He preserves the Vedas [Laughs]. And when the Lord comes as Yuga avatar, again He is teaching.
So in Kali yuga, Lord Caitanya comes and He teaches the Yuga dharma, Nama Sankirtana. He also comes and when He comes, He does not act as Supreme Lord, He is called channa avatar, the hidden avatar. So, it is said in the scriptures that the Lord appears only in three yugas. He appears in Satya yuga, Treta yuga, and Dwapara yuga, not in Kali yuga. However, there should be a Yuga avatar in Kali yuga, because [Laughs] people of Kali yuga have to be saved [Laughs]. So Supreme Lord comes, but He comes in a disguised form. So the Lord comes as Caitanya, but He does not reveal Himself as Supreme Lord. So, therefore, He doesn’t kill demons [Laughs]. Of course, He doesn’t kill them physically atleast [Laughs]. But in any case, as Yuga avatar, He is there to purify people and lead them on the path of the highest dharma. So, therefore, Lord Caitanya mainly is teaching the Yuga dharma, Nama Sankirtana and He hides aspect of, you know, killing demons, etc.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, thank you for the wonderful class. I understand that even if the demons are killed by Krishna, they are liberated. But I got one confusion. As you mentioned that Krishna is partial to devotees, and in Bhagavad Gita 9.29 also we see the same thing ‘samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣu na me dveṣyo ’sti na priyaḥ ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpy aham’. So here we can clearly see that Krishna is partial to His devotees. But if we study Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 7, Chapter 1, there is an entire chapter that Krishna is impartial. That is the title of that chapter. And Sukadeva Goswami, he discussed that Krishna is impartial, but this is the time factor. For example, in the morning time when it is Brahma muhurtha, the devotees, they flourish. So it’s the time factor again. But for example, when the time is in Tamoguna, and then that time the demons flourish. So this is essentially not Krishna’s partiality, but there is the time factor, when it is in Sattvaguna, then devotees and devata flourish and when it is Tamoguna, then the demons flourish. So how to understand Krishna’s partiality if we see the Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 7, Chapter 1? It is mentioned about time factor only.
Actually, of course, we can say, time is impartial, karma also is impartial. So, it may be according to time, it’s tamasic time but due to karma, then a person has great punya and he doesn’t suffer in that tamasic time also [Laughs]. Paramatma also is impartial. He is a witness, he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t interfere with your karma [Laughs].
Now Bhakti is beyond the gunas. So, it cannot be predicted in terms of partial or impartial, or sama or asama or whatever [Laughs]. The principle of Bhakti is that, devotees are attracted to the Lord, the Lord is equally attracted to the devotee. So, even if a person is in Tamoguna, if he has faith in the Lord, the Lord is merciful. Karma doesn’t have to do with gunas [Laughs]. So, Bhakti may contradict the laws of the material world. It’s beyond even Sattvaguna. The Jnanis are in Sattva, but Lord is not necessarily merciful to them [Laughs]. So, Krishna may be merciful to a demon. And then a demon gets liberation or a demon goes to the spiritual world like Putana or Aghasura.
But then, what about devotees? The devotees, He becomes more merciful, to devotees. So, if the demon can get liberation or the demon can get a body in the spiritual world, then the devotee gets even more than that. So, the Lord is partial to the devotee, He is more favourable to the devotee, but He is also favourable to the devotee according to their amount of devotion. So, if the devotee has Prema, then the devotee can control the Lord. If he’s only doing Sadhana Bhakti, he cannot control the Lord. Nevertheless, the Lord is more merciful to the person doing Sadhana, than to the person not doing Sadhana [Laughs].
Devotee: Thank you Maharaj for the very clear answer. Thank you so much.
3.) Maharaj, like Krishna is coming to kill the demons. [Not clear] So what is the responsibility of Manu?
So, the Lord does not appear all the time. He comes as Lila avatar, every few yugas, or whatever. He comes in every yuga as a Yuga avatar. But between avatars, there has to be someone to maintain dharma and Bhakti, so that’s the duty of the Manus and their descendants.
4.) Where do the Manus live?
I think in the fifth canto, it’s described that Manus will live in one of the other varshas, upper varshas. That’s it. Kuru-varsha. Yeah, Kuru-varsha somewhere out there, its one of the varshas in Bhu-mandala.
Devotee: What about the 8 Vasus?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: What’s that?
Devotee: Like Bhishmadeva, he’s the one of the eight Vasus, what is the role?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Who are they? They’re a type of devata.
Devotee: But I have one more, why specifically they are eight, they are categorised?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: I don’t know [Laughs]. We have 12 Adityas, 8 Vasus, 11 Rudras [Laughs]. 7 Rishis, sapta Rishis [Laughs], Chakra-vyuha [Laughs], Pancha-tattva [Laughs].
Devotee: Pancha-tattva, yes interesting.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: [Laughs].
Devotee: Do they each have a role according to their reincarnation, like Vishnu becomes? Do they each have a previous life? Like Advaita Acharya then Maha Vishnu?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Yeah, yeah, so they have specific roles to play in Pancha-tattva. Eleven Rudras, they also have specific things like one is in charge of anger, another is in charge of lust [Laughs], another is in charge of this and that, whatever, ahankara, whatever. They’re also in charge of different things.
Okay, Hare Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!