​Bhagavatam study 44 1.9.11-16 Concern for others’ suffering decreases our own suffering

Her heart desire to have her heart attracted to him. Thank you.
When he saw the, this is Bhishma Pitamah, when he saw the Pandavas, the Pandavas, close to him, prashraya prema-sangataan, prashraya, he was overwhelmed by prema-sangataan. Those who had gathered around him, overwhelmed by love for them, abhyachashta, abhyachashta, he congratulated them. Anuraga, Ashrayar.
Anuraga, with great affection, with great love, seemingly, Ashrayar. Ashrayar, from ashru, the words here, the word is not from ashraya, it is from ashru. So, Ashrayar, he got tears.
Andhibhutena chakshusha, andhibhutena. So, overwhelmed by it, his chakshusha, his eyes. So, Bhishma had never wanted to fight against the Pandavas.
Circumstantially, he had been forced to do so. And now, when he fought, when he saw the Pandavas had been victorious, he had been lying on the arrow bed in one side of the war field and the Pandavas had been victorious. But he had not met the Pandavas.
So, just as whenever we see someone who is successful, after they have achieved the success, we offer them congratulations. So, like that here, the Pandavas have been congratulated by Bhishma Pitamah. And it is not just a resentful congratulation that is being offered.
But sometimes, when one sports, when two people are competing, and when one of them is defeated, say in tennis, one of them loses, the other person wins. So, the loser is expected to congratulate the winner. And quite often, the loser is filled with dejection, with resentment, with frustration, and there is just a cursory handshake.
And even if there is an appreciation for the winner, even if some appreciation is expressed, sometimes say at the end of the Wimbledon Championship or something, both the winner and the runner-up are expected to give speeches, especially the winner is expected to give a speech. And for the runner-up to give a speech at that place is difficult, because there are so much emotions of disappointment at the defeat. So, it’s not that the defeated person feels joy at the winner’s victory, because that winner’s victory has come at the expense of his defeat.
So, Bhishma Pitamah has been defeated, he has been put in a painful condition, on the verge of death. And yet, he is not just congratulating as a ritual, he is truly happy for them. Such is his love for the Pandavas, that he wanted them to be truly, he wanted their well-being with all his heart, although he was obliged to fight against them and their victory would mean, imply his defeat, still he wanted to go through that.
He wanted them to win and now that they have won, he’s extremely happy about it and he is overwhelmed with emotion and he’s feelingly congratulating the Pandavas. And now, he starts speaking after that. Text 12.
अहो कश्टं अहो अन्यायं यद्यूयं धर्म नन्दनः जीवितुम् नारःत् क्लिष्टं विप्रधर्माच्युताश्रयः The nature of empathy is that one feels, sees, feels and thinks from other person’s perspective. So here he says, अहो कश्टं अहो अन्यायं. Oh, कश्ट, कश्ट is great suffering, great trouble, अन्यायं and this trouble was unfair, it was undeserved, aho kashyam aho anyayam, yad yuyam dharmanandana yad yuyam, all of you, yuyam is the plural second person reference, dharmanandana, all of you were sons of dharma, that means here he is saying that actually only Yudhishthir is the son of dharma, he is actually speaking, the others are sons of other gods but he is primarily referring to Yudhishthir over here and he is collectively referring to all of them by the designation of Yudhishthir because the other Pandavas were also dharmic, the other Pandavas were also very pious, virtuous, yad yuyam dharmanandana jivitum narahat klishtam, jivitum narahat klishtam, jivitum means you didn’t deserve to, narahat klishtam, in your life, literally it might mean you didn’t deserve to live, what it specifically means is in your life you didn’t deserve to experience such things but so you didn’t deserve this, it shouldn’t have happened to you, jivitum narahat klishtam, vipra dharma achyuta ashraya, vipra dharma achyuta ashraya, ashraya is taken shelter of, vipra is the brahmanas, dharma is the principles of religion and achyuta is the supreme lord, since this jivitum narahat klishtam can mean two things that you didn’t, this didn’t deserve to happen to you especially because you were living a life sheltered by the proper guides of vipra dharma achyuta, the other way of understanding it, the way Prabhupada puts it that actually no one could have lived after having gone through the kind of adversity that you went through but you were able to live because you took shelter of vipra dharma achyuta, so Bhishma is evincing great empathy here, although he is on his deathbed, although he is in great pain because of having arrows piercing through his body, because he is in he is in his, in an immobilised incapacitated state and to be in that state for a great warrior is quite mortifying but rather than thinking of his condition, he is thinking of the Pandavas and he’s not just thinking about their present success and prosperity, he’s looking at their past and he’s thinking from the perspective of the past and all that the Pandavas have gone through what the Pandavas went through was listed earlier by Kunti Maharani and she says vishan mahagane purushad darshanad but oh you went you there are so many dangers in our life Bhima was poisoned, they were tried to be burnt alive, there’s so many demons who tried to kill them, they lost everything in a rigged gambling match, their wife was disrobed, they had to live in exile where they were exposed to sometimes the natural elements in their full fury, they were exposed to dangerous demons and after that they had this huge fierce battle, so through it all so Bhishma is remembering what all dangers the Pandavas have gone through Kunti Maharani is praying, listing all the calamities the Pandavas went through so Bhishma is also recollecting those calamities and he’s saying oh how undeserving you were for such suffering, the first verse he speaks is an expression of intense empathy showing that although he is in a terribly incapacitated condition, his thinking is not at all incapacitated and he is thinking like a grandsire who has, who cares for his grandsons, technically the Pandavas are not exactly his grandsons because Bhishma was celibate, they were his grand nephews but for all practical purposes he had acted like their grandson, grandfather and he was expressing his grief for their having gone through all these sufferings and he further says, talks about their suffering, now we may wonder why on a happy occasion when someone needs to talk about the past suffering, let’s delight in the present happy occasion but we will see that Bhishma is having a purpose in his mind, it is not that he’s remembering the past sufferings just for the sake of dredging up some unhappy memories, we’ll see his purpose manifest as his thought develops over the verses, so text 13 samsthite atirathe paandav prathabal prajavadhuhu yushmat kute bahun kleshan praptat toh kavatimuhu samsthite atirathe paandav, that samsthite, samsthite means departure, atirathe paandav, pandu, the father of the Pandavas, the wife of Kunti, samsthite, when he departed, he was atirathe, he was also a great warrior and he had also subordinated the world’s kings and had brought a fabulous amount of tributes from all those kings back to the Kuru kingdom and Bhishma had been so proud of him, he says you have illuminated the name of our dynasty by your heroic activities, Bhishma had told him at that time, so he was atirathe, he was a great warrior, paandav, but when he departed, prathabal prajavadhuhu, prathabal praja, the word praja means citizens, but praja, that is jayate, that which is born, it can also mean one’s own children, bal praja, she had children, she had progeny who were practically at that time children, vadhuhu, his daughter-in-law, she was, my daughter-in-law is speaking, yushmat krute bahun kleshan, so that time, first of all for a woman to lose her husband and to become a widow, that itself is a great distress, it is a whole sense of bereavement and lifelong loneliness that comes to some extent because of not having a life partner and on top of that, if one’s partner departs, when one’s husband departs, when one has still young children, then the burden of maintaining those children also comes on the mother.
Of course, she was not, she did not have financial concerns so much at that time, not that she had to earn a living, she was in the royal family and the needs of the Pandavas, of her sons and herself were taken care of properly. But still, that royal comfort came at a heavy price and that heavy price was the presence of the Pandavas triggered envy in the Kauravas and whereas the Pandavas got royal comforts by living living in the Kaurava capital, in the Kuru dynasty’s palace, but they also became the target of the envious attacks, even murderous attacks of the Kauravas and in this way, it says even in the children, so initially there was anxiety even the children were small, but even when their children grew up, so yushmat krute bahun kleshan, bahun kleshan, there are many problems, many troubles, many anxiety, yushmat krute, yushmat krute, from you they happened, prapta toh kavati muhun, again and again, constantly prapta, she got toh kavati, toh kavati here refers to when the Pandavas grew up. Normally, when children grow up, when the mother, the mothers have very great anxieties when the children are very small because the children are not able to do anything and they very much depend on the mother.
But as the children grow up, at that time, usually the children carry the burden of their mothers, of their parents, so the children relieve the anxiety of the parents by taking up responsibilities which the parents were taking up earlier and the Pandavas were competent enough to do that, but when the Pandavas were burnt alive in the Varanavat forest, now Duryodhana had no envy specifically towards Kunti. For him, Kunti was not a contender for the throne and she was not a threat in any way. So, if Kunti had come alone and lived, Duryodhana would not have targeted the Pandu’s family at all.
But Kunti’s sons were the threat for him and whatever atrocities were targeted towards Kunti’s sons, Kunti also was victimised by that. So, thus when the Pandavas were attempted to be burned in the Varanavat forest, Kunti also had to go and live in a Agyatvas practically, they all had to impersonate as Brahmanas and they had to live in relative penury. They had to live in relative poverty during that period and Kunti, despite having been born and brought up as a royal princess, she adapted to that.
So, at least she was with her sons at that time and that was her solace. But the second time when the Pandavas were exiled after the rigged gambling match, at that time Vidura told Yudhishthira that Kunti has advanced in her age now. She will not be able to take the austerity of living in a forest.
So, let her stay with me. My wife and I will take care of her. So, Yudhishthira had also been concerned about taking his aged mother with him to the forest and he assented to Vidura’s suggestion and Kunti’s head accepted that, but her heart did not accept.
She knew that with her age, it will be difficult for her to live in the forest. Her head accepted that but her heart, how can I be separated from my sons, especially when my sons are going to be in the forest and they are going to be in danger in the forest. And they would often not even get any news of how the Pandavas were.
Sometimes some sages who would be in the forest, who would meet the Pandavas and then they would come to the Kuru assembly, come to Hastinapur and they would inform about the Pandavas’ doings. And Kunti would sometimes hear, oh, Arjuna has gone to heaven. Now the Pandavas have gone to the Himalayas.
They are going on a pilgrimage. They are living here. Then occasionally she would get some news.
So, for a mother to know that her children are living in the forest and to have no news about their well-being, that was a terrible anxiety. So, therefore, here we see Bhishma Pitamaha exhibiting empathy not only for the Pandavas, but even for the Pandavas’ mother, Kunti. Although he has been a lifelong celibate, that does not mean that he doesn’t understand a mother’s heart.
He is able to point out from her perspective that it was on account of you, she had to go through various sufferings. Again and again she had to go through sufferings. So, what exactly is the point going on through this whole discussion? We’ll see this as we move onwards.
Text 14 I consider all this to be the result of time. This time went unfavourably to you. That along with the palas, the lokapalas, the protectors, the planets along with their protectors, just as wind carries away clouds, similarly, everyone is carried away by the power of time.
So, in the first two verses, that is of his speech 12 and 13, Bhishma analyses the sufferings the Pandavas and their mother went through and now he is trying to give an analysis of the causes. So, he lists various causes. First, he says, it’s all caused by time.
This time has been unfavourable to you. In the Bhagavatam, the concept of time being favourable or unfavourable is talked about frequently and the idea about talking that is that the purpose, the focus is in recognising that there are forces beyond our power which influence things and to the extent we recognise the influence of such forces, to that extent, we can avoid hitting our head against a wall. When the time is unfavourable, no matter what we do, things are not going to work out.
So, it is better to lay low at that time and tolerate and wait for a more favourable time to come. So, Bhishma is saying that the suffering that you faced, I consider that they have become because of time and then he gives the example that, you know, laying low against time is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of intelligence because, he says that the clouds can do nothing when the winds come.
The clouds just have to move according to the winds. And similarly, the planets along with their rulers, Yudhishthira himself was a pala, was a loka pala, not in a technical sense, there are four loka palas of the universe, but in the sense that he was also a king of a abode. They all have to, they are all pushed by time just as clouds are pushed by the wind.
So, submitting to a higher power is the best way to conserve our power. When we understand that something is more powerful than us, then trying to resist that is not of much use. Better we conserve our power and when that higher power’s influence is subsided, then we use our power to do something constructive.
Text 15. So, now he’s continuing from the previous verse and in the previous verse he says, I think this is because of time. You see, why do you think it is because of time? Why not some other factor? He says that what other factor can explain such adversity? Because from the Pandava’s point of view, there is no reason for such atrocity.
Yatra dharma suto, raja, the king was dharma suto. He was the son of dharma and he was not just the son of dharma, he was also himself very dharmic. So, sometimes we may say that problems come because of our past karmic reactions.
But he says there’s no question of that. That actually when he was dharmic, he is the son of dharma, he is going to be exemplary dharmic. So, it is not that he did anything adharmic.
Then sometimes we may not do anything adharmic, but we might just be careless. We might be foolish. So, for example, you know, somebody is working on a stove and that person carelessly neglects to turn off the stove and the kitchen burns down.
Now, is that past karma or is it present karma? You could say presently you are careless because of which that happened. So, is it that the Pandavas were incompetent or bungling or careless? He says no. Gada, paani, ruko, udara, they had strength, formidable strength in the form of ruko udara.
Ruko udara is vruka udara, one who had a ferocious appetite. Ruko is wolf. Udara means one who is wolf bellied.
That means one who has a huge appetite. Gada, paani, ruko. So, he would not only, he had a, because of his huge appetite, he had a formidable body.
Bhima was so powerful that in the forest, the other Pandavas would get tired. Bhima would single-handedly carry all of them on his body, all the four Pandavas. And in the first exile, he carried Kunti, in the second exile, he carried Draupadi.
Gada, paani, and this person was so powerful, he also was expert in fighting with a gada. So, he had strength and he had skill. So, he was not incompetent, he was very competent.
And krishno astri gandivam chaapam. And then there was krishno astri. Krishno here refers to Arjuna, who was also called as Krishna.
One of his name was Krishna, because of his complexion being somewhat darkish. Gandivam chaapam. Gandivam chaapam means that he had his chaap, he had his bow named Gandiva.
That refers not just to the fact that he had a glorious bow, which he had got from the devatas, but also the fact that he himself was extremely skilled in using that bow. He was a formidable warrior. Suhrut krishnas tato vipat.
And on top of it all, their suhrut, their well-wisher was Krishna himself. And in spite of having all Krishna as the supreme lord, he’s a person who can relieve everyone from all misfortune. And although they had Krishna himself as their friend, their well-wisher, still tato vipat.
Despite that, they had misfortune, adversity coming upon them. So, what cause could be there for this apart from time? If all the other factors that make for success were lined in their favour, they were dharmic, they were strong, they were skilful, they were even devoted. And yet, they had problems.
So, why is that? It’s a mystery. And he says, the mystery can be resolved only by considering time. And then text 16, na yasya karhi chitrajan puman ved vidhitsitam yad vijnasaya yukta muhyanti kavayopihi na yasya karhi chitrajan.
Asya, of him, of that absolute truth, karhi chitrajan. Whatsoever, karhi chitrajan. O king, Bheeshma is referring to Yudhishthira, he’s saying, O king, one cannot, puman ved vidhitsitam, puman is human being, people, we cannot know ved, we cannot know his vidhitsitam.
We cannot know the plan of the Lord, yad vijnasaya yukta and vijnasaya, when we try to enquire about him, yukta, when people are engaged like this, muhyanti kavayopihi, even the wise people are muhyanti. The kavis are also deluded, they cannot find out. So, the ways of God are different from the ways of man.
The ways of God are mysterious and trying to understand them is extremely, can be extremely bewildering. This is a very important principle when we go through the course of our life, that certain things may happen in certain situations and when those things happen, we just have to learn to live with them. We can’t do much in trying to tackle them because they just can’t be tackled.
For example, someone gets a fatal disease, some relative passes away, some big adversity happens in life. Now, when these things happen, what can we do about them? We simply have to, what cannot be cured has to be endured and we do know that everything happens under the sanction of the law. So, why allow such things to happen? We can’t, we don’t really know and we can’t know.
Humility has various aspects. One aspect of humility is bowing down, another aspect of humility is correcting our opinion when we understand that that opinion is wrong. Another aspect of humility, especially when approaching God and subjects which are far bigger than us, is to recognise that we don’t know and we can’t know.
We don’t know is an acknowledgement of fact, but there are certain things which in the process, human knowledge has progressed in many ways in recent centuries, but despite the progress of human knowledge, there are certain things which still remain beyond the scope of human knowledge. So, especially things connected with first things, origins and causes of that magnitude, they are very difficult for us to know. So, humility in the intellectual realm and the devotional realm means accepting that we can’t know what God’s plan is.
That even the Kavis, even the wise people get bewildered when they try to understand what is the plan of the Lord and acknowledging this potential for bewilderment and thereby trying to deal with it in the sense that living with uncertainty is an important aspect of our sadhaka’s life, that we may not understand clearly or certainly why this is happening, but still living in faith amidst certainty is what a sadhaka requires and Bhishma will develop this thought further in the future verses, which we’ll discuss in our next talk. Thank you.