​Bhagavatam study 55 1.11.8-13 Prosperity without Krishna is like beautiful things for the blind

Aho sanat bhavatasmayadvayam traivishtapanam apidur darshanam prema smita snigdha nirikshananam pashyam roopam tava sarva saubhagam Here, the Dvarakavasis are continuing to welcome Krishna by offering their praises to him.
Krishna has returned from being in Hastinapur for a long time and as he has returned, his Dvarakavasis have become jubilant and in this particular text, they offer their praise by stating how fortunate they are that Krishna is blessing them in this way. So, the fortune of beholding the face and form of Krishna which they have, which is that even the Devatas rarely get such fortune and Devatas are often, they anchor to behold Krishna. deva apy asya roopasya nityam darshanakam shivaham that Devatas long nityam darshanakam shivaham, they long repeatedly to behold the form of Krishna and despite their best efforts, they are often not able to see his form and here such is the fortune that people are able to see his form, especially the Dvarakavasis specifically, are able to see his form, that which is very rare for even the beings who are far more powerful than earthlings and in this connection, they are offering their gratitude to the Supreme Lord by glorifying him for his extraordinary mercy on them.
Later on in the 7th canto also, you will see similar expressions of gratitude for the mercy that is bestowed on the devotee, wherein Prahlad says that, O Lord, that na vai vareencho na bhavaye na brahma na that the mercy which you offered to me, this you did not give to Brahma, that you did not give it to Shiva, you did not give it to your own goddess of fortune, that karaptasad, you have bestowed, you have blessed me by placing your hand on my head. Such a blessing is a profound blessing and this blessing is bestowed by the Lord on his devotee so that they can all cognise and delight in the glory of their mutual love. So, there’s a theme going on here that you have made us sanatha.
So, the previous, earlier one also had a word natha, now also there is a word natha. Taha natha was there in the earlier prayer. So, now so natha, O Lord, you have made us fortunate by giving us your blessings.
Ahau sanatha bhavatas mayadvayam, O you who have accepted us as your servants, who have accepted becoming your master, vayam. Trivishtapanam, those who drink the heavenly nectar. Piduradarshanam, that even for them, duradarshanam, you are not very easy to behold, but you, O Lord, are glancing on us with prema smita snigdha nirekshananam, that ananam is a face and with your face you are glancing on us.
So, not only are we able to see you, something which the devatas are not able to do, but you are also seeing us and your nirekshananam, you are seeing us with a great, with a plea, with a affectionate smile on your face. So, pashyamarupam tamasarvasau bhagam, at your form, your face and form, we are seeing this is sarvasau bhagam, this is auspicious for all living beings. Whoever gets to behold the form of the Lord is blessed with auspiciousness and further, if someone gets attracted to his form and thus becomes detached from the attractive forms of this world, that person is even more fortunate.
Such is the great fortune of the dwarkavasis. Sarvasau bhagam, text 9. Tabachita, O Lord, who you are infallible. Ambujaksha, this is quite a poetic section from the Bhagavatam where almost every reference to the Lord is filled with choice reference to him by some attractive name.
Ambujaksha bhobhavan, so when you go away O Lord, kurul madhun vatasurudhidrukshaya, when you go away to see the descendants of the Kurus or madhun, madhun refers to Mathura, that is, descendants of Mathura. Now, of course, it is the Mathuravasis who have been transported to Dwarka and for their security, Krishna arranged for this water fort kind of city. So, when they are referring to Krishna going to see the madhuns, that refers primarily to not just the people who are literally in Mathura, Mathura is a city and Mathura is also a district and in the district of Mathura there is Vrindavan.
So, in Vrajabhumi, when you go to see the Vrajavasis, this indicates, this was foreshadows what is revealed by Jiva Goswami in Gopal Champu and what is also reiterated by Vishwacharya Thakur in his Saradarshi that Krishna does keep his word to the Gopis and he does go to Vrindavan and he tells them that I will return, he does return to them. Jiva Goswami explains how Krishna and the Vrajavasis are united in Vrindavan and Krishna returns with all of them to the spiritual world and another expansion of Krishna returns to Ayodhya, sorry, returns to Dwarka. So, when you go to meet your friends, your well-wishers, your loved ones, so at that time, every moment, Kshana becomes like Abdhakoti.
It feels like millions of years, how can we live in separation from you, oh Lord, how can we live without you? So, Vinakshno, here a very beautiful metaphor is given, that there is a sun but there are no eyes, then the sun is not of much use. So, seeing is such a routine experience for us, we are seeing things constantly as long as we are awake and we don’t often realise that there is so much involved in the activity of seeing, our eyes have to be functioning, in the atmosphere there has to be, in the surroundings where we are, in the environment there has to be light and the source of all light is ultimately the sun. So, now sometimes the source of light, usually our experience comes up when, say, we are in a room and the power goes off, then we have the, our eyes have the capacity to see, but the circumstances do not provide us the facility to see in the form of having some light.
But consider it another way that in the circumstances there are light but suddenly the light in our eyes goes off because we lose the capacity to see. So, for people who have had eyes, for people who are blind, it’s a state of definitely of misery and a sense of deprivation is always there, but for one who has had eyes and then to lose eyes, that is a far greater state of misery. So, so they are comparing Krishna’s absence with the lack of eyes.
So, everything is there, that the opulence of Dwarka is there, their other relatives are there, even Krishna is not there, the prosperity, worldly prosperity far greater than even that of Indra was available for a Bhagavatam elsewhere and yet it all was pointless for them, they just couldn’t enjoy any of it. So, the theme which also comes in the Shiksha Ashtam, that without your Lord even one moment seems like a yuga, so that same theme is talked about over here, Shatabdh Koti Pratimah Kshanobhavet, that even a Kshana appears like a Shatabdh Koti. But along with that, the, that which talks about the, this point which talks about the relativity of time in relationship with the vision of love, further it is said that not only does time pass slowly but even while it is passing with agonising slowness, you are not able to relish anything because you, O Lord, are the eyes with which we see in everything.
So, whatever things hold any pleasure, they hold that pleasure because of their connectedness with you and when you are not there for us, then it is as if our eyes have been taken away and whatever else might be there, we are unable to relish it, we are unable to enjoy it, O Lord. So, in this way, in a very heart-rending metaphor, the Dwarkawasis express their unbearable separation from Krishna and express their delight at being reunited with him. Text 10 How, O Lord, O Master, how can we live? You and you have gone for a long time and you are away from us.
Your vision is so joyful. When we see you, when you see us, when there is that reciprocation of so much joy in it, that all misery is destroyed when we behold your form, when you cast your merciful glance, your beautiful smile, for seeing it we live. Without it, apashyamana vadhanam manoharam.
O Lord, manoharam, your face, vadhanam, how can we live without seeing it? So, here the Dwarkawasis continue to express their intense agony in separation from the Lord and their intense ecstasy on his return and thus they state over here that, O Lord, how can your beautiful smile, your beautiful face, how can we even think of living without you, O Lord? Please, please, O Lord, don’t leave us. Please be with us. They are expressing their immense delight by stating how much they suffered in separation from him and how much they long to be reunited with him.
So, sanyadrishta akhila taapashyoshanam, that O Lord, just seeing your beautiful face, when we see it, when you glance upon, when we can’t glance upon you, we are in a state of misery. We can’t even live. How can we live? But akhila taapashyoshanam, all misery can be destroyed when we just behold your form.
O Lord, please bless us so that we can behold your form and we can bask in your presence. In this heart-wrenchingly intense way, the Dwarkawasis express their jubilation on having Krishna back by conversely conveying their desolation in the absence of Krishna. So, Krishna has heard the Dwarkawasis speak his praises.
From his citizens, that Lord is always the lover of his devotees. Shunvano anugraham drishtya. So, shunvano, he heard from them, thus he learned.
Drishtya, anugraham, he bestowed his mercy by glancing on them. So, Krishna did not speak. He just entered the city right now and the citizens are glorifying him and Krishna by glancing on them, he accepts their prayers and he moves on.
Vithanvan pravishyat puram vithanvan. By his glance, he distributed his mercy on them. He just glanced on them, that means.
So, this is also a theme that in the Bhagavatam which comes quite often that when prayers are offered to Krishna, there are times when Krishna doesn’t respond by doing anything except smiling and accepting the prayers. That’s what happens with Kunti also when she offers her prayers. It concludes by stating that the Lord smiled and similarly here it is stated that the Lord heard their prayers and he distributed his mercy to them by glancing upon all of them.
So, who all were there? The people that is described who had all come to welcome Krishna, that is indicated, at least is indicated through a comparison over here. So, in the Puranic cosmology, it is described that there are different areas in the universe which may not be accessible to present human perception and these areas also have phenomenal levels of prosperity. So, Nagas have their own loka called Nagaloka and Bhogavatim.
Bhogavati is the capital of the Nagaloka and the Nagas are formidable beings, extremely powerful, dangerous for their opponents and the Nagastra is one of the most feared astras in the work I described in the Puranas. So, just as the Nagas protect Bhogavati that Bhogavati, so similarly Dwarka is protected by Krishna and all the residents of Dwarka, they are listed here. Madhus, Bhogas, Dasharas, the Kukuras, the Andhakas, so all of them, these are various, the Vrishnis of course, they are all these various residents, all these people were there and it is significant here, this verse can also mean not just that Krishna protected all of them but also that Krishna protected them even when he was not present physically to protect them, Krishna had empowered them to be phenomenally powerful.
The other warrior, ultimately God is one supreme and there can be no one who is equal to God but God can grant power to anyone and Krishna, it is described that he granted phenomenal power to the Dwarkavasis so that they could protect Dwarkam on his behalf whenever he was not there and they could assist him in the war when he was there, if any war took place, he was there. So, text 12, Sarvarthu Sarva Vibhava Punyaviksha Tathashramai Vidyano Pavanaramair Vritapadmakarashriyam, now to some extent the beauty of Dwarka is being described here, the opulence of Dwarka in terms of its natural prosperity is mentioned. Sarvarthu, in all the seasons, Sarva Vibhava, all the opulences were manifested, Krishna is God and Mayadhyakshena Prakruti Suyate Sacharacharam Hetunane Na Kaunteya Jagad Viparivartate, discipline 9.10 in the Bhagavad Gita, that material nature works under his supervision.
So, under his vision, by his plan, material nature has a particular order which it gives certain say fruits in certain seasons and certain other fruits in certain seasons. So, that is the normal way of doing things, but when the Lord is there and the Lord is pleased, then he can tell material nature to reorder herself. And that is what happened here, wherein the natural resources of various seasons were made available by nature in response to the prayers.
So, where the devotees may not pray for material prosperity, but the Lord, especially when he is manifesting his Leela and wants to convey certain lessons, he can manifest and bless his devotees with unparalleled prosperity. So, Kunya Ruksha Lata Ashramain, there were auspicious trees, Lata, creepers were there, Ashramain. So, amidst the wilderness, there were peacefulness of the forest setting, there were also ashramas, hermitages.
Udhyaan, there were gardens for people to walk in, or Upavan, smaller gardens, but on the flower or fruit, there could be orchids for fruits, and then there are flower gardens. So, nowadays also, when cities are designed, the city may be, its economic hub may be the skyscraper building, the commercial capital, but its aesthetic beauty is often its parks, and city planning commissions often earmark certain significant sections of the city, that there is no land development in terms of building overhead, because that part is earmarked for parks. So, beautiful parks are also an opulence of a city, and such beautiful parks were there, described here in the, in Dwarka, with the Padmakara Shriyam.
So, Padmakara should be surrounded by, now there were also, now for natural prosperity, water is required. Without water, very little things can be, very few things can be done. So, Padmakara, so that which gives birth to Padma, lotus, that is a water pond, that is also there, Shriyam, and this increased the beauty.
Earlier also, in Kunti’s prayers, it is stated how, because of the Lord’s glance, by your mercy, by your merciful glance, all these things, natural resources, they are prospering. And here it is mentioned that Dwarka was also enriched and beautified by the abundant, attractive gifts of nature, as mentioned in this verse. Text 13, Gopura, Dwara, Margeshu, So, Gopura, the gateway of the city, Dwara, Margeshu, the doors, the different roads, Toranam, that Toranam is like a decorated arch, it is put above the doors or maybe sometimes across the roads for indicating celebrations.
So, the people, knowing that Krishna was coming, they had been delighted and to welcome him, they had made abundant arrangements, Chitra Dhaja, Patakagraha, the paintings were there, Dhaja, the flags were raised, and all the signs were there, Antah, Pratihat, Atapam, Pratihat Atapam, and this way, now, in the daytime, when the sun becomes high in the sky, at that time, the heat becomes, in the morning, the warmth is easing, but in the afternoon, the sun’s heat can be scorching. So, when there were some kind of arches, some kind of garlands and flags, now these, all of them had been set up for the welcome of the Lord, they offered relief from the heat of the sunshine. So, again, the point is, there were all arrangements made for celebration and comfort.
Now, often, we show our respect for a person by how we welcome them. So, there is an English saying to give a red carpet welcome to someone. Now, red carpet is a carpet that was traditionally rolled out when some very venerable guest was coming, and other times, the floor might have no carpet at all, a poor, tall carpet, but if a red carpet has been put, especially the red carpet has been rolled out for that particular occasion, now, that red often looks very attractive as a carpet, of course, provided it blends nicely with its other colours that are there in the room.
But the point is, irrespective of whether this blending is there or not, the red carpet indicates a great level of warmth and respect and welcome. So, taking the point of a red carpet welcome beyond its literal to its universal significance, here we see that the Dwarkavasi is being delighted that Krishna has returned. They are offering him a profuse welcome by having created various facilities for jubilantly celebrating his return.
Thank you.