Bhagavatam tenth canto study 76 – 10.13.50-56 – Brahma sees all universal opulences sheltered in the Vishnus expanded from Krishna

Thank you. Krishna forms to be Viṣṇu, and is astounded by that. A pure smiling, like the full increasing moonlight.
So, these Viṣṇu forms, their smile and their laughs are astonishingly attractive. And their glances, with their reddish eyes, were also attractive. So, by the desires of their own devotees, they protected the desires of the devotees as if by the modes of passion and ignorance, for passion and goodness.
What that means is, that desires are maintained, desires are created and fulfilled, whatever the desires are. So, these Viṣṇu forms look very attractive, and their attractiveness can be defined in various ways, in various contexts. But in this particular context, attractiveness meant that they were fulfilling the immense desires of the Vṛjīgopīs, of the Vṛjīvāsīs.
And the Vṛjīvāsī desire, of course, ultimately you can say, is to serve the Lord, to member Krishna, to be absorbed in Krishna. But they are all individuals, and they have their individual way in which they would love to serve Krishna. Individual way in which they would love to come closer to him.
And all that Krishna was providing them. So, Krishna here is in the form of, is expanded as all the Gopās, and whose desires has he fulfilled? He has fulfilled the desires of the motherly Gopīs to have Krishna as their own son. They loved Krishna.
They did not at all envy Anurīśvara, her position as mother of Krishna. But they desired that position for themselves also. Just because of their love for Krishna, they wanted to offer him all possible service.
And by being the mother of Krishna, they could offer him special service, which was their thought. naturally, therefore, the question was that what was going on here? That Brahmāji is bewildered because he can’t understand. But Krishna has made sure that his own pastimes are not only going on, but they are, there is a new flavor, there is something new that is being done.
A new desire is being fulfilled. Or rather, a desire that was not fulfillable earlier is being fulfilled. This is the example of how Krishna uses even the impetuous or interfering kind of actions of those around him for his purposes.
Krishna can even use the mistakes and misdeeds of others to further his plans for reciprocating with his devotees. So Brahmāji is foolhardiness in trying to test Krishna’s power was taken by Krishna and used to fulfill the desire of those motherly gopīs who longed to have Krishna as their son. Of course, here all the forms of Vishnu are being manifested or rather Krishna, Brahmāji seeing all these forms of Vishnu and he said that they are fulfilling the desires of their devotees.
That is, nature also and that’s what Krishna has done in this pastime. Now, text 51 ātmādi-stambh-paryantair mūrti-mad-bhis-carār-carai rūpta-gītādy-anekārai prathak-prathak-upāsitahā ātmādi-stambh-paryantair See, it’s interesting that in the opulences around these Vishnu murtis, Brahmā saw Brahmā himself, he saw that he was also among the many living beings who were offering praises and worship to these various Vishnu murtis. ātmādi-stambh-paryantair Stambh is used for a blade of grass or a stump of a tree.
So, that is used in general in the Vedic context. ātmā and stambh are used as two extreme examples to convey the expanse of all of creation. ātmā here because Brahmā has been talking about, so Brahmā himself.
Stambh, a blade of grass, similar verse comes in the Hare Nāma āśṭakam Kevalāśṭakam that So, ābrahma-stambh-paryantam sarva-māyā-madhyam yaya-ilam-jagat satyam-satyam punha-satyam hare rāmeva kevalam So here, all living beings are seen to be worshipping Krishna. mūrti-madhviśh-carācarai They are even carācarai, moving and non-moving living beings. nṛtti-gītādi-anekārai that some of them are dancing, singing.
In this way, varied forms of worship are being offered. prutak-prutak-upāsitai So, all living beings, prutak-prutak means according to their individual capacity, their ability, they are all offering worship. So here, at one level, Brahmāji saw the gopās and then when he was bewildered, not understanding what is going on, Krishna revealed to him the reality and not just the reality as it is, all these gopās are actually Krishna.
So his, Brahmāji’s doubt was about how can Krishna, such a small boy, have actually killed such a big demon. So he answered the question by stating that actually it was so if all these forms had been shown to be Krishna, then he would have thought okay, maybe Krishna has some mystic powers. But when around Krishna all these viṣṇu-mūrtis were shown and viṣṇu-mūrtis in full regal opulence and surrounded by all their associates.
So here, this Brahmā’s one sense is worshipable deity, the person who is his boss, to whom he approaches when things need to be escalated beyond him, that is Viṣṇu. So when he sees viṣṇu-mūrtis, he understands I am no one to I was fooled to test this person because this person is actually my boss. So that’s how here we have the viṣṇu-mūrtis being revealed to Brahmāji so that he can understand the reality of what is going on around him.
Who is it that he was trying to test? Text 52 now. So then everything that is opulent in the universe that is attending to and serving Viṣṇu. That’s the vision that he is being given over here.
So one part of that vision is also the various siddhis. Anima, Mahima all the siddhis. So by Anima all the siddhis are there.
Mahima, Adhi various opulence are there. Ajādhyābhi and Vibhūtibhi The various mystic potencies headed by Ajā they are also there. Then So the 24 elements of material existence material creation there.
So Vishnumurtis were surrounded by all these. As we have seen earlier Krishna displayed a universal form to Mother Yashoda. So Krishna’s display of the universal form was more of the universe being contained within him.
And there also Mother Yashoda saw herself inside that universe looking at Krishna. And here also it’s not so much the universal form it is the whole universe with everything glorious in it. And it is not contained in Krishna but it is surrounding the Krishna and all these things are worshipping the Vishnumurtis.
And here also Brahma sees himself among them. So the idea is that here the universe is subordinate to and is supplicating Vishnu. That is the vision being revealed and Brahmaji realizes I am completely outclassed over here.
The person over here is far far bigger than who I am and who I can ever be. That is the idea over here. Text 53 Now along with that various other ingredients of Vedic culture are also seen here to be worshipping the Lord.
So what are they? So these are all factors which shape our behaviour and which are meant to reshape our behaviour some of them so that we can become more dharmic. So time, nature, then culture or purificatory ceremonies, reformatory ceremonies, Kama, Karma, Guna, Dibhi. Kama is desire.
Here Kama is a part of the Purusharthas. Karma is the actions that we do. Guna, Dibhi, the three modes of material nature.
So Mahi, Dvasth, Mahita, Mahibhir, Swa, Mahi, Dvasth, Mahibhir. That all these their independence was subordinate to Mahibhir, the great lord. Murtimadbhi, Upasithai.
So they all had taken forms Murtimadbhi and they were all worshipping the lord. So basically the point is we human beings live in a complicated universe where in this universe where we live there are many forces far bigger than us that operate around us, on us and through us. So the modes for example or time.
So we are constantly operating on us, around us and through us and although Brahmaji is very elevated he knows how powerful these forces are and he may not sometimes be subordinate to the forces always but he knows how powerful they are and in this vision which Brahmaji is having essentially he is seeing that whatever might be considered very powerful it’s all subordinate to Vishnu and he he who tried to test the powers of Vishnu is like the odd man out. He is trying to assert his independence but everyone else is demonstrating and celebrating their dependence on Vishnu because they all understand he is their lord and thus here you see the special kind of vision that Vishnu has given to Brahma so that Brahma can be freed from illusion now text 54 so now here it says so here the Upanishadic attributes of the absolute truth which are often celebrated while describing the absolute truth so they are described as being fulfilled and perfected in these Vishnu murtis therefore Ananta Brahma is said to be having Satya, Gyan, Ananda and it is said Rasapurna so all that the Upanishads glorify as being the attributes of Brahman those attributes are being described as are described here as being possessed by the Vishnu murtis so again this is in one sense this chapter or this section is similar to the Vibhuti yoga in the 10th chapter where whatever is attractive in any part of the universe is shown to be subordinate to and manifested by Krishna’s grace so of course this is shown in the Virat Rupa in the 11th chapter and that is verbally it is expounded in the 10th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita so here there is no verbal exposition there is simply a visual demonstration and this is for Brahmaji’s enlightenment to reveal to him that whatever he thinks might be great whatever be his conception of greatness that greatness is not only present in but is sheltered in these Vishnu murtis thus the Asprastha Bhuri Mahamya Mahatmya that even the Upanishads describe the absolute truth but they cannot actually even begin to exhaust the description they can barely start describing them so those Asprastha those we are not even touched by touched by them but those glories are vividly revealed over here see for the Upanishads for example the Upanishads do not really talk about the personal form of the lord so much so that personal manifestation of the absolute which is untouched by the Upanishads is richly vividly demonstrated here in the Vishnu murtis and thus that is the point being made over here that the form of personified bliss so all of them eternity joy knowledge unlimitedness rich with mellow all these which are the characteristics of Brahma described in the Upanishads are seen by Brahma to be present here Upanishad Drisham that which those who study the Drisham those who study the Upanishads even they cannot understand that lord is being manifested here for Brahmaji to see so through these multiple perspectives Brahmaji is being given the vision of how Krishna is his supreme lord and he was so utterly foolish in trying to test Krishna so whatever doubt he might have about Krishna’s potency that can be completely dissipated just like in the Ramayana initially Sugriva had doubts whether Ram would be able to defeat Vali and then Ram demonstrated in such a powerful way piercing the whole earth and come back that Sugri was convinced beyond doubt so similarly whatever doubt Brahma had about Krishna’s position through these multifarious demonstrations of the Ashtasiddhis of the 24 elements of material nature of the various Devatas of the various elements of Dharma of the Kalakarma Guna and of the Upanishadic glories of the absolute that all of them personified are worshipping Krishna by this all doubts in Brahma are being totally eliminated text 55 evam sakrut darsha darsha jah parabrahma atmano khilan yasyabhasha sarvamidam vibhati saccharacharam so evam sakrut darsha so in this way Ajah Lord Brahma saw everything all this at one time the darsha parabrahma so he saw the supreme absolute truth atmano khilan he saw the expansions of all these yasyabhasha sarvamidam khilan now it’s interesting here now Brahmaji is being given a parallel vision parallel vision means at one level so sometimes we have some pictures say it’s made with such photography that from one angle it appears like Krishna another angle it appears like Ram if you see it similarly Brahmaji is being given a vision here that he is seeing these many various forms as the gopas and cows and then he is seeing them as Vishnu forms so it’s like the last vestige of doubt what might remain within him that also is being dissipated and yasyabhasha this manifest bhasa this manifestation which you are seeing saccharacharam everything that was moving and non-moving that is all subordinate to lord Vishnu and that was all the opulence of these Vishnu murtis he saw that in this way he was completely convinced there was no room for doubt left for him because the whole thing was so utterly clear in the text 56 tato atik atik kutuko dhruvtya steamik adashendriha tad dhamna bhud ajastushnim purudevya anitva putrika what else did he see so now brahmaji his indriya all his eleven senses were jolted by this by the first it was amazement but now it was bliss tad dhamna bhud ajastushnim and the effulgence of those Vishnu murtis left him stunned the opulence is so great that whatever opulence brahma might have that pales into insignificance and here it is described the comparison is purudevya anitva putrika purudevya purudevya refers to the village goddess or village deity gramya devata and anitva putrika and a clay doll made by a child now a clay doll might look attractive but once the forest deity the lord displays in such a way that the challenger gets overwhelmed even despite having great power we have lord shiva wanting to see the mohini murti or we have markandeya rishi wanting to see again the illusory energy of the lord and both of them despite all their intelligence and their exalted position get bewildered brahmaji also here is completely bewildered utterly stunned what happens thereafter we will discuss in our future talks Hare Krishna