Srimad Bhagavatam – 2.3.17 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | Jun 7, 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-Caitanya
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 3 Verse 17.
ŚB 2.3.17
आयुर्हरति वै पुंसामुद्यन्नस्तं च यन्नसौ ।
तस्यर्ते यत्क्षणो नीत उत्तमश्लोकवार्तया ॥ १७ ॥
āyur harati vai puṁsām
udyann astaṁ ca yann asau
tasyarte yat-kṣaṇo nīta
uttama-śloka-vārtayā
Synonyms
āyuḥ — duration of life; harati — decreases; vai — certainly; puṁsām — of the people; udyan — rising; astam — setting; ca — also; yan — moving; asau — the sun; tasya — of one who glorifies the Lord; ṛte — except; yat — by whom; kṣaṇaḥ — time; nītaḥ — utilized; uttama-śloka — the all-good Personality of Godhead; vārtayā — in the topics of.
Translation
Both by rising and by setting, the sun decreases the duration of life of everyone, except one who utilizes the time by discussing topics of the all-good Personality of Godhead.
Purport
This verse indirectly confirms the greater importance of utilizing the human form of life to realize our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord by acceleration of devotional service. Time and tide wait for no man. So the time indicated by the sunrise and the sunset will be uselessly wasted if such time is not properly utilized for realizing identification of spiritual values. Even a fraction of the duration of life wasted cannot be compensated by any amount of gold. Human life is simply awarded to a living entity (jīva) so that he can realize his spiritual identity and his permanent source of happiness. A living being, especially the human being, is seeking happiness because happiness is the natural situation of the living entity. But he is vainly seeking happiness in the material atmosphere. A living being is constitutionally a spiritual spark of the complete whole, and his happiness can be perfectly perceived in spiritual activities. The Lord is the complete spirit whole, and His name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage and personality are all identical with Him. Once a person comes into contact with any one of the above-mentioned energies of the Lord through the proper channel of devotional service, the door to perfection is immediately opened. In the Bhagavad-gītā (2.40) the Lord has explained such contact in the following words: “Endeavors in devotional service are never baffled. Nor is there failure. A slight beginning of such activities is sufficient even to deliver a person from the great ocean of material fears.” As a highly potent drug injected intravenously acts at once on the whole body, the transcendental topics of the Lord injected through the ear by the pure devotee of the Lord can act very efficiently. Aural realization of the transcendental messages implies total realization, just as fructification of one part of a tree implies fructification of all other parts. This realization for a moment in the association of pure devotees like Śukadeva Gosvāmī prepares one’s complete life for eternity. And thus the sun fails to rob the pure devotee of his duration of life, inasmuch as he is constantly busy in the devotional service of the Lord, purifying his existence. Death is a symptom of the material infection of the eternal living being; only due to material infection is the eternal living entity subjected to the law of birth, death, old age and disease.
The materialistic way of pious activities like charity is recommended in the smṛti-śāstras as quoted by Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Money given in charity to a suitable person is guaranteed bank balance in the next life. Such charity is recommended to be given to a brāhmaṇa. If the money is given in charity to a non-brāhmaṇa (without brahminical qualification) the money is returned in the next life in the same proportion. If it is given in charity to a half-educated brāhmaṇa, even then the money is returned double. If the money is given in charity to a learned and fully qualified brāhmaṇa, the money is returned a hundred and a thousand times, and if the money is given to a veda-pāraga (one who has factually realized the path of the Vedas), it is returned by unlimited multiplication. The ultimate end of Vedic knowledge is realization of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ). There is a guarantee of money’s being returned if given in charity, regardless of the proportion. Similarly, a moment passed in the association of a pure devotee by hearing and chanting the transcendental messages of the Lord is a perfect guarantee for eternal life, for returning home, back to Godhead. Mad-dhāma gatvā punar janma na vidyate. In other words, a devotee of the Lord is guaranteed eternal life. A devotee’s old age or disease in the present life is but an impetus to such guaranteed eternal life.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
This is a very famous verse showing how normally people waste their life, but if they hear and talk about the Supreme Lord, then they get the opposite reaction. So, this verse states that with each rising and setting of the sun, in other words, each day, a little bit of your lifespan is finished. After enough sun rises and sun sets, then that’s the end of our life. In other words, time is our controller. And it puts the limit on how long you can live. So, that is the case of all living entities – human being, animal, plant, etc.
So, how is it different, if a person happens to take to bhakti and hear about the Lord or chant the Lord’s name? That person’s body, of course, ultimately has to die. So, it is under the control of time. So, what is the difference? So the difference is, the normal person, without any devotional service, ends his life, then he is born again, and he continues his process, and he dies again, and he is born again, and he dies again. So, we keep being born again, and we keep spending up our life. The devotee, on the other hand, after he leaves his body, he can attain no more birth and death, and he has eternal life in the spiritual world. So, each day that passes without devotional service is a waste of time. In any case, our life will end, and we get born again, we have another life, and then we die, and then we get born again. In other words, all these endeavors that we spend our time on every day, don’t result in anything.
Of course, we can give a counter-argument. If I do punyas, I get gain. If I do enough punyas, next lifetime is better than this lifetime. So, in that sense, no, it’s not all wasted. We keep progressing by doing punya. That is true. You can do punyas, you get some result like that. And because of that, the Vedic literature also recommends, you do this, and this is the system of Karma Yoga. So then, why is all of this condemned, and instead they’re saying you have to take to Bhakti Yoga? And we find the answer very clearly stated in Bhagavad Gita, all of this punya is temporary again. You get to Svargaloka, you exhaust your punya, you fall down.
So, in other words, all of this punya is good, because you can advance materially, but again, you have to take birth in this world. And there is no perfect punya. If you do punya and make a mistake, then you have to suffer again. So, to show that, there is a story of King Nrga. So, he was obsessed with doing punya, so he kept giving cows to brahmanas. But then he gave the cow twice to a different brahmana, and then he got cursed for that [Laughs]. So, he became a lizard. So, he gave so many cows and had so much punya, but he became a lizard. So, punya is not perfect. You can always make mistakes and you get opposite results. And the punya does not get you out of the material world. So, it is a temporary solution to the problem. Just like you can go to the doctor and get cured, but he cannot cure you from death.
So, the only process that is going to do that is the process of bhakti. So, by that process, we end birth and death in the material world. And we get eternal life, much better than doing punya and getting temporary enjoyment. And not only that, we become completely satisfied. And all of this is eternal. So, there is none of the drawbacks of punya, none of the drawbacks of doing no punya and taking birth in the material world. So, we have the purusharthas, artha, dharma, kama and moksha. We have the final purushartha, param purushartha, which is prema. So, the intelligent person should understand this and take to devotional service.
Unfortunately, we see that many people do not take to devotional service. And why? They do not have faith in that goal. So, that is why it is said that in spite of the fact that the knowledge is there, people don’t accept it, because they have no faith. So, that faith is the first step to performing devotional service. And we see, not all people have faith. So, that also faith is quite rare. And if that arises, that is a great fortune, good fortune for that person. So, Lord Caitanya calls that person in Caitanya Caritamrta – ‘Bhagyavan Jiva’. Why is he fortunate? Because then he can stop this process of wandering in the material world. So, to get that faith, to begin the practice of bhakti yoga is a great fortune.
But that great fortune is not determined by punya. Normally when we talk about good fortune, it is because of punya. Why is a person so lucky? Why has he got so much money? It is because of previous punya. So, that is material results. But taking to devotional service is not a material activity, so it is not caused by material punya. So, it is not caused by your karma, not by punya, not by vasanas. So, then we can say, well, it is caused by mercy of the Lord. That is true, but then if it is the mercy of the Lord, and some people have faith and some people don’t, that means the Lord is prejudiced. He chooses to be merciful to one, not to another, not because of any material qualities at all. So, then he is just randomly choosing a person. So, therefore, that answer seems a little bit dissatisfying. So, of course, what the scriptures say, the scriptures say, ultimately it is the mercy of the devotees.
Again, we can say, well, the devotee, he is choosing randomly this devotee, that devotee, how is that possible? So, one answer is that, the devotee in the material world tries his best to give people ajnana-sukriti, so they can get faith. And he tries his best to give everybody. But he is a human being and he is limited, so he cannot give it to everybody. But he tries his best, so to that extent we can say, there is a fault on the devotee because he is limited, that’s all. But he is not just choosing one and not choosing another randomly also. So, he tries to spread devotional service to everybody. But, we also say that that devotee should not preach to the faithless. So, after they have faith, yes, he gives mercy by giving them instructions. So, that is not some sort of irrational prejudice, it is the instruction of the Lord.
But then, what happens to the people without faith? It means that they are completely condemned. So, the answer is, there is also a method of spreading bhakti to the faithless people. Of course, we can say, well, how do you preach to a faithless person because he is not going to accept anything you say [Laughs]. And the answer is, we don’t preach. So, what do we do? We expose them to bhakti without preaching. That’s another type of preaching we can say. So, because they are unwilling to accept the teachings, we cannot give teachings, but we can expose them to bhakti, we can expose them to kirtan, we can expose them to the form of Krishna. Because they have no faith, they have no interest, they are not, by their own decision, approaching bhakti or devotees. But, that exposure to bhakti will affect the Jiva. Of course, it’s not so much. A little bit, the Jiva gets affected. In other words, the Jiva becomes a little favorable towards Krishna.
So, how does he advance from there? He still hasn’t got faith, so he’s not going to seek out any devotees. So, it will only depend upon some chance – contact with bhakti again through devotees. It may not occur in this lifetime, it may be in the next lifetime, he gets one chance encounter with a devotee. So, over many lifetimes, we get contact, contact, contact, contact, and a slow increase in the favorability of the Jiva. And when it becomes a sufficient amount, then it becomes manifesting in their conscious life. And then they will begin to seek out devotees and devotional scriptures.
So, at that point, they have faith, they can accept the scriptures, and then the devotees give them scripture. So, in other words, the way in which the Jivas in the material world can advance is through the mercy of the devotees. First mercy is to expose them to bhakti in some way or another. When they get enough exposure, they develop faith. When they get faith, then we can give them knowledge. So, they begin the process of devotional service, this way, they become most fortunate. So, their good fortune is not caused by material punyas, it is caused by ajnana-sukriti given by devotees, which accumulates over lifetimes, manifests faith, then they begin devotional service.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A
1.) Hare Krsna Maharaj, Maharaj, we see faith and association of devotees very interlinked. If you have faith, you want to associate with devotees, and when you associate with devotees, your faith increases. But in Caitanya Caritamrita, it is explained that when one is very fortunate, he comes in contact with a devotee. So, what is that fortune? Why it comes? Whether it is his punya activities, or what is that fortune which makes him come in contact with a devotee?
So, if they come in contact with a devotee and they don’t have faith, nothing happens [Laughs]. However, if they get repeated contact with devotees, then eventually they get faith. When they get faith, they have a willingness to follow the directions of scripture. But, until they get that strong faith, then they can read Bhagavad Gita, they are not going to do anything [Laughs]. So, the whole process is contact with devotional service somehow or other, which will increase until they get faith.
Once they get faith, then they can begin the process of bhakti. That faith becomes stronger and stronger when they are practicing bhakti, with the more knowledge of scripture that they get.
2.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, ‘yeṣāṁ tv anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ’ – Those who have acted piously in their previous life, and whose sins are completely eradicated, can engage in my service. Like that we see in the Bhagavad Gita. So, how to understand this?
So, normal punyas, material punyas do not qualify a person for bhakti. However, we can say that bhakti itself is a type of punya, a special punya [Laughs]. But, as I explained, one becomes qualified for bhakti by this special punya or ajnana sukhruti.
Material punya may be favorable, it may also be unfavorable. Through that punya you can get to sattva guna. So, favorable aspect is you control your senses. Unfavorable aspect is you are inclined to impersonal Brahman. So, what decides whether a person in sattva guna becomes a devotee or a jnani? It would be mercy of devotees.
But, we also see that Krishna says even the lowest person can take to devotional service. Here we see even the dog-eater becomes the best devotee. No punya, no sattva guna, but he takes to devotional service. So, ultimately we can say the qualification is that ajnana-sukhruti in the form of accidental bhakti in previous lifetimes.
3.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, here Prabhupada also mentions towards the end of the purport and this verse in Caitanya Caritamrita that – ‘lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya’. So, that appears to mean that even a moment’s association with a devotee, all perfection is attained. So, is that moment can do that or is it just the beginning and ultimately and finally he will attain that sarva siddhi?
So, we don’t see that immediately a person conducts a devotee, suddenly he gets prema and goes to the spiritual world [Laughs]. However, that he can begin devotional service itself is the first step. If he doesn’t take that step, there is no siddhi at all. So, that first contact is the way in which he can gradually get to the spiritual world.
4.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, The Lord is impartial, same as the devotees are also impartial. Then, how is that some devotees, is it that the free will of the person decides he gets the mercy?
Well, to desire mercy, he would already have to have faith. So, as I said, the devotees, they have to make some choice of prejudice, because they can only preach to devotees and those with faith and they have to avoid the non-devotees. So, they can spread mercy without any distinctions to everybody without preaching [Laughs].
But, because they are limited beings, they can’t be everywhere all at once forever. Therefore, the contact they give to all Jivas is also limited. So, in that sense, there is no accepting or rejecting on the part of that particular Jiva, because they have no faith. They simply are exposed to it, that’s all. But that has an effect on the Jiva.
Devotee: So, Maharaj, some people are fortunate to get that exposure of devotees association. Some are not fortunate, those who are in very remote areas or they never came across devotees association. They don’t get that opportunity, then how that is fair?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So, it’s not a matter of fairness or not fairness, as I said, it’s the limitation of the Jiva. But, the more the devotee can think of ways to expose to more people, to that extent more people can get access to bhakti. So, its only the devotees have to have enough energy to expose more people to bhakti.
5.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. Maharaj, in general, if we see one materialistic people, they get faith once their material desire gets fulfilled. It is kind of like if Lord reciprocates, initially with the material desire, then see that Lord is there, then start coming to temple, take association of devotees and gradually he comes to spiritual life. So, is that faith totally depend on Lord reciprocation?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: What’s the actual question?
Devotee: Maharaj, is the faith dependent for people if they receive a reciprocation from the Lord? They pray to the Lord, if their material desire is fulfilled, then they accept yes, Lord exists.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, that means they already have some faith, if they are going to approach the Lord. So, in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says four types of people approach the Lord, they all have faith. Otherwise, if they don’t have faith, they are not going to ask the Lord for anything. So, they approach the Lord, but they may have all material desires or no material desires or whatever.
So, bhakti is the best punya, bhakti is cintamani, so whatever you want materially, you can get from bhakti. So, by worshipping Krishna with material desires, you can get those material desires fulfilled. So, in this way, Krishna responds to them.
But when the devotee is more serious, then Krishna may feel that all of this material enjoyment is not so good, so that he may take away all of the wealth. And at that stage, the devotee doesn’t mind and he becomes stronger in his bhakti.
6.) Maharaj, just a reflection on the previous question, you responded devotees are limited to whatever energy they have to distribute. Possibly, that is why the recent acharyas have been emphasizing book distribution. We see Bhakti, Siddhanta Siddhita, Goswami Prabhupada, there is so much emphasis on book distribution. Where devotees cannot go, the books can go.
Yes, that is a very good way in which we can extend the exposure of bhakti. But of course now, in the modern age, we are beyond books. So there are other ways you can spread even easier.
7.) Maharaj, when we see the ten offenses, so most of the offenses it is for our protection. Like we can understand, you know that to consider instruction of spiritual master, not consider it properly or to understand that chanting is imaginary, ritualistic activity. So all that is for our protection and it brings our focus towards bhakti. But Maharaj, ninth offense, preaching to the faithless person, a preacher would go out to preach out of his compassion. So why is that under the category of an offense?
So we also see that mentioned in Bhagavad Gita at the end – ‘Don’t preach to the envious or the faithless, etc’. So this when it talks about the faithless, this is particularly the people who are hostile. So it depends on the discretion of the preacher to decide who is hostile and who is not hostile.
Maybe if you attended Vaisheshika’s book distribution seminars, they go out and they are not just looking at all the worst people, they are looking at someone maybe a little favorable, so they try to approach that person [Laughs]. It is easier [Laughs]. So, the preacher has to use his discretion to see who he is actually going to seriously preach and try to give them Bhagavad Gita.
So, why is it an offense? So you preach to the person who is hostile, they commit more offenses [Laughs]. So they offend the name, they offend the scriptures, they offend the devotees, they offend Krishna. So those are the people we avoid.
Devotee: Maharaj, Nithyananda Prabhu preaching to Jagai and Madhai, would that come under the category of preaching to faithless people?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: They actually did not preach to them. But Jagai and Madhai got affected by the merciful nature of Nithyananda. So of course, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he is so merciful, he is even merciful to aparadhis. But the general principle is, we do follow the Nama-aparadhs. And to give mercy to the aparadhis, then we have to do other methods.
8.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, my question is like, if someone has faith already, and he approached Lord for some material gain, and his desire is not fulfilled, and he suddenly lose the faith, like no, nothing is there, everything is like this only. How do we understand that how his faith is decreasing and how he will improve?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So if a person approaches Krsna with desire for material things, and he prays to Krishna, and he doesn’t gets his desires fulfilled, so that he loses his faith. So is that Krishna’s responsibility? Is that the question?
Devotee: He degraded his faith, so how he will recover it back ?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, it depends on the person. If they have weaker faith, then of course they will go worship some Devata instead. Maybe they worship Shiva, and if Shiva doesn’t do it, then they worship somebody else [Laughs]. If their faith is stronger, then even if they don’t get an immediate response, they are patient.
Just like people go to the doctor, doctor gives some medicine, and if you have faith in the doctor, you take the medicine, and then the second day you take the medicine, you don’t say, well, I didn’t get cured. Useless doctor [Laughs]. There is no patience. So if the faith is not strong, then you give up.
9.) Maharaj, yesterday you mentioned that adhyayanam – reading the scriptures is not one of the navavida bhakti – shravanam, kirtanam ?
It’s included in Shravanam.
10.) Why the Ajnana Sukruti is not distributed to everyone ?
We do as much as we can. Let’s say the number out of a population of 1 million, we have 10,000 devotees. So if they spend 10 hours a day for 20 years, how many people they can contact out of 10 million, let’s say, or even a million?
11.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, Maharaj, you were talking about the faithless person who is coming with the contact of a devotee and he is exposing into different Angas of Bhakti, Kirtan, form of the Lord and Prasadam. So is it like now this devotee is responsible for that faithless person who is coming into it. So he must take care of him personally and he must guide him in a way that he is getting attached to the Angas of Bhakti. So how to practically understand having the balance of his compassion and still depending upon Krishna. Like he cannot just give up that Krishna will take care and all others of Angas of Bhakti will take care. So how to understand this balance of compassion and still he is depending upon Krishna Maharaj ?
If you are talking about ajnana-sukriti, that particular person doesn’t know anything. He just contacted and finished and he is not going to seek anybody. The devotee also may not know also because you go to a mall, do a Kirtan and there is a thousand people there. You don’t know individually who heard, who didn’t hear. So there is no way in which we can know. All we do is distribute and then we see the effect life after life. It may take 20 lifetimes for the person to actually say, hey I am a devotee.
12.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, Maharaj, we understand people in general like have little faith. Some people in general have little faith, but what about the person who is already in the process of Krishna consciousness, but he loses faith over the period of time. I mean sometimes due to aparadh or sometimes due to material desires is not fulfilled etc. So how that person should increase his faith? What is the process he should do to increase his faith?
So if his faith is weaker, he can still practice Bhakti and if he practices Bhakti eventually the faith can become strong. If the faith is completely gone then he has to start from zero. Because with no faith, he may actually be opposed to Bhakti and therefore it is going to take him many lifetimes before he can get faith.
13.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, is there something called shadow faith where the person’s faith is very less, looks like a faith and he comes to temple, he chants and then suddenly he goes back, he vanishes. So that faith is not there but for a temporary moment it looks like a faith.
So there is something that may look like faith, but actually is something material. So people may not have faith, but they have great material desires for instance. So they will come to the temple, they don’t get result, they go to another temple, they don’t get result they go to another temple so they have no faith, nothing really, but they have great material desires, so they will try anything.
So there may be very strong material motivations for coming to the temple. But the real measure of faith is, how willing they are to actually begin seriously practicing Bhakti.
14.) Can we force to do Bhakti on Krishna? In the first circle of people – best friends, mom, dad, etc.
Yeah, if you force them and they don’t want to do Bhakti, then how can it be Bhakti? It’s like preaching to the faithless [Laughs].
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatham Ki Jai!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj Ki Jai!! HDG AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad Ki Jai !!