Srimad Bhagavatam 11.12.13 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 12 June 2021
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 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 12 Verse 13.
ŚB 11.12.13
mat-kāmā ramaṇaṁ jāram
asvarūpa-vido ’balāḥ
brahma māṁ paramaṁ prāpuḥ
saṅgāc chata-sahasraśaḥ
Synonyms
mat — Me; kāmāḥ — those who desired; ramaṇam — a charming lover; jāram — the lover of another’s wife; asvarūpa-vidaḥ — not knowing My actual situation; abalāḥ — women; brahma — the Absolute; mām — Me; paramam — supreme; prāpuḥ — they achieved; saṅgāt — by association; śata-sahasraśaḥ — by hundreds of thousands.
Translation
All those hundreds of thousands of gopīs, understanding Me to be their most charming lover and ardently desiring Me in that way, were unaware of My actual position. Yet by intimately associating with Me, the gopīs attained Me, the Supreme Absolute Truth.
Purport
The words asvarūpa-vidaḥ (“not understanding My actual position or form”) indicate that the lovely gopīs were so completely absorbed in conjugal love for Lord Kṛṣṇa that they were not aware of the Lord’s unlimited potencies as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains this and other meanings of the word asvarūpa-vidaḥ. In Sanskrit the word vid also means “to acquire.” Thus, asvarūpa-vidaḥ indicates that the gopīs, like other pure devotees of the Lord, were not interested in achieving sārūpya-mukti, the liberation of acquiring a bodily form similar to the Lord’s. Were the gopīs to obtain a bodily form like the Lord’s, how could the Lord execute His conjugal pastimes of dancing with the gopīs and embracing them? Since the gopīs had realized their eternal spiritual forms as servitors of the Lord, the word svarūpa also may indicate their own spiritual bodies, and thus asvarūpa-vidaḥ means that the gopīs never thought, as materialists do, of their own bodily beauty. Although the gopīs are the most beautiful girls in the Lord’s creation, they never thought of their own bodies but rather were always meditating on the transcendental body of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Although we cannot imitate the gopī’s exalted conjugal feelings, we can follow their superb example of practical Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They naturally took shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa and achieved the highest perfection of life.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
Here again we have another verse glorifying the Gopis. And this explains the consciousness of the Gopis. So in the purport, we see there is some explanation of the word asvarūpa-vidaḥ. Which means, literally, the common understanding of the word is, they didn’t know about His actual swarupa. Of course, such a statement is a little bit misleading. Because to say, they don’t know means that they were ignorant. If we say they didn’t know something, it means they were ignorant. But we know that they have spiritual bodies and they’re in prema, so they must have all knowledge.
However, we know that if one is aware of Krishna’s sweetness, that person tends to forget about the Lord’s powers. So in that sense, they don’t know the swarupa of the Lord. This lack of knowledge doesn’t make them inferior. Rather, it actually makes them superior. So we often talk about Krishna in Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrindavan. In Dwaraka, He is called purna, means complete. And in Mathura, He is called purnatara, or more complete. And in Vrindavan, He is called purnatama, which means most complete.
So Krishna manifests Himself differently because of the perceptions of the people in Dwaraka, Mathura and Vrindavan. So the most perfect vision of Krishna is expressed in Vrindavan. And the people of Vrindavan have the best eyes to see Krishna. But it is perfect at the same time we can say, they don’t know about His powers. So in Dwaraka, they know about Krishna’s sweetness, but they also know about His powers, but it’s only called purna there. But in Vrindavan, when they don’t know His powers, they only know His sweetness. It’s called purnatama. So not having knowledge in Vrindavan is superior to having knowledge in Dwaraka [Laughs].
So in one sense, we cannot say that the people of Vrindavan have incomplete knowledge, whereas the people of Dwaraka have complete knowledge. We cannot judge knowledge by material standards. So spiritual realization is completely different from material knowledge. The people of Vrindavan, they limit their awareness because of their attraction to Krishna. We cannot say that they are completely unaware that Krishna is God, because sometimes we see descriptions where they say Krishna is God.
So after Krishna rescued Nanda Maharaj from Varuna, then Nanda Maharaj told the cowherd people, oh, Varuna and all the devatas are praising Krishna as Supreme Lord. So they began to discuss among themselves. Yes, He must be God. Let’s ask something from Him. So they went to Krishna and they asked, please show us the spiritual world. So Krishna showed them spiritual world and He brought them back to Vrindavan. Then they forgot everything [Laughs]. This may be so, but actually Krishna is Nanda’s son. So this is more important to us.
Sometimes even the Gopis, they call out to Krishna in separation, Oh Supreme Lord, Achyuta etc. But this is momentary. So Krishna showed the universal form to mother Yasoda when she opened His mouth. And she was very astonished. Then she became very serious, Oh I am so fallen because I am attached to material world. I have to become so serious now and detach myself from everything. But then she forgot about this. And instead she called some brahmanas to do some worship to drive off evil spirits.
So in this way the love of the people of Vrindavan overshadows any awareness they have of His greatness. And in that sense we say they don’t know something. They don’t know about His greatness. But that’s a good quality. When Krishna was in Dwaraka and then they went to Kurukshetra, at one time the sages came there including Narada Muni and others. And there Vasudeva, he spoke, Oh I have to ask them some nice question [Laughs] because they are, there’s great sages. But then Narada Muni said, Well look, how can he, Krishna is here why doesn’t he ask Krishna [Laughs]? He is thinking he was a little boy but actually He is Supreme Lord [Laughs].
So then in that sense Vasudeva forgot that He was Supreme Lord also. But then also Vasudeva calls Krishna and Balarama and he begins to praise them. You are the two Supreme Lords. You are the cause of everything etc. So Krishna and Balarama in one sense they are pleased because they understand that Vasudeva recognizes them. But at the same time they think, well, he is treating us like Supreme Lord but actually we are the sons of Vasudeva. So he would rather, he treats us as sons and he is the father rather than seeing us as Supreme Lord. So sometimes Krishna will cover up the idea that He is God in the minds of these people so that they treat Him as their son.
So for this He uses his shakti, yogamaya. So in the spiritual world we have a type of ignorance. Yogamaya acts to cover up the consciousness of the associates of the Lord, so they are not aware of certain things. But this is different from the ignorance of the material world. Ignorance in material world arises because the jiva wants independence from the Lord. And he wants his own enjoyment. The people in spiritual world don’t want their own enjoyment, they want to serve the Supreme Lord and give Him the enjoyment. So to help them in their service, sometimes the Lord will limits their consciousness.
So as I said that Krishna Himself, He appreciates them if they don’t think of Him as Supreme Lord, if they treat Krishna as their child. So therefore, His greatness is hidden from those people. So in that sense, yogamaya makes them ignorant. But it’s not caused by those devotees, it’s caused by the Supreme Lord. And it produces great bliss. The devotee is able to serve the Lord nicely and the Lord appreciates that. In the material world, the ignorance leads to suffering. And karma and bondage. So the ignorance in the material world is very very different. So therefore, the Lord Himself often acts to limit the knowledge of the associates.
Even Krishna’s knowledge becomes limited sometimes. We see that, for instance, when there was a big battle in Dwaraka, then Krishna began to grieve for Vasudeva because He thought that Vasudev had died. So this of course, is an appearance. It’s not that He really thought, because He is omniscient. He also knows that Vasudeva cannot die. So it appears that He is covered, but He is not covered. But in His pastime with the devotees, sometimes, even the shakti of the Lord also acts upon Krishna Himself.
So when Aghasura appeared, then the cowherd boys were very very fascinated with this Aghasura. And they were wondering, oh, is this a snake or is this a big mountain or something of a big cave. And then they began to run into the mouth of that big serpent along with all the calves. And Krishna suddenly was surprised. He couldn’t even stop them. And then He realized, oh my lila shakti is doing something [Laughs]. So then He went after them, went into the mouth of the asura and then He finally killed the asura.
So again, even Balarama gets affected. For one year when Brahma stole all the calves and cowherd boys, Balarama did not know that Krishna became all the calves and cowherd boys. How could this happen? He is also Supreme Lord. So Balarama Himself is very surprised. Because devatas cannot do this, sages cannot do this also, demons can also not do this to me. Who can do it to me? Who can do it to me? Then He thought, only Krishna can do this [Laughs]. So with great determination, He looked and looked and He saw, oh Krishna is all the calves and cowherd boys. That’s Krishna’s trick. So in this way Krishna bewildered even Balarama [Laughs]. So what to speak of bewildering lesser persons like Brahma for instance. He bewilders him. But all of this is not material ignorance. It’s all part of pastimes in the spiritual world.
So we can say there is counterpart of many things in the material world with things in spiritual world. We have 12 rasas in the material world. We have 12 rasas in the spiritual world. We also have ignorance in the material world, ignorance in the spiritual world. We can even have anger and fear in the material world and in spiritual world. But in the spiritual world that anger and fear are called secondary rasas. They enhance the primary rasas which give bliss. So there is similarity between material world and the spiritual world but spiritual world actually is quite different. Spiritual world is centered on pleasing the Supreme Lord. And this gives rise to great bliss. In the material world the jivas try to get their own experience of pleasure. And this gives rise to all sorts of anarthas. So there is similarity but also great difference.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) This is regarding the word asvarūpa-vidaḥ which is mentioned in the verse. I think we have already discussed this. According to Srila Jiva Goswami the spiritual forms were present when they spoke to Yasoda. When they stopped serving their husbands and children and when they were prevented from joining Krishna. The question Maharaj is, Maharaj how can the Gopis have swarupa siddha when they were prevented by yogamaya from joining Krishna because they were still not completely pure?
So there’s two types of Gopis. Those that were initially stopped were not on the highest level, they had attained this by sadhana. So they were not nitya siddha or even siddha at that point.
2.) Dandavat pranams Guru Maharaj. How should one understand the term Supreme Absolute Truth?
Well, it can mean different things in different contexts. But ultimately it means Supreme Lord Bhagavan [Laughs]. But Bhagavan also manifests as Paramatma and Brahman. So we can call any of these, Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan Absolute Supreme Truth. But of the three, Bhagavan is superior to the other.
3.) Maharaj, in the purport it is mentioned that were Gopis to obtain a bodily form like the Lord‘s, how could the Lord execute His conjugal pastimes? So a devotee in dasya bhava will also get a suitable spiritual body befitting his dasya mood in Goloka. How in the Vaikuntha planet where dasya bhava predominates, the inhabitants have the same bodily feature like Vishnu. For example sarupya mukti, except that they will not have the Kaustubha jewel and Srivatsa mark. Kindly explain.
Well, I think in this explanation what he is referring to is, they would not attain a male form. I think that’s what he is referring to. Because they were Gopis, so therefore they attained a different form in madhurya rasa. However some people do attain similar form. So those who aspire for sakhya rasa attain forms quite similar to Krishna. And even dasya rasa, Uddhava who is in dasya rasa, he looked like Krishna. Even the Gopis mistook Him for Krishna.
4.) If Krishna uses His yogamaya to cover up the Aishwarya knowledge of all Dwaraka vasis and make them remember Him as an object of rasa only, then can we say they are also like Vrajavasis?
Well, of course, Krishna can do anything. But usually He does not interfere with the perceptions and consciousness of the devotees. So the devotees in Dwaraka have fixed their consciousness in one way and the people of Vrindavan in another way. And in Dwaraka the inhabitants there treat Krishna as powerful, as king. And they get bliss from that. Of course, their consciousness and their bliss is slightly different from the people, say the residents of Vaikuntha. And even it’s different from the inhabitants in their relationship with Ramachandra. It’s a little different from the relationships of the inhabitants of Ayodhya with Ramachandra. So it’s superior to that because it is Krishna. But it is not as advanced or not so elevated as the consciousness of the people of Vrindavan. So all of the different personalities in different places don’t keep changing their positions. They are fixed in those positions. And they are fully satisfied with those positions.
5.) Maharaj, you mentioned about the point of Krishna using His yogamaya shakti and covering the respective inhabitants of Vrajavasis or Dwaraka vasis and Mathura vasis. In that sense Maharaj, Krishna covers Himself, His original position and by that He is getting that bliss. Maharaj, is it the right understanding that Krishna goes a step beyond this that he even enjoys the chastisement being covered by yogamaya. He enjoys the chastisement of Mother Yasoda and the Gopis also?
Now as I explained, the ignorance in the spiritual world is only there for pastimes to increase bliss.
6.) When devotees reach spiritual world, do they feel about jiva struggling in the material world and do they pray to help the fallen soul? That is part one and part two is on chanting the holy name pronunciation. Is it most important as some chant Ram or Rama or thinking in vyavasāyātmikā buddhir [Bg. 2.41] concentration on the Supreme Lord is it most important? Hare Krishna, dandavat pranams Maharaj.
So generally they are not aware of the material world. They are completely absorbed in the pastimes of the Lord. So therefore if they were aware of the material world, this would be a distraction. In chanting the holy name, you are saying does it really matter? So in one sense no, because the holy name, half the holy name, the full holy name or whatever, it always has some effect. The holy name has effect in any case whether it is completely chanted, improperly chanted or whatever. Even if you get one syllable in one word and next syllable in another word, Ra at the end of one word and Ma at the beginning of another word, that becomes Rama. That has effect also. So in the third canto there, at the end of the third canto it says that, one who has the name on the tip of the tongue, he has benefit. So that is interpreted, meaning there is that you don’t even completely pronounce the name but it is on the tip of your tongue. Even then it has effect. However, we are aware as devotees, we are aware of the different names of the Lord. And even these names have different amounts of shakti. And of all the names, the name of Krishna has the most shakti of all. Krishna’s name has the most shakti. It is said in Brahma Vaivarta Purana that it has three times the power of Rama’s name. So we choose Krishna’s names over other names and in chanting Krishna’s name we will try to chant it properly.
7.) Maharaj, on the point of sravanam, the content could be same. When we hear it from somebody who’s actually not very advanced, but the same content when we hear from a pure devotee who has been practicing for a long time and those words really touches the heart, it melts the heart Maharaj. What is the root reason of that Maharaj? When we hear from pure devotee, why does the heart melts Maharaj? Unlike when we hear from anybody else who is not a pure devotee, it does not create that transformation.
So as we know, if the milk is touched by the serpent, then it becomes poisonous. The name spoken by a materialist has no good effect at all. If it is spoken by a person who is neutral, it will have some little effect. And similarly, if it is chanted by a devotee, it has more effect. So according to the delivery of the speaker, then the name will show various potency. When the same name comes from some devotees, it is covered. And in non-devotees or materialists, it is not only covered, but it has some bad elements mixed here in as well [Laughs]. So the more one is advanced, then we have less coverings. So we know, as you advance from sraddha all the way to prema, gradually all the anarthas decrease until there is zero. And the bhakti increases. So similarly, the holy name also, it’s potency increases. There is less mixture of anartha or anything in it.
8.) This is a reference to Gopala Tapani Upanishad. So it seems Durvasa Muni said to Gopis that Krishna is your husband. Can you please explain this Maharaj?
Yeah. So yes, Krishna is eternally the consort of the Gopis. And of course in one pastime, then Krishna actually marries them. We see this represented in the Gopala Campu. So in that sense, they are husband and wife. But even if they are not, they are eternally related. So they are in a similar relationship.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura premanande Hari Haribol!!!