​Bhagavatam study 41 1.8.38-44 Devotional prayers take us towards pure devotion

Kunti Maharani is continuing her prayers to Krishna and she speaks over here that till now she has spoken about the transcendental position of Krishna, his personal protection in her life, how he can be approached only by those who have gone beyond the material and how when he appears in the material realm, it is a great mystery, both his appearance, both his activities and his appearance. And then he spoke about how the Lord appears to protect. So then she has asked, my dear Lord, will you abandon us? Will you not protect us when we depend on you entirely? That was the previous verse.
You always do your duty. Will you not protect us? So in this verse, she now states that, O Lord, will you not help us? That somebody may say, Oh, you have your very powerful sons, Pandavas, they are great heroes. They can protect you.
She says, yes, that’s true. They are great heroes, but they cannot protect. Why? Because Rishikanaam Iveshithu, Rishikanaam is the senses, Rishikesh is the Lord of senses, Rishika is the sense, Rishikanaam is the plural for the senses, Rishikanaam Iveshithu.
That means, O Lord, you are the Lord of the senses. And being the Lord of the senses, you are supremely benevolent. You are our Lord, you are our master, and in fact, without you we are like the senses without the living entity, without the soul.
You know, dead man has eyes, a dead person has hands and legs, but they are powerless. She says, similarly, my dear Lord, without you we are powerless. Kevayam naama roopabhyami adhubhisa pandavaha Now, interestingly, here, this is the first indication, there are many points in this verse, the relevant point for our immediate discussion is that, he is saying all of us, we may have name and fame, naama roop, so naama roop doesn’t literally refer to only name and form.
But naama roop is a general term, the terms have specific meanings and terms often acquire meanings beyond their specific context. So in this case, the term means not just that, it doesn’t just mean naama and roop literally, naama and roop essentially represents material existence. And Kunti Maharani is praying over here, O Lord, what is the use of our material existence without you, for a devotee, Krishna is their life.
So now, the important thing for us to understand is, as sadhakas, we often feel that we have a life independent of Krishna. And that may be true to some extent, at least in our condition perception. But whatever we are able to do, we may say, I have a life means I have a social circle, I have talents, I have money, I have friends.
So naama roop represents all this in general. And all this, we are able to do it because of Krishna, if Krishna had not been there, we would not have been able to do it. So it is only by Krishna’s grace that we can do whatever we are able to do.
And as it is Krishna, who is the life of our life, and Kunti Maharani, in one sense, her statement is prescient, it reflects what happens around 33 years later when Krishna departs and Arjuna is not able to defend himself, not just himself, not able to counter some infernal cowherd men who are attacking the queens of Krishna. She is saying, bhavato adarshanam yahi, if we do not have your darshan, if we do not have your shelter, if you are not with us, then we are powerless. Now here we see, as Kunti Maharani is praying to Krishna, we see an expansion of her consciousness in terms of her self identification or her perception.
So vayam, normally the word vayam means we, and when a woman gets married, she moves from her parents’ family to her husband’s family. And then when she, in any relationship, when we start feeling a sense of belonging, then that is when the relationship starts becoming strong. So, for example, when a woman gets married and becomes a wife, then whom does she refer to as we? Does she refer to her husband’s family as we, or does she refer to her parents’ family as we? Especially when the two are staying in different places.
So now, of course, Kunti is not just a newly married woman, she has her children who are already married. She is fully integrated into the Kuru family, Panda family, as a respectable elder in the family now. And yet, when she recognises vayam, she says that, oh, but I am connected to the family where Krishna is going, and Krishna is also connected to both.
So Krishna and Kunti here have a commonality that both are connected with both families. The Yadus and the Kurus, or the Yadus and the Pandavas here, as the word is used. So vayam, in one sense, she doesn’t want Krishna to go, but as will be revealed in future verses, she doesn’t want the Pandavas to be separated from Krishna, but she doesn’t want the Yadus also to be separated from Krishna.
And so here, when she’s using the word vayam, she’s actually referring to both over here. Yadubhi and Pandava, that neither of, that all of us, we are all without, we are all, we are all without you. Without you, we are all like senses without life, that means we have no potency.
And then somebody may ask, oh, but you know, why are you saying like this? Your whole kingdom is prosperous. And then she says, no, what is this prosperity? Neyam shobhishyate tatra, yatheda nindadhara, tvadpadeiram kitabhati, swalakshana vilakshitai. She says, Neyam shobhishyate tatra, actually, all this is not beautiful, shobhishyate, it is not beautiful, yatheda nindadhara, yatheda nindadhara, that actually all this, oh Lord, how can it be considered beautiful, yatheda nindadhara, it may be considered beautiful, but tvadpadeiram kitabhati, its beauty is because it is marked with your lotus feet.
And swalakshana vilakshitai, swalakshana vilakshitai, it is marked by your lotus feet. So now, this is both literal and metaphorical. Literally, when Krishna came to whichever place he came, the earth was marked by his footprints.
But it is also metaphorical, when it is marked by his footprints means Krishna has blessed that land. And when Krishna blesses that land, that implies that he is God, so his blessings are there for everyone over there. And when the blessings are there, that implies something wonderful, that nothing higher that a person can aspire for or can achieve.
So, Krishna has got that, Krishna has given that. So, Kuntibharani doesn’t see prosperity as an independent reality. She sees prosperity as coming from Krishna as dependent on Krishna.
And therefore, she says that, oh Krishna, the beauty of this place is not just this prosperity, the beauty of this place is that, this place refers to the kingdom, the Kuru’s kingdom, the beauty of this place is that it is blessed by your lotus feet, the beautiful lotus feet, the footprints are beautifying this place and that blessing which is represented by the beauty of your footprints is also manifesting as the prosperity that we have. And naiyam shobhishyate, that it will not be beautiful. Now, this theme of the beauty of the lotus feet and the beauty of nature will be explicitly expressed in the next verse, that is 40th text.
So, 1-8-40. Janapadaha means the place where Janas, generally, that is the cities, although it can refer to cities, it can refer to villages also. So, Prabhupada uses both generically and Prabhupada points with inclusiveness when he says Janapadaha is cities and towns in the word, to word and cities and villages in the translation.
So, basically, any place where people reside, Janapadaha, shruddhaha, vriddhi means to grow, shruddha means to grow and be prosperous, shruddha. They are supakva ushadi virudaha and supakva, that it is all ripe, flourishing with the gifts of nature, ushadi virudaha. Ushadi is herbs, ushadi, now today, it refers to medicine, but traditionally, medicine was herbal medicine.
So, ushadi refers to both, ushadi in that sense refers to herbs. Virudhaha means vegetables, vana adri, nadya udanvanto, vana is forest, adri is mountains, nadhi is rivers, udanvanto, it is like a huge body of water that is a sea. So, it is interesting that if we consider the Kuru kingdom, which was near the, which is in the Kurukshetra area, there is no sea in the vicinity over there.
Of course, we could say the Bay of Bengal is on the other side, and the Pandavas’ kingdom could have extended till there. So, she is not just referring specifically to features that may be immediately present in their kingdom. And the Pandavas are not, on one side, the Pandavas have their kingdom, but the Pandavas are also the overlords of the whole world.
So, she is talking not just about the prosperity of her kingdom alone, she is talking about the prosperity in general, about that manifests in nature, wherever it may be. So, all this is increasing. So, the prosperity of of the natural gifts that we have, not only is it there, but it is also increasing.
Nowadays, we think of prosperity in terms of currency or bank accounts or credit cards or gadgets or big, big houses or big, big cars. That is one way of looking at prosperity. And we may wonder, you know, okay, if there is a river, if there is ocean, we do not really equate that with prosperity in today’s world.
But actually, whatever prosperity we may measure in today’s world, that prosperity comes in today’s measure also. That prosperity cannot be there without the prosperity in terms of natural gifts. It is because of water alone that there can be irrigation of land, the water can come from rivers.
And it is, ultimately, it comes even from the oceans, because from the ocean it goes to the clouds and through the clouds, through the rains, it comes down to the land. So, without that, we cannot even have food. So, we cannot, what to speak of prosperity, even survival is not possible without the basic land resources.
So, similarly, forests, they are sourced at the very leaves of lumber. And without lumber, we would not be able to do much. Then without lumber, we would not be able to have paper, we would not be able to have furniture, we would not be, there are hundreds of things we will not be able to have.
So, therefore, what we need is to recognise the hand of nature in whatever we are trying to achieve. And that gift of nature is what is being talked about over here in a very wonderful and natural way by Kunti Banerjee. All this has come on, O Lord, by your mercy, without your mercy, none of this would be possible.
And thus we are grateful to you. So, she is driving home towards the point that Krishna, whatever we have is your mercy. And she, tava vikshitai, not just mercy in a abstract sense, mercy in a very literal, tangible sense that it is your lotus, it is your footprints and your glance that is leading to this prosperity.
So, indirectly, she is beseeching Krishna that let your glance and let your lotus feet remain here. That means, she is beseeching in a subtle way, Krishna, please stay here. You know, normally, when two people are very close to each other, then often the unspoken communication is quite strong and unspoken communication is often quite, it is still powerful.
It happens among people who are, who may not be all that well connected in the sense of being that they may not talk a lot of words, but just by glances. So, if somebody wants to do something else, they may just put a very gentle, indirect sort of request. And still the other person understands the request and responds accordingly.
So, here she is subtly requesting Krishna that please stay here with us. But now, as the request builds up, she is in transcendentally in two minds and her two minds will be revealed in the next verse. This is 41.
So, here she points to the universality of the blessings that she has received from Krishna, she has universality of the Lord. She is recognising that he is not just her Lord, he is the Lord of everyone. And he is the Lord of also the people to whom he is going to go after leaving here, that is the Yadus.
And that universality she highlights by using the word Vishwa to refer to him. O Lord, you are not just my Isha, you are the Isha of the Ishwara. Everybody in the Vishwa and you are the indwelling soul of everything in the universe.
That is everyone in the universe, you have an intimate relationship with them. That you are in the form of the universe. She says that, actually unto my own kinsmen.
The bondage of attachment. Please cut it off, O Lord. That which is very strong, which is very, very strong, please cut it off, please cut it off, please cut it off.
So now, because you are the Lord of everyone, so you know what is the best for everyone. So, please let my prayer to you not be influenced by my attachments. Let me be able to do that which is the best for everyone and you know better than me what is the best for everyone.
So, please O Lord, just all that I request you is please cut off my attachments. And in one sense, the Pandavas and the Yadus, both are devotees. And do we want to be detached from devotees? No, not exactly.
What she is talking about stressing here is that she wants to be attached to devotees, but she does not want to be attached in a self-centred way to devotees. And that is why she is saying that self-centred attachment, which is making me feel that first you should stay here, then maybe you should go there. Please cut off this attachment.
Then does she want to be detached from everything? No. So, she wants to be attached and that what she wants to be attached, you will mention in the next verse. So, 1842, Kunti Maharani prays, Tway me ananya vishaya, matir madhupate sakrit, gatimudvahata daddha, gange bhaugham udanvati.
Tway me, unto you O Lord, ananya vishaya. Ananya vishaya means without any distraction. Matir madhupate sakrit, madhupate, O Lord, who are the master of all, of the, of Madhu.
Madhu can refer to many things. If Madhu refers to sweetness, he is the lord of sweetness. Madhu can also refer to, he is madhava.
So, that can also, he is also said to be a part, he has a dynastic connection with Madhu and that can also, it can also refer to that. It’s significant. Normally, when we talk about something which is sweet like honey, we talk about that it is flowing.
And the metaphor that she uses over here is also about flowing. So, matir madhupate sakrit, gatimudvahata daddha, gatimudvahata daddha. That, rati, my attachment to you, udvaha.
Udvaha means to flow, udvahata addha, to directly, strongly, forcefully let it flow towards you. So, let my attachment, let my rati, my consciousness, my attraction flow towards you just as gange vaugham udanvati. Just as the Ganga flows towards the ocean, let my consciousness flow towards you, O Lord.
Let my consciousness flow towards you and not go anywhere else. That is what I desire. Very strongly, fervently I desire that, O Lord.
And in this way, I aspire to attain you. So, this was, import can be stated as, that Vaishnavachikar Thakur gives the example in his commentary that a river going towards the ocean has two implications. That actually a river does not hold any water back.
It just takes all the water to its ocean and when it is going, it goes with all its force towards the ocean. That means the river holds nothing back and nothing holds the river back. And similarly, Kunti Maharaj is praying, my dear Lord, let no external circumstance such as your departure from our vicinity, let it not cause you to disappear from our, let it not cause you to, let it not cause my consciousness to stop flowing towards you.
So, let the obstacles of separation not stop my consciousness from going towards you and let me not hold back any of my attraction. Let there not be any distraction of my attraction based on my attachment to the Pandus or the Turushnis. Let me, undistractedly, firmly keep moving towards you, O Lord.
That is her fervent prayer. And with this prayer, so, in a sense, he starts her prayer with a request to Krishna to stay. But instead of asking Krishna to stay, her prayer actually ends or is not the end, this is penultimate verse, but it is nearing the end.
And her prayer actually, some sort of ends partially with simply a request that let my attachment and attraction flow towards you and not go towards anyone else. So, text 43. Shri Krishna, Krishna Sakha.
So, she says, O Krishna, Krishna Sakha. So, here Krishna can refer to, Krishna refers to Arjuna over here. You are the Krishna Sakha, you are the friend of Arjuna, Krishna, Krishna Sakha.
It is a long list of epithets described as glorifying Krishna and she says, Namaste, I offer my obeisances to you, O Krishna, O friend of Krishna, Vrishnirishabha, O Lord of the Vrishnis, Avani, Rajanya Vamsha Dahan. So, Avani is the earth, Dhruga is to be destroyed, or those who are rebellious rather, Dahan is to be destroyed, Rajanya Vamsha. So, the various dynasties of kings who are tyrannical, who are exploitative, and in that sense, they are rebellious of you because they do not want to follow Dharma.
So, for all of them, Dhruga, you are the destroyer, O Lord, that means you are the, this harkens back to the earlier mention of how you are the remover of the earth’s burden, Apavar Gavirya, and you never, your powers, sometimes when a fighter fights, one fight, two, one bout, two bout, three bouts, they get tired after that. But Krishna, your strength is indefatigable, no matter how much you fight, you still have strength and you keep fighting, that is your power. So, Apavar Gavirya, Govinda, Godhvija, Surarthi, Haravataram.
So, Surarthi, Haravataram, that transit, you are transcendental Lord, you have descended here to Arthihara, to remove the distress of whom? Godhvija Sura, the cows, the brahmanas and the devatas. And in fact, you not only remove the distress, Govinda, you give pleasure actually to all of them. You give pleasure to the cows, to the senses, the word Govinda has been used earlier also in her prayers.
And such a Lord, Yogeshwara, you are the, you are not just a yogi, you are Yogeshwara, you can exhibit extraordinary levels of mystic power that no one can. So, you protected Uttara’s childhood in the womb and such is your extraordinary nature. Akhila Guru, you are the spiritual master of everyone, being the spiritual master of everyone, you know what is the best for everyone.
And Krishnamande Jagadguru, as I said in the famous song, that Krishna, you know what is the best for everyone and thus, you can guide us. Bhagavan, O Supreme Lord, O Bhagavan, please bless us, O Lord, please. So, Namaste, you know, at one level, when we understand God’s glory, we realise that there’s really not much that we can do, except bow down our heads and our hearts in prayer to Him.
You know, He’s so great, He’s so glorious, He’s so wonderful. And with this understanding, when we turn towards Him, we find life’s greatest perfection. And that is what is being talked about here, that, O Krishna, rather than asking anything from you, for my benefit, I’m simply going to request you to give me your mercy.
And in this way, the prayers conclude that I simply offer my obeisances to you. And next one, in one verse, at that time, how does Krishna respond to Kunti’s prayers that is mentioned in text 44. Let us look at that.
What does He say? You know, this is Shukadeva Goswami has not yet come. So, this is a conversation being, going on between Shukadeva Goswami and Sharanya. So, by pruthaa, it thumbed this, kalapadai, these beautiful words of prayer, chosen words, and this way, she was worshipped.
Akhilodaya, that Lord who is universally glorious, whose glories she mentioned by speaking thus, by worshipping, mandam jahasa vaikuntho, mandam jahasa, there’s a gentle smile on his face, vaikuntho, that Lord who is the Lord of Vaikuntha, He’s also known as Vaikuntha, mohayan ibamaya, captivating like his mystic power. So, here we see that, now, normally, if we speak something to someone, normally when we pray to God, we expect some reciprocation from Him. And usually our prayers take the form of, God, please give me this, give me that, give me that, or please make this happen.
And when it doesn’t happen, then we pray for something else. Or then we may lose faith in God or whatever. But here, rather than doing anything like that, we focus primarily on understanding how Krishna, what is the prayer that Kunti offered.
Actually, she says, let my consciousness flow only towards you. And Krishna just smiled gently. And it said his smile was so captivating.
So, it’s significant that Krishna responded to her prayer, let my consciousness flow towards you with a captivating smile. That means that the captivating smile, which captivates the hearts of, can captivate the hearts of even the conditioned soul, but it especially captivates the heart of the devotees, that is itself the blessing of Krishna. And this blessing ensures that the devotee marches towards Krishna, because if we are, we stay in this world because we are attached to this world.
And if we are attracted to Krishna, then we don’t stay attached to this world. So, in one sense, by smiling in a captivating way, Krishna not only accepted her prayers, accepted Kunti’s worship, but also fulfilled her prayer because she was praying that let my consciousness flow towards you. And with this captivating smile, it’s significant that it’s compared with Maya.
Maya captivates the conditioned souls. But here, it is said that Krishna captivated Kunti Maharani. His smile is captivating like Maya.
So, often it is a prayer of great souls that, oh Lord, just as my consciousness is attracted towards Maya, let my consciousness be attracted towards you. And then this way, Kunti Maharani’s prayers come to a fitting finale, with Krishna accepting her prayers and rewarding her with