Churning the ocean, the Bhagavatam and the heart – 03

So, yesterday we stopped at the point of where the devatas and the demons have started churning. And while churning, we saw how the demons tried to usurp the position of the devatas by wanting to go towards the head of Vasuki and how they got into trouble because of that. And secondly, we discussed how the mode of goodness and the mode of passion are equally energising but in different ways.
Now we will discuss about what happened when the churning went forward. Now as the demigods and demons were churning, the Lord had told them in advance that there will be trouble. But when there is trouble, do not become frightened.
And when the demons try to be domineering, don’t oppose this, agree and move forward. So, as they started churning, the first thing that happened was that a terrible poison started coming from there. And when that poison came, it was so deadly that those in the vicinity, they started feeling the toxic effect of those poisons.
Now we have to understand that these people who were there, they are not ordinary people. The demigods and demons, both of them are extremely powerful and no ordinary poison can affect them. So, if a poison is affecting them, that means it’s an extremely dangerous poison.
And that poison started spreading everywhere and there was no way to counter it. Although the demons and demigods themselves have many mystic powers, but the force of the spread of the poison, the toxicity of the poison was so great that they were all rendered helpless. And then they turned to Lord Vishnu.
The demigods asked, what should we do right now? The demons had no idea what to do. In this world, the difference between demons and demigods is not just in terms of some looks. You know, sometimes we have a stereotype of a demon as a person with maybe teeth coming out of the body and horns coming on the head.
That’s not necessarily the way the demons are. Some demons can look very attractive also, physically. Some actually, there are various kinds of demons and rakshasas are one kind of asuras.
Asura is basically a mentality and rakshasa is a body type. So Duryodhana was an asura. He was a demon, but he was not a rakshasa.
He did not have the body of a rakshasa. His body was a human body, just like everybody else’s. So the Pandavas, one of the differences between the Mahabharata and the Ramayana is that, the Ramayana is a war between the manavas and the rakshasas, whereas the Mahabharata is a war between two sides where both are human beings only.
And interestingly, on both sides, there are rakshasas. Bhima’s son Ghatotkacha was a rakshasa born through Bhima’s union with Hidimbi and he fought on the side of the Pandavas and Alambush was a rakshasa general who was a friend of Baka, who had been killed by Bhima and he wanted to break vengeance and so he fought against Bhima. So he was on the side of Duryodhana.
So there were rakshasas on both sides. The point which I am making is that being a demoniac is not just something of a bodily form. It’s a matter of mentality and even people in human bodies can be demoniac and sometimes people in rakshasa bodies can also have human consciousness or can have even divine consciousness better than that of the gods also.
That is what is revealed in the sixth canto in the Vritrasur pastime. But coming back to our point over here, the difference between the demons and the demigods in general in terms of mental attitude is that both want to enjoy and both, when they get into trouble, they are perplexed. But the demigods, when they want to enjoy, they do it within the precincts of dharma and when they get into trouble, they take shelter of the lord of dharma.
The demons, neither way they take shelter of dharma or the lord. When they enjoy, they go beyond the limits of dharma and when they get into trouble, they try to devise their own means to solve the problems. So the demons had no way how to solve the problem.
But the demigods immediately approached Lord Vishnu and significantly here Lord Vishnu did not solve the problem himself. He told them, go to Lord Shiva. Now this is interesting, why did he tell them to go to Lord Shiva? Actually if we see in the fifth chapter of this canto, eighth canto in the pastime starts, when the various devatas go and pray, at that time Shiva is also there among the devatas who are praying.
But at this particular time, when the churning of the milk ocean is going on, at that time Lord Shiva is not there over there. Because Lord Shiva himself is a very exalted God and Jiva Goswami explains in the Sandarbhas that Shankara and Vishnu, they are almost as if non-different. So if we only see the difference between the two, then we can become offensive.
On the other hand, if we see them completely as identical, that is also inappropriate. So it’s almost like Lord Vishnu and therefore he’s not to be considered like any other God. His position is very distinctive.
It’s almost like Vishnu. So Lord Shiva is not so much interested in nectar and we see his indifference also in the fourth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, when a sacrifice is going on, he’s not interested in sacrifices and when he’s cursed and that he will not get a part of sacrifice, he just walks away from there. He doesn’t himself retaliate.
He says, okay, these sacrifices are anyway social affairs, I’m not so interested in them. Anyway, they are materialistic things done by materialistic people, I’m not interested. So I won’t go.
So he didn’t take it very seriously. So Lord Shiva was not here when the nectar was being churned and Lord Vishnu told the Devatas that go to Lord Shiva and he can protect you. So this is significant.
Now we are discussing three things over here, churning the ocean, churning the Bhagavatam and churning the heart. So let’s look at churning the heart. In one sense, our heart is also like an ocean.
Why an ocean? Because there are so many different desires in it and there are the desires that can bring a nectar also. The supreme nectar is the nectar of love for Krishna and the desire to serve Krishna will eventually bring forth that nectar of love for Krishna. When we serve, then by that love will develop.
But as of now, the desire to serve is not much there in our heart. And that’s why it’s like in the vast ocean of many desires, that desire is a minuscule desire which often gets lost. So churning is required, purification is required and then the nectar of love for Krishna will eventually emerge through that churning.
A churning itself is like a form of service for us. And when we perform this service, then by that we make spiritual advancement and we go closer to Krishna. So now when this churning was happening, poison came out.
Similarly, when we practise devotional service, when we chant Hare Krishna, this chanting is like churning. When we churn in this way, our heart gets purified. But purification doesn’t happen in a normal, predictable way entirely.
Of course, there is a general trajectory that is followed, but sometimes the effect seems to be the opposite of what we were expecting or hoping for. When we try to become pure, sometimes the desires seem to become stronger. Sometimes when we say no to a particular desire, it seems that the desire comes and hits us back with the greater strength.
So we start thinking, I was not troubled by this earlier, but now I’m being troubled so much. So is it that I am becoming more impure? No, it’s not that we are becoming more impure. It is just that the final desires, these are like the dying struggles of those desires.
Those desires have been ruling us for a long time and they’re not ready to leave us. But when they’re confronted with the power of devotion, they can’t survive. But they don’t go down without a fight.
So Ishwara Prabhupada gives the example that when a person, when I say a ringmaster, a person who trains animals is training a predatory, dangerous animal like a lion or a tiger. Now the way the animal is trained is through the deprivation, deprival of food. And when the tiger is not given food at that time, the tiger starts roaring and it roars more and it roars more.
And if the trainer is not very experienced, is not very astute, the trainer can become intimidated by the roars of the tiger and the trainer will start thinking, I was told that by starving this tiger, it will become more disciplined, but it is becoming more unruly. It is threatening so much. It may even destroy me.
Better let me feed it something. However, if the trainer is experienced, the trainer will understand that although a tiger is roaring louder, it is becoming weaker. There is no need to get intimidated.
So similarly, we have been feeding our lower self, our lower desires, whenever some lower desire comes, we immediately act on it. And because of that, those desires have become very strong, they become like tigers. And now when we are told to restrain ourselves, then what happens is those lower desires start roaring like the tigers and we start thinking, what is this? I was never troubled by this desire earlier, why am I being troubled? And the trouble seems to be so, so terrible that we feel better, let me give it up only.
However, although the desires may be roaring louder, they are becoming weaker. And if you starve them, then eventually they will weaken and they will die out. So the impurities do not increase when we start practising the process of purification, although they may appear to increase.
And when this happens, that the impurities appear to increase, and when we start feeling more agitated than we were earlier, then we may pray to the Lord and that is good. But in general, Krishna manifests His wisdom, His compassion in this world through His devotees. So Krishna gives His message, but along with that, He sends devotees in our life.
And our spiritual master, our other spiritual mentors, those who are our spiritual guides, they represent Krishna in our life. And Krishna wants us often to take shelter of them. And Lord Shiva is a great devotee, Vaishnavanam Itha Shambhu.
And here what the Lord wanted was that Lord Shiva be glorified. So Lord Vishnu had already in one sense established His glory, all the devotees had come to Him for help. He had manifested as Kurma Dev.
He had manifested as Ajita who held up the churning rod from above. So if we just want to objectively look at the position, it’s clear from the beginning and we’ll see at the end of the pastime also. In the 12th chapter, the last chapter on this pastime, we see that Lord Shiva also gets bewildered by Mohini Murthy.
So there is no confusion if we look at the pastime in the whole context of who is supreme. It is not that Lord Shiva is more powerful than Lord Vishnu and that’s why Lord Vishnu is telling the devatas, you please go to Lord Shiva. This is beyond my power.
It’s not like that. We see that Lord Shiva is also praying to Lord Vishnu to come and help at the start of the pastime. And we see that Lord Shiva is also bewildered by the powers of Mohini Murthy and when eventually his bewilderment goes away, he praises Lord Vishnu’s power and supremacy.
So from the beginning and the end, it’s clear that it’s Lord Vishnu who is supreme. But here, the Lord wants to glorify His devotees and for the sake of glorifying His devotees, He performs this pastime of asking the devatas to go to Lord Shiva. And similarly, when we are too troubled in our heart, especially while the process of purification is being followed, we take guidance from devotees.
We seek guidance and then through that guidance, we will find our way forward. So when the devatas approach Lord Shiva, Lord Shiva was with Parvati Devi and when the devatas came and they offered prayers, they glorified Lord Shiva and then they said, please save us. So Lord Shiva took the nectar.
Actually he was not interested in nectar, but now he took the poison. So how is that? Normally people want the nectar and they want to avoid the poison. Sometimes if some food item is there, some fruit which has a skin which is not very tasty and the inner part of the fruit is tasty, then we want to put away the outer part and take only the inner part.
So normally people will avoid something which is bitter and take that which is sweet, but Lord Shiva had no interest in the nectar. But now when the poison is being, he is told, please take care of the poison, he readily does it. And he does it because he is a devotee and devotee wants the welfare of all living beings.
So he drinks the poison and by his great prowess, the poison goes down. So it’s a battle of powers over here. Lord Shiva is extremely powerful, but the poison is also very powerful.
It’s the halahal poison and there are different kinds of poison. This is a very dangerous poison and this poison goes down up to his neck and then his neck changes its colour. That’s why Lord Shiva is called as Neela Kantha or Kaala Kantha.
It is bluish black patch comes on his neck and that’s how he gets this name. Now significantly, Vaishnavacharyas like Vishwanath Chakrakur give a deeper meaning of the various pastimes and he describes that Lord Shiva is so powerful that even if the poison had gone down through his neck into his belly, still that would not have affected him. But he checked the poison at the point of the neck.
So he drank it. Actually what he did was the poison was spreading everywhere, but Lord Shiva uses mystic power and got the poison concentrated into his hand and through his hand he drank it and he let it go down to the neck to indicate to the devatas and all those who have come to him for help that now the poison is gone, do not worry about it. So he took the poison and it disappeared from their sight.
But along with that, he also let the poison go till the neck but not below. Why is that? Because in his heart, Lord Vishnu is there. His beloved Lord is there and he did not want this poison to trouble the Lord.
Now of course, no poison will trouble the Lord, but the devotee’s attitude is, the devotee does not want the Lord to face any discomfort and that’s why he said that he did not want any trouble for the Lord and that’s why he kept the poison till the neck itself. And then the devatas and demons were relieved and they went back to churning the ocean once again in the hope of getting the nectar. And as they were going along like this, hoping to get the nectar, at that time various things started coming out.
So generally, when we practise the process of bhakti, when we practise any kind of dharma, two, three things happen. The first thing that happens is that there is trouble that comes, there is trouble in the form of the lack of purification, the increased impurities that are there. But once that gets over, still other forms of trouble also come.
These other forms of trouble include that there are distractions. Now these may not seem like troubles. What is it? Actually from the spiritual point of view, anything that keeps us away from Krishna is a trouble.
From the material point of view, though materially unpleasant things are trouble and materially pleasant things are welcome. But from the spiritual point of view, both can be distractions and therefore both have to be treated cautiously. So now many pleasurable things started coming up.
So in general, when we start practising spiritual life, initially there is the influence of the modes of passion and ignorance. And because of those modes, there is trouble. But once we start coming to the mode of goodness, we gain some level of self mastery and we may also have some abilities or develop some abilities.
And then we start being able to do things well. And that also brings with it some respect, some pride and that sense of superiority, comfort and pleasure that is not exactly spiritual, that is just because of our self mastery and our competence in doing things that can become a trap. In the 14th chapter, Krishna describes that sattva guna traps with a sense of knowledge and a sense of happiness.
This is not transcendental, this is material, but still it traps us. So like that, many pleasant things started coming out. So there was a beautiful elephant that came out, there was a horse that came out.
I won’t go into detail of all the items that came out. So Ucchaishravas ashwanam, Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, Airavatam gajendranam, Krishna describes that the horse named Ucchaishrava came, the elephant Airavata came. And now some of the things the demons grabbed, the first things that came, the demons grabbed them.
But afterwards, some things remained and those the devatas took. And gradually as various things started coming up, now these are very special and in one sense glorious things, but devatas and the demons here, because the demons were also competing with the devatas, they were not satisfied with what they got. Actually they continued, they continued onwards churning and as they kept churning, so eventually it was Lakshmidevi who came from there.
Now here a question may come up, Airavat is say the elephant of Lord, elephant of Indra. So if Airavat came out from the milk ocean, then was Airavat not there before? And even more so, if Lakshmidevi came out from the ocean, Lakshmi is often known as Sindhu Tanaya. Sindhu Tanaya is, Sindhu is ocean, Tanaya is daughter.
So the daughter of the ocean, so Lakshmi came out of the milk ocean, so like that she is the daughter of the ocean. So if she came out of the ocean, then was she not there before? So actually there are many manifestations of Lakshmidevi, Vishwanath Chakrathapur explains in his purport, Sararth Darshini in this past time, he says that actually there is spiritual manifestation of Lakshmi and there is material manifestation of Lakshmi also. There are many manifestations.
So the spiritual manifestation of Lakshmidevi, that is always there with the Lord by His side. But then there is a material manifestation of Lakshmi also. And she manifested over here, actually the word spiritual and material are not exactly precise.
You may say how can the goddess of fortune have anything to do with matter? The point over here is that the goddess of fortune herself is transcendental, but she chooses to appear through material means and she has various manifestations which perform various functions. Just like Krishna also has various forms like Vishnu, Narasimha, like that. So this particular goddess of, manifestation of the goddess of fortune, she is more connected with the material world than with the spiritual world.
And she emerged and Vishwanath Chakrathapur explains, he analyses the Sanskrit verses over there quite meticulously and he explains that this goddess of fortune emerged to demonstrate to everyone the supreme position of Lord Vishnu. How did she demonstrate that? Actually when she emerged, she was so beautiful that actually she was, she attracted the hearts of everyone, but she was, it was clear that she was a princess and princesses have the right to choose their bride grooms. So who she was going to choose, so there she gives an elaborate analysis.
She looks at everybody over there and she says, okay, this person is very, has a very attractive form but the person is not sense controlled. So Vishwanath Chakrathapur explains that this is referring to Indra. This person is learned, but this person is not so attractive.
This person is this, this person is this, so like that, the deficiencies, the strengths as well as the deficiencies of everyone are mentioned. And finally, she says there is only one person who has all good qualities and that person is Lord Vishnu. And therefore, it is this Lord Vishnu whom I will choose as my consort.
And she had a garland with her and she garlanded Lord Vishnu. And then, now Lord Vishnu, there was the goddess of fortune with him, his eternal consort. This manifestation and that manifestation became one thereafter.
That is what Vishwanath Chakrathapur explains. So the point is that in this world there are many attractive objects that seem desirable and they can also offer pleasure to us, but the pleasure that they offer is like a drop. There is pleasure but it is finite, whereas when we connect with Krishna, when we direct our love towards Krishna, the pleasure that we will get by loving and serving Krishna is infinite.
And when we have to choose, if we make this right choice as is demonstrated by Lakshmidevi that among the many objects that one can choose, if one chooses the Lord, then one gets the greatest benefit. So just as Lakshmidevi does an analysis after which she chooses the Lord. So like that, if we deeply contemplate on the nature of the things of this world and understand the nature of the Lord, then we will also be able to understand that the Lord is the most desirable of everything.
And desiring Him, choosing Him, loving Him is the sign of the greatest intelligence and it is the Harbinger, Harbinger means the heralder, that which brings about, it will bring about the greatest auspiciousness, the greatest happiness for us. So just as the churning, we discussed the churning of the Bhagavatam. Now in the Bhagavatam there are many different pastimes.
Of course, the Bhagavatam is essentially a Vaishnava book. It glorifies Vishnu in various forms. So 7th canto there is Narsimhadev, in this canto there is Kurmadev, 8th canto then there is also Balimahara, Vamanadev will appear later.
And earlier there were various incarnations in the 4th canto, Varahadev appeared. And in the 9th canto, briefly Lord Ram’s pastimes will also be described. So there are various incarnations of Lord Vishnu which are described.
And through all these pastimes, what is essentially being described is how it is the Lord who is supremely desirable. And we see that all different kinds of characters, whether it will be a gentle, elderly lady like Kunti, her worshipable Lord is Vishnu or it may be a terrible demon, a terrible looking demon like Uttarasur, his worshipable Lord is also Vishnu. Whether it be venerable sages like Narada or it be simple cowherd women or the wives of the Brahmins, their worshipable Lord is Krishna.
So the Bhagavatam basically shows two kinds of diversities. One is the diversity in the kinds of devotees who are worshipping. And secondly, there is diversity also in the forms of God that are being worshipped.
But beyond this diversity, there is uniformity. What is that uniformity? That uniformity is that the human love has to be directed towards the divine. Only then that will bring fulfilment.
So not just the human love, it is the love of all living beings. So the heart has to be directed towards the Lord. So that heart can be in any body and the Lord can be in various forms.
But essentially, it is only the redirection of the heart towards the Lord that will bring happiness. So that is what the Bhagavatam demonstrates and that is the essential message. That is what is to be churned.
And just as Lakshmidevi chooses and just as the Bhagavatam shows how different people choose, similarly all of us also have to make this choice. Towards the end of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, Deliberate deeply. Then do as you desire.
So the idea is we have to choose. And we deliberate and then we choose. For many of us, often the choice happens by default.
Many people come to this, are born in the material existence, especially in Kali Yuga, they don’t even come to know much about God. And basically society chooses what they should do. Society glamorises certain things, okay, this is the kind of dresses to wear, this is the kind of lifestyle to have, this is the kind of career to choose, this is the kind of house you should have, this is the kind of car you should drive in.
And people often run like programmed robots chasing after these things, which are glamorised by society. So, and often, you know, it is our assumption about happiness, which is our greatest obstacle to happiness. What does it mean? It means we assume that certain things will make us happy.
And this definition of happiness is not something which we have chosen. It is something which has been indoctrinated into us by society. Only when you have this, this, this, this, you have this level of status, you have this level of finance, you have this level of respectability, this kind of dress, this kind of fashions, then you will be happy.
But the fact is, even if we get those things, the happiness they provide is very little. So spiritual life, especially the Vedic tradition, it teaches us to think for ourselves and to choose our own definition of happiness, not let society determine our definition of happiness. So think objectively what will be the best for us and then act accordingly.
So Lakshmi Devi demonstrates that. So actually, what is being demonstrated over here is that everybody is churning for nectar. But actually Lakshmi Devi is the goddess of fortune.
She has already emerged. In fact, she is the one who gives fortune to everyone. And she is giving herself to the Lord.
So in that sense, this pastime is demonstrating the glory of the Lord. Otherwise, if we see from the external point of view, attaining nectar is nothing very glorious. And why would the Bhagavatam, which is a book which talks about pure devotional service, focus on talking about such a pastime? But the pastime’s message is, there are multiple messages.
One of the important messages is the glory of the Supreme Lord. And that is demonstrated through Lakshmi Devi choosing Lord Vishnu as her Vara, in her Swayamvara. Then, as the churning goes on and on, eventually, as many items come up, but they do not get distracted.
They keep churning. And finally, a fulgent looking person comes holding a container. And that container is also shining.
And this is Dhanvantari. And he has brought the nectar. And as soon as the nectar comes, now, the demons had agreed to share the nectar.
And that’s how the truce had been made. But the demons had always been thinking that actually we are more powerful. But churning nectar is very difficult.
We will not be able to do it alone. But once we get the nectar, then we are more powerful. We will grab the nectar.
And that’s what they did. So they had their own selfish plan. And they just went along according to that plan.
And they pounced on the nectar. And before anyone could do anything, they had grabbed the nectar. But what they had not anticipated was that if their hunger for self-gratification could work against the devatas whom they saw as their competitors, it could work against them also.
So what happened is that the demons started fighting among themselves. They said, I want the nectar. I want the nectar.
I want the nectar. And they all started pouncing and grabbing on the nectar. And then, now, even among the demons, there is a hierarchy.
Some demons are more powerful. Some demons are less powerful. So some of the less powerful demons, they understood that we can’t fight.
They said, it’s okay. You know, we had promised to share. We had promised to share.
You should not grab it all alone. Now, they had promised to share with the demigods also. But that they forgot.
So in this world, many times, morality is simply a lack of opportunity. Morality is lack of opportunity. That means people, they are moral because they do not have the opportunity to be immoral.
If they have the opportunity, they will become immoral. And when they find that immorality doesn’t serve their ends, if they need to be immoral, they will be immoral. So the demons started fighting among themselves.
And the demigods became aghast. They had worked so hard. And finally, nectar had come.
And they realised that by force, they could not take the nectar from the demons. And they turned towards Lord Vishnu. And Lord Vishnu smiled at them.
And they were begging the Lord, please do something. And the Lord seemed to be sitting there doing nothing. And suddenly, their attention went in another direction.
And there, a bewitchingly beautiful person appeared. A woman appeared. And she was devastatingly beautiful.
Now, the Bhagavatam gives quite an explicit description of Mohini Murthy’s beauty. We don’t want to be devastated. So we will not describe the beauty, but we will describe the devastation that happened because of the beauty.
So as she started coming along, immediately, everybody was as if mesmerised, stopped. Demons are always concerned about impressions. They are not concerned about internally how we are, but whether we impress others or not.
And especially what happens with demoniac people is that they are very concerned that they get gratification from the opposite sex. And for that purpose, they will put on any kind of facade that they want. So all these demons were practically at the necks of each other, trying to get the nectar.
And suddenly when this Mohini Murthy appeared, all of them became like gentlemen. And they started behaving very gently and politely and tried to act very respectably. And then Mohini Murthy, as she came along, now, just by her smile and by her glances, she captivated everyone.
And the demons, somehow, what happened was, in this world, beauty is also a great blessing. In fact, beauty is also a result of past punya. But beauty attracts everyone.
But often what people make a mistake is, people often think that just because somebody looks good, that means that person’s heart is also very good. So that’s not always true, although it can be true. So what happened is, the demons, they just were so captivated by Mohini Murthy that they said that, Oh, you have come here and you can judge among us.
And you can judge and you can decide who should get this nectar. And now, this seems to be quite an absurd thing to do. Normally, if there are some people who are arguing or something, they will go to a judge and that judge, first of all, that judge has to be trustworthy and even after that, they may not agree to the authority of the judge.
But how is it that the demons, just they saw Mohini Murthy and within a few moments after seeing Mohini Murthy, they agreed. Oh, you become the judge and you decide who should get the nectar and who should get how much nectar. So, Mohini Murthy, she was smiling and she was casting her glances towards everyone.
And how did this happen? That is the power of illusion. Actually, Krishna describes in the Bhagavad Gita, 2.62 to 2.63, dhyayato vishayan pumsaha. So there he describes a series of verses and the second last is, sruti brahmashad buddhinasho, buddhinashad pranashyati.
So, as we contemplate on the sense objects, the desire becomes stronger and stronger and stronger. Eventually, intelligence is destroyed. So the demons had battled first and then they had slaved so much for getting the nectar.
But here, just gave it up very readily to Mohini Murthy. And Mohini Murthy said, okay, now both you devatas and demons, you all sit in line. And they said, this nectar is something very precious and you cannot just take it like that.
Go and take bath first. So the demons went and took bath and then they decorated themselves properly and they sat in lines. And Mohini Murthy said, okay, you know, all of you are very powerful.
She actually was not speaking much. Mohini Murthy, initially she said that actually, why are you trusting me like this? She tried to dissuade them. She said, you don’t know me, who I am, I am just wandering, I just come along.
Why are you trusting me like this? But they were so bewitched that they thought she is joking. She said, no, no, don’t joke like this. We trust you.
Are you testing our faith in you? We have complete faith in you. That’s how they were totally captivated. And she just glanced and what she indicated by her glance is this, see, all of you are very powerful.
So, you know, you can have patience. These demigods, you know, they are not at all powerful. They don’t have any patience.
So, let me give a little nectar to them first and then afterwards I will give the nectar to you. And those same demons who were fighting so much, first they had grabbed the nectar from the demigods and then they were trying to grab it. They just sat passively.
And they just watched on. And as they watched on, Mohini Murthy started distributing the nectar. So, what happened was, she was giving the nectar from the pot to the devatas.
But she was giving the glance towards the demons to pacify them. And the demons were so captivated by the nectar of her glances that they just forgot what was happening. And they thought, oh, this nectar is so wonderful.
They just became lost to everything else. And as she was giving out the nectar, so there were some demons, the two demons, Rahu and Ketu, who were a little bit more shrewd. And they realised what was happening.
So, they immediately changed their form and they came and sat in the queue of the devatas. Actually, they sat next to Surya and Chandra. And now, these are the mortal foes of Sun and Moon.
And normally, there is some sense by which we can recognise. Everybody, all of us, we may not realise it, but we send vibrations and we receive vibrations. So, we can come to know if somebody is looking at us, if I am sitting at one place and somebody starts staring at me from behind.
We sometimes get a sensation. Oh, somebody must be looking at me. We look behind and often find that there is somebody behind me who is looking at you.
Scientists have done some, they are called staring experiments. People are asked to guess. A person sits on a chair and is somebody staring at you? And that person randomly chooses, decides to stare or not.
And this person is asked to guess if that person is staring or not staring. And normally, if it is entirely random, people will be able to get it right only 50%. But almost everyone gets it right much more than 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%.
That means they are able to tell when somebody is staring at me without even looking behind, they can tell that. So, there are subtle things which we can’t explain with gross materialistic science, but they are there. So, like that, Rahu and Ketu, although they had changed their form because the animosity between them and Surya and Chandra was so much there, Surya and Chandra immediately recognised.
The other Devatas didn’t recognise. But Surya and Chandra recognised and they pointed to Lord Vishnu. It was in the form of Mohini Murthy.
And Mohini Murthy immediately manifested her chakra and cut off the heads of both of them. And now, because the chakra had reached up to their head, because the nectar had reached up to their head, so they became beheaded but they did not become dead. So, they did not die.
So, they just remained as heads. So, their body is nothing but the heads and that’s how they continue to live. Now, in the meanwhile, all the nectar got over.
And as all the nectar got over and Mohini Murthy, she finished, she just glanced at the demons and then right in front of the hydra eyes of the demons, Mohini Murthy changed her form into Vishnu and he went to Garuda who was nearby, sat on the wings of Garuda and flew away. And the demons were devastated. What happened? How did we do such a stupid thing? And they just roaring loudly they started attacking the demons, attacking the Devatas.
They grabbed their weapons and started attacking. So now, here the question may come up is it not cheating that the demons were cheated by Mohini Murthy? So, why did the Lord do such a thing? Actually, morality, the morality means considerations of right and wrong, they are not categorical. They are contextual.
Categorical means, this is a category, this is always right and that is always wrong. So, we cannot have rightness and wrongness as categorical. It is contextual.
Now, killing someone is wrong. But is it always wrong? If a thief comes to a house and the thief is going to kill the owner of the house, at that time the house, the owner kills somebody. Is that wrong? No, in self-defence it is not wrong.
If a soldier goes on the war field and kills somebody, is that wrong? Not at all. That is recognised and praised. That is glorified.
So, killing is not always wrong. Normally it is wrong, but it is not always wrong. So, we can’t make an absolute rule that killing is bad.
So, rightness and wrongness is never categorical. It is contextual. We have to look at the context and then understand that this is right and this is wrong.
So, similarly, this is what the Bhagavatam illustrates many times and this is actually what Mahabharata especially illustrates and that’s why Mahabharata can be misunderstood because people often come up with the idea that you should always speak the truth or you should always act like this or never act like that. But no. Rightness and wrongness, honesty and dishonesty, it is contextual.
It cannot be categorical. So, if you look at the context, it was the demons who had the intention to cheat and they acted on their intention. How did they act on it? They acted by grabbing the nectar even when the agreement was that both of them were supposed to share equally.
So, the demons had already acted out showing that they were not going to act according to integrity. So, one of the principles which Janaki also talks about is Shatho Shathyam. Shatho Shathyam means with the cunning, be cunning.
Those who are devotees, those who are spiritually minded, they do not want themselves to be, they do not want to act in a duplicitous way. At the start of the Mahabharata war, before the two armies clashed with each other, the commanders met and Bhishma and the Kaurava side was led by Bhishma and the Pandava side, their official commander was Vishwadhunna. So, when they met, the Kauravas pointed out that we should all fight according to the Kshatriya codes.
So, Dhristadyumna, he heard this and the Pandavas were also there and they consulted. They said, the Kauravas, they have acted in so many devious ways till now and now they are reminding us that we have to fight according to the Kshatriya codes. So, Dhristadyumna replied, said, yes, we will fight according to the Kshatriya codes but if you break those codes then we will not necessarily we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated and exploited and destroyed by that.
If you break the codes then we will also break the codes. And, so, Shatho Shathyam. So, with the cunning, we may have to be cunning.
We cannot be naive and survive in this world. So, the demons had a demoniac mentality and they even demonstrated the demoniac mentality by forcibly taking away the share of the Devatas. So, what Mohini Murthy did was she paid the demons back in their own coin.
Now, interestingly, this is among the very few forms of the Lord wherein the Lord manifests in a female form. Now, of course, the Lord has a consort always who is female and that consort is also considered to be God. So, Radharani is also God.
She is God in female form and similarly Sita or Lakshmi is also God in female form. But, this God in female form is accompanied also by God in the male form. But when Mohini Murthy appeared, she appeared alone.
And when she appeared like this, she actually demonstrated the very name Mohini. Mohini means those who does one who does Mohan, one who bewilders. So, actually what she demonstrates over here is that if the Lord wants to bewilder someone, then He is the best bewilderer.
And we will not be able to discuss in this class about how she bewildered Lord Shiva also. But she can bewilder the demons and she can bewilder the Devatas also. And that’s why in the first verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam it is said that muhiyanti yath surayaha that by Him even the Devatas are bewildered.
What to speak of the Asuras. So, when the Lord wants to enlighten, the Lord can be the best enlightener. And when the Lord wants to bewilder, the Lord can be the best bewilderer.
So, the Lord’s glory, His omnipotence is not one-sided. It is all-sided. The Lord’s glory is complete.
And that complete glory means He can do everything. So, if He wants to enlighten, He enlightens as He does in the Bhagavad Gita by giving the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. And when He wants to bewilder, He can bewilder also as He does to both the demons and the Devatas like Lord Shiva when required.
So, the Lord is through this form demonstrating His omnipotence in a different way. And as we discussed at the start of the pastime itself, it’s leelaya. So, the Lord could just have come and kill the demons in one go.
But He did not do that. He did this whole pastime so that we would have shravan smaranarhani karishan itike chana. Kunti Maharani in her prayers, she discusses various reasons why the Lord appears.
In 1.8.32 to 35 she discusses this and she says there are many reasons but one of the most important reasons is that you descend and perform pastimes so that we can have substance to talk about. So, Mohini Murthy demonstrates the beauty of the Lord and beauty in terms of that which can delude. Now, Krishna manifests the same beauty in the sense in which it can not delude but it can illuminate, it can liberate.
So, Vishwanath Chakrithakur in his commentary also describes that the Bhagavatam also acts like Mohini. What does it mean? He says that actually the devatas and the demons both came to the same milk ocean. Both of them did the same activity of churning but after that the demons did not get the nectar, they just got the glances of Mohini which seemed like nectar but in the end they got nothing whereas the devatas got the nectar.
Similarly, he says that people with a demoniac mentality and people with a devotional mentality, both can come to the ocean of the Bhagavatam and both can churn the Bhagavatam. Now, the devotees will get the nectar of Krishna Prema but those who do not have a devotional mentality, Bhagavatam will act like Mohini and will simply give them glances but not the substance. What does it mean? Glances but not the substance? That means Bhagavatam will not reveal its true message, its true secret, its true glory that is Krishna and pure love for Krishna.
So people may come to the Bhagavatam and they some people think that Bhagavatam teaches impersonalism. Some people think that Bhagavatam teaches mythology. Some people think that Bhagavatam is just an old book which is not relevant to us.
They come and study but they don’t understand. Why? Because there is no devotional disposition. So just that churning the Bhagavatam also means that we have to recognise that Bhagavatam is not just a book.
Bhagavatam is ultimately Bhagavan Krishna manifesting and when we come with a devotional disposition, then we are able to understand the Bhagavatam. Otherwise, we can get bewildered and so that is the churning of the Bhagavatam and the Lord’s pastimes which are performed, so of course immediately after this what happened is I’ll conclude this pastime. The demigods and demons fought with each other once again.
So in the 5th chapter the demons and demigods are fighting and again when the pastime ends in the 10th and 11th chapter again the demons and demigods are fighting and again it’s an elaborate fight that is described but this time the demons are not as powerful because the demigods have got nectar and the demigods start getting the upper hand and as the demigods start winning at that time Bali Maharaj comes into the picture and Bali Maharaj starts fighting so fiercely that he starts destroying everyone and then Lord Vishnu himself has to come and then he overpowers the demons and he gives weapons to Indira by which Indira fells Bali he almost kills Bali but then Bali Maharaj is revived by Shukracharya and then afterwards in the 15th chapter onwards, Bali Maharaj again conquers the heavenly planets and then next time Vamandev comes himself and that pastime is an entirely different pastime and there Bali Maharaj’s devotional disposition is also revealed but here in this particular pastime here the Lord manifests in many different ways and teaches and demonstrates many valuable truths so the pastimes of the Lord are like a trailer and a trail a trailer means just like when a movie is to be released some snippets from the movie are released beforehand to attract people’s attention to invite them, come and see the real show so like that the Lord’s pastimes which are revealed in the scripture they are like trailers the Lord’s wonderful pastimes are going on in the spiritual world and these are snippets that we get which demonstrate how wonderful the Lord is and how relishable his pastimes are but they are not just a trailer they are also the trail trail means path that it is when we hear the pastimes it is not just for entertainment, we become attracted to those pastimes and as our heart becomes attracted to those pastimes basically we are following the trail our heart is following the trail which ultimately will move towards the Lord so the pastimes are not just meant for entertainment they are meant to be entered into and how do we enter into them by meditating on them, by contemplating on them, by relishing them as we hear them, relish them, churn them, more and more our heart becomes more and more attracted and the remembrance of these pastimes and the remembrance of the Lord who is the central hero of these pastimes attracts our heart and our heart follows the trail which is outlined in these pastimes and eventually it becomes united with the Supreme Lord in His eternal abode Thank you very much Shri Prabhupada Ki Jai Gaur Bhakta Vendaki Jai