Bhagavatam tenth canto study 84 – 10.14.37-42 – Brahma acknowledges his insignificance before Krishna’s magnificence and munificence

Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 14, Brahma’s Prayers to Lord Krishna, Text 37. Prapancham nishprapanchopi vidambayasi bhutale, prapanna janatananda, prathitam prabho.
Prapancham nishprapancham. So, prapancha refers to that which is within material existence or essentially material existence itself. Nishprapancha is that which is beyond material existence.
Api vidambayasi. So, although when you come to the material world, you act as if you are within the material world, bhutale, on the surface of the earth. Prapanna janata ananda sandobham, prathitam.
So, you come only to offer great varieties of spiritual ecstasy to those who are devoted to you. To spread that ecstasy, you descend to this world. So, here the interesting point being made is that, okay, the previous verses glorified the Vrajavasis as, although they may appear to be just like material ordinary people who may even seem to be attached to their family and worldly things.
And why is Krishna among them? So, the previous verse declared that they are so exalted because their houses are not bondage because Krishna janaha, they are all, Krishna is one of them, they are one with, they are Krishna’s people. Now, you could say, okay, they are transcendental because of their proximity to Krishna. But why is Krishna present with them? When Krishna is transcendental and doesn’t need anything material, then why is he here in this world with these people? That is, these are actually surrendered devotees and Krishna is there with them simply to increase the ecstasy to an unlimited degree.
Krishna has no purpose other than to provide ecstasy, to provide and expand ecstasy. And how does he expand actually? We could say Krishna with his eternal associates is always experiencing ecstasy in the spiritual world and reciprocating it with them. But not all souls are there in the spiritual world.
And those who are in the material world need to get some glimpse of the immense ecstasy that awaits them in the spiritual world. And only when they get that glimpse, will they start moving in that direction, will they move toward attaining that ecstasy. And therefore, what Krishna does is, when Krishna descends to this world, Krishna provides them that glimpse.
So, Krishna provides for all conditioned souls as well as those who are seekers but not yet pure, Krishna gives them demonstrations of his ecstasy. So, now of course, we can also say that Krishna’s birth, Krishna is eternally youthful in the spiritual world. So, Krishna’s literally babyhood pastimes, Krishna’s pastimes of growth are not present in the spiritual world.
Those the devotees get to experience here. So, even for his pure devotees, his eternal associates, the ecstasy is expanded because Krishna goes through the normal human growth phases. And reciprocating love within those phases has its own special flavor.
And also the ecstasy is expanded because that ecstasy is available even for those who are not devoted, not purely devoted. So, Krishna descends to expand the ecstasy to those not purely devoted in the material world and to offer the flavor of the love for him in his birth and growing pastimes to his eternal associates. So, now text 38.
जानन्त एव जानन्तु किम भहुक्त्यानमे प्रभौ मनसो वपुषो वाचो वैभवं तव गोचरः जानन्त एव जानन्तु So, those who think that they know your unlimited prowess, my dear lord, may they think like this. किम भहुक्त्यानमे प्रभौ But I won’t speak much words about you. मनसो वपुषो वाचो With mind, body and words.
वैभवं तव गोचरः That नमे प्रभौ So, no, not possible for me, oh lord, to approach your opulence. So, here what has happened is, ब्रह्माजी So, this is a declaration of humility and knowledge. Both, that I don’t know your glories, oh lord.
And those who claim to know your glories, He says, I am not going to go about refuting them or rejecting them. Because in their very claim is the greatest declaration of their ignorance. So, he thought that he had got God all figured out.
And he thought that how could God descend as this simple cowherd boy who is actually eating the stolen food, not the stolen, the food that is the remnants from the plates of his friends, the food that is partially eaten by his friends. How can the person who eats that be God? There was that telltale reference in the 12th chapter that Brahmaji saw that Krishna doing that and that’s what bewildered him. But the key thing is, not that he was bewildered, the key thing was that he now, that bewildered him, but when he tried to test Krishna, he became even more bewildered.
And eventually, it took a long time for him to recognize the limitation of what he was going through, of what he is experiencing and how what he is experiencing was very finite and incomplete. His perception itself was incomplete. And thus, he went into illusion because of that and he is saying that, I have come out of illusion by your mercy.
And the illusion is that the thing that you can know you is itself the illusion. And to the extent we understand that actually, we can never know you. It’s like somebody who has not explored the vastness of the ocean may think that they know how big the ocean is.
But those who have even tried to swim the ocean a little bit, they understand that its breadth and its depth are so great that those who think that they know it are actually in ignorance. We humans are not trying to explore space. But even the vast world underwater is an unexplored, is a hugely unexplored territory for us.
And we can explore and discover much in that territory also. So here the overall theme is of Brahmaji giving some profuse appreciation of the glory of the Vrajavasis but also acknowledging his inability to comprehend fully the glories in terms of how expansive those glories are. Text 14 अनुजानी ही माम कृष्ण सर्वं तम वेच्ची सर्वत्रक् तुम एव जगतां नाथो जगतेत तवार्पितम अनुजानी ही माम कृष्ण So therefore, my dear lord, please give me your permission to leave.
अनुजानी ही सर्वं तम सर्वत्रक् So you are the knower and seer of everything. Which see, you are knower and you see. तुम एव जगतां नाथो You are the alone and the master of the whole universe.
जगतेत तवार्पितम And although you are the ultimate lord of the universe, but I offer this universe to you. In the sense that, I recognize that this universe is something which exists far beyond the finite mortal human capacity to know and to appreciate. And I thought that because I have created this universe, I know about it.
But within this finite universe, you have manifested. And when you sport your glories over here, how the material transmutes into the spiritual or how the material world, limited material world can accommodate the unlimited supreme being. All these are inconceivable things.
And indeed as science has explored the material universe more and more, although our knowledge has increased enormously, what has also increased is our awareness that what we know is far far lesser than what is there to be known. The awareness of the complexity of the universe has created a profound appreciation of our smallness and the world’s vastness. So he is clearly stating here, that my dear lord, I offer this one universe to you.
What does that mean? To offer the universe means that he acknowledges that this universe is in my control temporarily, but even then it is yours, oh lord. So we can also have that mood, whatever abilities we have. See we all, Brahmaji, for him the Kshetra is this world.
So all of us have some Kshetra, some territory over which we have some control. And yet that control is so finite and so fallible. And beyond it all lies the supreme lord.
As long as he gives us some arena to control, we have some control. And as soon as he takes away that control from us, then we will realize that that control was never ours. So Brahmaji thought that he is the lord of the goddess of fortune, goddess of learning, Saraswati, he knows the world.
But Krishna has shown him that he doesn’t know. So we can use whatever knowledge we have to serve the lord, but while we use, while we use whatever knowledge we have to do good, but at the same time we have to be very deeply aware that our knowledge is insignificant. And far more than what we know is what we don’t know.
Text 40. Shri Krishna Vrishni Kula Pushkara Joshidai Shmaanirjaradvijapashudadivaddhikarin Uddharmasharvarharakshiti Rakshasudrug Akalpamarkam Arhan Bhagwan Namaste Bhagwan Namaste. O lord, unto you I offer my obeisances.
Who is that lord? Shri Krishna Vrishni Kula. One who has descended in the Vishnu dynasty. Pushkara Joshidai.
One who is, how interesting the lotus can be used as a describer for many things. You could say lord’s eyes are lotus eyes, but here it is said that the Yadu dynasty, the Vrishni dynasty is like a lotus. Because it is, although it appears to be in the material world, it is like a lotus in dirty water, but it is not in dirty water actually.
It is untouched by it. Similarly, the Vrishni dynasty is full of transcendentalists, although it may appear that they are materialists. And then, Kshamanirjaradvijapashudadhi and so he says that you bestow upon the Vrishni dynasty the great happiness.
So Brahmaji here clearly knows, after all it is he who had prayed to Krishna, prayed to Vishnu that oh come and deliver. And he knew that the lord Vishnu is going to, the supreme lord is going to descend in the Vrishni dynasty. And he knows that it is the scion of the Vrishni dynasty who is now within Vrindavan.
So all of material existence with its great opulences, ranging from the oceans of devatas, the brahmanas, the cows, they all come from you, oh lord. So he now remembers the purpose for which the lord has appeared. That is, as the Bhagavad Gita says, Vinashraaja duskrtam paritranaya sadhunam.
So you are going to dispel the darkness and you are going to disempower the demons. And for this purpose of protecting the universe which is so auspicious, I am grateful to you. And, oh my lord, aa arkam arhan, I will worship you, I will offer my obeisances to you as long as the sun shines.
So really, in these prayers, we see the profoundly devotional heart of Brahma. Arjuna also says that namah purastha dapushta taste namostu te sarvata eva sarva that I offer you obeisances from the front, from the behind, from all sides. kunas chabhuyo pinamo namaste and again and again I offer obeisances.
When we truly understand the glory of God, we will understand that he is worthy of our eternal prostration and reverence and devotion. Even if we do that eternally, that is inadequate. So he is saying that throughout my lifetime, when he says as long as the sun shines, that’s a way of saying that throughout my lifetime and beyond, as long as the existence will continue, Brahmaji is going to live for the whole lifetime of the universe.
Basically he is saying as long as as existence goes on, I will continue to offer my obeisances to you. This is such a moving declaration of devotion. That moving declaration.
I am so convinced about your glories, O Lord, that I will forever be devoted to you. As long as the sun rises, I will offer my obeisances to you. In text 41, śiśuka uvāca itya abhiṣṭuya bhūmānāṁ tri-parikramaṁ me padāpādayo natvābhiṣṭaṁ jagad-dhātā svadhāma patya-padyata patya-padyata So now, śiśuka uvāca itya abhiṣṭuya bhūmānāṁ In this way, offering obeisances to the unlimited being, tri-parikramaṁ me padāpādayo He did three parikramas, three rounds of circumambulation and then padāpādayo and offered his obeisances to the lotus feet and natvābhiṣṭaṁ jagad-dhātā jagad-dhātā The one who was appointed creator, svadhāma patya-padyata, he departed for his abode.
So it’s interesting here, we see that when, later we will see that when Indra offers prayers after govardhan puja, Krishna reciprocates by saying that, by speaking some words of, words of instruction. But here apparently Krishna doesn’t speak anything to Brahmā. Brahmā offers profound prayers and after that Krishna disappears.
So now our ācāryas have described that actually in some ways, although externally speaking, Indra’s offense was greater than Brahmā’s because Indra tried to destroy the Vrajavasis. But in effect, Indra brought Krishna and all the Vrajavasis together for seven days and govardhan leela. Whereas Brahmā, he separated Krishna from his devotees, the gopās.
Of course, Krishna used that time to unite even more intimately with his closest devotees, that is the Vrajavasis, that is the cows and the cowherd women, Vrajagopya. So Krishna can use even others’ misdeeds to further his own plans. But basically, our ācāryas describe that, in some ways, Brahmā displeased Krishna more than Indra.
And we could say that, Krishna is not replying anything to Brahmā. It is an indication of his displeasure. Of course, Krishna is never displeased because Krishna is entirely displeased and Krishna would not have given the special darshan.
Indra did not get that darshan of Krishna surrounded by various Vishnumurtis and all the universes, universal opulences worshipping him. It is indeed a very special darshan, with a very special vision. Indra did not get that.
Brahmā got that. So, in each pastime, the Lord is being individual, reciprocates in individual and distinctive ways. This is just an interesting observation that Brahmāji offers his prayers and then offers his obeisances and then departs.
So, text 42 now. तत्तो अनुप्नुज्ञाप्य भगवान् स्वभूवं प्रागवस्तितान् बत्सान् पुलिनम् आनिन्य यथापूर्वसखम् सुखम् Now, everything returns back to as if it is normal. तत्तो अनुप्नुज्ञाप्य भगवान् After he gave permission to Brahmā to depart, what happened? स्वभूवं प्रागवस्तितान् So, now it’s interesting, स्वभूवं can say that although Krishna is a child and Brahmā is you could say the first person in the universe, at one level, Brahmā is the biggest, Brahmā is the oldest person in the universe and Krishna has come much later, but Krishna is actually the father of Brahmā because even Brahmā has come from Krishna.
स्वभूवं, therefore, Bhagavān gave permission to Brahmā to depart. प्रागवस्तितान् and then everything returns as it was. So, it was as if nothing happened.
Krishna returned, took the situation back to where all the Varajavas, Gopās are with him. Like sometimes we have some special kind of time-lapse movies where people get a glimpse of what may happen in the future and based on that, then they come back to the present. And when they come back to the present, it’s as if nothing has happened.
So, those visions of alternate realities or possible future realities is meant to help people act in a way that those negative realities don’t come true and positive realities come true. So, for example, Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol shows that how the character there, Scrooge, is visited by the spirit of Christmas past, present and future and thereby his stinginess is transformed to kindness. So, when he returns after having those visions, he finds that he is still there but although externally nothing has changed, internally he has dramatically changed.
So, Brahmāji departs and although externally nothing has changed, all of Vṛndāvana has returned back to the same situation where Krishna is going after the cows who have gone far away from the Gopās but internally Brahmā has realized Krishna’s infinite glories and thus he is profoundly transformed. vatsān pulinam āniññe He brought the cows, so the cows had wandered away, Krishna brought them back and there his friends were still having their meal. So, because they had been put in yoga-nidra, they didn’t realize what had happened and such is the mystic opulence of Krishna that extraordinary things may happen and yet it’s as if nothing has happened.
So, as you can see, broadly speaking, Brahmāji’s prayers run over various topics. He talks about his inability to understand Krishna’s position and his folly in testing Krishna, his under-appreciation of Krishna’s supreme position, his acknowledgment of how in the past also many have been deluded in trying to understand Krishna and then his apology and then his appreciation of the glory of the Vrajavasis and his appreciation of the Lord who has descended among them and his both reciprocating love, increasing ecstasy while also establishing dharma. So, thus Brahmāji’s prayers cover a wide territory.
What happens thereafter, we’ll discuss in our future talks. Thank you.