Bhagavatam tenth canto study 38 – 10.7.13-18 The potency of blessings increases with the purity of the blesser

Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 7, entitled The Killing of the Demon Trnaavartam, text 13 onwards.
Till now in this past time, Krishna has delivered, has broken the cart thereby destroying the demon Shaktasura and the Brajivasis bewildered about what caused the cart to break, performed ritualistic ceremonies to ward off malefic influences on the child as well as any malefic influences associated with the cart. And now the narration by Shukadeva Goswami goes on. ये असुयान्रुद्धम्भेश्रिषा हिम्सामान विवर्जितः नतीशाम् सत्यशीलानाम् आशिषो विफलाकृतः So, आशिषो विफलाकृतः, आशिषा refers to the blessings that are given by them, who are them, नतीशाम्, by those brahmanas, विफलाकृतः, their blessings will not go in vain.
The Bhagavatam is describing, as will be mentioned in the next verse, the thinking of Nanda Maharaj. Normally blessings are auspicious, but whose blessings are auspicious? We could say any elder, their blessings are capable of bringing auspiciousness in our life. So when that is understood, so when the Brajivasis, they want to seek blessings, Nanda Maharaj wants to seek blessings, so he also wants blessings that have potency.
Different people, depending on their relative power, on their relative purity, can have different capacities to offer blessings. And when the people, the brahmanas especially, who perform rituals and who give blessings, if they can offer blessings, then those blessings can have special potency. And especially if the brahmanas are not just ritual brahmanas, but they are cultured brahmanas, then the blessings they offer can also have great potency.
So that potency is what is talked about here, in terms of the kind of qualities. असुयान्रुत् दम्भेरिषा So those who are free from envy or untruthfulness or ego, they do not hold grudges against anyone. हिम्सा मान विवर्चितः Those who are not violent, Prabhupada explains that brahmanas normally would not be violent in terms of taking up weapons to attack others.
But they may be violent in terms of, they may not be able to see, somehow if they see another brahmana who is great learning, who can perform ritualistic ceremonies better than them, then they may get disturbed by that. But the brahmanas do not get disturbed like this. मान विवर्चितः They do not have any considerations of ego.
तेशां सत्यशीलानाम And those who are in this way, सत्यशीलानाम Those who are cultured, having the qualities that character, having the behavior and the character that characterizes a brahmana, सत्यशीलानाम Then for the blessings given by them, आशिषो विफलाकृतः The blessings given by them will never be, never go in vain. This understanding is very special. इति बालकमादाय सामरग्यजुर उपाकृतः So, इति बालकमादाय In this way they try to help the child.
And they try to help the child by having for the child, after considering all this, सामरग्यजुर उपाकृतः सामरग So, सामरुग and यजुर So, from these Vedas, whatever mantras can be chanted for having an auspiciousness being bestowed on the child, उपाकृतः Those were performed appropriately. जलई पवित्र आउशद्धिभीर So, with the sprinkling of water and the use of appropriate आउशद्धी Whatever herbs were required. अभिषिच्च दुज़ो उत्तमै He got the child to be bathed after performing the purificatory rituals by दुज़ो उत्तमै By the best of the Brahmanas.
So, the idea here is that the Rajivasis, when they face some inexplicable complications, they cannot understand why something like this has happened. Then, अभिषिच्च दुज़ो उत्तमै So, they performed rituals so that they were doing everything they could to protect their child. They couldn’t figure why something bad is happening.
But what they knew could be potent enough to counter that bad, they were doing that and in that way they were trying to protect the child. वाचयित्वास्वस्त्ययनं नन्दगोपसमाहितः उत्वाचागनिम् विजातिभ्य प्रादाद अन्नं महागुणम् वाचयित्वास्वस्त्ययनं So, वाचयित्वा So, in this way, when auspicious recitation was done, when the brahmanas were required, were requested to recite mantras in this way for bringing auspiciousness, नन्दगोपसमाहितः So, Nanda who is head of the Gopasamahitaha, he was liberal and virtuous, उत्वाचागनिम् विजातिभ्य प्रादाद अन्नं महागुणम् So, when they performed fire sacrifice, उत्वाचागनिम् विजातिभ्य So, he sought the blessings from the brahmanas. And when they performed the rituals for invoking auspiciousness on the child, he also gave them महागुणम् अन्नं That means he gave them grains which were of high quality and he also gave charity of that kind of grains along with other food.
प्रादाद अन्नं Now, grains can also be of various qualities. Now, if you want to have rice, we can have Basmati rice, which is considered to be very opulent, high quality rice. It is rice, but its texture and taste are such that it is exquisite and something which only very wealthy people can afford.
So, when charity is given, what kind of charity is given, what kind of food is given in charity, that is also something that needs to be considered. And in this case, the Vrajvasis, the Gopas, the Maharajas, the head of the Vrajvasis, the fact that they are ready to give opulent charity indicates that they consider Krishna to be so important and they consider Krishna’s protection to be so important that they are ready to do whatever it takes for the protection of that child. And thus, they are ready to give lavish charity and they are doing auspicious rituals to invoke the blessings on Krishna of the Brahmanas, just by their presence and by their good wishes as well as by their performance of rituals which ward off inauspiciousness and which attract auspiciousness.
In this way, when the Maharaj, he takes this incident of the cart falling very seriously, the cart crumbling and getting knocked over and getting broken, he takes it seriously because he wants to stress the point that actually it is not something which is ordinary, not something which they are going to take lightly. They see it as something which is a very grave kind of occurrence and that grave occurrence, they want to make sure that it is demonstrated, that it is recognized how grave it is and accordingly whatever is necessary for their protection of the child to avoid the recurrence of such grave occurrences, the Brajwasis are doing. When something practically goes wrong, we can take practical measures, but when something goes wrong and there is no practical cause that can be seen, then we understand that there must be some higher cause and therefore something must be done.
That’s how we work. So text 16 now. गावश सर्वगुणो पेता बासः स्रग्रुख्ममालिनी आत्मजाब्युधयार्थाय रादाते चान्व युञ्जता गावश सर्वगुणो पेता गावश सर्वगुणो पेता Means the cows who were able to गुणो पेता Now one of the defining qualities of a cow is that she should give milk and so there is a qualification.
A cow is valued based on how much milk it gives and what is the quality and quantity of the milk that it gives. So a cow which gives a lot of milk and a lot of good quality milk is considered to be special of a special cow. So similarly this kind of cow गावश सर्वगुणो पेता बासः स्रग्रुख्मालिनी and those who were dressed with flower garlands रुख्मालिनी and not just garlands of flowers but even golden garlands आत्मजा भुदया अर्थायः आत्मजा अभ्युदया अर्थायः So there is an alliteration of the अ sound over here आत्मजा begins with the अ-अ sound and ends with the अ sound अभ्युदया begins and ends with the अ-अ sound and अर्थायः अभ्युदया is a अ-अ sound Now in some situations अभ्युदया is contrasted with निष्रेयस् अभ्युदया refers to the short-term well-being or to the material well-being and निष्रेयस् refers to the long-term well-being or the spiritual well-being So आत्मजा अभ्युदया अर्थायः That means they sought the well-being of the child, the material well-being of the child the material protection of the child So now it is that Krishna of course has nothing material about him, himself is transcendental However the Vrajavasis treat them like their own child and they do everything that is possible from their side to protect that child So therefore that’s what they are doing over here and they say आत्मजा अभ्युदया अर्थायः So here it’s in a generic sense that they sought the welfare of the child and when we love someone we can’t artificially differentiate between the material and the spiritual We can’t say to someone I care for your soul, I don’t care for your body Now the body and the soul together are integrated at least as a one functional unit right now Ontologically the soul and the body are different but functionally the soul functions in this world to the body and we cannot divorce the body from the soul They all have to work together आत्मजा अभ्युदया अर्थायः So आत्मजा अभ्युदया अर्थायः We take care they wanted to have auspiciousness for the child and because there is a material danger they are seeking the material protection of the child and of course whatever emotion is or whatever is connected with Krishna that is not material that is transcendental that is meant for the ultimate well-being of Krishna प्रादादेचा अन्वयुञ्जता So now he said that Andamaharaj gave wealthy cows for आत्मजा अभ्युदया अर्थायः for the auspiciousness of the child and Brahmanas they accepted the offering of charity and they gave blessings what was given in charity they accepted it and they bestowed blessings So there is a loving reciprocation centered on the baby Krishna on the welfare of the baby Krishna Andamaharaj sought his welfare and Brahmanas also did what they could based on their knowledge for the welfare of this child In this way everyone was centered on that one goal of seeking the auspicious welfare for the child Take 17 विप्रामंत्रविदो युक्तास् तैर्यः प्रोक्तास् तथाशिष्यः तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् पुतम् विप्रामंत्रविदो युक्तास् तैर्यः प्रोक्तास् तथाशिष्यः तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तान तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तानिष्वलाभविष्यन्ति नकदाचिद अपिस्पुतास् तानिष्वलाभवि योगा.
And it means that these Brahmanas could chant mantras in expert way and by such expert chanting they could actually attract many many people. And by attracting many people, by attracting not only externally many people in terms of the expert chanting of the mantras made people feel impressed. Oh what good reciters of mantras these Brahmanas are.
But along with that they also felt that these Brahmanas had something mystical going on in their lives because of which they could attract subtler powers. So yukta can mean those who are having yogic powers, those who are well situated in yoga. Now yoga gives benefits at multiple levels.
Nowadays many people are concerned with the physical health benefits of the practice of yoga. Those are certainly benefits at one level. But at another level there are other benefits which are as people practice yoga they get mystic powers.
And these mystic powers can be at various levels. Some mystic powers may be by which the yogis can have some siddhis by which they can do things which normal humans can’t do. But some yogis, some of the Brahmanas, they may also have some powers by which they can invoke higher powers and thus invoke blessings or bring blessings, have blessings bestowed on those who sponsor them, who give charity to them for invoking those higher powers.
The stress of this section is that Vrajvasis in the Maharaj are doing everything they can within their understanding of the situation for the protection of Krishna. Now this chapter has 37 verses out of which 17 verses focus on the pastime of Shaktasura. And now after this, this chapter, 7th chapter will move on to the next pastime that is the killing of the demon Trnavarta.
So generally when there are two pastimes which are combined in one chapter then often the Bhagavatam chooses one as the title. And depending on which pastime is longer or which pastime is more significant in the overall narrative framework of the Bhagavatam, that pastime may become the title of that particular chapter. If you consider the first chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, different commentators have given it two broad names.
One is Sainyendriksha Yoga and Arjuna Vishadha Yoga. So if we consider the Bhagavad Gita’s first chapter has 46 verses out of which about 25 to 26, depending on the way we number the verses, they focus on Arjuna’s observing the battlefield and thus that can be the name of the chapter Sainyendriksha Yoga or from 26 to 46 is Arjuna’s observing and the effect of Arjuna’s observing that is his lamenting. So he’s becoming disparate.
So Arjuna Vishadha Yoga. So depending on which section of the chapter is emphasized in a particular analytical frame by a particular commentator, whether it is setting the scene in terms of the driving home the physical situation in which the Bhagavad Gita was spoken or to address the mental disposition of the seeker to address which the Bhagavad Gita was spoken. Accordingly, if it is the physical situation that is being stressed to highlight the dramatic setting in which the Gita was spoken, then the first chapter will be called as Sainyendriksha Yoga.
But if the personal trauma of the seeker of the Gita is what is stressed, then for that to highlight that the second half of the Gita, second half of the Gita’s first chapter is stressed and accordingly the name will be given based on that second chapter, second half of the chapter. So just as both names are valid in their own ways, it depends on which is stressed by a particular commentator. Similarly, in the case of Krishna, just as the Bhagavata’s Bhakti can have different names, similarly here also this chapter can have different names, but based on the context because Trunavartam and its pastime is much more dramatic and eventful and the Bhagavatam stresses on Trunavartam and the being a specific demon who comes, whereas it is not stressed that way on Shaktasura.
It is the Shakata. It does not specifically mention Shaktasura. So relatively speaking, in the Bhagavatam’s narrative description, the Trunavartam demon is considered much more dangerous.
So therefore, that is what is given as the title of this chapter. So text 18. On Monday, on one occasion, the commentators explained that this occasion was when the child was about one year old.
When the child had been picked up and the child had been seated on his mother’s lap. When the child was seated like this on her lap at that time, Garimaanam, when she was carrying the child on her lap, suddenly Garimaa means the weight seemed to increase. Shishurvohum.
She felt that she could not bear his weight. Hey, what happened? How does child suddenly become so heavy? She couldn’t bear the weight. She felt it was like the child was as heavy as a mountain peak.
This was unusual. But this was also Krishna’s plan. So that when the demon Trunavartam came, Krishna is the supreme mystic.
And by his own mystic power, he could sense that this demon is going to come. And he did not want the demon to afflict mother Yashoda, to attack mother Yashoda. So he wanted her to put him down so that whatever happened, it would be to him, not to her, but to him alone.
And thus Krishna increased his weight so that there could be protection. Krishna alone would be abducted by the demon. Yashodamai would not be directly attacked by the demon when Trunavartam came to abduct him.