Srimad Bhagavatam 11.10.22-29 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 11 April 2021
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
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 11 Chapter 10 Verse 22.
ŚB 11.10.22
antarāyair avihito
yadi dharmaḥ sv-anuṣṭhitaḥ
tenāpi nirjitaṁ sthānaṁ
yathā gacchati tac chṛṇu
Synonyms
antarāyaiḥ — by obstacles and discrepancies; avihitaḥ — not affected; yadi — if; dharmaḥ — one’s execution of regulated duties according to Vedic injunctions; sv-anuṣṭhitaḥ — excellently performed; tena — by that; api — even; nirjitam — accomplished; sthānam — status; yathā — the manner in which; gacchati — it perishes; tat — that; śṛṇu — please hear.
Translation
If one performs Vedic sacrifices and fruitive rituals without any mistake or contamination, one will achieve a heavenly situation in the next life. But even this result, which is only achieved by perfect performance of fruitive rituals, will be vanquished by time. Now hear of this.
Purport
The word gacchati means “going.” In Bhagavad-gītā Lord Kṛṣṇa states, āgamāpāyino ’nityāḥ: all material experiences, good or bad, come and go. Therefore the word gacchati refers to the disappearance of the results of even the most meticulously performed fruitive sacrifices. Any material situation, from the worst to the best, is imperfect. Thus one should strive only for pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Text 23
Translation
If on earth one performs sacrifices for the satisfaction of the demigods, he goes to the heavenly planets, where, just like a demigod, he enjoys all of the heavenly pleasures he has earned by his performances.
Text 24
Translation
Having achieved the heavenly planets, the performer of ritualistic sacrifices travels in a glowing airplane, which he obtains as the result of his piety on earth. Being glorified by songs sung by the Gandharvas and dressed in wonderfully charming clothes, he enjoys life surrounded by heavenly goddesses.
Text 25
Translation
Accompanied by heavenly women, the enjoyer of the fruits of sacrifice goes on pleasure rides in a wonderful airplane, which is decorated with circles of tinkling bells and which flies wherever he desires. Being relaxed, comfortable and happy in the heavenly pleasure gardens, he does not consider that he is exhausting the fruits of his piety and will soon fall down to the mortal world.
Text 26
Translation
Until his pious results are used up, the performer of sacrifice enjoys life in the heavenly planets. When the pious results are exhausted, however, he falls down from the pleasure gardens of heaven, being moved against his desire by the force of eternal time.
Text 27-29
Translation
If a human being is engaged in sinful, irreligious activities, either because of bad association or because of his failure to control his senses, then such a person will certainly develop a personality full of material desires. He thus becomes miserly toward others, greedy and always anxious to exploit the bodies of women. When the mind is so polluted one becomes violent and aggressive and without the authority of Vedic injunctions slaughters innocent animals for sense gratification. Worshiping ghosts and spirits, the bewildered person falls fully into the grip of unauthorized activities and thus goes to hell, where he receives a material body infected by the darkest modes of nature. In such a degraded body, he unfortunately continues to perform inauspicious activities that greatly increase his future unhappiness, and therefore he again accepts a similar material body. What possible happiness can there be for one who engages in activities inevitably terminating in death?
Purport
In the Vedic analysis of civilized life there are two paths. One who takes to the path of nivṛtti-mārga immediately renounces material sense gratification and purifies his existence by performance of austerity and devotional activities. On the path of pravṛtti-mārga one furnishes a steady supply of sense objects to the senses, but one consumes such sense objects under strict regulations and through ritualistic ceremonies, thus gradually purifying the heart and satiating the material senses. Unfortunately, as explained in this and the previous verse, the path of pravṛtti-mārga is extremely volatile because rather than becoming detached, the living entity often becomes uncontrolled and fully addicted to further sense gratification. In the previous verse the path of regulated, authorized sense gratification was described, and in this verse the path of unauthorized, demoniac sense gratification is described.
In this verse, the words saṅgād asatāṁ vājitendriyaḥ are very significant. One may fall down into sinful life by bad association, or even in good association one may fail to control his senses. Ultimately each living entity is responsible for his existential situation. The word adharma-rataḥ in this verse indicates those engaged in excessive sex life, meat-eating, drinking and other inauspicious activities that transgress the codes of civilized human life. Being in the mode of ignorance, these persons develop such a cruel mentality that they do not consider any festive occasion complete without the consumption of large quantities of meat obtained by slaughtering helpless animals. Eventually such persons become influenced by ghosts and spirits, who deprive them of all ability to discriminate between right and wrong. Losing all sense of decency, they become fit candidates for entrance into the darkest modes of material existence. Sometimes these lusty, intoxicated carnivores, considering themselves pious, pray to God in a useless way. Afflicted by innumerable material desires, they rotate from one material body to another without experiencing true happiness. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has noted that material life is so disturbing that even if one is allowed to live for an entire day of Brahmā — approximately 8,640,000,000 years — one will eventually be afflicted by the fear of death. In fact, Brahmā himself is disturbed by fear of death, what to speak of tiny human beings who live a paltry seventy or eighty years
at most. Thus, as stated here, kiṁ sukhaṁ martya-dharmiṇaḥ: what possible happiness can one find within the painful grip of material illusion?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So we have a description here of the results of following the vedic rules to get the maximum happiness in this world. As we see, it is not always sure what result you will get. In order to get to swargaloka, you have to do all of the sacrifices and other activities perfectly. And if there is some mistake you don’t get the result. And the result of going there, which is one such progress because it’s very sattvic is that, one can become very attached to that position. And then one forgets that one sooner or later has to give up that one. And the next body will be determined by all the previous karmas. And often it will result in him falling from that position, lower position. And in that lower position then he may take to dharma or may not take to dharma. If he takes the path of dharma then he’ll go up again and then he’ll fall down again. And if he takes to the path of adharma, then he’ll fall lower.
So earth is in the middle, if we look at the structure of the universe, it is in the middle of the 14 planetary systems. Above we have the heavenly planets and below we have the hellish planets. And by doing more sinful activities, you go to the lower planets. By doing punyas, you go to the upper planets. But the progress is not automatic, it’s not you keep progressing upwards and upwards. You can go up and down, up and down. There’s always some uncertainty about the future. If one manages to get to the very top Brahma loka then one can live a very long time with minimum inconvenience. However, that life will also end sooner or later.
So, in Brhad Bhagavatamrta there, Sanatana Goswami describes that Brahma complains that yes, I have a 100 years of my life which looks very long, but I’m also worried what’s going to happen after I give up this body. And though it is relatively safe, sometimes demons will disturb even Brahma loka. So, even if we get the highest position in the material world, still there’s always some uncertainty. So generally, of course, people prefer to enjoy rather than suffer. So based on that tendency, the vedas prescribe doing karma yoga so you get the enjoyment. But as I said, it is not a perfect solution. So an intelligent person should see, whether you do the pious activities to go upward or you indulge in sinful activities to go downward is equally unsatisfactory. However, to come to this position to even accept that there are higher planets and lower planets and we take another body and another body, even that takes some intelligence.
So we see in the modern world then, majority of the people don’t believe this at all. So even if you believe it, still you believe in past life and future life you believe in lower planets, upper planets still, you are unable to accept the fact that it’s all useless. So it requires some intelligence to get to the level of even doing karma yoga. But that’s also not the greatest intelligence. It is also faulty intelligence. So the scriptures themselves give this conclusion. But people who are attached to doing the karmas, they don’t read that part of the scripture. They concentrate only on one section of the vedas. So that is the danger of doing the system of karma. And when Narada Muni instructed Veda Vyasa, he actually condemned all of these sections of the vedas that encourage you to get happiness in this world. Veda Vyasa wrote the puranas for the people in the gunas. Therefore, he encouraged them to worship different devatas.
So of the eighteen puranas, six are classified as tamasic puranas. So they are not completely tamasic because they are written by Vedavyasa, who is the incarnation of God but they are meant for the people of tamoguna. And in those puranas, often Shiva is glorified because he is incharge of tamoguna and the people are in tamoguna. So by worshipping Shiva, incharge of tamoguna, these people in tamoguna eventually get purified. Of course, in these tamoguna puranas, not everything is tamoguna, so there are all stages about glorification of Vishnu and bhakti. But there are many statements there in that, so he said Shiva is Supreme and greater than Vishnu. So we see of course, this is contrary to what the Bhagavatam or the sattvic puranas say. But those who worship Shiva, they are so attached, they won’t read those other works, they will only read these particular works glorifying Shiva. So therefore, they come to the wrong conclusion. And similarly for the people in rajoguna, they are advised to worship Brahma and by worshipping Brahma, they get purified and eventually they get to sattva.
So this is a gradual method of purification but the people get stuck because they read certain scriptures glorifying Shiva or Brahma and they don’t read anything else, so they think that is the final conclusion. So that type of knowledge and that type of study is actually useless. If we want knowledge, we should get thorough knowledge, not half knowledge. So in English they say little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So particularly in kali yuga people are inclined to limit their knowledge. So if they read the Shiva purana then they feel I have read everything and they don’t want to read anything else. So this is particularly true in kali yuga. So people are called manda, very lazy. They don’t want to put forth too much effort. Not only manda, mandadi, they are not very intelligent. So they don’t strive to find out the real meaning. And they are also manda bhagya, they are not having good fortune they are completely attached to material enjoyment.
So therefore, if they take support of the scriptures, it is very dangerous because they don’t progress. So we are taught to respect all of the bona fide scriptures like the puranas and the vedas. At the same time, we do find even Krishna criticizes the flowery words of the vedas. So what this means is, though these types of scriptures are there for less advanced people, practically speaking, these should not be recommended for people. And it’s for this reason that Narada Muni advised Veda Vyasa rather than state all sorts of indirect methods, you come with the conclusion first. Don’t give people indirect methods, don’t bewilder them. So Narada Muni advised Veda Vyasa, so, you write a work in which the final, final and final conclusion is there. And therefore, Veda Vyasa wrote the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Actually it’s said, he already wrote the 18 puranas. But he revised Bhagavad purana, so that, the subject of bhakti in Krishna became the most prominent. Of course, still people will read the Bhagavatam, they can also come to the wrong conclusion. So the Bhagavatam also, though it comes to the conclusion quite directly, it also requires some qualification. Those who are devotees can find the conclusion very easily, those who are not devotees will also get bewildered. So we may ask, why didn’t Veda Vyasa or Narada Muni, Vedavyasa under Narada Muni’s instruction why didn’t he make something that’s very direct? And the answer is that, scripture is not always direct, even the most direct scripture may be a little indirect. And the reason for that is that, there is some qualification for studying this. So therefore, to approach Bhagavatam, we do have to have some devotion. And if we have the commentaries of the Acharyas, then we make no mistake about what the real thing is.
So therefore, the recommendation of the Bhagavatam is that you don’t bother with these other processes in kali yuga. One should just worship Vishnu with devotion. But many people will oppose that statement. Because they will say many forms of God. So, many people still have the conception that, all the devatas and Vishnu and Krishna are all equal. That however is projected by even Shankaracharya. So still, even among the forms of the Lord, that is Vishnu forms, Bhagavatam promotes Krishna more than anyone else. So that is the outstanding feature of Bhagavatam, it says everyone should worship Krishna rather than any other form of the Lord. The reason is that, this is practical for the people of kali yuga. For the fallen people of kali yuga, they should worship the most attractive form of the Lord. They are attracted to sense gratification but they need a very very strong spiritual form. So Krishna is, of all the forms of the Lord is the most attractive. So therefore, the Bhagavatam recommends just worship Krishna. So this is not a fanatical statement it’s a practical statement. So it’s practical because it’s the easiest form for the people of kali yuga to worship. And also we have a practical form of worship through Nama Sankirtan. So this is the final conclusion of Bhagavatam which is the conclusion of all the other scriptures. Veda Vyasa compiled the vedas, he wrote the Brahma Sutras and he wrote all the puranas and Mahabharata but the Bhagavatam is the conclusion.
So these verses here are discussing all about pious activities and sinful activities and hopelessness of karma yoga. So the message is that we should not strive for enjoyment within the material world. However, the jiva cannot give up the quest for happiness. So therefore, worshipping Krishna provides a method by which the jiva can get the highest happiness. So it is not temporary like the system of karma yoga. It does not produce a falling down from let’s say one falls down. Krishna gives a promise of eternal bliss. Of course the karma kanda scriptures, they also praise swarga loka as eternal, that’s a relative statement. So the statements about bhakti and the position in the spiritual world are not relative statements, they are actual facts. Because people are attracted to, or previously, they were attracted to the karma yoga system, here there is an emphasis upon rejecting the system. But we have to replace it with something also. So we should replace this with worship of Krishna.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) Sadhakas when they leave the body, do they go to swarga loka to enjoy their pious credits and then come back to earth to continue their bhakti or they come to earth planet and continue their bhakti, how does it work Maharaj?
If they have done devotional service, wherever they are, in swarga loka or mahar loka or Brahma loka or patala loka they can continue bhakti.
Devotee: Maharaj, there appears to be a concern because if someone goes to swarga loka, the opportunity for sense gratification is much higher and we also see from the 11th canto or somewhere that, the devatas are desiring to come back to Bhuloka so that they can worship Mahaprabhu by chanting the holy name and go back to the spiritual world. So how to appreciate that Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: All these places have their plus points and minus points. So swarga loka and above, they are more sattvic. But there’s much less affliction by the lower modes of nature. And we see all of the devatas and above, they are also devotional. However, to practice pure bhakti may be difficult for them. They may get attached to their sattvic enjoyment. So below swarga and earth or hellish planets, the rajoguna and tamoguna are very prominent. Things are disturbing to bhakti. Hence not very favorable. But then again, particularly earth planet, it has a mixture, so it is not too much suffering. And not too much enjoyment. So therefore, one does not get too attached to the enjoyment. So that’s favorable. But the real favorable point is that, many of the wonderful forms like Krishna, they appear on earth. For instance, Brahma came down from Brahma loka, he came down to earth planet to see Krishna. So earth planet has some good fortune because Krishna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared. So in that sense, we can say earth is favorable for development of bhakti.
2.) Maharaj is it that the Brahma Sutras and Vedanta Sutras are one and the same?
Same, same.
3.) In the 6th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Parikshit Maharaj says, those who are in the Brahma loka are promoted to the spiritual world along with Brahma at the time of dissolution. How to understand that?
This is a general statement if they are qualified then, most of the people in Brahmaloka are highly qualified so, and they are all devotees, so therefore they would go to the spiritual world. However some may be attached to the Brahma loka or they may have got there by, just by more punyas so, they may stay get birth as Brahma or be born on Brahma loka in a future birth.
4.) In higher planetary systems is worship of Caitanya Mahaprabhu there? If not isn’t it better to come back to earth planet and worship Caitanya Mahaprabhu. How to understand?
Well, since Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance, most likely the people in higher planets have some awareness of that, so many may worship Him. But of course, like earth planet, not everybody worships Lord Caitanya, so in higher planets there may be yogis and sages, they may be interested more in jnana and yoga also.
5.) Why does the Lord appear as avatar mainly in this earth planet rather than higher planetary systems?
He appears everywhere. So He has forms in upper planets and even Vamana Deva was born on swarga loka. He also resides in sutala loka [Not clear].
6.) Maharaj the Lord’s holy name is non different from the Lord. While chanting there are not many hard and fast rules for maintaining physical purity. While for deity worship there are many rules and regulations. How to understand that?
So the name is the most powerful process. And therefore, it gives its effect even if conditions are not ideal. Deity worship is part of bhakti but at the same time it has many rules. So all of these rules have the purpose of helping you control the mind. And if you cannot control the mind, then you will not get the correct result. But even you don’t control the mind when you chant the name of the Lord as in the case of Ajamila, you get some effect. If you want the highest effect from chanting, then you also have to control your mind.
7.) Maharaj mentioned about the Brahma’s concern that even he would be living for 100 years, he was expressing his concern. On the other hand, he is also praying that, tat te ’nukampāṁ su-samīkṣamāṇo [ŚB 10.14.8]. At the end of this lifetime one will get to the spiritual world. So he knows that one will get to spiritual world but he is also expressing concern at the end of 100 years. How to understand that?
Well, of course, as I said the general principle is that Brahma because he is the highest devotee of the spiritual world but then some Brahmas may not be so pure. Some Brahmas make more mistakes. So they may not go also.
8.) Maharaj worshippers of lord Shiva may not follow his instruction because Shiva is saying in many places that the highest worship is to worship Krishna. But still they are, worshippers of Shiva, they don’t follow his instruction itself.
Well, those who have more knowledge will understand this, those who have less knowledge won’t.
9.) Why among 12 Mahajanas, Bhishma ji is given the benediction to leave his body at his will, what is so significant about Bhishma Maharaj?
So Bhishma is the internal associate of Krishna. So he gets some special advantages.
10.) Maharaj in the age of kali, it may not be easy to perform vedic sacrifices. So how will people go to the heavenly planets?
It’s difficult, then that’s why it’s not recommended in kali yuga.
11.) Is Krishna in His original form always appear in earth loka only Maharaj?
Yeah only in Vrindavan.
12.) Can a devotee pray to the Lord that he be given a chance to go to the higher planets so that he could preach there?
Well, the devotee can preach everywhere. So he can also go to hell.
13.) Just like Chitragupta keeps account of the sins and pious activities, does he keep the account of the devotee’s progress in bhakti?
So the Yamaraja is only in charge of sinful activities.
14.) In continuation of Bhishma’s question, how to understand that Bhishma is getting crushed by the Lord’s virata rupa teeth?
No, he is an eternal associate.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Haribol!!!