Bhagavatam study 77 1.15.13-18 Arjuna treasures his memories of Krishna

Thank you. At that time, Tatra, the previous verse, he says that, In this very body, I went to heavens and I stayed in Indra’s abode and sat on his own throne. So, now that thought, Arjuna is continuing in the next verse, While I was living there, I was able to, while living as a guest, Actually, they took shelter of my arms.
So, his arms, which were marked with the Gandiva bow, He used those arms, that means he used his prowess, That demon, the whole group of demons, the Nivāt-kavachas, They, whom Indra had not been able to kill, Indra asked Arjuna to fight against them. And Arjuna, fighting heroically on Indra’s chariot, Assisted by Indra’s charioteer, was able to overcome those demons. Thus, he says that, Thus, Indra took shelter of Arjuna.
Now, Arjuna is not thinking, oh, just see how great I am, That even the gods, the king of the gods took shelter of me. He is thinking, This was happened not by my prowess, but by Krishna’s prowess. It was he who gave me the power to do such a thing.
So, even in a devotee’s moment of greatest honor, The devotee doesn’t forget the Lord. The devotee sees that this moment of honor has come to me by the grace of the Lord. And thus, the devotee remains grateful to the Lord always.
Once when Prabhupada was being offered Vyasa Puja, And disciples were bathing his feet, And disciples were singing Guru Puja, And disciples were praising him, glorifying him, One of the devotees was fanning Prabhupada, Heard Prabhupada speaking something to himself, And Prabhupada was saying, just see Krishna, how your dog is being worshipped. So, Prabhupada did not think, I am their guru and they are worshipping me. We always need to be more conscious of our upward connections than our downward connections.
We are all existing in a hierarchy, And we all have a particular position in that hierarchy. As we grow senior, You know, we have more people below us, more and more people below us in the hierarchy. Of course, we are the servants of everyone, but still, Sometimes others may be in a position where they serve us.
So, at that time, we have to remember that Actually, they are here to serve, They are not our servants, they are Krishna’s servants, And for that, we have to remember our upward connection with our spiritual master and with Krishna. So, this, even in his moment of extraordinary glory, Arjuna is showing that he is remembering his upward connection. It is only by his grace that I was able to do this.
And that Lord, who was so wonderful, Who is so glorious, that Lord has now left me. Oh, without that Lord, how can I live? Indeed, what can I do? He has gone away. I am bereft of Him.
He is such a powerful being, glorious being, that being has left me. Now, Arjuna will speak about the Kurukshetra battlefield. So, now here, Arjuna is remembering another moment of glory.
This is not the Kurukshetra battlefield, which we will talk about in future verses. He is talking about a war before the Kurukshetra battlefield. That is the war of the battle which happened in Virat.
So, Yad Bhan Dhavaha. Interestingly, during this war again, Arjuna did not have Krishna as his charioteer. So, it is a devotee’s move to always glorify Krishna.
But at the same time, other devotees, they don’t minimize the devotee. It is only by Krishna’s mercy you did all this and you yourself have no power. No, a devotee also recognizes another devotee’s glory.
And of course, devotees always seek the other devotee’s glory in connection with Krishna’s glory. But at the same time, there is no need to minimize a devotee in order to glorify Krishna. Suppose somebody gives a very good class, at that time, we don’t have to tell them, Oh, you have got such intelligence from Krishna.
You are not very intelligent. No, we can say that, Oh, it is such a wonderful class and Krishna has given such mercy on you. So, our attribution of their glory to Krishna should not be done in a way to minimize their glory.
But it is acknowledge their glory also that it is Krishna who has chosen them as an instrument. And that Krishna has chosen them as an instrument is significant. It is significant because Krishna could have chosen anyone as an instrument.
And the fact that Krishna has chosen them means that Krishna is especially pleased with them. So, this way a devotee’s mood always is to see Krishna’s hand everywhere. And seeing Krishna’s hand everywhere doesn’t mean that we don’t see the hand of others.
We don’t see the instrument. We see the person behind the instrument and we see the instrument both. यद्बान्धव कुरुबलाब्धिमनन्तपारम् कुरुबलाब्धिम The generals of the Kurus were like an ocean.
अनन्तपारम् It was almost impossible to go beyond that ocean. एको रथेन ततरे अहम् अतीर्य सत्वं एको रथेन And I was all alone, one chariot. अतीर्य सत्वं ततरे I was able to cross over.
प्रत्यार्तम् बहुधनम् चमयापरेशम् So, प्रत्यार्तम् And they had stolen the cows of the Matsya king. And I was able to seize the cows again from them. बहुधनम् चमयापरेशम् And before going for that war, the ladies in the kingdom of Virat had told that please get some of the clothing items from the bodies of the defeated warriors.
And Arjuna was able to do that. And how was he able to do that? Because he had that potency. He was able to defeat all those warriors and while those warriors lay on the ground, he was able to take off some of the ornamental cloths that they were wearing.
And he took the Ammanimayan, तृतम् शिरोभ्य So, basically to defeat another warrior is itself a matter of heroism. But to have that warrior fell on the ground and to take off the cloth that they wear as a sign of their honour, that means they are totally defeated. That is the evidence of the defeat of the opponent.
So, Krishna is telling that, Arjuna is saying over here that the odds were so much against him that a lone warrior against an entire army, he would easily have been crushed. But far from being crushed, he single-handedly not only defeated the opposing army but crushed that army. So, that crushing of the opposite army is conveyed by तेजास्पदं मनिमयं चृतम् शिरोभ्य It’s conveyed by his being able to steal away the Manimayam, the decorative items from the head of his opponents.
The Bhagavatam continues over here. And text 15 now. यो भीश्म कर्ण गुरुषल्य चामूष्वदब्र राजन्यवर्यरत मंदलमंदितासु अग्रेचरोमं विभोरत यत्यूत पानाम् आयूर्मनाम् सिचद्रुशास ओज आर्चत् Then he talks now about the Kurukshetra battlefield.
यो भीश्म कर्ण गुरुषल्य चामूष्वदब्र The Kaurava army had formidable warriors. यो भीश्म कर्ण गुरुषल्य चामूष्वदब्र So, in such as such as of the Chamu and in that अदब्र, राजन्यविर, there are many great royal kings. वर्य, greatest among them.
पत्हमंदलमंदितासु Their military phalanx was decorated by the chariots of all these great warriors. अग्रेचरो ममविबोरतयूथपानाम And yet, my chariot went in front of all of them. बोईरतयूथपानाम Charioteers आयूर्मनाम्सिदुशासओजार्चद् Their आयू, their life span, मनाम्सि, their mental strength दुशासोजार्च, just by his glance, their strength, Krishna took it away.
Now, if you look at the Kurukshetra battlefield, the Kurukshetra war as described in the Mahabharata, we know that Arjuna fought fiercely for each one of those 18 days before he was able to win the war. So, when he was able to win the war, with his enormous exertions, yet he sees that it was Krishna who was in my chariot, अग्रेचरो, he was in front of me and by his glance of displeasure, of anger at those who had dared offend his devotees and those who had remained brazen even after offending the devotees, it was by his glance of displeasure that they were all killed. This is the vision that Bhima’s grandson, Babruvahan, son of Ghatotkach had.
He was at a strategic vantage point on top of a nearby mountain and from there he saw the whole Kurukshetra war and when he was asked, what did you see? He said, I saw simply Krishna with the Surajan Chakra killing all the Kauravas. So, though Krishna did not directly use the Surajan Chakra to fight against any enemies, but the point is that Krishna was the ultimate doer. What a devotee is able to do? It is Krishna who is able to do through that devotee and that understanding is something which a devotee cherishes and when we too can appreciate that it is Krishna who is doing through us, then we will stay humble, we won’t get carried away by our lower desires and we won’t let ourselves be overwhelmed by different kinds of negativities that we might otherwise face in our life.
We won’t get inflated when we get success and we won’t get deflated when we get failure if we stay connected. So, by being connected, we can avoid getting inflated by success and deflated by failure. Take 16 now.
It was because he protected me that So, now he gives a list of all those great warriors that Drona, Bhishma, Karna, Nakthru, Trigarta, Shalya, Saindhava, Bali, Kadyai. Nakthru refers to Bhurishrava, Trigarta refers to King Susharma or the king of the Trigartas. Shal refers to Shalya.
Shalya was the person who fought against Yudhishthira and he was finally killed by Yudhishthira on the last day of the Kurukshetra war. He was the last commander of the Pandavas. Of course, Bhishma was the commander for a short while.
Not Bhishma, Ashwatthama was the commander for one night when he wrecked Havoc. But during the official period of the war, Shalya was the last commander. There is another demon, Shalva, who is more a part directly of Krishnala who attacked Dwarka at the time when the Asat Sabha, the gambling match was going on.
So here, Nakthru, Trigarta, Shalya, Saindhava, Bali, Kadyai. Saindhava refers to the king of Sindhu Pradesh, that is Jayadratha. Bali, Kadyai, Bali was also a powerful king.
He was the brother of Maharaja Shantanu, who was Bhishma’s father. So he was a long generation up. अस्त्राणि अमोग महिमानि निरू पितानी So they all shot their weapons and they were such powerful warriors that their weapons were Amogha.
Their weapons never missed their targets. And yet, नोपस्पृशुर नरिदासनिवासुराणि नोपस्पृशुर, none of them could even touch me. So Arjuna remained safe and protected just as नरहरिदासनिवासुराणि just as among the demons, despite the attack of the demons, नरहरिदासन is the servant of Lord Narahari, of Lord Narasimha.
That is referred to Prahlad Maharaja. Although Prahlad Maharaja was alone and tormented by, threatened and tormented and attacked by the Asuras, still he remained protected. Now externally speaking, we will see that Arjuna was an active warrior who was an expert in archery and who fought tirelessly.
And Prahlad did not even raise a single weapon while fighting. And yet Arjuna is comparing himself with Prahlad. Why would a Kshatriya compare himself with a child who did not even raise a single weapon? But that’s because Arjuna sees beyond externals.
Different devotees may serve the Lord in different ways. Arjuna’s service was as a Sakha, he wanted to do Krishna’s will, करिष्येवच्नम्तव. So he serves Krishna as a Dasyam.
Prahlad’s service is through Smaranam. He just closes his eyes and becomes absorbed in the internal remembrance of the Lord and thereby the Lord reveals to him his greatness. The Lord reveals to him his potency and Lord protects him.
So what is important is not how the devotee serves the Lord. That will be variegated depending on each devotee’s particular position and disposition. But the Lord reciprocates and the Lord reciprocates by protecting.
So here Arjuna’s focus is not on his contribution. It is on Krishna’s reciprocation, the Lord’s reciprocation. So we need to, if we simply focus on our devotion, on our contribution, then we may say I am a devotee and that person is not a devotee, or that person is a devotee and I am not a devotee.
But if we focus on the Lord’s reciprocation then we understand that our contribution can come in many ways. But a devotee doesn’t become proud of one’s contribution. A devotee becomes grateful for the Lord’s reciprocation.
And Arjuna is comparing himself with Prahlad over here when he says, Just as the demons could not touch me, the demons could not touch Prahlad, similarly the opposition warriors could not touch me. Text 17 sautye vṛtah kumatinātmada īśvaromeyatpāda-padmamabhāya-bhajan-tibhauvih māṁ śirāntavāham arayo rathino bhuviṣṭham na prāharanyadanubhāva-nirasta-cittaḥ So, sautye vṛtah kumatinātmada īśvaromeyatpāda-padmamabhāya-bhajan-tibhauvih He says, sautye vṛtah, I engaged that Lord in the vocation of a charioteer. He is īśvara, he was īśvara, but kumatinātmada, because of my kumati, because of my misdirected consciousness, I engaged him in my service as my charioteer.
That was my foolishness. But then, he appreciates it. pāda-padmamabhāya-bhajan-tibhauvih Who is that Lord? Not just the īśvara, His lotus feet are worshipped.
pāda-padmamabhāya-bhajan-tibhauvih bhauvih is those who are large-minded, bhauvih is large, those who are large-minded, large-hearted, who can see the big picture of reality and who want to achieve life’s ultimate perfection. abhavāya, those people, in order to go beyond material existence, they worship the Supreme Lord. And those people, that Lord who is worshipped by the great souls, my consciousness was so small that I engaged Him in my service.
But that Lord is so merciful that He didn’t take offense to me, māṁśhrāntavāham arayo rathino bhavistham He is now talking about that fateful day on the 14th day when Arjuna had taken a vow to kill Jaidrath before sunset and he had broken deep into the Kaurava ranks and then, because of the exhaustion coming from the fierce assault, Arjuna’s horses got tired and they needed water and rest and grass. So, at that time, Arjuna, using his mystic powers, created a pond right in the middle of the battlefield where Krishna took the horses and rested and fed and watered them. And during that time, Arjuna was chariot-less and he was fighting against enemies who were on their chariots and they all, seeing this movement, attacked him fiercely.
And yet Arjuna was whirling around and fighting fiercely and to fight him, to try to approach him was to hit into a wall of arrows. Nobody could even come near Arjuna although he was apparently defenseless in a weak movement but he was not in a weak movement at all. Sometimes in cricket when there is one batsman who needs to get out and then the opposing team gets all the fielders in attacking positions so there are 3-4 slips on one side, 2-3 slips on the other side and there are all close catching positions.
But still this batsman just goes on batting fearlessly and just keeps scoring runs and then the attackers just fall back. This attacking strategy doesn’t work. So similarly, although Arjuna seemed to be in a weak position and all the enemies swooped in to exploit that weakness but none of them could exploit.
Arjuna was such a fearsome warrior. But here also Arjuna is giving credit to Krishna and he is saying, He said, They were not able to wound me, couldn’t attack me. By his influence, their consciousness became distracted.
Now it is not true that their consciousness actually became distracted as they were fully focused on trying to kill him but somehow Arjuna was so powerful that they couldn’t kill him. So here a devotee doesn’t… We will see this theme time and time again. A devotee doesn’t seek glory from one’s own actions rather the devotee gives glory to Krishna and this mood of giving the glory to Krishna is something which endures the devotee to Krishna so much.
Even when we do something wonderful if we learn not to take credit but learn to give credit to Krishna then we will grow so much in our spiritual life because ultimately what is growth in spiritual life? It is the remembrance of Krishna. So if we are remembering our own accomplishments then how are we remembering Krishna? If our remembrance of our own accomplishments prompts us to remember Krishna and prompts us to intensify our remembrance of Krishna that is when we will be able to grow in our spiritual life. That is when we will be able to attain Krishna.
So this is what Arjuna is demonstrating over here. How to be steadily absorbed in the Lord. Text 18 नर्मान्युदारुचिरस्मितशोभितानि हे पार्थ हे अर्जुन सक्हे कुरुनन्दनेति संजल्पितानि नरदेवरुधिस्प्रुषानि स्मर्तुर्लुठन्तिरुदयंममाधवस्य After remembering various incidents Arjuna’s memory becomes more personal where it focuses on the activities of the Lord So Naraman knew his specific personality He says, we had joking conversations उदारुचिरस्मितशोभितानि And in the jokes we spoke very candidly with each other Generally All of us have our defenses So we don’t let down our guard when we are talking with others because we are afraid what the other person will think about us And if somebody shares their moments of weakness with us I faced this difficulty and I was able to overcome this difficulty and this is how I went through it Then revealing our vulnerability brings intimacy Actually in front of the world we all try to appear strong and that’s just the way sometimes we need to be That’s a service where we have to appear strong But we all have our weaknesses and we all have our difficulties and when we share our vulnerability with others So sharing our vulnerability fosters intimacy If we speak about our struggles and others speak about their struggles then that brings us very close to each other So here Arjuna is telling Krishna नर्मान्युदारुचिरस्मितशोभितानि We had such intimate conversations, candid conversations we had and रुचिरस्मितशोभितानि And Arjuna is remembering how Krishna’s face had such a sweet smiling disposition हे पार्थः ए अर्जुनसके कूरुनन्दनेति And during those conversations Krishna would address me हे पार्थः ए अर्जुनसे कूरुनन्दनेति So normally when two people talk with each other if the other person addresses us, how they address us that also is something very sweet for us we remember it and we are very happy by remembering it संजल्पितानि नर्देवर्धिस्प्रुषानि So, संजल्पितानि, in this way when we had intimate conversations नर्देवर्धिस्प्रुषानि, नर्देव ओ युधिष्टिर, ओ किंग र्धिस्प्रुषानि, these conversations deeply touched my heart र्धिस्प्रुषानि स्मर्तुर्लुठन्ति रुदयं मममां दवस्या स्मर्तुर्लुठन्ति Actually in my heart spontaneous powerful emotion is arising as these Memories are coming, I am becoming overwhelmed.
Smartur Luthanti Hrudayam, Mamama Dhavasyam, Hrudayam, in my heart, I am being overwhelmed. Mamama Dhavasyam, Mamama Dhavasyam, this is the sweetness, the glory of the Lord, that He, when we remember Him, that remembrance fills us with ecstasy. So, although Arjuna at one level is facing the agony of separation from the Lord, but in that agony also there is ecstasy because in that agony is the intensified remembrance of Krishna and that intensified remembrance of Krishna brings ecstasy.
Such is the glory of Krishna and Krishna Bhakti.