Bhagavatam tenth canto study 68 – 10.12.18-28 – Our perceptions are shaped by our conceptions

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 12, The Killing of the Demon Ghāsura, Text 18 onwards. In that posture, with the mouth wide open, Sarve, when Kṛṣṇa and all the Gopās saw him like that, matvā vṛndāvana śrīyam, they thought, this must be a part of the beauty of Vṛndāvana, maybe it’s a statue, maybe it’s a plaything, and they thought it is just like in some parks, sometimes, say some tunnels through which children can ride or walk or crawl, they may be shaped like some animals, so they thought this is something, the plaything which is there here in Vṛndāvana, vyāta-jigar-tundena, it is shaped like the face of a python, and utprekṣante smalīlaya, it was meant for their enjoyment, for them to play. We all live in a world where we perceive things according to our conceptions.
Our perceptions are shaped by our conceptions, and gradually our conceptions are also shaped by our perceptions. So, for example, if we are in a war field, and we know that this is a war field, then whatever we see, we will see it very cautiously, even with some fear, because there can be a lot of danger there. But, in contrast, if we are in a playground, or in a garden, where we are just having fun, then if we see something, and we are not expecting any danger, then we think, oh, is this a part of the playground? Is this a part of the park where we can see something attractive and enjoy that? So, that’s what is the issue over here.
And the question coming up is, what exactly are the vraja-gopās? They are small children, and they are playing. Now, of course, they have encountered great danger in terms of the many threats that Kṛṣṇa has faced, but still, overall, their worldview is shaped more by pleasure. Their conceptions are, the Vṛndāvana forest is a place of enjoyment, and thus, now these children, if we consider that, along with Kṛṣṇa, they have been sporting in the forest, but the vraja forest is also quite big, and they are small children at this stage, so they have not explored all of the forest, and thus, they think, oh, have we come across something new? Something that we have not seen before, and something that we may not, that is meant for our pleasure.
So, our conceptions are shaped by our perceptions, and our perceptions are shaped by our conceptions. This is reciprocation. So, how we think, accordingly we see the world, and based on how we see, that kind of seeing also gradually shapes the world.
So, therefore, the important thing is that we need to recognize that the Vrajavasis saw this dangerous-looking python as simply a play object. And what did they say? They spoke accordingly to each other. aho mitrāṇi gadata sattva-kūtaṁ purhasthitam asmat saṅgrasaṁ vyātta vyālatundāyate navā aho mitrāṇi gadata They said to each other, just see, let’s inquire about this, is this, oh friends, let’s inquire, sattva-kūtaṁ purhasthitam is this python dead? Or is it actually a living thing? Because he was completely motionless.
What is written in front, asmat saṅgrasaṁ vyātta or is it saṅgrasaṁ, for devouring us, is situated over here. vyālatundāyate navā And as it opens its mouth to devour us. So, basically for each one of us, based on the kind of situation we are in, our perceptions are shaped accordingly.
And when our perceptions are shaped accordingly, we need to inquire. Sometimes we cannot know the total reality. So based on what we observe, we try to understand what is this and what is that.
And accordingly we move forward, shaping things. satyam arka-karārttam uttara-hanuvad-ganam adhara-hanuvad-rodhas tat-prati-chaya-yārunam So now, after discussing, after considering, after contemplating, I decided that actually this is a real thing. This is not just something which we are perceiving.
There is something which is really here. And what is it really doing over here? It is here to devour us. And we need to be extremely careful, otherwise we will be devoured by it.
satyam arka-karārttam arka-karārttam That it is appearing like the sunshine, the fulgent, uttara-hanuvad-ganam and its upper lips are like the clouds in the sky. adhara-hanuvad-rodhas Its lower lips appear to be like a big bank. And thus it is situated over here, reflecting the sunshine.
So now they are describing and they are analyzing and they are inferring something. Their inference is that this is a real dangerous thing, which we need to observe and we need to learn from about it. pratispardhete-srukabhyam sauvya-savena-godhare tumga-shringala-yopetas padamstra-bhishch-pashyatam They continue the description of this.
pratispardhete That its mouth, the two depressions, there are mountain caves which look like its mouth. Basically the description is going on over here. And it has, if we consider a mountain which is very tall and a mountain which is not so tall, then the mountain that is not so tall, on top of it also there can be peaks.
The teeth are like the peaks of that mountain. And in that way, it’s going on over here. And then they are further describing it.
asrutyam namargoyam rasanam pratigarja chiti esham antargatam dhvantam etadapi antaranam Its length and breadth, the animal’s tongue resembles a broad traffic way. And the inside of its mouth is a very dark, like a cave in a mountain. We can try to visualize this now.
Now tongue, we can put some food on it. But if it’s a traffic way or a broad way, that means huge trucks, sometimes multi-lane trucks can go over there. That’s huge.
And then, where is this going into? It’s like a cave into which it is going. So in multiple ways, they are showing that it’s dangerous. So davoshna kharvatoyam shvasavad bhaati pashyata tadagdha sattva durgandho apyantaramishe gandhavat davoshna kharvatoyam And when he’s breathing, the air is coming in and out.
It is quite fiery that the air is coming out. And it’s not only fiery, it’s also smelling quite badly. It’s giving off the bad smell, a burning smell.
Because of all the dead bodies he has eaten. And in this way, it’s a deadly condition that it is in. It’s the breath coming out of his mouth.
So thus it is, thus it’s trapped. asmān kīmatya-grasitā nivīṣṭhān āyam tathā cēd-bhakavad-vinaṁśyati kṣaṇād-anēnti-bhakārya-viṣaṇ-mukhaṁ vikṣodha-santah karatād-anairyayo Now the Vrajavasis observed the danger, they perceived the danger. But that danger did not alarm them.
Why? Because they thought asmān kīmatya-grasitā nivīṣṭhān Has this creature come to swallow us? If he has so, he will immediately be killed like Bakasura. Because Krishna is there with us. And they saw that, oh Krishna will take care of it.
Now Bakasura was the demon which had come previously. And Krishna dealt with it. Krishna ripped apart its mouth, ripped apart its body and ended its terror.
So similarly, just as Krishna got rid of Bakasura, similarly they are confident Krishna will get rid of Aghasura, this particular demon also. And so thinking like this, with their confidence in Krishna, they laughed and clapped and they entered into it. So this is a little surprising that why would anyone do something like this, that if they knew it’s a danger, then why enter into the jaws of danger? What is one going to get by that? The point is that what they are going to get by this is they think it’s just going to be fun.
When we have confidence in our protection and sometimes even if we go into a dangerous place, we feel that there is no danger because we have a protector. That is the protector we all need. And ultimately Krishna is the protector.
Of course, the Vrajavasis are small children and sometimes say, when we are trying to share Krishna Bhakti with others, when we are trying to say pre-age, so often we are entering into the jaws of illusion. We are entering deep into those jaws because that’s how we are going to be trapped and we cannot get out of that trap in any way. But what happens is, on our own we might go into illusion and we may not be able to come out but with Krishna’s grace, with Krishna’s mercy, we will be able to come out.
And that’s what is being talked about in this section over here. Now, it goes on over here. Bhagawan Manodhate So, thinking like this, Krishna made up his mind.
What did Krishna do when he made up his mind? Tathyam atagyabhashitam So, the Vrajavasis were discussing, the Vrajagopas were discussing whether this is a real one or it is a false one and they thought that even if it is real, Krishna will protect us. If it is not real, we will have fun. And thinking in this way, they decided to enter.
And Krishna was there. Krishna is inside their hearts also and thus Krishna decided that they should, they need to be protected now. Now, because Krishna knew that this is a real demon and that there is a real danger over here, Krishna did not want the Vrajavasis, Vrajagopas to go into danger unnecessarily.
So, to protect them, to stop them, to deter them, he was going to tell them that don’t go here. This is big trouble. But somehow, they went in over there.
Now, further if we go, what happened after that? Here, the thread of logic seems to be interesting that the Vrajavasis thought that maybe this is a plaything or it is a real demon and Krishna knew that it was a real demon and he wanted to stop the, to stop his friends from going inside. So, is it that the Gopas were actually thinking that they were tempting the devil and wanting that Krishna come to protect them or what exactly was going on? So, it’s interesting, everything, the Gopas were playing a game and they entered. Now, Ghasur was playing a game and he was waiting.
Normally, if we consider how things happen, if there is a tunnel, we enter into the tunnel and then we might stay there and decide that we want to turn back. The tunnel has a door that closes that we may not be able to come out. But otherwise, normally we should be able to come out whenever we want.
Usually, normally a tunnel does not have a force that pulls us inside the tunnel. But if you consider the mouth of Ghasur, that is like a tunnel and every living being, say, when we swallow water, when we swallow food or we drink water, so we have the capacity to pull things into our belly, down our alimentary canal, from our mouth. So, like that, animals, they take things into their mouth and then they pull it down.
So, he definitely had the power to pull that demon down. But still he did not, because he was waiting for Krishna. So, his main purpose was to kill Krishna, but while killing Krishna, he also wanted to take care of others.
The gopas were simply tools for him using whom he would kill others. With that in mind, he waited and waited and further waited. तान् विक्ष कृष्ण सकलाभयः परदो। गृणार्धितो दिष्ट कृतेन विस्मितः। तान् विक्ष कृष्ण सकलाभयः परदो। So, Krishna gives abhaya, fearlessness to everyone.
And that Krishna who can give fearlessness to everyone, ये अनन्यनातान सो कराद अवच्छुतान। So, that Krishna gives fearlessness to everyone, but that Krishna saw that the Gopas had gone out of his hand, out of his safety, and they had entered into the mouth of Vachutan, they had entered into the mouth of Aghasur, dīnaṁ śyamṛtyur yatharāgaṁ ghasān. That means they had entered into death personified because it was his digestive fire. And if suppose ghasān, if a straw enters into it, if a straw enters into fire, then there is very little chance of the straw surviving.
Just get burned completely. Similarly, he was fearful that Krishna was concerned. Krishna was astounded, what are these children doing? Why are they entering like this into the mouth of Vakha, of Agha rather? And normally the stronger the digestive fire, the faster is the food swallowed, digested and assimilated.
Now, of course, if the food is something living, then the destruction is enormous. And there is very little we can do about the destruction. But if the fruit is not that big, the food is not that big, then what happens? And the food is destroyed, but it is not destroyed.
What do you do at that time? So, if the food, sorry, if the digestive fire, if the food is living, then the food gets killed and destroyed. Either it is killed by being chewed right in the mouth or it gets destroyed when it is digested. Either way, destruction happens.
So, diṣṭha-kṛteṇa-viṣṭhitaḥ, seeing his Gopa friends entering like this into that, he was astounded. kṛtyam kim atrāsya khalasya jīvanam na vā amīśyāṁ ca sataṁ vihīṁśanam dvayaṁ katham syādhiti sambhīṁ cittaḥ jñātā viṣatundam aśeṣa-dṛgharihim Now, what was he to do? Krishna started thinking. Viṣṭhitaḥ.
It’s interesting, the emotion described for Krishna was viṣṭhitaḥ. Normally we might say viṣṭhitaḥ is amazed, astounded we could say. But if our loved ones have been threatened and are about to be killed, we wouldn’t just be astounded, we would be alarmed, we would be aghast.
So, what was happening here? Why was Krishna not alarmed? He was alarmed because Krishna was here. He is, of course, God. He is performing his leela and everything is playful for him.
But still, at this point, the Bhagavatam shows that he was thinking. He was contemplating about what to do and how to deal with that situation. The previous verse also says that, ananya-nātha and abhaya-prada.
That Lord who grants fearlessness and who is, and the Gopas, and he was the only Lord of the Gopas. They had no other Lord apart from him. jatarāgni-ghāsān.
So, what to do in such a situation? How to deal? How to rectify? How to move forwards? Krishna started thinking about it. At one level, he had to protect his cowherd Gopas. At another level, he had to kill the demons.
He started thinking, how can I accomplish both of them? So, in this situation, how can I end this khala, this envious demon? The death of the devotees, how can I bring it about? The death of the demon and the protection from death of my devotees. How can I bring about? So, thinking like this, what are the two, what are the way in which I can accomplish both? And he decided that, sometimes, you know, if, say, in a typical movie, you might see, the villain holds the heroine hostage, keeps a gun near her head or neck, keeps a knife near her neck, and then tells the hero, either drop your weapons, or do what I tell you to do. Otherwise, I will kill her.
So, when this kind of thinking is going on, the hero has to do two things. The hero has to protect the heroine and at the same time, the hero has to finish the demon. So, you could say, similar situation is here.
Krishna has to, at one level, protect the Gopas and they are already inside the mouth of Bhaka. Although they have not, mouth has not yet been closed. So, the hero often plays along with the villain, waiting for opportunity to set things straight.
How he will set things straight? So, he decides, right now, for the time being, let me just enter into the mouth of the demon. That’s the first step and after I take this first step, then we will decide what is the next step to be taken. How I can move forward after that.
I will decide that. Thank you.