Srimad Bhagavatam 10.78.6 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Japan | November 10, 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 6.
ŚB 10.78.6
tarhy ānṛṇyam upaimy ajña
mitrāṇāṁ mitra-vatsalaḥ
bandhu-rūpam ariṁ hatvā
vyādhiṁ deha-caraṁ yathā
Synonyms
tarhi — then; ānṛṇyam — payment of my debt; upaimi — I will achieve; ajña — O unintelligent one; mitrāṇām — to my friends; mitra-vatsalaḥ — who am affectionate to my friends; bandhu — of a family member; rūpam — in the form; arim — the enemy; hatvā — having killed; vyādhim — a disease; deha-caram — in one’s body; yathā — like.
Translation
“Then, O unintelligent one, I who am obliged to my friends will have repaid my debt to them by killing You, my enemy disguised as a relative, who are like a disease within my body.”
Purport
According to the ācāryas, the word ajña indicates that in comparison to Lord Kṛṣṇa, no one is more intelligent. Further, the word bandhu-rūpam indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa is actually everyone’s true friend, and vyādhim indicates that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supersoul, the object of meditation within the heart, who takes away our mental distress. Furthermore, the ācāryas translate the word hatvā as jñātvā; in other words, by knowing Kṛṣṇa properly one can actually liberate all of one’s friends.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So here again we see that Dantavakra is using words to insult Krishna. He addresses Him as ignorant person, ajna. And though He is a relative bandhu-rupam, actually He is an enemy. And then he says, He is like a disease in the body. But as we see in the purport, our Acharyas given opposite meaning to the words [Laughs]. Of course, it’s not the normal meaning [Laughs]. So ajna of course means no knowledge, a person with no knowledge. But Sanskrit is such, in compound words, that it can also mean a person to whom no one is superior in knowledge [Laughs]. So, in other words he is addressing Krishna as the most intelligent person [Laughs]. So that’s not the intention of Dantavakra. But we can say that Saraswati, the devata in charge of language cannot tolerate his insult, so she also [Laughs] gives another meaning. So he vows to kill Krishna as to repay the debt of his friends. And he thinks that Krishna is the enemy. But we can take the phrase in the opposite way, and he thinks that the friend, that Krishna is actually the friend, he thinks that He is an enemy [Laughs]. So in other words, here he is insulting and threatening to kill Krishna. But actually on another level he is praising Krishna [Laughs].
So this is so not only for Dantavakra, but for all the enemies of the Lord. We see that Hiranyaksha was enemy, he was thinking that Vishnu was his enemy. And similarly Hiranyakasipu thought of Vishnu as his enemy, and Ravana thought of Rama as his enemy, Sisupala thought of Krishna as his enemy. But actually the Lord is the friend of all living entities. And He always acts in such a way that even the enemies get benefit. So, when Vishnu kills an enemy, he doesn’t go to hell, he gets another body and he gets some material enjoyment. When Krishna kills an enemy, he will get liberation and go to the spiritual world, so they get great benefit. So, though they are enemies of the Lord, the Lord rewards them. So, how can the Lord be the enemy of anyone? He gives the enemies such great rewards. So, of course, to be the enemy of the Lord, to think of the Lord as an enemy is an offense. But if you can concentrate on the Lord even as an enemy, one becomes purified. So therefore the Lord is praised, that even for the enemies, when people are thinking of the Lord as an enemy, they get great results. So in this way, we see the Lord never has a fault. Though the demons hate the Lord, the Lord does not hate the demons. And though He kills them, they get such good results.
So, in normal human beings, this is quite a rare quality to see. These demons are always thinking of friends and enemies. So, in the second line, I take revenge because You killed my friends. So he’s thinking in terms of friends and enemies. And we see at the beginning of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks of all this duality, thinking of friends and enemies, happiness and sorrow, victory and defeat, it’s all illusory. So this is what we call duality. And Krishna also describes in Bhagavad Gita that the Jiva is bewildered by this duality. And these dualities push the Jiva to action and you do action, we get karma and then we suffer in material world. So everyone in the material world, with a material body is subject to the dualities.
So, one of the first goals of spiritual life is to get rid of the dualities. So, Krishna praises a person who sees equally. So He also describes, Krishna describes, how the wise man, he sees the elephant and the cow, the dog and the dog-eater and the brahmana, all the same. Dog, dog-eater. And we see that Krishna Himself is called sama. So Krishna is not affected by these dualities. And a person who has advanced in spiritual life, also does not see dualities. And the reason for this is that, if one is stuck in dualities, then one gets another material body that is subject to karma. So to be ‘sama’ means to be beyond the dualities, to be beyond the influence of material world. And thus it is praised. This quality is praised. But though it is praised, it is not the most important quality.
So therefore, yes, Krishna is sama, but He favors the devotee [Laughs]. So of course, that looks a little contradictory. But the Lord is such that, even if He has contradictory qualities, there is no problem. Everything is praiseworthy in the Lord [Laughs]. Of course, when we say a person is partial, he is asama, he is, you know, showing favouritism, it has a bad connotation, negative connotation. And the negative connotation is that, if you favor a person who has no good qualities very unjustly, simply because he is your relative [Laughs] or whatever like that, that is considered to be bad quality. But if you show favor to a person because he has good qualities, how can that be a fault? Of course, in the material world, the law of karma takes care of this automatically. So, if you do sinful activities, then you get suffering. If you do punyas, you get rewards. And according to the amount of sin, then you will get greater suffering.
So, in this way, we say the law of karma is sama, it is equal. It doesn’t unjustly reward the sinner thinking him good [Laughs] and punish the person who is pious. So, of course, the law of karma is impersonal. There is no person there [Laughs]. But of course, sometimes Yamaraja may make a mistake also [Laughs] so that he gets criticized. So, Mandukya Muni got, put on the state because as a child, he pierced the bug, so he cursed Yamaraja [Laughs], you made a mistake [Laughs]. You shouldn’t punish me like this and so then Yamaraja had to become Vidura.
So the Lord, unlike Jivas or even Yamaraja, does not make mistakes like that. And He never hates anybody. And He is compassionate to all Jivas. But at the same time, according to the amount of devotion, then He favors. So, this is a different rule [Laughs]. The rule of karma is, you do sinful activity, you get punished, you do punya, you get rewarded. And this is material world only. So Krishna’s rule is, He responds to bhakti. And according to the amount of bhakti, then the Lord is more merciful. And if there’s no bhakti, the Lord is neutral, but He doesn’t hate. He lets the law of karma operate [Laughs]. So therefore, Krishna’s response to the devotee is quite different from operation of the law of karma. And the affection for the Lord is such that, even a person is sinful, but he has some devotion, then the Lord responds to that.
So bhakti is more powerful than sinful activities or pious activities. You do bhakti, you can destroy all your bad karmas, your sins. So we cannot criticize the Lord for that [Laughs]. The Lord has no hatred of anyone, but He has great attraction for devotees. Anyone who has devotion, the Lord becomes favorable. And He takes them beyond the laws of karma. So in this way, the Lord acts by His free will, however He wants, but He also has some basic rules.
So, He responds to those with devotion, but then we can say, well, then why is He so merciful to demons, who have no devotion [Laughs]? Putana wants to kill Krishna. Krishna kills Putana, puts her in the spiritual world. That doesn’t seem fair also [Laughs]. So the answer for that is that, because she disguised herself as a Gopi [Laughs], she had a good quality atleast, she used the Gopi disguise [Laughs]. Of course, it’s not a very good reason, but atleast something, Krishna felt a little bit of compassion because of that, so therefore He gave her this result. So Krishna doesn’t hate Putana, and if He sees a little good quality, He is ready to also respond to that. So, she disguised herself as a nurse, Krishna world, given her position as a nurse in the spiritual world. So even if, Krishna acts in an unusual way, that looks like a little bit unequal, actually, always He acts in such a way, according to His own nature which is perfect.
So if Krishna is so merciful even to a demon like Putana, He is even more merciful to devotees, who are seriously practicing bhakti. So to get salokya or sarupya, you may consider that very, very great, but even the great devotees don’t consider that much. They only consider serving the Lord. So the devotees practicing in the material world eventually get spiritual world, forms in the spiritual world but main interest is their service to Krishna. And their service and their devotion in spiritual world is much more intense than Putana in spiritual world. Putana goes to spiritual world and gets a form and whatever, but when a devotee goes to the spiritual world and gets a form there, his service is more intimate, more intense, and consequently more bliss. So therefore, the Lord has no fault at all. And though Dantavakra may criticize Him, as if He had faults, actually it’s all useless criticism [Laughs].
Ok. Hare Krishna!
Q & A:
1.) Thank you very much. In the material world, the mother loving son ..
Yeah, that’s all in the material world, but then there’s also a limit. The mother has so much affection for the son, the son starts killing everybody, and then the mother protects him, says, he’s innocent, he didn’t do anything, then that’s also a bad quality [Laughs]. He kills people, the son starts killing people, and the mother says, no, he’s innocent, he doesn’t kill people [Laughs].
Obviously, in this case, Dantavakra says, oh, You killed my friends, my friends are so nice, but they’re all demons [Laughs]. So then he says, You are my enemy, because You killed my friends, but they’re all demons [Laughs]. It’s affection, and out of affection we feel for them. So mother feels for the son even if he’s guilty or criminal, whatever. If the mother, out of her affection, was able to purify the son, very good. After that, then we don’t criticize.
So this is what happens with the demons. Demons have all the bad qualities, bad karma, sinful, etc. Krishna doesn’t hate them. He is affectionate. He kills them, they get purified [Laughs]. Then they can go to spiritual world. And thus, some people, they don’t purify, they don’t want to get purified, they stay in the material world, and Krishna lets karma act on them. He is still affectionate, lets karma act upon them.
Similarly, the mother has affection for the child. She sees the child commit a crime. So then he goes to jail, and then the mother will say, well, hopefully he goes to jail. He’ll get purified, and he’ll stop his criminal activities. So that’s also a sign of her affection. There’s a story, a prodigal son story, in the Bible. So the son goes away, and he’s not a good son. He goes off, doesn’t care for the parents. They never hear from him. He just neglects. Another son is there. He stays with the father and mother. He supports him and everything like that. Then that son happens to come back in a miserable state, finally. And then the father sees him, and he embraces him. And the other son says, what [Laughs]? You are embracing [Laughs] the son who went away [Laughs]. So that’s an example of you know, affection for the son, even if he did some bad activities or whatever. Hopefully he purified himself [Laughs].
2.) Maharaj Putana had wrong intentions. But in the form of Gopi. But in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna said like, if you are a devotee, but you are attached to the material things, you are a pretender. Why it is for devotees or sadhakas?
That example, of course, is given to, particularly for the person who is not qualified for Jnana and he tries to be a Jnani, but he is not [Laughs]. But we can also apply that to the devotee, a person who acts like a devotee, but inside, he is actually very materialistic. And this can be aparadha, like the tenth aparadha to the Holy Name.
So, Putana actually is an aparadhi, Dantavakra [Laughs] is an aparadhi. All these demons are big offenders [Laughs]. And, technically, they should not get mercy, because aparadhis should not get mercy [Laughs]. Should not get mercy [Laughs]. But, if Krishna sees some little good quality, He may show His mercy, which shows the compassionate nature of Krishna. We can also say, this is not ordinary, this is also extra ordinary for Krishna [Laughs]. And does not happen with other forms of the Lord. But with Krishna, sometimes this happens [Laughs]. Usually of course, the demons don’t get a body in spiritual world. Best they get, Moksha. And for the devotees, that’s considered a very good alternative, because the devotees think of Moksha like hell [Laughs]. So, the demons get kind of a hellish reward, which is hellish for the devotees, but [Laughs] okay for the demons [Laughs].
3.) If a sadhaka is pretender, but he says I depend on Krishna’s mercy to receive my one good quality.
[Laughs] Well, Krishna as I said, does extraordinary things. But we cannot count how many extraordinary [Laughs] mercy for everybody who is trying to deceive Krishna [Laughs]. In other words, you cannot take advantage of that. It’s like taking the, chanting the Holy Name in order to nullify sinful activities. So, it becomes offense again. So, let’s act like demons, so Krishna is more merciful to us and takes us to the spiritual world again, it’s not going to work [Laughs].
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!