Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.2.2 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Apr 15, 2026
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya
nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhu-tale
srimate bhaktivedanta-svamin iti namine
namas te sarasvate deve gaura-vani-pracharine
nirvishesha-shunyavadi-pashchatya-desha-tarine
jaya sri-krishna-chaitanya
prabhu nityananda
sri-adwaita gadadhara
shrivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Reading from Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 2 Chapter 2 Verse 1.
ŚB 2.2.2
शाब्दस्य हि ब्रह्मण एष पन्था
यन्नामभिर्ध्यायति धीरपार्थै: ।
परिभ्रमंस्तत्र न विन्दतेऽर्थान्
मायामये वासनया शयान: ॥ २ ॥
śābdasya hi brahmaṇa eṣa panthā
yan nāmabhir dhyāyati dhīr apārthaiḥ
paribhramaṁs tatra na vindate ’rthān
māyāmaye vāsanayā śayānaḥ
Synonyms
śābdasya — of the Vedic sound; hi — certainly; brahmaṇaḥ — of the Vedas; eṣaḥ — these; panthāḥ — the way; yat — what is; nāmabhiḥ — by different names; dhyāyati — ponders; dhīḥ — intelligence; apārthaiḥ — by meaningless ideas; paribhraman — wandering; tatra — there; na — never; vindate — enjoys; arthān — realities; māyā-maye — in illusory things; vāsanayā — by different desires; śayānaḥ — as if dreaming in sleep.
Translation
The way of presentation of the Vedic sounds is so bewildering that it directs the intelligence of the people to meaningless things like the heavenly kingdoms. The conditioned souls hover in dreams of such heavenly illusory pleasures, but actually they do not relish any tangible happiness in such places.
Purport
The conditioned soul is always engaged in laying out plans for happiness within the material world, even up to the end of the universal limit. He is not even satisfied with available amenities on this planet earth, where he has exploited the resources of nature to the best of his ability. He wants to go to the moon or the planet Venus to exploit resources there. But the Lord has warned us in the Bhagavad-gītā (8.16) about the worthlessness of all the innumerable planets of this universe, as well as those planets within other systems. There are innumerable universes and also innumerable planets in each of them. But none of them is immune to the chief miseries of material existence, namely the pangs of birth, the pangs of death, the pangs of old age and the pangs of disease. The Lord says that even the topmost planet, known as the Brahmaloka or Satyaloka, (and what to speak of other planets, like the heavenly planets) is not a happy land for residential purposes, due to the presence of material pangs, as above mentioned. Conditioned souls are strictly under the laws of fruitive activities, and as such they sometimes go up to Brahmaloka and again come down to Pātālaloka, as if they were unintelligent children on a merry-go-round. The real happiness is in the kingdom of God, where no one has to undergo the pangs of material existence. Therefore, the Vedic ways of fruitive activities for the living entities are misleading. One thinks of a superior way of life in this country or that, or on this planet or another, but nowhere in the material world can he fulfill his real desire of life, namely eternal life, full intelligence and complete bliss. Indirectly, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī affirms that Mahārāja Parīkṣit, in the last stage of life, should not desire to transfer himself to the so-called heavenly planets, but should prepare himself for going back home, back to Godhead. None of the material planets, nor the amenities available there for living conditions, is everlasting; therefore one must have a factual reluctance to enjoy such temporary happiness as they afford.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse shows that everything in the material world is temporary. However, the Vedic literatures often praise the upper planets of this world. And though they praise these upper planets, the planets are temporary. Thus, this verse is criticizing some statements in the Vedas. Similarly, in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna refers to the flowery words of the Vedas. So they are ‘flowery’, because flowers with nice color and smell are very attractive. But some of these plants with very attractive flowers are also very poisonous. So, though attractive, they are very harmful to the living entity. So there are descriptions of heavenly planets, and what is stated in one sense is true. Whatever enjoyment you get on earth, you get a hundred times the enjoyment in those planets. So naturally, this becomes attractive to human beings. However, we see that all the planets in the material world, no matter how attractive they are, they also have fault. Nevertheless, upper planets are preferred to lower planets. In the universal form, lower planets are on the feet of the Lord, and the higher planets are the upper part of the body and head.
Similarly, we see that the literatures like even Bhagavad Gita, encourage people to give up Tamo-guna and Rajo-guna and get to Sattva-guna. Out of the three gunas, Sattva is praised, the others are condemned. So, of course, Sattva has some good qualities. In Sattva, there is peace. There is control of the senses and mind. There is inquiry about Atma. If one has Sattva, one maintains very nicely. And Vishnu is in charge of Sattva. For this reason, Sattva is praised over Rajo-guna and Tamo-guna. And similarly, the places Svargaloka and above are praised, because they are Sattvic. So, though the Vedas do praise upper planets and Sattva-guna, that does not mean that they are ultimate.
So, praise is there, but it is relative praise. Sometimes we use the word ‘Arthavad’. Of course, it means praise. But it often means over praise or exaggerated praise. So, an enthusiasm to praise, it makes some statements which are not actually true. And thus we find statements in the Vedas that say, you go to Svargaloka and you become immortal, no death. Thus, you should strive to get to Svargaloka, because you can conquer death. So, relatively speaking, Devatas have very long life spans, compared to human beings. But they are not free of death. Brahma has much longer life span, but he also is not free of death. But to encourage people to follow Sattvic principles, Svarga-loka is praised as being immortal. In this way, praise is given to encourage people to do certain activities, but the praise is not literally true. So, the scriptures do this to encourage people to follow those principles. So, in this way, we get exaggerated praise.
However, in relation to bhakti and the holy name, there can never be any exaggeration. The powers of bhakti and the name are unlimited. So, whatever praise we give, is true. And one can go on praising forever, and all those praises are true. So, there is no ‘Arthavad’. On the other hand, to consider that bhakti or the holy name praises are ‘Arthavad’, that becomes offense. To consider that the powers of the name mentioned in the scriptures are mere exaggeration, not really true, that becomes offense. So, the scripture says, you chant the holy name of the Lord once, you get liberation. So, to consider that not true, to consider it to be exaggeration, that becomes offense. Now, to say that chanting the holy name immediately gives liberation, sounds a little bit strange. Normally, to get liberation, one has to practice jnana or yoga for thousands of years. So, how is it possible that a person just chants the holy name once and he is liberated? So, then some people say, oh, this is exaggeration. But, that is offense. So, it is actually true that chanting the holy name once, gets you liberation.
And to prove this, then Bhagavatam gives the story of Ajamil. He chanted the name Narayana once, all of his karmas – past, present and future were destroyed. That means liberated. So, how is it possible? A Jnani, or yogi has to thousands of years endeavor and still he may not get liberation. Someone just chants the holy name once and he gets liberated immediately. How is it possible? So, the name and the process of bhakti have inconceivable power. But why? It is because they are non-different from Supreme Lord. So, Lord can instantly give liberation. So, name also can instantly give liberation. What this implies is, the Jnana or Yoga or Karma are not the same as the Lord. They don’t have that power.
Nevertheless, Vedas recommend these different processes for people who cannot do bhakti. But, to encourage people to do these processes, then sometimes we get exaggerated praise – ‘Arthavad’. You may think, ‘oh this is very foolish, why people cannot see the truth’. And the answer is, they are very attached to material enjoyment. So, they become attached to things of this material world or svarga loka, which are like objects in a dream. So, because of the material attachment, they can only see certain aspects.
Nevertheless, scripture encourages such people by making exaggerated statements, so they will follow certain rules. So example is given of a child who is sick. So, the child has to take medicine. And the medicine usually does not taste very nice. But, nevertheless, the parents make the child take medicine [Laughs]. Certainly, that medicine is beneficial. Similarly, following rules and regulations of scripture is beneficial, but people don’t like to follow. So, to encourage the child, then the parents say, you take the medicine, I will give you some sweets. Because the child wants the sweets, he takes the medicine. So, similarly, all these exaggerated praises are like the sweets. But, by mentioning the sweets of the heavenly planets, etc., people are inclined to follow some rules. Therefore, the Vedic injunctions are not completely useless, but they use some deceptive means to encourage people.
The intelligent person, if he reads the Vedic literature, will understand that there are different processes for different qualified people. All the processes have their place, but nevertheless, we have inferior processes and superior processes. And according to the different processes, you would get different results. So, the intelligent person will be able to discern, what is the best result. And then, he can identify the best means. So to make it all simpler, the Bhagavatam gives us the conclusion very clearly. So, we give up all the other processes, just do bhakti and just chant the holy name. We should not be bewildered by all the other praises given to other processes.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A:
1.) Maharaj, if heavenly planets are not eternal, then who is going to heavenly plantes – whether those who perform pious activities or those who perform mishra bhakti or those who worship devatas ?
So persons who perform Karma-kanda, Karma Yoga, Varnashram nicely, eventually, and of course, in doing so, they worship Devatas, they get to heavenly planets. Ultimately, some may get to Brahma Loka. So, all this is achieved by Punya. But, after one enjoys, the Punya is finished, then one falls from that position. Devotees who practice Mixed Bhakti can also go to these upper planets. Because they are doing primarily Bhakti, then, they can actually advance within those planets, and eventually, they can get out of the material world.
2.) Maharaj, we hear from scriptures that based on whatever wrong activity a person performs, he is supposed to go to hell and suffer the hellish punishments. Whereas, in other places, it seems that they talk about hellish punishments, it may not necessarily mean going to hell physically. So, like, you know, in India, there are some places, they say that if you just visit the temple, for sure, you will never go to hell. Or just by chanting. I don’t mean to say that devotees who are calm and perform some spiritual activity, they say that, they will never go to hell. But at the same time, they do some very bad activity, for which there are hellish punishments.
So, Maharaj, this understanding is correct ? that I just want to verify from you, that one may not be physically going to hell, but may, in this material world, suffer the hellish punishments ?
So, to suffer on this planet, with another body, that’s what we get from doing bad karma. If we do some extraordinarily bad activities, then we may get the hellish punishments. At the end of the fifth canto, the different hellish places and punishments are described, and the cause, which type of sinful activity to do, to get that result, is also given. At the end of the fifth canto, the different hellish places and punishments are described, and the cause, which type of sinful activity to do to get that result, is also given.
3.) Maharaj, we know that time is relative, and we heard from scriptures also that Brahma lives for 100 years. And we see in this material world also that people live for 100 years. Is it the same that Brahma experiences the time that we experience in terms of relativity? And in different worlds, like demigods world they also experience the same thing that we experience in 100 years ?
So, according to the different body you have and the different planet, then you are given lifespan. And as you said, the perception may be the same, 100 years is 100 years, even though comparatively speaking, Brahma’s life is much much longer.
The main difference is that, as one ascends to higher and higher planets with longer and longer lifespans, the suffering becomes minimized. And thus the suffering from old age and sickness, etc., are minimized. But just as a person here fears at the end of life – 80, 90 or 100 years. So, Brahma also must fear death, that he has 100 years.
4.) A dog eater when chants the holy name even once, at the tip of his tongue, he becomes superior to Brahamana, which shows the great power of holy name. However scriptures also say that, the holy name when chanted by a Mayavadi, who likely is a Brahamana, reap only suffering, how do we understand this and what is the destination of that Mayavadi?
So, the difference is a matter of how much offense is committed. If there is no offense at all, then one chants once, one can destroy all karma’s – past, present and future. That was the case of Ajamil. If one has committed some offense intentionally or unintentionally in this or previous lives, one can destroy all the karmas, but it will be slower process.
But, we also have cases where the offense may be very serious. So, the case of the Mayavadi is, he says, the Lord has no form. Glories of the holy name are Arthavad. The best you can get from chanting is to go to Svargaloka. Devotees are demons.
So, if one commits such aparadhs, then, of course, the effect of the name is zero. So, a Mayavadi may intentionally chant the name, but his purpose is very material, or maybe liberation at best. But, because of the offense, he gets very, very little effect from such chanting.
Devotees: Thank you Maharaj. Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki.. Jai !! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki. Jai !! HDG Srila Prabhupad Ki.. Jai !!