Bhagavatam study 81 1.15.38-44 Responsibly hand over material responsibility to take up spiritual responsibility

Bhagavatam 115.38 is a section where yudhishthira maharaj is going to announce the world and let’s see what happens Swarata potram vini vinayinam Atmana susaman gunai tayo nivya patim bhoomer abhyashin chit gajave so Swarata Krishna is described as Swarata in the first verse of the Bhagavatam but here it is described that the king is Naradeva so king is also referred to as Swarata so the Pandavas had no sons because all their sons were killed by Ashwathama and before that Abhimanyu and other sons had been killed during the war itself so they had no sons who were capable of being heirs their heirs so then they had their grandson very illustrious grandson Parikshit who could become the king and they asked him they introduced Vinayinam Vinayinam means he Vinay is humility so Vinayinam he needed to be properly trained and he was indeed properly trained because he was he was very virtuous from birth and he was also a very good learner so thus atmanah susamam gunai atmanah susamam gunai so susamam gunai that means sama is equivalent to susama means he was almost he was as good as the Pandavas he was as good as Maharaj Yudhishthir in fact who was the most virtuous among the Pandavas toh ye nivya patim bhoomer toh ye nivya so that land which is bordered by the seas the vast land as far as the land went that was under the reign of Yudhishthir Maharaj and he made him the king of it all and thus toh ye nivya patim bhoomer he made him the pati the lord of that kingdom and then after that abhisimchit gajahavye abhisimchit the end role name as gajahavye gajahavye refers to the kingdom which was known as the kingdom of the elephants hastinapur pur is the city hasti is the elephant now the elephant is the royal carrier of the kings and a city where there are a lot of elephants means that a city is extremely prosperous that city is extremely powerful so such is the nature of the city which the Pandavas have and in this city what has happened abhisimchit gajahavye he was enthroned as the king so here Yudhishthir Maharaj when he realized after Krishna’s departure that his part was now more or less over that now it is time for him to move on something higher something bigger in his life how did he move on to that something bigger by ensuring that whatever he was supposed to do that was well taken care of the Pandavas you know renunciation is they demonstrating it is not a responsibility it is actually a grave responsibility and renunciation is to be taken up not in a responsible way but in a responsible way so how does he do this responsibly by ensuring that there are others who are trained to take care of others we have ultimately the responsibility to our own souls we have the responsibility to Krishna we have the responsibility which is the foremost we are meant to take care of others and in taking care of others actually we take care of ourselves in the deepest sense because to the extent we deeply take care of others to that extent in trying to take care of others we are actually forced to take care of ourselves it is it’s like a doctor who wants to be responsible has to take care of not only the patients but also oneself and in that way that doctor grows that doctor grows spiritually by taking care of oneself and those with whom one is connected so it is to the extent if a doctor wants to seriously take care of oneself the doctor will make sure that they take care of the patients also because it is related a soldier who is fighting to protect some citizens soldier knows i had to stay alive to protect those citizens if i don’t stay alive then i can’t protect the citizens so in that sense it’s vital for the soldier to protect the citizens but for the vital for the soldier to protect himself also so there is a time when we our responsibilities towards others bring out the best within us and there is a time when it is our taking our responsibility for ourselves brings out the best within us and when what is applicable that is the great challenge sometimes when our mind is eating us up too much at that time we need to we need to get out of our head go with people and burden ourselves and that’s how we will feel better that’s how we will be able to get out of our mind and sometimes when we are too caught in the world just being blown whichever way the wind is blowing at that time we may need to withdraw from the world go into seclusion not be alone with our mind but rise beyond the world and beyond the mind to our very self and understand what is most important for us so this is this is the time there is a time for engagement and the time for withdrawal now this life itself is a process of alternating both of all of these different people have different levels of needs of withdrawal introverts need them much more extroverts need them much less but there is a phase of life when we have to focus entirely on withdrawal and that phase has now come here for Yudhishthir so renunciation is not about being responsible it is about responsibly giving up our response present responsibilities to take up bigger responsibilities text 39 so the way things worked out one generation had been wiped out for everyone for both the Pandavas and the Yadus so even on the Yadus Krishna and Dwaraka had already been sunk into the kingdom so Vajirnava’s grandson was was installed now as the king of Mathura so now so Mathura was the capital of the kingdom of Surasena so then he performed a Prajapati sacrifice Nirupeshtim he left the world very silently because he had stayed he had overstayed in this world and eventually he had to go so in contrast Yudhishthir when he departs he departs in a very responsible and sober way and it’s a ceremonial departure not ceremonial in the sense of being showing ceremonial in the sense of he took care of the appropriate ceremonies before departing he made sure that he did whatever was needed okay so he made sure that everything was taken care of so now renunciation is not so much for the purpose of simply showing off what one is going to do but it is for formalizing what we are doing the same thing now why does one if one wants to renounce the world why doesn’t need to do elaborate Prajapati sacrifice we wonder the point is not to do the sacrifice the point is to ensure that we are able to do whatever needs to be done so just as marriage it can be done discreetly in private it can be done seriously it can be done publicly through an elaborate ceremony and that doing a marriage in elaborate ceremony as it was traditionally done was not for a showy purpose it is for the purpose of um it is going for the purpose of ensuring that we are able to recognize the gravity of the commitment that we have made and thus we are able to move forwards towards attaining the purpose of life towards that understanding of what is to be done and how it is to be done so we can’t really move forwards without this foundational understanding and this foundational understanding comes to us when we are willing to take things seriously and move forwards without taking things seriously we can’t move forwards unless we move forwards there is no real solid way for us to actually move forwards in our life so there is a time certainly there is a time for various things in life so there is a time for us to recognize that now i cannot just quit now is the time for me to do my responsibility with diligence with determination and there is a time for us to recognize that now is the time for me to neglect my response to transcend my responsibilities to move forwards in doing whatever needs to be done with diligence so Yudhishthira Maharaj recognized that now is the time for him to renounce the world and that’s what he’s doing now so in his determined renunciation what is he doing he gave up everything relinquishing means his belt his his bangles there are different kinds of bangles some which men wear some which women wear and he is wearing the bangles which are the bangles of ceremony they are the bangles which are worn by kings to indicate their royal position and it was not just external positions that he gave up but the possessive mentality inside he gave up this is a phrase that comes several times in the bhagavad-gita also for example in 2.71 it comes that partha there krishna says that actually how one who is one who renounces the world that is the person who had to cultivate this mentality of nirmamo nirahankara that is the person who can grow in life that is the person who can live peacefully and ultimately leave this world peacefully so renunciation is not so much about giving possession that is about giving up the possessive mentality and sri yudhishthira maharaj does both he externally also renounces his possessions but internally also renounces the possessive mentality the attachments in this world are unlimited that they just keep coming and going and we can’t do anything about those attachments this as extreme like waves in the river they keep coming and just the waves are endless they keep coming but it is to the extent we desire to enjoy the world as attachments can bind us but if we stop enjoying the world then they cannot bind us means that he by his internal disdetermination to turn away from the world internal determination to renounce the world he was able to simply transcend all attachments simply transcend all illusions simply move beyond it all towards liberation so here sarvam and ashesha bandhanah you may have many different attachments but he gave up all the external markers of those attachments and internally he gave up the enjoying mentality and thus he was able to renounce it’s significant that the bhagavatam largely depicts things from the perspective of yudhishthira in the bhagavatam’s depiction it’s not just arjuna who is the intimate devotee of the lord he definitely is but the bhagavatam storyline is especially the first canto is very much centered on yudhishthira and we see that it is yudhishthira’s grief which krishna tries to mitigate and then krishna has bhishma speak to remove yudhishthira’s grief and then also again it is from yudhishthira’s perspective that even the past time of the disappearance of krishna is told it is not told about what arjuna what saw what directly what arjuna experienced rather it is what yudhishthira experienced while arjuna was away and then how yudhishthira saw arjuna and what yudhishthira spoke to yudhishthira so of course in the seventh chapter when the entry happens in the first canto at that time it is krishna with arjuna and with arjuna who chases ashwathama and punishes him so the here is in the action part it is arjuna who is the center that is the mahabharat but now here in the renunciation part it is yudhishthira who is the center and we will see this theme reflected in the mahabharat also wherein it is yudhishthira who goes to the ascents to the top we will discuss that story in due course that how it was yudhishthira who in the mahabharat story was able to reach the top of the himalayas but there are there is as it is said that in a material sense it says every dog has his day so of course the pandavas are not dogs and that’s not at all the point over here the point is that there are certain incidents when the sterling character of certain certain character comes out the time for everyone to be at the center of the stage arjuna was the center of the stage for most of the kurukshetra war bhima was in the center of stage for some days even yudhishthira was at the center when he killed the final commander of the kurukshetra rishalya so like that his ups and downs keep happening in life and but in the time of renunciation the most time at the time of renunciation the most dharmic of the pandavas the most virtues of them dharmaraj yudhishthira he is the person who is who’s who’s the focus of attention over here watch it’s at x 41 tat prana itare chatam mrityav apanam sotsargam tam panchatveya ajohavet vacham juhav manasi it’s interesting the process of renunciation that is described in the bhagavatam is based on realizing one’s spirituality through contemplation so vacham juhav manasi so he distanced himself from his speech by raising his consciousness towards the mind that means okay the speech is a very great power which i can do many things but i am not the speech i am something different from this that is the one step that he adopted and then along with that he also adapted like that that’s him that process of withdrawal in words goes on and on for him and there is a prana itare chatam so prana refers to subtle life the life air so the mind was withdrawn but okay we are aware of our senses we are aware of our mind if we are a little more introspective we understand that we are not the mind also or the life air itself we are not that aware of but if you are perceptive we can become aware of that also and then after that as he moved on mrityav apanam sotsargam he actually actually his total existence he annihilated into the five elements in his body into death in this way he just withdrew his consciousness from the body this process of amalgamation is actually a process of withdrawal of consciousness from the various places in which the consciousness is normally caught while we are in the material world so to the extent we recognize that our consciousness is is meant to be elevated and liberated to the extent even if we don’t specifically follow this process we can understand that bhakti or moving out of the world is not a sentimental thing it is a serious activity and that serious activity requires the the movement of our consciousness in words away from externals it’s 42 trittve hutvache panchatvam tachchai katve ajuhon muni sarvam atmanya ajuhavit brahmanya atmanam avyaye trittve hutvache panchatvam in this way the body which is made of panchatvam he offered his body made of the five elements into the three modes trittve panchatvam refers to the five elements trittve refers to the body tachchai katve ajuhon muni and then three modes he entered them further back tachchai katve so the idea is just withdraw everything into prakriti into the unmanifest material nature so then what remained was sarvam atmanya ajuhavit and he offered that to the jiva and the atma and then ultimately he offered that the self to the indestructible supreme so it’s basically the withdrawal of consciousness from externals towards internals and ultimately towards the supreme internal reality that is Krishna so he actually understands that at one level he is in this world and he has to get out of this world so now another level Vishwanath Chakrathakur explains his commentary that he is an eternal associate but although he is an eternal associate he doesn’t act all the time like an eternal associate he acts like he is a soul who is entangled and he is setting an example for us of how we are to renounce the world so in that mode he is demonstrating how we distance ourselves from our externals and move towards renunciation text 43 chiravasa niraharo baddhavan muktam murdha jahan darsayan atmano roopam jadon matta pishachavat anek anavek shamano niragad ashrunvan badhiro yatha now this can appear quite scary chiravasa niraharo he accepted torn clothing niraharo the chiravasa and then niraharo means he gave up food, he did not simply want to stay on, entangled in this world so niraharo here once he had understood that he wants to get out of this body, then there is no reason to keep maintaining the body and then further baddhavan muktam murdha jahan baddhavan so van is vak, speech the faculty of speech, baddhavan he just stopped his speaking, now physically sometimes we may stalk ourselves from speaking stop someone by speaking by gagging, but no here he voluntarily chose to take a mauna vrat, muktam murdha jahan he untied his hair darsayan atmano roopam darsayan atmano roopam jadon matta pishachavat so he started looking like a like a jada, like a foolish or a mad person like an inert person, dumb person or a pishach, like some kind of a ghost or something so now this is he just that person who was living in a royal opulence he just renounced everything, anavekshyamano niragad anavekshyamano he just did not wait for anything else, niragad he became situated in transcendence ashunvan badhiro yatha as if he was not hearing anything he was like a deaf man this is a very scary idea for us normally when we think of say devotees departing from the world we would like to hear about how they were surrounded by the devotees doing kirtans and how everything was going very wonderfully for them, how they were also in peaceful consciousness and that’s how they departed from the world but here what we see is far from any such thing, they are departing from the world simply by he is turned away from the world whole idea is that we all have roles to play in this world and we play the role and as soon as the role is over we move on and move out that single pointed attachment in a very sobering and scary way is being shown here by Yudhishthir Maharaj thus when he shows his renunciation the whole idea is that he is actually setting an example for us and then as he was dressed like this he decided to udhichim pravivesh shahsam katapurvam mahatmabhi rudhi brahma paramdhyayan na vartet yato gathah na vartet yato gathah na vartet he actually in this way departed from the path na vartet the path from which one does not return renunciation is supposed to be a decision that is taken especially when it is taken at the old age that is take it and life is over now so udhichim pravivesh shahsam so the northern path which is accepted, the path of going towards the north which is accepted by his forefathers katapurvam mahatmabhi that which has been accepted by his purvam by his predecessors, he accepted it also he was a great soul, rudhi brahma paramdhyayan and his consciousness was fixed on the parambrahma dhyayan, he was absorbed in him and this way he renounced the world the Bhagavatam has this understanding of perfection that this world is a temporary place and it has to be renounced and those who can renounce it courageously they are heroic they are the people who will pass the exam of death and how Parikshit Maharaj will pass the exam of death that will be the theme of the whole Bhagavatam but it begins with the theme of death here and Yudhishtir boldly renouncing the world