Srimad Bhagavatam 3.22.3 | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | Prabhupada Desh | 7 August 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 3 Chapter 22 Verse 3.
ŚB 3.22.3
तत्त्राणायासृजच्चास्मान् दो:सहस्रात्सहस्रपात् ।
हृदयं तस्य हि ब्रह्म क्षत्रमङ्गं प्रचक्षते ॥ ३ ॥
tat-trāṇāyāsṛjac cāsmān
doḥ-sahasrāt sahasra-pāt
hṛdayaṁ tasya hi brahma
kṣatram aṅgaṁ pracakṣate
Synonyms
tat-trāṇāya — for the protection of the brāhmaṇas; asṛjat — created; ca — and; asmān — us (kṣatriyas); doḥ-sahasrāt — from His thousand arms; sahasra-pāt — the thousand-legged Supreme Being (the universal form); hṛdayam — heart; tasya — His; hi — for; brahma — brāhmaṇas; kṣatram — the kṣatriyas; aṅgam — arms; pracakṣate — are spoken of.
Translation
For the protection of the brāhmaṇas, the thousand-legged Supreme Being created us, the kṣatriyas, from His thousand arms. Hence the brāhmaṇas are said to be His heart and the kṣatriyas His arms.
Purport
Kṣatriyas are specifically meant to maintain the brāhmaṇas because if the brāhmaṇas are protected, then the head of civilization is protected. Brāhmaṇas are supposed to be the head of the social body; if the head is clear and has not gone mad, then everything is in proper position. The Lord is described thus: namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. The purport of this prayer is that the Lord specifically protects the brāhmaṇas and the cows, and then He protects all other members of society (jagad-dhitāya). It is His will that universal welfare work depends on the protection of cows and brāhmaṇas; thus brahminical culture and cow protection are the basic principles for human civilization. Kṣatriyas are especially meant to protect the brāhmaṇas, as is the supreme will of the Lord: go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca. As the heart is a very important part within the body, so the brāhmaṇas are also the important element in human society. The kṣatriyas are more like the whole body; even though the whole body is bigger than the heart, the heart is more important.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So here we have a description where the kshatriyas are like the arms and the brahmanas are like the heart. In other places, the brahmanas are compared to the head. In either case, the brahmanas are given the topmost position. And the role of the kshatriya is to protect. Of course, the vaishyas are considered to be the stomach, and the sudras are considered to be the feet. In this way, the four different varnas or classes are considered to be parts of one body.
As we know the body should be complete, it should have it’s legs and arms and belly and head, etc., and then it functions. So similarly, society functions with these four different classes. If we cut off the arms or we cut off the feet, then the body cannot function properly. And similarly, if these different classes are not functioning, then society itself collapses. Of course, objection to this would be that okay, some people are at the bottom and some people are at the top, that is not very democratic.
So that is true, the brahmanas are at the top because they are the guides for everyone else. In any group everybody cannot be at the top. We have some people at the top, some people in the middle, some people at the bottom. So therefore, everybody cannot be exactly equal. And of course, we see within human beings, they all have different qualities. So, because they have different qualities, they cannot all do the same activities. They have different types of intelligence. They cannot do the same work. And thus, naturally, within any society, we will have divisions of labor. But they have to cooperate.
So, in the Vedic society, the brahmanas are at the top, but they cannot survive unless we have kshatriyas and the vaishyas, and the sudras also. And neither can any of the other classes survive without the others. However some people will think, well, we can have the hands and the stomach and the feet. We don’t need the head. We don’t need some intelligent people telling us what to do. And therefore some societies try to operate that way. But we know that such a society gets destroyed.
So there are some very ambitious leaders who can simply disrupt everything. They get rid of all the intelligent people and then society fails. But there’s also a good reason for getting rid of that top class. If we have a class of intellectuals they all tend to disagree. So a leader says something, the intellectuals will disagree with it. So it’s the problem [Laughs].
So it’s easier to rule if we don’t have any disagreements. So therefore some leadership gets rid of that group of people and they just rule as they please. What about the people below the leader? The vaishyas and the sudras. What about them? The leader because he’s more intelligent can fool everybody [Laughs]. He can bewilder everybody. He can’t bewilder those who are more intelligent, he can bewilder those who are less intelligent.
So we find this often happens in a country or society. So this is what we call the dictatorship [Laughs]. Dictatorship. So one person is in charge of everything. Everybody has to listen to him. Finished. So such a society runs for some time but eventually it collapses. One reason is of course is that the leader thinks he is most intelligent but he isn’t. So therefore ultimately his decisions ruin finances, ruin agriculture, ruin everything [Laughs].
So the population suffers. And then even though the population is not so intelligent, they’re less intelligent than the leader, when they suffer too much then they start to protest also. They begin to suffer and therefore they’ll protest. They may not be intelligent but they want food [Laughs]. When they don’t get their food then they will protest [Laughs]. Of course the kshatriya has his armies which can always suppress everybody.
The nature of a society is there are more vaishyas and sudras than there are kshatriyas. So enough vaishyas and sudras are discontent, they can overthrow the government [Laughs]. So in this way such a dictatorial state or authoritarian state will fail.
So therefore the lesson is we should have the intelligent class at the top. And even though the kshatriya has ability and has some intelligence, he should consider the intelligence of the top class more than his. And using top class intelligence then he should implement all his policies. And then finances, agriculture, everything can go on. And everyone gets enough to eat. So that is basically the system that is set up in the Vedas.
So we have the intelligent people at the top, the brahmanas, then we have the managers and kshatriyas, then we have the vaishyas who are the merchants and farmers, then we have the laborers, the sudras. So this of course all countries of the world will have these classes anyway because human beings naturally are these different qualities. And of course when we get bigger groups, cities and countries, necessarily we’ll get these different divisions. When we get smaller groups like tribes, they may all change their roles quite frequently. Everybody does everything [Laughs]. Everybody does all the different types of work. But as you get bigger, then we have a leader class usually. And then the other occupations begin to become more distinct.
So what is so special about this varna system in the Vedas? One is of course, it is scriptural. And because it is scriptural, it has some, let’s say, connection with the Supreme Lord. It is a system designed by the Supreme Lord and ultimately it should lead to worship of the Supreme Lord. So this will distinguish it from some political systems which have all these classes but have no connection with God at all.
Sometimes we dream of a classless society. We may dream of a classless society, best just no classes, everybody equal. So that was a dream of communism [Laughs]. But we see even in those societies, we get classes [Laughs]. We get rulers. We get agriculturists. We get bureaucrats. We get intelligentsia. We get all those different groups coming out. And when it’s not connected to the Supreme Lord, there’s bound to be more corruption. The reason to stop all these classes is because one class will exploit the others.
So the communists felt that the labor class was exploited by the other people, therefore it’s unequal. So let’s overthrow these top people. And it’s true. They get exploited. And if we see the history, even modern history of capitalism, we find [Laughs] the people at the bottom suffer an awful lot. They’re the laborers. They suffer. And why they suffer is because somebody is exploiting them.
So then they started making unions and all sorts of things to revolt against companies [Laughs]. They had had to work too much. They’re little paid, lots of work, no good conditions. So they have to fight for the rights. So the problem is when you have people at top and people at the bottom, the people at the top tend to exploit people at the bottom for their own pleasure.
So the Vedic system has these classes, but they try to avoid the exploitation. How? Because of the rules. The kshatriyas are restricted in what they can do. And one of the rules of the kshatriyas is he has to listen to the brahmanas. And the brahmanas are not controlled by the kshatriyas. Usually what happens is we have the intellectual society, then we have the rulers. The rulers will get control of the intellectuals [Laughs] and make them do whatever they want [Laughs].
But in this system, the brahmanas are under nobody’s control. Their reference is scripture. So they will give advice not because somebody is paying them, but because scripture says so. And scripture itself is not trying to exploit people. It’s working for the good of everybody. Ultimately, because the scripture comes from the Supreme Lord, and Supreme Lord is for everybody, not for one particular.
However, here in the purport, Prabhupada talks about Krishna being favorable to the brahmanas. So He’s favorable to the brahmanas because the brahmanas represent the Vedas. And they will give instruction to the kshatriyas. And in this way, the kshatriyas will rule efficiently without exploiting. Usually, we think of a kshatriya as being in rajo-guna, mode of passion. But actually, the kshatriya is combination of rajoguna and sattva-guna. If he’s too prominently in rajo-guna, he will exploit everybody. And he won’t listen to anybody. But if he has the sattva, then he will also respect scripture, he will respect the brahmana. And he will not be so exploitative.
So the brahmanas have to guarantee that the kshatriyas have the proper qualities. And that they are ruling according to the scriptural injunctions. In this way, the kshatriyas don’t exploit the vaishyas or the sudras. So the word kshatriya comes from the word kshat, which means to protect and nourish. So the purpose of the kshatriya or the leader is to nourish those who are beneath him.
Just as the parents are responsible for nourishing their children. So therefore, the kshatriya is a very important element of society. But their qualities have to be safeguarded. So it is the brahmanas who make sure that their qualities are proper. So in this system, of course, people will often criticize and say that the people at the bottom, that is sudras are restricted. Restricted. The sudras in the varnashrama society have too much restriction. They can’t mix with the higher classes. We will find the same rules apply to all societies.
We’ll find in European societies up until the 20th century, we have the ruling class, aristocrat class they don’t mix with the vaishyas [Laughs], the vaishyas don’t mix with the laborers, they stay separate [Laughs]. And they don’t interact too much and they don’t marry within the different groups, they keep separate. And so it’s the same in Vedic society, they remain separate.
So though they remain separate, it doesn’t mean they are restricted. Yeah, though they are separate, and they’re at the bottom, the sudras, they are not restricted. Of course, the brahmanas are at the top, but they have the most rules. Brahmanas are free, there’s nobody on top of them, but they have the most rules to follow [Laughs], they’re the most restricted. Sudras are at the bottom, and they’re controlled by the kshatriyas and the vaishyas, but they have less rules to follow.
So the brahmana has to follow so many rules, and the sudra doesn’t have to follow so much rules at all. But then the sudra is restricted because he is controlled by others. So a lot of his so-called independence is given up. And the reason is, he’s given too much independence, he will destroy himself, he will destroy his family, he’ll destroy everybody else [Laughs]. So therefore, there’s a lot of control in that sense on the sudra [Laughs]. He is dependent upon the upper classes.
But counter to that is the upper classes have to take care of the sudra, just like the parents have to take care of the children. So the sudras are like the children, they’re not so intelligent or whatever, so they get taken care of nicely. And you know, if you take care of the children, but then you say, okay, do anything you want, it’s not a [Laughs] it’s not a good position [Laughs]. So they have to be under control also [Laughs]. Still, the children are under the control of the parents, but they don’t have to follow the same rules as adults, a little bit free.
So in this system, everybody should get their happiness and their sustenance. But there’s always limits to how much enjoyment you can get. But of course, the sudras get the most enjoyment [Laughs] and the brahmanas get the least because they have to follow all the rules [Laughs]. Of course, the reason for that is the brahmanas are more detached anyway, and their enjoyment is spiritual, not material. And the sudras, not much into the spiritual life, very much into the material enjoyment [Laughs]. So that system, what is giving everybody an opportunity. And it’s not exploitation.
However, like any system, people can corrupt it, and then it also becomes a system of exploitation. And when that happens, then we’ll get a big disturbance to the system [Laughs]. And that particularly happens after Krishna disappears and Kali Yuga starts. And we see that the leaders become unqualified. We see in the Bhagavatam as Kali Yuga progresses and describes in 9th Canto how then one of the sudras, he assassinates the leader, he becomes the king [Laughs]. And after a few generations, another person comes and assassinates him, he becomes the leader [Laughs]. And none of these leaders are following the principles of a kshatriya. So therefore, whatever system is there eventually falls apart.
So very important in that system is to have the qualified kshatriyas. So the Supreme Lord makes some arrangement for that by appointing Manu. So Manu is given special power by the Supreme Lord to institute dharma. And he and his descendants will rule for 71 yuga cycles. So this hereditary system of father-son, of the king’s lineage is to guarantee that there is a qualified leader. A qualified leader should be there. But because of the imperfection of [Laughs] material nature and time, sometimes it doesn’t work [Laughs].
So King Vena became the king, even though he came in the proper line. But he was a wicked king, they had to kill him [Laughs]. And in our present line, we have Vaivasvata Manu and his descendants ruling for, we come to 28 cycles and we’ve got another 50 to go, 40 something to go, 44 cycles to go. But the two remaining descendants disappeared. So we have no lineage anymore.
So the rest of Kali Yuga doesn’t have a qualified kshatriya to rule [Laughs]. And then finally, after 400,000 years, they decide, okay, we’ll come back and we’ll rule. And when Satya Yuga comes, the next Satya Yuga, then they come back and they start ruling again [Laughs]. So our Kali Yuga is particularly unfortunate because that system is completely useless, because there is no leader. It requires great ability to make the system work. So we can try, but it’s very difficult. Without the leader, it doesn’t work.
So what to do? Kali Yuga, no dharma, no varnashrama [Laughs]. But Bhagavatam says, this is the best yuga [Laughs]. We don’t have varnashrama, nothing, but it’s the best yuga. Yuga, Kali Yuga is the best. Why? Because we have Nama Sankirtana [Laughs]. So that makes up for any bad government or lack of government that we have in Kali Yuga [Laughs].
Of course, Nama Sankirtana is part of bhakti yoga, which is a spiritual process. But the important meaning is that with this spiritual process of Nama Sankirtana, all the other political systems or whatever you want, financial systems can be adjusted. Everything becomes adjusted. If we permeate society with Nama Sankirtana, then we’ll have good finances and good rulers [Laughs]. We can’t try the opposite, just try to make a government, try to make finances, it’s not going to work. But by performing bhakti yoga and Nama Sankirtana, we solve all the problems.
Hare Krishna.
Q & A :
1.) Hare Krishna Maharaj. It’s nice to hear how things can work. As you said, in Kali Yuga everything is confused. Because we are in Kali Yuga, everyone was born sudra in this age. But if I heard what you say, I think, I have to become a brahmana, because the brahmana is the best. In this way, my desire is not pure, but it is contaminated by false prestige. We see it also in our movement, those who have more power tend to take the charge. [Not audible]. Srila Prabhupada said that we have to show love for him by cooperating with each other. So, how can you put all these things together?
So within our spiritual society, naturally we have different types of people. Some will be more intellectual, some will be more managerial, some will be more labor-oriented, action-oriented [Laughs]. Some will be more talented at making money [Laughs]. So we naturally get people who kind of have qualities of the different environments. And it’s rather difficult to make them change. Of course it’s possible, but it takes a lot of effort just to get them to change their occupation or their interests.
So we try to engage everybody so that they can be successful at their particular engagement. And it should give them some satisfaction. But it’s also offensive to consider the Vaishnava to be in a certain varna. Even to be a brahmana, that’s an offense. The Vaishnava is above the brahmana. So the Vaishnava may be acting like a sudra by cleaning the floors or whatever or working in the garden, but he’s better than a brahmana [Laughs].
So therefore when we use these terms for devotees, we have to be very careful that it’s not trying to put people into categories. Because anyone who surrenders to the Lord is superior to all the varnas and all the gunas. Anyone who surrenders to the Lord is superior to the gunas. And if you try to pull people back into the gunas, then this is rather offensive.
Nevertheless, the position of the leader is very important. But the main quality he has, quality is to lead, but his main quality should be devotional. And when he relies more on his material qualities to lead, then it becomes dangerous. So therefore, it has to be some balance there for the leader. If there’s not, and we get more of the managerial than the devotional, then there will be a tendency to exploit. And then we’ll get problems. I don’t know if that answers your question or not but [Laughs].
Devotee: How to cooperate?
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj: How to cooperate? Whether we’re Vaishnavas or non-Vaishnavas, or we’re just following Dharma, in that Dharma system of varnashrama, there has to be cooperation also [Laughs]. So even though we designate people with different occupations or duties or whatever, because we’re cooperating, there’s no problem. But the cooperation will depend upon our own satisfaction and our not being exploited by someone else. We’re not exploited. If we’re not exploited and we’re satisfied, then we cooperate like parts of the body [Laughs]. But if one part of the body starts exploiting the other, then of course there’s no cooperation anymore. So therefore, we have to see that everybody is engaged nicely, but also satisfied, and they’re not being unduly exploited by another group.
Okay any other question? Okay. Hare Krishna.
Devotees: Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam ki jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupada ki jai!!! Nitai Gaura Premanande Hari Haribol!!!