Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.2.29 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | May 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 nityanand
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 29.
ŚB 2.2.29
घ्राणेन गन्धं रसनेन वै रसं
रूपं च दृष्टया श्वसनं त्वचैव ।
श्रोत्रेण चोपेत्य नभोगुणत्वं
प्राणेन चाकूतिमुपैति योगी ॥ २९ ॥
ghrāṇena gandhaṁ rasanena vai rasaṁ
rūpaṁ ca dṛṣṭyā śvasanaṁ tvacaiva
śrotreṇa copetya nabho-guṇatvaṁ
prāṇena cākūtim upaiti yogi
Synonyms
ghrāṇena — by smelling; gandham — aroma; rasanena — by taste; vai — exactly; rasam — palate; rūpam — forms; ca — also; dṛṣṭyā — by vision; śvasanam — contact; tvacā — touch; eva — as it were; śrotreṇa — by vibration of the ear; ca — also; upetya — by achieving; nabhaḥ-guṇatvam — identification of ether; prāṇena — by sense organs; ca — also; ākūtim — material activities; upaiti — attains; yogī — the devotee.
Translation
The devotee thus surpasses the subtle objects of different senses like aroma by smelling, the palate by tasting, vision by seeing forms, touch by contacting, the vibrations of the ear by ethereal identification, and the sense organs by material activities.
Purport
Beyond the sky there are subtle coverings, resembling the elementary coverings of the universes. The gross coverings are a development of partial ingredients of the subtle causes. So the yogī or devotee, along with liquidation of the gross elements, relinquishes the subtle causes like aroma by smelling. The pure spiritual spark, the living entity, thus becomes completely cleansed of all material contamination to become eligible for entrance into the kingdom of God.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this is a series of verses describing the progress of the yogi. And the yogi must control his mind and his senses. And in doing so, he becomes detached from all of these things. So, particular senses function for particular sense objects. So we smell things with our nose. So of course, the fragrance is the object and the nose is the instrument for smelling. And similarly, we have the tongue for tasting things and the eyes for seeing forms. So in the usual action of our senses, the senses get these different sense objects and these are stored in the mind. And some of these sense objects give us pleasure, some give us pain. And thus we will crave those objects which give us pleasure. Then we will do actions to get those objects. And in doing those actions we get karma. So all day long, our senses are acting. And with that feedback from the senses then we do our activities. And thus all day long we are accruing karma. And in order to get rid of that karma, we have to take another body. So, in this way, the senses and the sense objects are one form of bondage. So, we have to stop the action of the senses with the sense objects. So this is what the yogi endeavors to do.
So, apart from stopping the senses and the sense objects, the yogi also has to stop his mind. Ultimately, he has to get rid of ahankara. And therefore, he goes through this yoga process of Yama, Niyama, Asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and then samadhi. And as Patanjali explains in Yoga Sutras at the very beginning, the whole function of yoga is to stop all of the mental functions, all of the thoughts, all of these things related to objects etc. So to do that he follows these 8 steps of yoga. And when he gets to Samadhi then all of these functions stop completely. So what is left? What is left is Atma. Atma is the conscious entity. And if we stop all of these senses and sense objects and mind from acting, what is left is the Atma. So, this is the goal of the yogi. And this chapter is describing this process. Of course, it is also difficult. And thus the yogi has to practice daily for thousands of years to get perfection. However, through this process eventually he realizes Atma, destroys all of his karma and he gets liberation. In doing all of this of course it is a little difficult because there is no object at all for meditation.
So in relation to this, the Bhagavatam in these chapters describes two objects of meditation. One is Vishwarupa, Universal form. The other is Paramatma, Spiritual form. So meditation on the Vishwarupa is considered to be inferior because actually it’s a meditation on a material form. But it is accepted because it is representing Supreme Lord. The more advanced yogis, they meditate on Paramatma, Spiritual form, this is much better. And the yogi, by meditating on Paramatma, gets the mercy of Paramatma. And this allows the yogi to get his liberation. It is explained in other portions of the Bhagavatam that if the yogi doesn’t worship any of these forms at all, it is impossible to get liberation. So only by accepting the Lord and worshipping him either as Vishwarupa or Paramatma then he can progress towards liberation.
So, this yoga process is described here but ultimately it also gets rejected. Of course, we also get the same rejection in Bhagavad Gita. He enumerates karma yoga, jnana yoga, astanga yoga but then he says the best yoga is bhakti yoga. So, this process is rejected for several reasons. It takes a long time even if you do meditate on Vishwarupa or Paramatma. And it requires a lot of austerity of the body. It is not a process that everybody can take up without qualification. Besides that, then there is another problem. Even though the yogis may accept the form of Paramatma and meditate on him, their goal is liberation not Prema. So liberation of course is also a spiritual goal but it is not the final goal, it is not complete. And thus, it is not completely satisfying to the Jiva. So, therefore ultimately Krishna is recommending the Jiva get the highest result and therefore this gets rejected.
Some people say ‘ok, yoga is very hard, I will combine it with bhakti’. So they may do better than the yogi who meditates on Paramatma, he does more bhakti. This is what we call ‘Yoga Misra Bhakti’. It is bhakti with a little bit of yoga. So that is better than yoga with a little bit of bhakti. However, if the yogi who is mainly doing yoga with a little bhakti begins to increase his bhakti then eventually he gets to higher position. So if the yogi who does yoga with a little bhakti gets liberation, what goal does the person who does bhakti with a little yoga get? So he must get something more than liberation. However will he get Prema? So Prema is available only if you do pure bhakti. So then what does he get? So he gets something better than liberation and less than Prema. So this means he can actually get to the spiritual world. And of course, if he gets there, he has no more contamination of the gunas, no more material desires etc. But because of that combination of bhakti with a little bit of yoga, the intensity of the bhakti that he gets in the spiritual world is less. And as I said, he usually was striving in yoga for liberation. So he gets a goal similar to jnana misra bhakti. So it is described that such people end up with santa rasa. So they have some sort of relationship with the Lord but it is not very strong. And the influence of desire for liberation is still there a little bit. So when they see the Lord, they admire the Lord because He is Brahman [Laughs]. So definitely such persons who do bhakti with a little yoga or jnana, can get to the spiritual world eventually and they get some very nice result but not as intense as that of a person who does pure bhakti.
So because the Supreme Lord desires us to get the highest results, He therefore recommends pure bhakti. So ultimately pure bhakti is the only method. But why describe anything else then, just describe pure bhakti? Even in Bhagavad Gita, we will find descriptions of karma yoga, jnana yoga, astanga yoga as well as bhakti yoga. It would be much easier if we just took the chapters on bhakti yoga and discard everything else [Laughs]. Then we just get 6 chapters instead of 18 chapters, much easier to read [Laughs]. So that is also true, we have whole Bhagavatam but the amount of bhakti here is much less, maybe 1/10th [Laughs]. So though Bhagavatam is considered to be the highest sastra and puts the essence very clearly, nevertheless we get description of karma yoga, jnana yoga and astanga yoga as we have here. So one reason for including them is because they are also there in other scriptures including the Vedas. If they are not qualified for bhakti, let them do these other processes. So another reason is that by explaining these processes we understand how difficult they are. And with that understanding then we will be less likely to practice them. So, therefore we can read all of this and also understand that they have a particular place in the hierarchy of different processes.
Hare Krsna!
Q & A:
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj with respect to devotees I mean we understand this point that it is very difficult it doesn’t give the full result that bhakti can give the highest result but then these sections are repeated repeated several times in Bhagavatam and also if you are reading Bhagavad Gita again so is it ok if we skip these sections
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Can we skip them? So of course it is the individual capacity of a devotee that is also important So for those who have less capacity at least they should understand the nature of pure bhakti. However the Acharyas usually recommend that we study the whole Bhagavatam. And even we see Sukadeva Goswami from the highest level he is also reciting all these other cantos [Laughs]. And within all these cantos so they do have a lot of historical explanations, genealogies and so many other things as well as other processes, there is also stories which will indicate bhakti. So by studying these different sections we can see how everything ultimately relates to bhakti We see there is a description of the ten topics of Bhagavatam in the second canto and again at the end of the Bhagavatam. So nine of these topics are discussed throughout the Bhagavatam but then the tenth topic is Asaraya. Asaraya means shelter or cause. So in the Bhagavatam Krishna is the Asaraya.
So the purpose of all these other topics, the nine other topics is to relate them to Krishna. So how is Krishna related to creation? How is he related to destruction? How is he related to maintenance? How is he related to protection of the worlds? How is he related to propagation of the dynasties? So therefore the devotee relates all of these things to Krishna And by doing so he glorifies Krishna. So a devotee if he reads all these other sections then he takes that by understanding it he takes that as a way of glorifying Krishna.
Devotee : Thank you for that answer Maharaj. So by reading these sections of Bhagavatam we can see that how actually bhakti it adds to the glories of bhakti because we see the issues and the limited results and also does it purify us of impurities Maharaj, by reading these sections because if we have similar aspirations they may gradually get purified by reading these sections
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Of course another way of glorifying the Lord is that these different processes are also ultimately scriptural and recommended by the Lord but they show that the Lord gives alternatives for people who have less qualifications. And these alternatives ultimately gradually point towards surrender to Krishna. So the other methods are ways of showing how Krishna is merciful even to the people who don’t take to bhakti.
2.) Maharaj, even though we understand that Bhagavatam all the cantos are focused to Krishna. So that also explains Krishna’s lotus feet is first canto, second canto and other cantos step by step we can concentrate on Krishna like that how can we understand that Maharaj?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : I don’t understand it’s a pastime of Krishna.
Devotee : Maharaj, Bhagavatam itself is Krishna so how can we understand that? Krishna’s lotus feet is first canto, second canto like that one by one we can meditate so how can we understand that?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Well yes, everything is the Supreme Lord. The Lord pervades everything and by viewing everything even the material world as related to Krishna it’s also glorification of Krishna. So creation of the material world is of course material. And after the creation the jivas enjoy materially. But the cause of the material world is ultimately Krishna. And at all steps with a glancing of Mahavishnu entering as Garbhodakasayi Vishnu Ksirodakasayi Vishnu He pervades the whole universe and still remains spiritual. And even though the jivas in the material world are ignorant and don’t know about Supreme Lord still the Lord maintains relationship with all the jivas and all of prakriti.
So we notice that nine of these topics are all about material world but within that material world we get the opportunity to see the Lord’s mercy. Of course this is all pastime of the Lord also.But then we have the other pastimes of the Lord that have nothing to do with the material world at all. So definitely these are superior pastimes. And in the spiritual world they do not meditate on the material pastimes at all. But if we are in the material world and coming out of the material world then by understanding this material world and how it relates to Krishna also is beneficial for us.
3.) Jnana Misra Bhakta attains to spiritual world which is much superior to liberation so in that sense he is very fortunate but still he does not attain Prema. So can we consider that he is very unfortunate because he did not attain Prema.
So of course anyone who has any relationship with the Lord is fortunate. So even if you do Karma Yoga it’s a process recommended by the Lord so it’s more fortunate than not doing Karma Yoga at all. And you can go to Svarga Loka and be very sattvic. However, if you get out of the material world that is superior, that’s more fortunate. And if you get to the spiritual world it’s even more fortunate. But if you get Prema it’s most fortunate. So in relation to Prema everything else is misfortune [Laughs]. So everything has a good aspect but in comparison to the highest goal then it can also be said to be rejectable.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!!