Srimad Bhagavatam 2.6.32 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 12 October 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 6 Verse 32.
ŚB 2.6.32
सृजामि तन्नियुक्तोऽहं हरो हरति तद्वश: ।
विश्वं पुरुषरूपेण परिपाति त्रिशक्तिधृक् ॥ ३२ ॥
sṛjāmi tan-niyukto ’haṁ
haro harati tad-vaśaḥ
viśvaṁ puruṣa-rūpeṇa
paripāti tri-śakti-dhṛk
Synonyms
sṛjāmi — do create; tat — by His; niyuktaḥ — appointment; aham — I; haraḥ — Lord Śiva; harati — destroys; tat–vaśaḥ — under His subordination; viśvam — the whole universe; puruṣa — the Personality of Godhead; rūpeṇa — by His eternal form; paripāti — maintains; tri–śakti–dhṛk — the controller of three energies.
Translation
By His will, I create, Lord Śiva destroys, and He Himself, in His eternal form as the Personality of Godhead, maintains everything. He is the powerful controller of these three energies.
Purport
The conception of one without a second is clearly confirmed here. The one is Lord Vāsudeva, and only by His different energies and expansions are different manifestations, both in the material and in the spiritual worlds, maintained. In the material world also, Lord Vāsudeva is everything, as stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.19). Vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti: everything is Vāsudeva only. In the Vedic hymns also the same Vāsudeva is held to be supreme. It is said in the Vedas, vāsudevāt paro brahman na cānyo ’rtho ’sti tattvataḥ: in fact there is no greater truth than Vāsudeva. And Lord Kṛṣṇa affirms the same truth in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.7). Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat: “There is nothing above Me [Lord Kṛṣṇa].” So the conception of oneness, as overly stressed by the impersonalist, is also accepted by the personalist devotee of the Lord. The difference is that the impersonalist denies personality in the ultimate issue, whereas the devotee gives more importance to the Personality of Godhead. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains this truth in the verse under discussion: Lord Vāsudeva is one without a second, but because He is all-powerful, He can expand Himself as well as display His omnipotencies. The Lord is described here as omnipotent by three energies (tri-śakti-dhṛk). So primarily His three energies are internal, marginal and external. This external energy is also displayed in the three modes of goodness, passion and ignorance. Similarly, the internal potency is also displayed in three spiritual modes — saṁvit, sandhinī and hlādinī. The marginal potency, or the living entities, is also spiritual (prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām), but the living entities are never equal to the Lord. The Lord is nirasta-sāmya-atiśaya; in other words, no one is greater than or equal to the Supreme Lord. So the living entities, including even such great personalities as Lord Brahmā and Lord Śiva, are all subordinate to the Lord. In the material world also, in His eternal form of Viṣṇu, He maintains and controls all the affairs of the demigods, including Brahmā and Śiva.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So this verse states the supremacy of Vishnu. Of course, we also see that He partakes in the maintenance of the material world. And that is also explained here. So it says He, paripati means He protects or maintains what? Vishwam, the material world. Brahma creates it and Shiva destroys it. Because of this, people may think, ok, they are all equal. Nevertheless, that is not so. Appearance is just not everything. So one thing is, it says He is tri-śakti-dhṛk. He is the holder of three energies. And as explained in the purport, then this can refer to Hladini, Samvit and Sandhini, spiritual energies. It can also refer to external energy, internal energy and Tatastha-shakti. Or even within the Bahiranga-shakti or external energy, he can be in control of three gunas. But in any case, He is in control of this. And no one else is.
As well, of course, here it is described, this is Purusha-rupa. So the Purusha is actually an expansion from Bhagavan. So, though there is a Vishnu form in the material world, this is actually an expansion of Vishnu in the spiritual world. And we cannot say that for Shiva and Brahma.
So in this way, we have here a verse indicating the supremacy of this Supreme Lord. And we have distinguished the Supreme Lord from Brahma, Shiva and other living entities. Of course, first we have to distinguish matter from consciousness. Then we have to distinguish living entity conscious beings from Supreme Lord conscious being. All this is necessary because we are the small conscious living beings, the Jiva. And because we are Jivas, we are prone to be covered by ignorance. And to get out of that ignorance, then we need particular knowledge. And that first knowledge is to distinguish who we are from matter, who we are from Supreme Lord. The more confused our knowledge is, the more confused our goal is.
So we have many people, they are religious and they go to the temple and they pray. But if you were to ask them particularly, who is this you are praying to and why are you praying, they cannot really answer. So in other words, that knowledge is not very precise and goal is not very precise. So, if the goal is not precise, what happens? So what happens, we simply wander around [Laughs], no goal. So we find in the material world, we have human beings, no particular goal. So they just do something or other, but nothing particular. And that’s how they spend their whole life [Laughs]. So part of the process of achieving something is to set a very precise goal. And the more precise you can make that goal, the easier it is to achieve it. So that is one of the first steps in doing anything in this world.
Of course, how do we determine the goal? First, we have to have some basic knowledge. So we need some knowledge of who we are, what is the material world, and if there is a God, we say, Who is God? So our first goal is to get knowledge. Second goal is to determine our ultimate goal that we are going to achieve as a human being. And obviously, if we think about it, then that goal should be perfect. It should be eternal. It should be all happiness and no suffering.
And then the third knowledge is how to achieve the goal. So such functions operate in the material world. So we study many things, we get goals, and we achieve them through certain processes. But the same way, the same process operates, spiritually speaking. The difference is we cannot see and study God with our material senses. We can’t even see Jiva with our material senses. So if we are trying to get a spiritual goal based upon just examining matter with our material senses, we are not going to get very far. So the only way we can get our knowledge is Scripture.
So Scripture will define living entity different from Jiva. And Scripture will also define Supreme Lord different from Jiva. Just to get that far is progress [Laughs]. And of course, we will find these very simple facts as far as Bhagavad Gita is concerned, in second chapter, more or less, we get everything like that. But Scripture also gives us all the details. So thus, in the Scripture, we have three subjects, Sambandha, Abhidheya, and Prayojana. In order to get Prema, which is the goal, then we have to have knowledge of all three subjects. And if we are lacking or have mistaken knowledge in one of these areas, we don’t get the goal. So spiritual life is also very precise. If you don’t do the process properly, you don’t get the goal [Laughs]. So therefore, we do have to study Scripture. So in this way, we get the knowledge in order that we can attain the goal.
Of course, that goal, which is Prema, is a type of knowledge also, but it’s different. We call that realized knowledge. Well, we can’t get to the realized knowledge unless we got the jnana knowledge [Laughs]. So we do have to study the Scripture in order to get realization. And that goes for the two types of Sadhana Bhakti. We have Vaidhi Bhakti and Raganuga Bhakti, we need knowledge in any case. And through that, we get precise method and precise goal.
Now, Scripture, of course, gives us everything in general. It will also hide some things. So therefore, we also have to study very carefully. So the hidden things also are important. But unless we understand that hidden meaning through authorities, through Acharyas, then we miss the point. So therefore, we have to study the Scriptures to get all of our basics, plus we also have to go through the Acharyas. So this is what we call the Parampara.
The Parampara is to take the knowledge through the authorities. So therefore, we trace our Parampara through the authorities of knowledge. And as it has passed down in time, it should not change. So after a hundred years, some Acharya decides, no, I don’t like that, I’ll change this, and it doesn’t mean that, it means this. Then this is deviation from the Parampara. So therefore, the message should come down from the original text down to us. And that is why Srila Prabhupada, in writing his purports, he is always referring to our Acharyas.
So many people can write commentaries on anything. But then his reference is our Acharyas. So we have people like Rupa Goswami, Jiva Goswami, Vishwanath Cakravarti, Baladeva Vidyabhushan, they are the Acharyas [Laughs]. So it is through these Acharyas that then we understand the difference between Shiva and Brahma and Vishnu and Purusha Avatar and Bhagavan and Krishna [Laughs]. If we accept a different Parampara, we may come out with different conclusions [Laughs]. If we accept a Mayavada Parampara, then we’ll come out with a completely different conclusion of Bhagavatam [Laughs]. If we accept another Vaishnava Parampara, then we’ll come out with similar but also some difference [Laughs].
So within our Parampara, starting from Caitanya Mahaprabhu, all that knowledge is there for a particular goal. So that goal is, of course, Prema. But not just any Prema, Prema for Krishna. And more particularly Krishna in Vrindavan. So in other words, all the commentaries we have are pointing in this particular direction. And if we want to go more particular, not only Krishna in Vrindavan, but Radha Krishna in Vrindavan [Laughs]. So that type of goal will determine how our Acharyas give meanings to us [Laughs].
So in this way, scripture has a very important function for us. So it helps us define our goal by getting proper knowledge. This makes it easier to determine the goal. It also helps us deepen our conviction, our faith in that goal. So, and of course, the scripture itself is also non-different from Krishna. Just as the name is non-different from scripture, Bhagavatam is non-different from Krishna. And therefore, we put a great emphasis on studying and getting knowledge from Bhagavatam. So this goes along with our chanting of the holy name.
So chanting of the holy name is the principle sadhana. But again, you can chant in different ways. And you can get some goal, but not necessarily the highest goal [Laughs]. So you chant in one way, you get material goals. You chant in another way, you can get liberation. You chant in another way, you can get Vaikuntha. You can chant in another way, you get Vrindavan. And you chant in another way, you can get Radha Krishna in Vrindavan. And that will all depend on how we chant. And how we chant will depend on our knowledge [Laughs].
So though chanting the name is completely independent even of faith, because it gives some results even without faith, still to get Prema and to get the Prema that Lord Caitanya is teaching, we need knowledge. And thus though the Goswamis were completely absorbed in chanting the holy name, they spent significant time writing scriptures [Laughs]. And similarly Srila Prabhupada, very enthusiastic to preach, but he spent half his time writing literatures and explanations [Laughs].
Though we say Nama Sankirtan is the Yuga Dharma, we also say books are the basis [Laughs]. So that of course means two things. One of course is we distribute the books. The other is we study them [Laughs]. So we should know the knowledge and we distribute the knowledge to others. But this is never independent of Nama Sankirtan. And it helps us do Nama Sankirtan purely. So that is the relationship we have with studying scripture.
Hare Krishna!
Q & A :
1.) Maharaj, you were saying that, you know, that scripture is the source to get the knowledge. But, see, that for the conditioned soul, if they want to get knowledge from the scriptures also, they might get bewildered also without taking help from the Acharyas because they have senses that is imperfect. But hardly people are getting the association also. Sometimes, maximum time we see, devotees are reading on their own, especially Bhagavatam and other things, but sometimes they get bewildered by the statement also because they are reading on their own. Problem is, although they have the scriptures, but still there is a chance of getting bewildered by reading the scriptures.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Bewildered by reading the scriptures?
Devotee: Yeah.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Or falling in the maya?
Devotee: No, no, no. I am not saying that. I am saying that, see, scripture is a Mohini, correct. Not that every time they can come to the Acharyas. Previously the system was, devotees used to go to gurukul, and they used to study under the guru. That system is right now not present.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: So then?
Devotee: So problem is, although they have a scripture and everything, still there is a chance of bewilderment.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Okay. So then?
Devotee: So, what is the solution?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Solution, okay. So, though devotees have faith, and they are practicing bhakti, doing sadhana bhakti, they still have some influence of maya. So therefore, the hearing process and study of scripture, not always perfect. Nevertheless, we can clear up a lot of the mistakes or confusion by clarifying the basic texts. And of course, the texts are clarifying the meaning, and then we read that text. We can still get some bewilderment, maybe [Laughs]. So then another Acharya will come along and clarify that [Laughs]. So that we see in all Sampradayas. We have Sankara and then people writing commentaries on Shankara’s commentaries, and people writing commentaries on those commentaries over 500 years they are doing that [Laughs].
So, we will find the same in our Sampradaya. We have like Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu, then there is a commentary, there is another commentary, there is another commentary. And then, of course, Prabhupada commentary also [Laughs]. Even with all that, you can still, because we are affected by material energy, we can still be bewildered [Laughs]. So that is why we also have, besides the scripture and the commentaries, we also have devotees. So you hear from a devotee, you hear from a guru. Hopefully, the guru is not bewildered also [Laughs]. So then he can clarify for you. Of course, because it is material world, anyone can get bewildered. So therefore, you can also have many siksha gurus. So these are the arrangements made to prevent the distortion of the scripture. So, as much as possible, care is taken, but of course, ultimately, people can always make mistakes [Laughs].
2.) Maharaj, you are saying that knowledge, knowledge means like a prema. So now, but to experience, or to get a prema, need of experience, how can conditioned soul experience that prema when he has material senses, or intelligence, or mind, everything?
So, we can’t experience the prema unless we are qualified. So, you cannot experience being a doctor unless you got your degree. But, if we don’t even have the goal, we can’t even get there, or proceed in the right direction. So, the scriptures give us a description of the goal, and it gives us details, enough details, so that we get some idea about it. But obviously, we cannot understand it fully unless we realize it. But that, of course, goes for, we’ve been saying Krishna is supreme. Well, who is Krishna? So then, scriptures give us a description. But when we study that, or hear it, it’s not a realization. But it is useful to understand Krishna, and attain Krishna.
So, by meditating on that form that we have described in scripture, eventually, as we progress in bhakti, our material conceptions disappear, and finally, we realize the actual form. But if we were to concentrate on a different form, we’d realize a different form [Laughs]. So therefore, we get a description of Krishna, we get a description of prema, and we don’t realize it, but at least it points us in the right direction. And then finally, we realize it. But if we have a goal of prema, and we don’t have a proper description, then we will attain something else [Laughs].
So, if we think prema means eternal happiness, then we can get something else. We can get, what? Salokya [Laughs]. So, in the material world, we have scriptures, scriptures give us descriptions, in our present state we don’t have the realization, at least we have the general idea to point us in the right direction and do the proper things to get there. So, the fault is not the scripture, the fault is we have material coverings. And by studying the scripture and chanting the holy name, we get less material coverings, we get more realization.
Devotee: Maharaj, can we say that, see, knowledge is like information and whereas prema is realization.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: Well, of course, bhakti is absolute, so, of course, in the stage of sadhana, we can say it is knowledge. And then in prema, it is realization. But in either case, bhakti is spiritual. It’s the same thing, but because we’re covered, it looks like something else. When it’s uncovered, it becomes prema. So, when we talk about knowledge of bhakti scriptures, it is different from jnana knowledge of impersonalism [Laughs], which is sattvic knowledge only.
3.) You said, Maharaj, the different ways of chanting, like focus on Vaikuntha, Vrindavana, and Radha Krishna. Maharaj, can you please elaborate on this? How do we focus on this? Mainly, what is the difference between chanting to attain Vaikuntha versus Vrindavana?
So, if you think Krishna is an expansion of Vishnu and you chant Krishna’s name, you go to Vaikuntha. If you accept Krishna, yes, with His wonderful form, but you appreciate His powers, you may go to Dwaraka. And if you completely forget about His powers, and you concentrate on His sweetness, you get to Vrindavana. However, just getting to Vrindavana is one thing, but who are you in Vrindavana? So, there are particular types of prema in Vrindavana. Also, we have Santa rasa, Dasya rasa, Sakhya rasa, Vatsalya, and Madhurya rasa. And according to what you concentrate on, you get different results. And if you don’t concentrate on anything particular, you get Santa. And then, of course, in Madhurya rasa, there are all sorts of different types of Madhurya rasa also [Laughs].
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!