Bhagavatam study 76 1.15.7-12 Devotees see their achievements as Krishna’s mercy

Bhagavatam Chapter 15 Canto 1 Text 7 The Pandavas retire timely यत्सम्श्रयाद्रपद्धेहमुपागतानाम् राज्ञान्स्वयंबरमुखेस्मरदुर्मदानाम् तेजोर्तम्खलुमयाभितस्यमत्स्यह सज्ञीकृतेन्धनुशाधिगताच्यक्रिष्णा this is a series of verses where Arjuna is remembering the Lord who had blessed him so greatly and that Lord who has now departed so he is expressing his agony in separation from that Lord यत्सम्श्रयाद्रपद्धेहमुपागतानाम् it is by His mercy that when I was in the assembly of Drupada where various kings had assembled at that time it is by His mercy that I was able to राज्ञान्स्वयंबरमुखेस्मरदुर्मदानाम् there were many many kings who had assembled there and all of them were with, captivated by Draupadi, eager to have her as their queen in that swayamvar. Tejo rutham khalo maya bheethas chamatsya.
Tejo rutham. Their power was vanquished, certainly. Maya bheethas chamatsya.
I superseded all of them. I defeated all of them. Their prowess paled in nothing in front of mine.
And matsya, the matsya refers to the fish target which was there which had to be hit by the competitors. Sajjikrten dhanushadigata In this way, equipped with the bow and arrow, I gained Adhigata, Chakrishna. With Draupadi, I gained her.
So, what is important is for each one of us to recognise that whenever we are able to achieve anything special in life, it is by Krishna’s mercy. If we consider the practical situation, Krishna did not in any direct way assist Arjuna over there. In that assembly, Arjuna was in the garb of a Brahmana, as were all the Pandavas.
They had fled from the Kauravas’ persecution after the house of lakh had been burnt in Varanavata. In the garb of Brahmanas, after the Kshatriyas all failed to hit the target, then Arjuna sought permission to compete in the Swayamvar. And then Arjuna hit the target.
So, where was Krishna actually helping him? He could say that Krishna did tell the Yadavas that Draupadi is meant for Arjuna. Therefore, don’t compete for her hand. And so the Yadus, although they were present, none of them participated in the Swayamvar.
So, in one sense, we could say that Krishna helped Arjuna by decreasing the competition field for him. But that’s only one part of it. The other part is also that we need to consider how well can the situation work out when we ourselves have to face difficulties in our life.
So, yes, even if some big competitors are out of the way, that itself is not a big help. Still the remaining competition is there. The remaining competition is not small.
But what Arjuna saw was that actually he alone was there and he was facing all this competition and he won by Krishna’s grace because a devotee sees that whatever ability I have, it’s a gift from Krishna. In 7.8 in the Bhagavad Gita it is said that रसोहं अप्सु कौन्तेय प्रभाश्मीशसि सूरेयो प्रणावः सर्ववेदेशु शब्दखे पउरुशं दृशु Krishna says that I am ability in human beings. So, it is Krishna who gave him that phenomenal ability by which he could win the hand of Krishna.
The second Krishna refers to Draupadi. So, a devotee, even when Krishna is not directly present in a particular situation, the devotee still sees that it is by Krishna’s grace that I was able to do this. And that is the characteristic of our devotion.
In fact, actually speaking, Krishna and Arjuna, Krishna and the Pandavas had not even formally met till then. It was after they had of course heard of each other, but it is after the Swayambhar, when the Pandavas went with Draupadi, at that time Krishna followed them and in the small place that they were staying, Krishna came and introduced himself. I am Krishna.
The Pandavas were delighted to meet him. So, although the Pandavas had not even been formally introduced to Krishna till then, but still Arjuna saw that his victory was by Krishna’s grace. Now, when we are able to do well in any particular situation, our ability is important, but our ability alone is not enough.
First of all, where does our ability come from? We may practise, but we all get some innate talent by which we can perform extraordinarily well. And where does that talent come from? It is a gift which we get at birth and that gift comes from Krishna. So, Arjuna is setting an example for all of us to see that actually we are all meant to be grateful to Krishna for whatever we are able to achieve.
Text 8, Krishna remembers another incident, which is of even more extraordinary accomplishment we could say. So, it was I, by his proximity, because he was near to me, in the Khandava forest, Agnidham, I was able to deliver to Agnideva, the forest of Khandava. Indram cha samarganam tarasa vijitya.
So, Indra, not only Indra alone, human normally depends on the gods for getting power. Humans seek blessings from the gods. Human defeating a god is quite unheard of.
And what to speak of a human defeating the king of gods, Indra. And what more, even more, to speak of a human defeating all the gods together, that is even more extraordinary. But Arjuna was able to do that because Indram cha samarganam tarasa vijitya.
He was able to defeat not just one god, but all the gods together. That is his extraordinary capacity. And labdha sabha mayakrtad bhuta shilpa maya.
And what happened thereafter? labdha sabha mayakrtad bhuta shilpa maya. During that time, he spared the life of Indra, of Maya, Dhanam, because Maya Dhanam took shelter of Krishna. And Krishna told Arjuna to spare him.
And in gratitude, Maya Dhanam wanted to do something for Krishna, for Arjuna. So then Krishna suggested that he make a, he uses phenomenal architectural abilities to make a palace for the Pandavas. And labdha sabha labdha, he called it mayakrtad bhuta shilpa maya.
And in that, it was in that sabha, in that assembly house that was created by Maya Dhanam for them, what happened? digbhyo aharan rupatayo bali madhvare te. Digbhyo aharan rupatayo, that it was Arjuna who was able to get bali. Bali means taxes.
Arjuna was able to get taxes from everyone over there in that assembly when the Rajasuya yajna was performed. In that Rajasuya yajna, all the kings, digbhyo, from all directions, rupatayo, the kings, they came and offered their taxes. So here, now, Arjuna is acknowledging that his potency was due to the proximity of the Lord.
Of course, even when the Lord is not proximate, still he is potent and still he can make us potent. But in this particular incident, as contrasted with the previous incident, the Lord was directly with him by his side. Arjuna fought phenomenally on three fronts.
On one side, he was ensuring that none of the demonic beings from the forest fled from there. Secondly, he was ensuring that when the fire was consuming the Khanda forest, Indra had to shower rain, Arjuna created an umbrella of arrows by which he shielded the fire from the rain. And thirdly, he also fought against devatas who were attacking him.
So Arjuna fought on three fronts and won on all three fronts. And this he credits to Krishna’s glory. Krishna is so kind, so merciful to him that he was able to do this.
In text 9, it is by his influence, he recognises not only that I was able to do something wonderful by Krishna’s mercy, but he is speaking with Yudhishthir and he says, Yudhishthir, your younger brother, that is my elder brother Bhima, he was able to defeat Jarasandha. He had actually put his head on the head of many kings in the sense that he was dominating those kings. He had imprisoned those kings and Ahan Makartham, he wanted to kill them.
Makartham, he wanted to sacrifice them, but that person was Ahan killed. Aryahanujatavagajayutasattvaviryaah. Respectable younger brother, your respectable younger brother, my elder brother, he was able to, who has the strength of 10,000 elephants, he was able to kill.
Sattvaviryaah. He was able to kill by his power, that person, Tenerata Pramatanatha. Pramatanatha refers to Lord Shiva.
He wanted to perform a sacrifice to Shiva with the heads of all these imprisoned kings, that is Jarasandha. But that who had imprisoned so many kings, that king was defeated by the younger brother of a king, not even by the king, Yudhishthir didn’t have to go, it was Bhima who went and he defeated him, he destroyed him. Such was the power that Bhima had and that power was Krishna’s grace.
And he is speaking to Yudhishthir, all those kings who were released by the grace of Bhima and Krishna, they came and offered you. Tat anayan bali madhya varete. They brought sacrifice to you when they came in the assembly at Rajasuri’s sacrifice.
So, although Arjuna was present, Arjuna does not take any credit because Arjuna was not directly involved in the fighting, it was Bhima who fought Jarasandha and it was Krishna who guided Bhima to find Jarasandha’s weak point, that his body had been fused together and his body could be ripped apart. So, that insight, that idea, that information was vital. Thus Bhima had been fighting for days and days and days together, 27 days he had been fighting.
But still he had not been able to win with Jarasandha. But then finally, when Krishna gave him that idea, then Bhima was able to overcome Jarasandha. So, Krishna, Arjuna is giving credit to Bhima for Bhima’s victory to Krishna.
Text 11, yonau jugopane te durantakruchirat, durvasaso arirachitathayuthaagrabhupya, shakannashishtam upayastyatastrilokim, truptamam amamsatsalile vinimagnasanghah. Then, Krishna, Arjuna is going chronologically over here. So, first he talks about the winning of Draupadi, then the Rajasuya sacrifice, then he’s talked about the defeat of Jarasandha.
Now he’s talking about when they were in the forest, they faced a great crisis, that is, durantakruchirat faced the problem of Durvasa Muni who came there. And they faced a big trouble because Durvasa Arirachitathayuthaagrabhupya, Arirachitathayuthaagrabhupya, Durvasa Muni was manipulated by Duryodhana to come at a time when they had already eaten, even Draupadi had eaten and the Akshaya Patra would not provide any more food. And he came with 10,000 disciples.
Shakannashishtam upayastyatastrilokim. At that time, Draupadi in despair prayed to Krishna and Krishna appeared and he was satisfied with just a little bit remnant of a small morsel of food that was remaining on the Akshaya Patra, on the mystical plate. And with that food and Krishna ate that and Krishna was satisfied.
Durvasa Muni and all his thousands of disciples became mystically satisfied and thus the Pandavas were saved from the crisis of displeasing irascible sage. He’s remembering that at this time it is by mystic potency that Krishna protected us. Throopthamamam sa selile vinimagnasangaha.
So while they had gone to drink water, to take bath and he was in the water, suddenly he felt completely full. So God has acted miraculously in the lives of his devotees. This is what scripture tells repeatedly.
And this is what the devotees also remember. When we face difficulties in our life, at that time we need to conscientiously remember the times when Krishna has actually helped us. And if you look back at our lives, in the routine course of life, we may not see Krishna’s intervention.
But in extraordinary situations, when we face great trouble, somehow help comes from somewhere. In the case of the Pandavas, the help came in a very explicit way. They saw Krishna helping them in the form of the Pandavas.
Here in Indravasamuni’s case, Krishna himself came and took the food. But if you look at the earlier cases, it was not that Krishna helped them explicitly. But still the devotees are wise enough, astute enough to see Krishna’s hand.
In the routine course of our life, if we keep seeing problems, if we keep battling problems and we let those problems get to us, then our devotion will be lost. We will not be able to see the value of devotion. I am practising, I am struggling and what is God doing for me? But if you look back and cherish the memories when our problems were in some mysterious way addressed, the way might be normal or paranormal, but when they are addressed, we can understand that actually Krishna does help, that he is very kind to us, he is very merciful to us and he does help.
And he has helped us many times in the past and whatever we are facing right now, he will help us now also. So, Shatruptaam, they became satisfied. And similarly, now Arjuna is remembering how wonderfully, how inconceivably the Lord has helped us all.
Actually, if we move forward to text 10th, it’s interesting, he is referring to Draupadi as your wife. Although Arjuna won Draupadi in the Swayamvar and although it was expected that Arjuna would become her husband, but Arjuna felt that how can a younger brother marry without the eldest brother marrying first. So, he said, although you will be her husband, but then by a mystical arrangement, it was decided he will be the wife of all of them.
But the Pandavas were never possessively fighting for her. They were all united in serving with her together, serving Krishna. And that is seen here when he says that, Patnya Stava Dhimak Krishnamaha Bhishekha.
So, he, that non-possessiveness is seen in his telling, Patnya Stava, this is, she is your wife. So, although she is the wife of all of them, that non-possessiveness is so important. We need to be protective, but we don’t have to be possessive.
Sometimes possessiveness is masqueraded as protectiveness and that simply leads to people getting, feeling choked, feeling throttled. The person who is controlled by another possessive person, they feel choked. But the Pandavas, together, were united in the service of Krishna and together they served with Draupadi.
So, Patnya Stava Dhimak Krishnamaha Bhishekha. So, her hair, it was bathed in the Mahabhisheka, that. Then Rajyogya was performed.
At that time, her hair was bathed with the sacred water. Shlagishta Charu Kabaram Kitavai Sabhayam. Her hair, beautiful hair was thus celebrated, was thus anointed, was thus honoured and she was honoured.
So, but what happened, those, that same hair which had received that great honour, which was reserved for the Queen of the Emperor of the world, that same Kitavai Sabhayam by the miscreants, Kitavai, they caught the hair and dragged her by the hairs. Prishtam Vikiri Padayopadita Shri Mukhyam. That, Dushasan caught her by that hair and dragged her to the assembly and when she was hurled into the assembly by that wicked being, she fell to the floor, crying, begging for help.
She, of course, still remained fixed in a conviction of Dharma. But Patita Shri Mukhyam, tears were coming down her eyes when she saw what was happening to her. But that Lord arranged that His devotee, those who wronged His devotee, wear a Venge.
So, in those times, if a woman loses her husband, then she is meant to loosen her hair, otherwise she keeps her hair tied. So, what happened was that those who dishonoured Draupadi, they were punished and they lost their lives and the same king, the same wicked people who had loosened her hair and dragged her hair, their wives’ hair became loosened. That means, the point here is that Krishna protects His devotees.
So, Arjuna is actually acknowledging Krishna’s protection, Krishna’s intervention, miraculous and potent intervention, not just in His own life, but also in the lives of His loved ones. How Yudhishthira got the honour of the Rajshri sacrifice or Bhima was able to kill Jarasandha and how Draupadi, the grievous wrong that was performed to her, that was avenged. It’s interesting that here, Arjuna is not taking credit for himself, saying that I avenged her.
He is saying that actually it was by Krishna’s mercy that it happened. So, it was He who did it. Now, Bhagavad Gita also says that, mayai vaite nihitapur, vamevanamittamathram bhavasau nishanchi.
By my arrangement, the enemies have already been killed. Oh, Arjuna, you simply became an instrument in the fight. So, we see here, Arjuna acknowledging that instrumental role when he says that it was that Lord, yastatsthriyo, by Him, His devotee was protected and her honour was redeemed.
Such is the glory of the devotee and the glory of the Lord who protects the glory of His devotees. It was by His prowess, atha bhagavan yadishul paanehir. Bhagavan is an adjective that is used to, a describer that is used to refer to anybody who is extremely powerful.
It refers ultimately to Bhagavan, but also refers to those who have some aspect of power like Bhagavan. So, here it refers to yadishul paanehir, shul paanehir, one who holds the shul, trishul in his hands. It refers to Lord Shiva.
Tejasatha bhagavan yadishul paanehir, that in the battlefield yudhi, vismapitah sagirjyastramadan nijamme vismapitah, that Lord Shiva was astounded to see the prowess of Arjuna. This refers to the incident before the Kurukshetra war. Now, as Arjuna is becoming more and more absorbed in Krishna, in thoughts of separation from Krishna, his memory is not moving so much according to linear line, linear sequence because he is so overwhelmed by emotion.
So, different memories are coming to him and he is speaking them. So, vismapitah, even Lord Shiva was astounded to see the power of Arjuna. Arjuna had gone to the Himalayas to meditate and to perform austerities by which he could get weapons from the Devatas.
And at that time, Lord Shiva came in the form of a hunter and both Arjuna and that hunter shot a boar at the same moment. And both claimed that the boar was theirs and that led to an altercation which became a fight. And although that fight went on and on and on, Arjuna was not bested by that formidable hunter.
And eventually when that hunter kept fighting, fighting, Arjuna used all his weapons but none of them worked against him. Then Arjuna had a Shiva linga fashioned with his hands and he put some flowers on that Shiva linga and those flowers fell on that hunter. And then he recognised that this hunter is Lord Shiva.
And then he offered his respects. And Lord Shiva said, you have equalled me in fighting. And then Parvati Devi also appeared over there.
And she also said, Sagiri Jo, Girija refers to the daughter of Girija, the daughter of the Himalayas, that is Parvati. So, she was so pleased with him that both of them were pleased. Astram Adan Nijamme.
They gave their own weapons to Arjuna. And thus, by giving their weapons to Arjuna, they showed how Arjuna was so dear to them. Arjuna was so heroic that he won their hearts.
And not only Lord Shiva he was able to please, but he was also able to please other devatas who also gave their weapons to him. And not only that, what happened was, more than that, this Kalevarini, this body, normally humans cannot go to the heavens in this physical body. But Arjuna was not only able to go to heaven in this physical body, but also he was able to over there be seated on the same throne as Indra.
Indra welcomed Arjuna as his son and had him sit next to him on his own throne. That is an honour which practically no humans get. And Arjuna is remembering and he is saying that, now directly again in this incident also, Krishna was not directly there.
But Arjuna is seeing that all these incidents are the grace of Krishna. Without Krishna’s grace, none of these would have happened. And he is giving credit to Krishna.
It is by His influence, it is by His grace, it is by the potency that He gave me, that I was