Srimad Bhagavatam 2.1.38 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 11 April 2026
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 2 Chapter 1 Verse 38.
ŚB 2.1.38
iyān asāv īśvara-vigrahasya
yaḥ sanniveśaḥ kathito mayā te
sandhāryate ’smin vapuṣi sthaviṣṭhe
manaḥ sva-buddhyā na yato ’sti kiñcit
Synonyms
iyān — all these; asau — that; īśvara — Supreme Lord; vigrahasya — of the form; yaḥ — whatsoever; sanniveśaḥ — as they are located; kathitaḥ — explained; mayā — by me; te — unto you; sandhāryate — one may concentrate; asmin — in this; vapuṣi — form of virāṭ; sthaviṣṭhe — in the gross; manaḥ — mind; sva-buddhyā — by one’s intelligence; na — not; yataḥ — beyond Him; asti — there is; kiñcit — anything else.
Translation
I have thus explained to you the gross material gigantic conception of the Personality of Godhead. One who seriously desires liberation concentrates his mind on this form of the Lord, because there is nothing more than this in the material world.
Purport
In the Bhagavad-gītā (9.10), the Supreme Personality of Godhead has verily explained that the material nature is only an order-carrying agent of His. She is one of the different potencies of the Lord, and she acts under His direction only. As the supreme transcendental Lord, He simply casts a glance over the material principle, and thus the agitation of matter begins, and the resultant actions are manifested one after another by six kinds of gradual differentiations. All material creation is moving in that way, and thus it appears and disappears in due course.
Less intelligent persons with a poor fund of knowledge cannot accommodate the thought of this inconceivable potency of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, by which He appears just like a human being (Bg. 9.11). His appearance in the material world as one of us is also His causeless mercy upon the fallen souls. He is transcendental to all material conceptions, but by His unbounded mercy upon His pure devotees, He comes down and manifests Himself as the Personality of Godhead. Materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engrossed with atomic energy and the gigantic situation of the universal form, and they offer respect more seriously to the external phenomenal feature of material manifestations than to the noumenal principle of spiritual existence. The transcendental form of the Lord is beyond the jurisdiction of such materialistic activities, and it is very difficult to conceive that the Lord can be simultaneously localized and all-pervasive, because the materialistic philosophers and scientists think of everything in terms of their own experience. Because they are unable to accept the personal feature of the Supreme Lord, the Lord is kind enough to demonstrate the virāṭ feature of His transcendental form, and herein Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī has vividly described this form of the Lord. He concludes that there is nothing beyond this gigantic feature of the Lord. None of the materialistic thoughtful men can go beyond this conception of the gigantic form. The minds of the materialistic men are flickering and constantly changing from one aspect to another. Therefore, one is advised to think of the Lord by thinking of any part of His gigantic body, and by one’s intelligence only one can think of Him in any manifestation of the material world — the forest, the hill, the ocean, the man, the animal, the demigod, the bird, the beast or anything else. Each and every item of the material manifestation entails a part of the body of the gigantic form, and thus the flickering mind can be fixed in the Lord only and nothing else. This process of concentrating on the different bodily parts of the Lord will gradually diminish the demoniac challenge of godlessness and bring about gradual development of devotional service to the Lord. Everything being a part and parcel of the complete whole, the neophyte student will gradually realize the hymns of Īśopaniṣad which state that the Supreme Lord is everywhere, and thus he will learn the art of not committing any offense to the body of the Lord. This sense of God-mindedness will diminish one’s pride in challenging the existence of God. Thus one can learn to show respect to everything, for all things are parts and parcels of the supreme body.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse summarizes the purpose of the universal form. So this form is to be used for meditation. And one meditates upon a form of the Lord. Of course, as we’ve said, this form is material. Nevertheless, it is a form and at the same time it is a symbolic form. So if we cannot understand what the spiritual hand, spiritual foot, spiritual eye, etc. of the Lord is, at least we can understand that the Lord controls everything in this world and He has a form. And everything in this material world is part of that form. And everything is organized by the Supreme Lord.
So at least even a less advanced person will accept this form and meditate on this form even though it has material aspects. So, of course, some yogis and others, they may use this form and later on they may reject it. We are meditating on this form because of our mind, it is very difficult to concentrate on the formless. So we’ll meditate on material objects. Later on, we will give up the form completely and meditate on impersonal Brahman. Other yogis go in a different direction and then instead of meditating on material forms, they’ll meditate on spiritual form of the Lord, that is Paramatma. So, of course, both are superior to matter but meditating on the spiritual form of Paramatma is superior to meditating on impersonal Brahman.
So later on in this canto, there is a description of the Paramatma form of the Lord. And then one is advised to meditate on that form. So, if the Paramatma yogi meditates on the Paramatma, then he can realize Paramatma. So this is higher realization than impersonal Brahman. However, often the yogis will meditate on Paramatma, form of the Lord, in order to reject it and merge into Brahman.
So in Patanjali’s yoga sutra, there among the niyamas is worship of the Lord. So in order to get samadhi, you have to worship the Lord. So they will worship Paramatma. But if they are influenced by the impersonalist, then their final goal is to reject that form and merge in Brahman or into Paramatma. So this we can say also is misfortune. Unfortunate yogis can realize the form of Paramatma and by the mercy of devotees, then they can progress to worshipping Bhagavan. This requires them to change their goal. Instead of striving for liberation, they have to strive for service to the Lord. So if they get the association of devotees, then they can progress to realizing Bhagavan. Instead of merging into the effulgence of Paramatma, they develop spiritual bodies and serve the Lord in the spiritual world.
So thus, this worship of the universal form is acceptable on one level. It’s a little bit indirect. And it’s result, final result could be various. It could lead to impersonal Brahman, merging in Paramatma, or if one is very lucky, realizing Bhagavan. So we have similar recommendations. First you do Karma Yoga. Then you do Jnana Yoga or Astanga Yoga. Then you do Bhakti Yoga. So Karma Yoga, of course, is material. Nevertheless, Krishna recommends, do Karma Yoga in Bhagavad Gita. But it is not the final process. It’s the initial process. And then one is expected to go to Jnana Yoga, Astanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga. And if one sees it going progressively and ending up in Bhakti Yoga, one is successful. And then we could say, Karma Yoga is useful for that. But if one gets stuck in Karma Yoga and doesn’t progress, then this is failure. And if one gets to Jnana and Yoga and stops there, again failure.
So though these processes are all recommended, with the idea they lead to Bhakti, they do not always succeed. And that is why, finally, Krishna recommends simply you do Bhakti Yoga. So similarly here, we have recommendation to meditate on the universal form and concentrate on this completely. So it is a first step for those who are stuck in the material world. But one should progress beyond that. One should get to Paramatma and then Bhagavan. So if one progresses nicely from universal form to Paramatma to Bhagavan, then process is successful. But if we stop part way, process is a failure. So that’s ultimately though, here recommendation is meditate on the universal form, finally Bhagavatam says meditate on personal form of Bhagavan. So that way we are guaranteed to get to the highest process.
So these other processes like Karma Yoga or meditation on the universal form are for people who do not have complete faith. But if one has faith in the spiritual form of the Lord, then directly one can meditate and worship that spiritual form without having to worship Paramatma or universal form. And thus though Bhagavatam and other scriptures give us many instructions, many orders, do this, do this, do this. And the intelligent devotee will understand that the final thing, order of the Lord is to worship the personal form of Bhagavan. And though Krishna recommends here worship the universal form, other places He says do Karma Yoga, ultimately the final process is Bhakti Yoga. And we understand that all these other instructions are secondary. And can even be rejected if they are found to be incompatible or inconvenient.
And thus we should read the scriptures very carefully. We should see the final instructions of Krishna, not the intermediate instructions. And we will see this principle of course in Bhagavad Gita as well. And so at the end Krishna says give up all dharmas. And this is contradictory because in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says you have to follow your dharma. And if you don’t follow your dharma you are sinful. Then at the end of Bhagavad Gita says give up all dharmas. And if a person says well that will be sinful then Krishna says no sin, I deliver you from all sin. So in this way we should read scripture very carefully. Nevertheless we should never criticize any particular instructions or any teachings. They have their place but they are not instructions for those practicing pure bhakti. And certainly not practical for the people of Kali Yuga.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, one doubt Maharaj. Maharaj you have mentioned this, when a person does Karma Yoga and he stops there it is failure. If a person does Jnana Yuga or Astanga Yuga and he stops there it is a failure. But one thing we see in Bhagavad Gita 5th chapter like only ignorant speak of Karma Yoga and Sankhya Yoga are different but both the results are same. How it is same Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Karma and Jnana?
Devotee: Yeah.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So the goal of Karma Yoga is to become detached. We start with Sakama Karma Yoga then we get to Nishkama Karma Yoga. And it’s also the goal of Jnana, become detached from everything in the material world. Of the two, Jnana Yoga is more directly involved with attachment and Karma Yoga little indirect. And ultimately they have the same goal in mind and so therefore, they are said to be non-different. Of course, if you go to other places in scripture, it will say reject Karma Yoga, just do Jnana. For instance in the Brahma Sutras it says athātho brahma-jijñāsā. So atah means after that. After experiencing the fertility of Karma Yoga reject it and go to inquiry about Brahman and Jnana. So at a certain point things are rejected. So such statements are made so that we are not too attached to those processes. And thus at the end when Krishna says, sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bg. 18.66], give up completely all dharmas. Again, in practical life people don’t give up all dharmas, otherwise they have to take Sannyasa or something or become a Babaji. But at least people should give up attachment to those processes.
2.) Maharaj in that sloka itself, the fourth sloka, Prabhupada translates Karma Yoga to devotional service. So what does Karma Yoga really refers to? Is it the varnashrama or the devotional service?
So, in most cases in Bhagavad Gita when Krishna refers to Karma Yoga, it means this process of Karma Yoga following varnashrama etc. However within that Karma Yoga, then we have Nishkama Karma Yoga. And it’s a little bit indirect as far as worship of the Lord is concerned. Then we come to the stage of Nishkama Karma Yoga and offer all the results to Krishna. So this is, we can say a type of Bhakti. I think Jiva Goswami calls it āropa-siddha bhakti. That means taking other processes and modifying them to some degree to make them into devotional things [Laughs]. So in that sense, then the Karma Yoga becomes a type of Bhakti. However even that type of Bhakti, that āropa-siddha bhakti does not lead to the same results as pure Bhakti.
3.) Maharaj, last question. So you have mentioned Karma Yogi. If Karma Yogi stops there, it is a failure and Jnana Yogi or Astanga Yogi stops there in their process, it is a failure. So what is considered to be as failure? I mean even if they attain the goal is it considered to be as failure? I mean for example if Astanga Yogi or if Jnana Yogi attains liberation is it considered to be as failure also?
So by Karma Yoga the goal may be to go to Swargaloka and you can get to swargaloka. So that is successful. However the real purpose of Karma Yoga is not just to get to swargaloka, it is to progress beyond that and get to a higher process. If you don’t get to the higher process, it’s a failure. So the goal of Jnana is liberation, you get it, it’s also success in one sense. But in the higher sense it is only one step to realizing Bhagavan. If you don’t get that far, then it is a failure.
4.) Maharaj, in Kali Yuga, people are so much busy with the materialistic activities but if you tell them to read the scriptures they don’t have time. Because they are busy. If even they study also the scriptures, even by hearing the glorification of different Karma and Jnana people start following that. But they don’t want to try to understand beyond that there is something. Because can you tell them that there are unfortunate souls that they are not going beyond, they are stuck with that Karma and Jnana?
So traditionally most people are going to follow Karma Yoga. And Krishna in Bhagavad Gita says, don’t encourage people to give up Karma if they are not qualified for anything else. However in Kali Yuga, all these other processes are impossible to practice. And it’s very rare that anyone can be successful at following any other process. And therefore we encourage everyone to take to the process of Bhakti and Nama Sankirtana.
5.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, this virata rupa is considered the means for a attached Yogi and in Bhagavad Gita, we see that this virata rupa is described in the 11th chapter, the preceding chapter, there’s a description of the vibhutis of the Lord. So is description of Krishna’s vibhutis a precursor to virata rupa then it would come under the preparation for Astanga Yoga. Or should that be considered as Jnana? Or should that be considered under Jnana Mishra Bhakti? Because Arjuna is very interested in knowing and he says that I want to hear about your vibhuti, so that I can nicely always remember you. So is that part of Bhakti, Jnana Mishra Bhakti or is it part of the other two processes?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Vibhuti?
Devotee: Yeah.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So both the vibhutis and the universal form you can use in Yoga. You can also use in Jnana. You can use, even use in Karma Yoga [Laughs]. So the vibhutis is more, we can say, less concentrated on one form. So individual elements of the world are related to the Lord individually. Of course, by that we can appreciate that the Lord has all sorts of wonderful qualities. However, the universal form is more directly a meditation on a particular form of the Lord. Both are largely material. And thus, rather than to meditate on the things of the material world, we will meditate directly on the qualities of Krishna in the spiritual world [Laughs]. But both ideas, vibhutis and universal form, are like stepping stones to accept the Lord has qualities and form.
Devotee: So, Maharaj, you said it can be used in all the three processes of Bhakti yoga, I mean, can it be considered a Jnana Mishra, Jnana Mishra Bhakti, part of that?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: One can also use it in Bhakti, but again we can say it will be a mixed type of Bhakti [Laughs].
6.) Hare Krishna. Maharaj, we see in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna speaks to Arjuna and explains all the different types of Yogas, Karma, Jnana and other things also. And similarly in Bhagavatam we see in 11th canto, same discussion more or less is between Krishna and Uddhava. So, can we say this 11th canto of Bhagavatam is an expanded version of Bhagavad Gita and also it accommodates everyone, Karmis, Jnanis?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Expanded form of?
Devotee: Bhagavad Gita.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Hare Krishna. So, of course, we see in the 11th canto that Krishna describes Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga and Astanga yoga and even Bhakti Yoga in more detail. We’ll see in the third canto also, Kapila Deva also describes Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Astanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga in detail [Laughs].
7.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. In Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu, it says like Krishna can give liberation to the demons He kills, but Narayana can only give swarga, like the goal of swarga. But swarga is a material thing and how can Narayana in Vaikuntha who is spiritual give this material benediction Maharaj?
So, the Lord can give all material benedictions, spiritual benedictions or liberation. So, He gives Dhruva, kingdom, material [Laughs].
8.) Maharaj, Baladeva Vidyabhusana says nirapeksha devotee, parinisthita devotee, sanishtha devotee. So, nirapeksha is completely renounced. Parinisthita they engage in varnasrama dharma, plus they do bhakti. And Jiva Goswami says, āropa-siddha bhakti, āropa-siddha bhakti means they do varnasrama dharma. So, that Jiva Goswami, āropa-siddha bhakti and parinisthita, sanishtha devotee of Baladeva Vidyabhusana, both are same?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, sanishtha devotee is a term used by Baladeva Vidyabhusana to indicate a person who does Bhakti but he has some attachment to the varnashrama system. So, in that sense, it would be not so pure, mixed devotion. Āropa-siddha bhakti by itself would mean something like karma-arpana or whatever. So, even the Bhakti is not so prominent. So, then, the sanishtha devotee is more or less we can say a Karma Misra Bhakta. He is doing pure Bhakti or trying to do pure Bhakti but he is attached to doing some aspects of varnashrama also.
Devotee: Maharaj, not sanishtha devotee Maharaj, parinisthita devotee. Parinisthita devotee, they are also doing varnashrama dharma.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, the parinisthita devotee is doing pure Bhakti, he does varnashrama system, no attachment at all. So, therefore it’s still pure Bhakti.
Devotee: Maharaj, in class you’ve mentioned that, those who are following varnashrama dharma, they don’t have faith in Supreme Lord. That’s why they are following varnashrama dharma, you mentioned. Why parinisthita devotee is following?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, we have devotees like Ambarish following varnashrama, he has no attachment, he is doing pure Bhakti. So, there is no fault in doing that. Yudhisthira Maharaj, also many devotees are practicing varnashrama but no contamination at all. So, the only reason they do that, is to set example for other people.
Devotee: Maharaj, we maintain our body also, we do varnashrama dharma. So, like Ambarish’s case, are they not doing that varnashrama dharma to maintain their body?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, one can do varnashrama and if one does it without attachment and one is practicing pure Bhakti, there is no problem in doing so. It may be for maintaining the body, may be for setting example for others or whatever, no problem.
9.) Ajamila did not surrender to the Lord, he just accidentally chanted Narayana and he was freed from all sinful reactions. Nevertheless, Gita says that one has to surrender by giving up all dharmas only, then they are freed from all sinful reactions. How do we understand?
So, in Bhagavad Gita, when Krishna talks about surrendering, giving up all dharmas, you have faith. Ajamila had no faith. Yes. But his karmas were destroyed. And by continually chanting the name of his son Narayana, then the power of the name was such, that gradually he developed Bhakti anyway.
10.) In which work Jiva Goswami refers to āropa-siddha bhakti ?
That’s in Bhakti Sandarbha.
11.) As Bhagavan’s spiritual form is there in all universes, so is the material form also visible in all universes?
Yes, of course. Krishna appears in all universes. He manifests universal form to Arjuna in all universes [Laughs].
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!!!