Srimad Bhagavatam – 7.8.6| HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | Ficulle, Italy | August 1, 2025
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 7 Chapter 8 Verse 6.
ŚB 7.8.6
क्रुद्धस्य यस्य कम्पन्ते त्रयो लोका: सहेश्वरा: ।
तस्य मेऽभीतवन्मूढ शासनं किं बलोऽत्यगा: ॥ ६ ॥
kruddhasya yasya kampante
trayo lokāḥ saheśvarāḥ
tasya me ’bhītavan mūḍha
śāsanaṁ kiṁ balo ’tyagāḥ
Synonyms
kruddhasya — when angered; yasya — he who; kampante — tremble; trayaḥ lokāḥ — the three worlds; saha-īśvarāḥ — with their leaders; tasya — of that; me — of me (Hiraṇyakaśipu); abhīta-vat — without fear; mūḍha — rascal; śāsanam — ruling order; kim — what; balaḥ — strength; atyagāḥ — have overstepped.
Translation
My son Prahlāda, you rascal, you know that when I am angry all the planets of the three worlds tremble, along with their chief rulers. By whose power has a rascal like you become so impudent that you appear fearless and overstep my power to rule you?
Purport
The relationship between a pure devotee and the Supreme Personality of Godhead is extremely relishable. A devotee never claims to be very powerful himself; instead, he fully surrenders to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, being confident that in all dangerous conditions Kṛṣṇa will protect His devotee. Kṛṣṇa Himself says in Bhagavad-gītā (9.31), kaunteya pratijānīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati: “O son of Kuntī, declare boldly that My devotee never perishes.” The Lord requested Arjuna to declare this instead of declaring it Himself because sometimes Kṛṣṇa changes His view and therefore people might not believe Him. Thus Kṛṣṇa asked Arjuna to declare that a devotee of the Lord is never vanquished.
Hiraṇyakaśipu was perplexed about how his five-year-old boy could be so fearless that he did not care for the order of his very great and powerful father. A devotee cannot execute the order of anyone except the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the position of a devotee. Hiraṇyakaśipu could understand that this boy must have been very powerful, since the boy did not heed his orders. Hiraṇyakaśipu asked his son, kiṁ balaḥ: “How have you overcome my order? By whose strength have you done this?”
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj:
So in this verse, Hiranyakasipu is expressing his great anger at Prahalad for disobeying him. Moreover, Prahlad has no fear of Hiranyakasipu. Hiranyakasipu was the most powerful person in the universe and yet Prahlad had no fear of him. So this of course describes the position of a Asura. Asura’s want to control and exploit other living entities.
Of course, we see that the Kshatriya also wants to control. But the nature of the Kshatriya is such that he controls in order to protect. So he is not much interested in whether the citizens fear him or not. He’s more interested in protecting the welfare of the majority. The word ‘Kshatriya’ comes from ‘Kshat’ which means to protect. So the nature of the Kshatriya is in such a manner because he is not only in the mode of rajas or passion which makes him a controller, but he has a mixture of sattva. So, this means the sattva influences him to not exploit those he controls. The nature of rajas is to strive for more enjoyment. So if we have a leader or king who is like Hiranyakasipu, who is rajas with no sattva, then he will not be interested in protecting others, he will be interested in exploiting everybody for his own enjoyment. The nature of sattva is to become detached from material enjoyment. The nature of the brahmana is to understand, ‘I’m not the body anymore, I’m the soul’. And the nature of a sattvic person, he will accept the conclusions of the scriptures.
Of course, sometimes the unqualified kings in rajo guna will pretend to respect the scriptures. But they will utilize the scriptures to their advantage. So in other words, by preaching scriptures, he gets the obedience of everyone, then he exploits them [Laughs]. So a person, who is in rajo guna and tries to be a ruler, controls everybody by fear. And of course, if he is expert, he will gather a lot of strength, so that people will be afraid of him. And he will display his power in front of every one, so they will fear him. So then he will say, look, all these people here, ‘I can afflict them, I can torture them, I can do so much to all these people, So you better be careful [Laughs], otherwise I’ll do this to you also’. So this is the strategy of a materialistic leader. He will give examples, so that we fear him. So that of course, that is one way of maintaining power, by fear. And we see how that is practiced in many countries and societies in the past and in the present. That can last for some time, but it cannot last forever. And the reason is that, to base your life on fear is not very comfortable for a human being.
And thus, we find in the Vedic system, yes Kings rule and they are powerful etc, but they have to act according to scriptures, that is dharma. And as I said the other day, Artha, dharma, Kama is there, but also Moksha. So the Kshatriya who has a mixture of Sattva with his Rajas also understands about Moksha, ‘you’re not the material body at all’. So unfortunately, in the material world a lot of the kings, they forget about the Sattva aspect and the Moksha aspect. And they try to rule simply by fear. Hiranyakasipu was such a person. He was surprised, why isn’t Prahalad, my son afraid of me. This of course, we can say, is a little bit strange, because Prahalad is his son. So his father asks his son, ‘Why you are not afraid of me?’, that sounds very strange. But because he is a great demon, it is quite natural, that he expects everyone, including his own son to fear him.
So the Varnashram system is there and we have the Kshatriyas and we have the kings to rule, but those kings have to be very familiar with the principles of dharma. Hiranyakasipu also and the sons of Sukhracharya, they were also teaching dharma. But there was a problem there, that dharma was not proper teachings. Because we see that, dharma minus the Supreme Lord is useless. That dharma will simply be again a type of exploitation. So real dharma must include recognition and respect for Supreme Lord. And Hiranyakasipu’s goal in life was to hate Vishnu. He always to challenge the Lord and defeat him. So then what is the use of his practicing dharma and teaching dharma ? So the rules of dharma are there, but they can be exploited.
However, if we include worship of the Supreme Lord, then the chance of exploiting the rules of dharma is much much less. The reason is that, the Supreme Lord is an ideal leader. So Yes the Supreme Lord has all power, more power than Hiranyakasipu, but unlike Hiranyakasipu, Supreme Lord has no self interest. And he does not have to maintain his position by fear. So instead of fear, the Supreme Lord maintains his position by justice. So in Bhagavad Gita Krishna says “I’m equal to everyone. I’m Sama, I don’t have any favorites.” This of course does not mean he treats everybody exactly the same. Because we see Krishna also punishes and kills demons [Laughs], he doesn’t punish the devotees [Laughs]. But it means, ‘Sama’ means equality, means he will handle them according to the individual’s qualification. So the opposite of ‘Sama’ is to treat a person not according to the qualification, but according to one’s self interest. So if a materialistic leader see, he is a person who is to be punished, but that person is going to be a profit for him, he won’t punish him, he will reward him and he’ll get more money out of it [Laughs]. So in other words, it’s not a just treatment. The Lord acts with great justice.
And of course in the material world people try to do this and we have justice systems. We have the symbol I think justice, she’s got eyes blindfolded, she has the scales [Laughs]. So her blindfolded means, not that she’s really blind, but that justice is not prejudiced according to individual likes and dislikes. Unfortunately, in our system of justice, we have judges. And of course, they will go through courses of law to learn justice. But because they’re human, they can also be influenced [Laughs]. So just like the king, the judges will also make wrong decisions based on favor [Laughs]. So this means for a good system of justice and a good king there has to be a high level of purity. So one way to get that purity is to emphasize sattva.
The other way is to worship the Supreme Lord [Laughs]. So if one worships the Supreme Lord, one goes beyond the gunas completely. One develops all wonderful qualities. One is completely detached from material enjoyment. So that person will not be influenced for material, personal reasons. So if we exclude worship of the Supreme Lord from the whole system, then all of that justice and dharma etc. cannot really be practiced properly. So our Acharyas says, Bhagavatam says that, Varna-ashram system minus worship of the Lord is useless. Just for that system to operate properly and fulfill its goals for the people with giving artha and sustenance and kama, some enjoyment, there has to be worship of the Lord also.
But in material political systems, all of that worship of the Supreme Lord is finished, so therefore, dharma cannot operate properly. So how do the devotees relate to these corrupt political systems? So here we have the example of Prahalad. He didn’t care what the teachers were teaching and Hiranyakasipu was trying to force him to learn, but he refused completely. He never changed his system of knowledge. He refused to accept those teachings of the demons. And that was because, he had very strong faith in the Supreme Lord. So if one has that very firm faith in the Supreme Lord, the Lord responds.
In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, ‘As you surrender unto me, I respond accordingly.’ This is also an example of his being equal or sama. So if you surrender 5%, the Lord will respond to that 5% [Laughs]. If you respond 50%, the Lord will also respond 50% [Laughs]. If you respond 100% surrender, Krishna also surrenders completely to the devotee. And we see that Krishna responds completely to the devotees in Vrindavan. Krishna surrenders completely to Mother Yosoda. Mother Yosoda wants to tie up Krishna. Krishna says, OK, you can tie me up [Laughs]. And similarly, Krishna surrenders to the Gopis. Just as Mother Yosoda can tie up Krishna, the Gopis and Radha can tie up Krishna with Prema. So Krishna is very, very attracted to the devotees.
Of course, he is sama, but as he says in Bhagavad Gita, yes, ‘I am sama, but I’m in my devotees. My devotees are in me.’ So we have a very strong attraction. So this is not a contradiction to the Lord being equal. Rather, it’s a response to responding according to the devotee’s surrender. So the devotees of the Lord are in a very special position. And the Lord makes promises to the devotee that He does not make to those practicing karma, jnana, or yoga. So in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna promises, he says, ‘I never abandon my devotee. My devotee is never destroyed. I make this promise.’ So it is rare that the Supreme Lord will make promises. Because if the Lord makes a promise, He always has to fulfill it. So that makes Him obliged to somebody else. And if He doesn’t fulfill the promise, then you say, you’re a cheater [Laughs]. So Krishna doesn’t just promise, promise to everybody. It’s rare that He makes promises. But Krishna makes the promise to the devotee. He says, ‘You’re never destroyed’. That means that the Lord’s relationship with the devotee is eternal. Bhakti is never destroyed. We start with sadhana, and we may advance a little bit in one lifetime, but that bhakti is not destroyed,, the relationship is eternal. So that relationship continues to grow life after life after life. It grows until it becomes perfect in prema.
So that promise is there, it is even.. we say a greater promise. So not only is the bhakti in the relationship never destroyed, but it keeps increasing. As the devotees surrenders, the Lord also surrenders, and it keeps increasing. So we may say, well, once you reach prema, okay, then that’s 100%. So there’s nothing left, so there’s no further increase. But that’s a material judgment [Laughs]. The spiritual world is unlimited. The bliss is unlimited. So whatever bliss there is today, it will increase tomorrow and the next day and the next day in the spiritual world [Laughs]. So the devotee will continue to surrender more and Krishna will surrender more to the devotee [Laughs]. So such is the relationship between Krishna and the devotee. And the Lord does not make promises like this to those practicing Karma, Jnana or Yoga. So this shows how bhakti is very, very special.
So Prahlad was a great devotee with great faith and therefore, he had no fear of his father. So after this, Hiranyakasipu tries to kill his own son. Not once, but many times [Laughs]. But even that could not disturb Prahlad. What did Prahlad do? He kept remembering Vishnu. So he was completely fixed his mind, completely on Vishnu. So he’s an example of ‘smaranam’ – remembrance of the Lord. So in response to his smaranam – his bhakti, what did the Lord do? He completely protected Prahlad.
So Hiranyakasipu arranged to throw Prahlad off a high cliff. So normally you’d break all your bones, break your head, but nothing happened to Prahlad [Laughs]. He tried to poison Prahalad, poison does not have any effect [Laughs]. The reason is, of course, is that all of these attempts of Hiranyakasipu are material. And normally, of course, if you throw an object from a high hill, there’s a force and everything will break. That’s material law. So within the material world, there’s no way of counteracting that. But Supreme Lord is the maker of all the laws, and if he wants, he can do anything with the laws [Laughs]. So nothing is impossible for the Supreme Lord to do. But he will do the impossible for the devotees. And if the devotee is most surrendered, as in the case of Prahlad, always remembering the Lord, then the Lord will do the impossible and save him in all cases.
So Prahlad had this understanding also, so he was never afraid of anything. Of course, he didn’t even pray to the Lord, please save me. He was unattached to body, he was unattached to birth and death and whatever. He was simply absorbed in the bliss of remembering Vishnu. And that act counteracted all of Hiranyakasipu’s attempts. So the Hiranyakasipu, by his tapasya, had great material power, but that was useless. Why? Because, Prahlad Maharaja had Krishna on his side. Bhagavatam describes that death and time are fearsome for the Jivas. But if the Lord just moves his eyebrows, death itself and time are so fearful of the Lord. So this story illustrates how the devotee is completely under the Lord’s shelter. The Lord gives complete protection.
Hare Krishna !
Devotees: Hare Krishna !!
Q & A:
1.) I have a question Maharaja. They say that Hiranyakasipu was very knowledgeable about the Sastra, he knew Shloka, he knew Veda, he knew Mantra and so many things. Is it correct?
So yes, because of course the king should have knowledge of dharma, Hiranyakasipu had knowledge of dharma. And we see even, he gives a lecture to the wives of Hiryanksa, because Hiryanksa was killed by the Lord. What does he say? Well, do not lament because actually you are not the body [Laughs]. But at the same time, because his brother was killed, he developed intense hatred of the Lord, so he contradicts that. He was not even [Laughs] identifying with atma at all. So whatever knowledge of scripture he had was distorted by his own atheistic views and he would exploit scripture for his own purposes. So this is what we call asuric Dharma [Laughs]. It may look like Dharma, but it isn’t [Laughs].
Duryodhana was also like that. For some time he ruled in place of the Pandavas, he tried to rule the kingdom and yes, it looked like he was doing everything nicely according to Dharma [Laughs]. But he didn’t recognize the authority of Krishna at all. At one time, Krishna came to Duryodhana to ask him, at least you give the Pandavas five villages so they can act as Kshatriyas. Of course, Duryodhana refused and more than that, he tried to kill Krishna [Laughs]. He orders his soldiers to catch Krishna and tie him up [Laughs], but then Krishna showed his universal form and they couldn’t touch him [Laughs]. So he maybe looked like a good king, but completely insulted, offended Krishna [Laughs]. So whatever good qualities he had in ruling were completely cancelled out [Laughs] because of his hatred of Krishna.
Devotee : And when he saw the universal form, he said, Krishna is a magician.
HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj : Yes [Laughs].
2.) While traveling this personal experience of your devotional life, how you felt the protection of the Lord, how you overcome difficulty in your personal life. Oh, well, if there was any.
Well there doesn’t seem to be any [Laughs], that’s the protection [Laughs].
Devotee : But naturally you are always meditating on the Lord.
3.) What do you mean when we say we have to fully surrender to the Lord, how can you explain this?
So, of course, surrender is a matter of degrees, we want to do a sadhana bhakti, we cannot completely surrender. When there is complete surrender, there is no self-interest, but when we are doing sadhana bhakti, of course we do have impurities, and gradually we get rid of these anarthas. So, the surrender in the beginning stages has the quality of at least recognizing that there is a Supreme Lord, and I am the servant of the Lord. And because of that, the devotee is humbler than a blade of grass, and more tolerant than a tree [Laughs]. So, from the very beginning of bhakti, there has to be a little bit of surrender [Laughs].
But as we practice bhakti in sadhana, then attraction to the Lord increases, and anarthas decrease. So we have more willingness to give everything to Krishna, and less willingness or greed to keep everything for oneself. So with the increase of bhakti, we’ll get more surrender. And that will mean that as we advance, then we’re giving more to Krishna, and we’re keeping less for ourselves [Laughs].
4.) How can we become like Prahlada Maharaj and take all the difficulties in our life?
Well, we simply with determination and faith continue to practice Bhakti as purely as possible. So the first quality of Bhakti that manifests according to Nectar of Devotion is destruction of all suffering. So that means of course karmas are reduced. And the obstruction of unfavorable desires and anger and all these things, all these anarthas also are decreased.
So through the process of Bhakti we overcome all the difficulties. Simultaneously, because the anarthas are decreasing, we are less attached to what happens to our body. So even if we fall into difficult situations we tolerate.
5.) How can we please the Lord by gratifying the senses of the Lord? Because we see that the more the Lord is pleased with us, the more we also become happy. But when we are trying to gratify our sense, we don’t become happy.
Well, in the material world our attempt is to get our own happiness through senses. And this simply causes more karma and more bondage in the world. Sometimes we get material happiness, sometimes we get material suffering. So the first step, in the opposite direction, that is to not try to desire enjoyment for ourselves, but to give it to the Lord, is we develop some faith. And based on that faith, we begin the practice of bhakti with hearing and chanting. So that process of bhakti itself will get rid of all of the obstacles, all the attachments. So we don’t have to follow some other process. Bhakti itself is complete.
So, of course, there are other processes like detachment, vairagya, tapasya, austerities, whatever so many things are there yoga, whatever. However, the process of bhakti itself will accomplish all of that in an easier way. So the principle is that, we should try to develop more attachment and service to the Lord. And if we’re attached to giving pleasure to the Lord, that means we have less desire to please ourself [Laughs]. So thus all of the anarthas will gradually disappear.