Bhagavatam study 108 1.19.25-33 Devotee’s attractiveness attracts people to Krishna’s supreme attractiveness

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 1, Chapter 19, entitled, Appearance of Śukadeva Swami And herein, this is the section wherein Śukadeva Swami will be speaking about or the appearance of Śukadeva Swami will be talked about. So, let’s start here.
At this point, till now, the sages have all assembled to be at the momentous occasion of Parishad Maharaj’s appearance. Parishad Maharaj has thanked all of them for coming. He has, on his side, expressed his desire that kṛṣṇa-gatha be heard, gāyanti viṣṇu-gātha.
But he has also enquired what is the best course of action. And that implicit enquiry is there and that will be brought forth later in this section. tatrabhavat, at that point, appeared.
bhagavān vyāsa-putro The word bhagavān is used for the Supreme Lord. That is the technical meaning of the word. So, the generic meaning of the word is that a very powerful person, any great personality is referred to by the name bhagavān.
bhagavān So, we have words like that which have, sometimes in some context, some specific meanings. But they can have some generic meanings also. So, here bhagavān is like that.
vyāsa-putro Bhagavān Nārada is also used over here. So, bhagavān vyāsa is also used. Who is this bhagavān? Vyāsa-putro, the son of Vyāsa.
yadrucchayā gāma ātmano anpekshyaḥ yadrucchayā yadrucchayā means there is no specific material cause as one desires. The word yadrucchayā is used in two senses in scriptures, broadly speaking. yadrucchayā lābasantuṣṭo dvandvātīto vimatsarha And describing the characteristics of the spiritually advanced persons in the Bhagavad Gita in the fifth chapter, Krishna says that which comes of its own accord, they are satisfied with that.
yadrucchayā lābasantuṣṭo So, of its own accord, by some higher arrangement, without any personal endeavour. But yadrucchayā, when it is used in association with great sages and their movements, it means there is no material cause for it. They just appear, great sages, by their own causeless mercy.
They appear at particular times. yadrucchayā gāma ātmano anapekśeha gāma ātmano means they are travelling on this earth anapekśeha They have no specific material interest. They are spiritually absorbed.
alakṣa-liṅgo nijalābha-duṣṭo alakṣa-liṅgo nijalābha-duṣṭo means he is self-satisfied. nijalābha-pūrṇo is the word used in the seventh canto to describe the Lord. Prahlāda Mahārāja uses it.
That, O Lord, You are self-satisfied. You do not need any devotee to glorify You. But we glorify You for our own purification.
So, similarly, those who are godly, those who are devoted to God, they also become nijalābha-duṣṭo, they are self-satisfied. Another word for them is ātmārāma. They get delight, joy in themselves.
They don’t need anything external for their happiness. alakṣa-liṅgo So, liṅga, in today’s parlance, often it refers to gender. But it can also refer to people who are… to characteristics in general.
What are the characteristics of certain kind of people? That can be referred to by liṅga. So, in this case, what do we need to know about a person? What varṇa or what āśrama they belong to? So, alakṣa-liṅgo means that his varṇa could not be known because he was so transcendental. avadhūta-vesaḥ It’s described that he was dressed like an avadhūta.
As if avadhūta means one who is… one who neglects the world. He doesn’t care for it at all. So, generally, we all have our identifiers.
Let’s say we dress in a particular way, then we understand this person is a man, this person is a woman, this person is from this country, this person is from this financial level, this person is from this class. But no such characteristics were manifested in him. And he was vṛtaḥ, chabālaḥ.
It’s interesting that he was surrounded by women and children. They were following him. What they were doing? That will be described later.
So, it’s quite a dramatic appearance. In a very socially structured society, a person who has transcended all social structures appears. yadṛcchayā By higher will, by his own inconceivable will, he appears.
Then what happens? Next 26 So, it’s his appearance that is being described now over here. tam, that person dvyaṣṭa dvyaṣṭa is a sandhi, which is a combination of dvyaṣṭa aṣṭa is eighth, dvyaṣṭa is he is twice of eighth, so he is 16 years old. Now normally, 16 years is the age when in say romantic literature or something that’s the time when people fall in love, all the hormones are very high and one has just come to puberty, one has just discovered the whole world of sensuality, especially the opposite sex and that is the time when people are naturally materially infatuated but it is that age, so there are two different aspects of this age.
This is the age when people are very materially infatuated and this is the age at which Śukadeva Goswami is totally materially transcendental, which is remarkable. Even children who may be very spiritual, because of a spiritual upbringing or because of a spiritual past life, even they when they come to their teenage years, they start exploring life. So in the, just when one is coming to puberty, adolescence and teenage and going towards youth, that is the time when the mind and senses literally drive people wild.
So at that time to transcend the pull of the mind and senses is remarkable. So that is one significance of this, that dvyaṣṭa, he was simply 16 years old and another point is that that means he is very young. Now, 16 years is a very very young age and there are people who are 50, 60, 100, even older because sages lived for a very long long time some sages are Chiranjeevi.
So among them, a 16 year old youth appearing and being noticed and not only being noticed but being given a prominent position, that is definitely remarkable. dvyaṣṭa varshaṁ, sukumā rapāda, so his hands and legs were gentle, delicately formed, karorubāhu aṁśa karurū, his hands, his thighs, his arms, his shoulder, kapolagātram, everything was very delicate. So it’s interesting he was a renunciate but everything about him was delicate.
It’s clearly, it’s as if he was untouched by the world entirely. There’s nothing about the world that was affecting him. The idea is that he is already so transcendental that he is not of this world kapolagātram, so his, all other parts of the body were beautifully formed gātram, āyāt, his, now each limb of the body has its appropriate way by which it becomes attractive.
So that is described over here. āyāt akshona tulya karana so his two ears were symmetrical, he had a prominent nose, his ears were also symmetrical and highly raised and subra ānanam kambu sujāta kantam subra ānanam his face had, it was attractive and it had attractive eyebrows associated with it. kambu sujāta kantam and his neck was like a conch shell, that is also considered a traditional sign of beauty.
So, it’s interesting that one who is transcendental is also very attractive, is also very beautiful. It’s said that Vyasa, when he united with Amba Ambika, Ambalika at that time he was not at all looking attractive and that’s why one of them said that I don’t want to unite and she put her maid over there, another, she closed her eyes another she just turned pale, so one who put the maid in her place, that’s how Vidura was born, one who closed her eyes Dhritarashtra, the son who was blind was born, one who turned pale, the son was of a pale complexion, that is Pandu. So, sages or renunciates especially who live in forests they are unmindful of their bodily appearance and that’s why they may not look attractive at all.
But in this case Shukadeva Goswami he was young, he was tender and he was attractive. So sometimes some attraction is a result of lot of care some attractiveness lot of care, sometimes people spend hours and hours on looking good but sometimes some people by their past karma or whatever they are naturally attractive, even without taking a lot of care of their appearance still they look very attractive so we’ll see Shukadeva Goswami had not only the opulence of Jnana and Vairagya he had also the opulence of Sri he looked also attractive text 27 so these are opulences which if those who are attracted to God have these opulences then they can use them to attract others to God somebody who is a spiritual teacher they look very attractive then people get attracted to them and then by being attracted to them they can get attracted towards Krishna Shukadeva Goswami is like that text 27 so Amara is the immortals, the Gods, Uttama is the best among them so Amaruttama, that means the best among them is Krishna so he had the complexion of Krishna Abham is the complexion of Krishna his collar bone was not just he was not a bony person with bones protruding out, that is not particularly attractive he was covered with flesh his chest was broad and thick, that is also a sign of attractiveness his navel was deep his abdomen was well stripped so it is Ambara refers to the dress Krishna is described as Pitambara so Pitambara is one who wears yellow dress so Shvetambara refers to Shuklambara or Shvetambara refers to white dress or whichever colour it may be so one dignified way of stating that somebody is undressed to be having no clothes is quite jarring and sometimes when we are talking about respectable people we don’t want to use terms which will jar so Prabhupada would say that when he would sleep he would say, no I am sleeping, I am taking rest just a polite way of speaking that so similarly here when there are sages who do not wear any clothes in Sanskrit they are not referred to as Nagna or anything like that usually the standard way of referring to them is Digambara Diga means directions, so directions are their clothes that means the directions are covering everyone everyone has directions but the directions are their clothes means they have no clothes but it is a polite and dignified way of stating that so Digambara Bhaktravikirna Kesham and his hair his arms were long Talambabahu and his hair was scattered across his beautiful face so the hair being scattered indicated that he was not conscientiously taking care of his appearance again he is not wearing any clothes also indicates that he is not taking care specifically of his appearance but still he looked attractive so it’s interesting that the Bhagavatam is spending significant number of verses to describe the appearance of the one who is the most prominent character he is going to the speaker throughout and he is a glorious person so there is not much similar description not many verses describing say Ambarishma Parikshit Maharaj when he appears there is a verse that says he was a magnificent chariot he was powerful there are lot of his qualities described that those are described especially when he was going to when he was born astrologers made some prophecies predictions so at that time his qualities are described but since Shukdev Goswami is the we could say the prime protagonist and he is the person who is going to speak most of the time at the Bhagavatam so for us hearers to have some kind of mental picture of who is speaking the description needs to be visually evocative when we hear sound is the sound comes into our ears but then based on whatever inputs we get certain images are formed in our mind and to the extent the images are vivid to that extent we get absorbed and to the extent the images are are clear are well formed based on sound information to that extent the images actually replicate the reality of what it is so if somebody is very attractive well what does attractive mean all of us can have different conceptions of what attractive means but if we describe more details and that attractiveness we can conceive it visualise it in our mind’s eye so further you can describe text 28 so earlier it was said that his complexion was like of the Amarottama of the best of the gods that is Krishna so Krishna’s complexion is blueish black Shyamam so he was blackish complexion and he was beautiful he was at an age also where he is beautiful everybody in their youth has a certain amount of beauty and that beauty decreases as the age goes on so here Lakshmi so he was attractive and this attractiveness was such that all these symptoms of attractiveness opulence of attractiveness which we had so women he captivated their minds he was attracted to them and he also had a gentle attractive smile sweet smile he had on his face he was lost in thoughts of Krishna he was not smiling to attract women or attract anyone like that he was absorbed in remembrance of Krishna gentle smile on his face but seeing that gentle smile people were attracted to him normally when a person becomes very stern or grave people keep a distance but if somebody is attractive is pleasant to look at is smiling, they have an attractive feature and they have an attractive smile on their face then we are very attracted to them now as soon as he appeared he described earlier that Maharaj had arranged for proper seats for everyone although himself was on the verge of death still he had that code of hospitality and wherever they were seated they all got up now when somebody comes to meet us our response indicates how much we respect them so standing up in the presence of a respectable person is a basic etiquette and all these sages respected him so much that when others would actually bow down to these sages but these sages got up to respect him so so why did these sages get up? because they could immediately see the symptoms and by those symptoms they could understand, they were expert enough to understand that this was a greatly advanced soul actually Prabhupada uses the word physiognomy you study the face, the appearance of a person and then we understand how they look that is of course we could say a material art where some people are very good at reading other people some people are very good at observing body language and understanding what a person is thinking what a person’s nature is but this is not that way although that can also be a factor here it is those who are spiritually advanced can understand others who are spiritually advanced in any area if we have sports if one person is a say a spin bowler and then some newcomer comes and that person bowls spin now for an ordinary person they will find it difficult to play any spin bowler now how good that spin bowler is they may not be able to understand but if some expert spin bowler says hey you are able to spin like this also that must be great so somebody is a speaker now for somebody is a speaker now for those who have very little knowledge almost all speakers will seem to have more knowledge than them and will seem to be very knowledgeable and they will appreciate all speakers but somebody else also who is a very learned speaker then if they they hear somebody else’s class hey this person is really learned this person is brilliant so it takes one to know one we say that the level of expertise of somebody the level of advancement of a spiritualist, all sages could understand good, virtuesome so although his glories were covered he was not exhibiting, he was not walking with a swagger saying I am a spiritually advanced person bow down to me some people they just they are so prestige conscious when they come into a room they expect respect, they expect honour, it is almost like they think that on their forehead they have written down I am a pure devotee, offer obeisances to me offer dandavats to me so some people in the material world I am so wealthy, I am so powerful everybody should be deferential to me but this here is the opposite no, he was good virtuesome, he was making no attempt to exhibit his spirituality and yet those who were advanced spiritualists, they observed it they appreciated it and they were ready to they were ready to they immediately got up to offer respects so such was the exalted stature of Shukadeva Goswami now what happens at that time 630 so now alone himself he was looking very wonderful but when all the sages got up and he came in their midst and when he was samrutas, he was surrounded by all these great sages Tatramahan, Mahiyasam all these sages were also not ordinary they were the greatest among great sages Brahmarshi, Rajarshi, Devarshi all exalted people, Sanghai in their midst when he stood so he looked Garochita, he was given a position at the centre of all of them and he well deserved it Alam Bhagawan Yathendur so the example is given just at Indu refers to the moon this is the moon in the midst of Graharaksh, Tara Nikarai, so just as there can be planets, there can be stars there can be various heavenly bodies just as in the sky the moon stands out amidst the various celestial bodies so like that, the celestial bodies themselves are attractive and the moon is even more effulgent and attractive so like that all these Mahan, Mahiyasam all these were the great sages, they themselves were effulgent and attractive, but among them he appeared the most attractive, so basically he became the centre of the assembly because of his extraordinary spiritual level text 31 Prashantamasi Namakuntamedasam Unimrupo Bhagwato Abhyupetyo Pranamyam Murna Vahitha Kirtanjale Natvagira Sundrutaya Sundrutaya Navapritchat so now the action will start over here so what happened is all these people were chasing after following Shukadeva Goswami and when they saw all these great sages offering him such respect, they were stunned what has happened who is this person, he just fled we thought this is some strange looking person without any clothes walking along, looks attractive but we don’t know who he is, so they were almost like in some ways they were mocking him, having fun of him, but when they saw these great sages were respecting him they just fled from there and then through it all, Shukadeva Goswami was just Prashantam he was peaceful and while he was peaceful, first everybody stood up and then they offered him a seat Asinam Akuntamedasam he was sufficiently intelligent to answer any question and he was unhesitant sometimes some people come to a particular August assembly and they feel everybody here is so learned, what can I speak, what can I contribute, but he did not have any kind of hesitation like that Munimrupo Bhagwato Abhyupetya Munimrupo, so unto that great sage Bhagwata the great devotee Parikshit Maharaj approached him Abhyupetya, went too close to him Pranamya Murna Vahitha Krutanjali he offered his obeisances with his head and after that offering obeisances he folded his hands Krutanjali Natvagira and with his speech with respectful tone he enquired in a gentle voice Anvapritchat he enquired so basically here now the setting of the Bhagavatam is nearly complete the main speaker the main hearer has arrived the main speaker has arrived and the hearer and the speaker are now beginning their discussion Parikshit Maharaj recognised that if all the sages have deemed him Shukadev Goswami to be the centre among them, he also recognised his spiritually exalted position and thus he approached him to ask his questions, whatever questions he had he approached Parikshit Maharaj Shukadev Goswami to ask these questions, so what were these questions Parikshit Vach this is text 32 Aho Adyavayam Brahman Satsevyakshatra Bandhava Krupayatithi Rupena Bhavabdhistirtha Krutaha Aho Adyavayam Brahman Oh how wonderful it is that you have sanctified us Satsevyakshatra Bandhava Satsevyak You have given me an opportunity to serve a great soul Kshatra Bandhava Parikshit Maharaj is so humble that he doesn’t think of himself as a Kshatriya Kshatra Bandhava I was born in a Kshatriya family but I don’t have those qualities Kshatra Bandhava Krupayatithi Rupena By your mercy you have come as a guest over here Atithi Rupena Bhavabdhistirtha Krutaha You have the quality of making any place into pilgrimage wherever you go you make that place into pilgrimage This is a glorification that is we will see repeatedly offered in the Bhagavatam where great sages come it is said that Tirthikurvanti Tirthani that you make the holy places holy wherever you go you make those places holy even the holy places get their holiness from you holy places are not as holy as you are bathing in the holy places is not as purifying as bathing in the nectar of the words emanating from your lips so all such glorifications are given because by hearing from holy places or from holy people what happens? actually their love for Krishna gets transmitted into our hearts by bathing in holy places usually our sins may get removed but that active inspiration to serve Krishna we could say almost desire to serve Krishna gets injected in our hearts by the association of great devotees and that is the ultimate purpose of going to holy places to be infused with spiritual desires and that infusion of spiritual desires can happen much more powerfully in sacred association of sacred holy people rather than just going to a holy place so he is glorifying Shukadeva Swami and this is how he continues text 33 so he speaks that what is your glory oh great sage simply by remembering you he says I am a householder, I am a fallen person immediately my whole house will get purified if I just remember you and then what to speak of and what to speak of seeing you what to speak of touching you what to speak of washing your feet and what to speak of offering you a seat and offering you other hospitality so just as the lord’s remembrance purifies similarly the remembrance of the lord’s devotees can also purify us because in remembering those devotees we are reminded of the lord because the devotees are permeated with Krishna they infuse and share Krishna with others and thus we can actually get immense purification in their association so Parikshit Maharaj is conveying his immense good fortune in having the association of Shukadeva Goswami