SB 8.7.12

upary agendraà giri-räò ivänya

äkramya hastena sahasra-bähuù

tasthau divi brahma-bhavendra-mukhyair

abhiñöuvadbhiù sumano-‘bhivåñöaù

SYNONYMS

upari—on the top of; agendram—the big mountain; giri-räö—the king of mountains; iva—like; anyaù—another; äkramya—catching; hastena—by one hand; sahasra-bähuù—exhibiting thousands of hands; tasthau—situated; divi—in the sky; brahma—Lord Brahmä; bhava—Lord Çiva; indra—the King of heaven; mukhyaiù—headed by; abhiñöuvadbhiù—offered prayers to the Lord; sumanaù—by flowers; abhivåñöaù—being showered.

TRANSLATION

Manifesting Himself with thousands of hands, the Lord then appeared on the summit of Mandara Mountain, like another great mountain, and held Mandara Mountain with one hand. In the upper planetary systems, Lord Brahma and Lord Siva, along with Indra, King of heaven, and other demigods, offered prayers to the Lord and showered flowers upon Him.

PURPORT

To balance Mandara Mountain while it was being pulled from both sides, the Lord Himself appeared on its summit like another great mountain. Lord Brahmä, Lord Çiva and King Indra then expanded themselves and showered flowers on the Lord.

We read in the Srimad Bhagavatam 10^th canto Brahma vimohan Lila, about the greatest of the demigods Lord Brahma who is factually the father of all living beings within this material creation. At the very beginning of creation of this universe the Supreme Personality of Godhead expanded Himself to live within this particular Universe as Garbhodakashayee Vishnu. From His naval grew a beautiful lotus flower and upon that lotus flower the great “Atmabhu” Lord Brahma was born. Atmabhu means that he was not born like an ordinary living being. He had no mother; he was never within the womb of any female. But rather simply by the divine will of Lord Narayana, he appeared within the whorl of this lotus flower. At that time he was alone. He had no company, he had no friends, and he had no associates. All around he was looking and there was simply darkness. There were no planets and there was nothing, except empty and lonely spaces. Lord Brahma did no know what to do. He did not know where to go. At that time, the Supreme Personality of Godhead from within his heart spoke

sarvasya cähaà hådi sanniviñöo

mattaù småtir jïänam apohanaà ca

vedaiç ca sarvair aham eva vedyo

vedänta-kåd veda-vid eva cäham

Bhagavad-Gita 15.15

Krishna is within the heart of every living being and he is the source of all knowledge, all remembrance and all forgetfulness. “Sarva-käraëa-käraëam”-He is the cause of all causes.

So from within the heart of Lord Brahma, two syllables were spoken by Lord Hari “Tapa” and Lord Brahma, he being given the intelligence by the lord to understand these words began to perform very serious tapasya – Austerities. Through the performance of that tapasaya he gained the favor of the lord. Then Lord Narayana as “Garbhodakashayee Vishnu” through His expansion of “Kshirodakashayee Vishnu”, the lord within his heart, gave lord Brahma the proper intelligence by which he could be utilized as an instrument of god. And then the lord gave him the direction that “I want to create all planets and all species of life within each planet and everything that is required for the maintenance of all species of life within each planet and being a surrendered instrument in my hands all these things are possible by you”.

Now we must understand that Lord Brahma is generally a Jivatma, a personality who has such astounding karma that the Lord can put him in such a very high position within this universe. You know it is said in the shastra that if there is no living being who has the proper karmic qualifications to take the post of Lord Brahma, then at that time Lord Vishnu Himself incarnates and becomes Lord Brahma.

Service- In spite of any difficulties

But in this particular instance that is being spoken here on the Srimad Bhagavatam, we are reading about a very pure and empowered Jivatma. Jivatma means a spirit soul who qualitatively and quantitatively is identical to ourselves. Now can you imagine being given an instruction like this? He had no facilities at all, take the example of a devotee, when we are given an order by our spiritual master. Sometimes we complain “I have no facilities, I have no money, I have no property, and I have no associates to work with me. How can you expect me to do this? Besides that I am not very intelligent. This service is far away beyond my intelligence. Or I am not very skillful and this service takes to someone who has tremendous amount of experience or that I am not very spiritually advanced and to do this service takes a very advanced devotee. Besides that I do not even like the idea of the service and the service takes someone who has enthusiasm to want to do it”. Sometimes we may feel like this.

Lord Brahma could have also felt like this. Can you imagine, if you are given the instruction that you are sitting alone in the darkness and you are told to create all the planets within the universe. What will you do? – create all the planets within this universe. Create all 8,400,000 species of life and create everything upon each planet to provide for the maintenance of all 8,400,000 species of life.

Empowerment comes from Surrender

Lord Brahma, he was a powerless living being just sitting alone and he was given instructions like this. But along with instructions, if we are willing to surrender comes the empowerment and all the facilities to execute that instruction. Krishna gave the instruction. Krishna gave the intelligence. Krishna gave the ability. Krishna gave the strength. Krishna gave all the facilities and the ingredients. Krishna gave everything. In fact Krishna did it Himself. Lord Brahma was simply the surrendered instrument in His hands.

prakåteù kriyamäëäni

guëaiù karmäëi sarvaçaù

ahaìkära-vimüòhätmä

kartäham iti manyate

Bhagavad-Gita 3.27

The bewildered spirit soul thinks himself, to be the doer of his activities. That actually everything is being carried out by nature and nature is working under the direction of Sri Krishna.

Obstacles faced by Lord Brahma

So we might be thinking that Oh, that’s Lord Brahma, that’s not me. Yes, he surrendered and Krishna empowered him. That was easy for him because Krishna empowered him. But if you read Srimad Bhagavatam that it was not easy for Brahma. He had to face so many difficulties; he had to face so many dangers in the execution of the service to the Lord. We read in the third canto that after he started from his body by the arrangement of god, he did not really understand how that was happening? He was just acting as a surrendered instrument. It is described that from the various parts of his body and various types of living beings were born. The Kumars, who are so divinely intelligent. They were born from his mind. They took birth from his mind. Therefore the Kumaras were possessed with incredible intelligence. Then Lord Brahma instructed them to marry and help him to propagate all the different species of life and become prajapatis. But the Kumars they did not wanted to marry. They wanted to remain brahmacharis.

Of course it is described that if you are in the level of such great souls as the four Kumars then you can disobey your guru in this matter. If you are not in that level then simply obey to your guru in all matters. So the Kumars said, “No, no We ’ll not”. Then Lord Brahma became so angry and from his anger from between his eyebrows Lord Shiva was born. In this way through this process the various great demigods and the various species of life were born from the various parts of Brahma’s body. In one stage from his rear side, the demons were born. These demons, they were so grossly influenced by the mode of ignorance that they looked at their own father Brahma and decided that they wanted to have sex with him.

Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport of this verse in third canto that this is the original homosexuality. These demoniac people wanted to have sex with their own father, his own sons. In fact in America you know homo sexuality is very popular, becoming more and more everyday. In every city several times a year there is parades, where sometimes thousands and thousands of people males and females who are of this particular type of sense gratification, they just started dancing with each other and just to show the world that this is the highest. They do not like the Hare Krishna movement at all because we are against sense gratification. Their idea is that sense gratification is the highest and of all forms of sense gratification this type is the highest. So it is very popular. They are liberally millions and millions of such people with this type of perverted conceptions of how to enjoy within America.

Compassion beyond any differentiation

Of course the devotees they are very compassionate upon everybody. They want to somehow or other elevates everyone. I know some devotees and what they did is they decided we should distribute books to these people too. Srila Prabhupada’s book should go to them also. So they have the name for homosexual in America- Gay. In India they are called gay. If you are called gay that means you are homosexual. I remember when I was just a teenager, I was in California alone and somebody came up to me and said, “Are you guy”? I thought that meant happy. I did not know about this intricate form uses of English Language. I said, yes I am guy. Then he started looking at me. So am I. Then I was not guy anymore and just ran away. I was just about 16 at that time and I was quite miserable and just started running.

So they had the gay news papers and they are especially design only for these people and it is their national newspaper centered out of San Francisco, which is the capital of this perversion in America. What they did? They put an advertisement in the paper that read the book five thousand years old that describes the original gay experience. The original homosexual experience in the whole creation found in ancient scriptures of India. Just send 10 dollars to this particular address and that was the post office address, where nobody could trace it down. You just come and pick up your mail and we will send you the book. So what happens, so many people, my god these people were thinking, “Do you imagine we can trace out our roots, we can trace out our real heritage and find out the original gay people? This is wonderful. And they all get Srila Prabhupada’s books, where it describes these demons chasing after Brahma, their own father for sex. In the purport Srila Prabhupada says, “This means that homosexuality is born of demoniac consciousness and anyone who is inclined toward these things is simply influenced by being demons and therefore there is nothing more to be said about it that Srila Prabhupada said. They are simply demoniac and they all get these books and they all paid ten dollars in advance they got these books. They said, “What is this? This says we are demons”. They became very angry. But then after sending all the books they close this post office box and they could never chased them down and in this way sankirtan movement went on. But they were enlighten, they gave some donation and they read Srila Prabhupada’s books, whether they like it or not. They were certainly purified.

Now these sons of Brahma attacked him. They were very powerful. They were chasing after Brahma. Brahma was very afraid. He started running away. There was a very dangerous and embarrassing situation. In fact he had to run away to such an extent that ultimately he could not get away from these demons. He had to give up that particular physical form and accept another one to escape from them. So do not think that if you surrender to the Lord that everything will be easy and then everyone will simply be showering you with flowers and saying, “You have surrendered. All glories to your lotus feet”. It is not like that.

Assurance of Lord’s Protection

Krishna gave Brahma the protection, even in that very dangerous situation. He protected him because he was engaged in His loving service. Therefore Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita,

sarva-dharmän parityajya

mäm ekaà çaraëaà vraja

ahaà tväà sarva-päpebhyo

mokñayiñyämi mä çucaù

Bhagavad-Gita 18.66

You abandoned all verities of religions; you surrender to Me and do not fear. If you simply execute My will, if you simply do My desire then you have nothing to fear because I’ll protect you. Sometimes the Lord gives us the particular service which appears to be very entangling, difficult, and unwanted. Sometimes it appears to be a service that “How can I do it”? Krishna says just surrender, “I’ll preserve what you have and I’ll carry about what you lack”.

ananyäç cintayanto mäà

ye janäù paryupäsate

teñäà nityäbhiyuktänäà

yoga-kñemaà vahämy aham

Bhagavad-Gita 9.22

But if you not surrendered and if you simply do it what you want to do, when you want to do, and how you want to do, then Krishna will just say, “Ok you do it your way. You work it out. You are your own. Then you have no protection any way”. But if you surrender to the will of god and keep faith based on the promise of the lord and the words of the all great Acharyas that you have nothing to fear because even if it is completely in irrational concept, Krishna will protect you. There is no doubt. He will protect you, it does not mean that He will make things easy for you. He may give you great test. He may make it very difficult and with great tapasya, but he will give the empowerment also.

Meaning of Tapasya- In Bhakti

After all Lord Brahma became empowered through the process of tapasya. It is not that he was simply given that position. He had to qualify himself for the mercy of the lord. How did he qualify himself? By accepting those things which he did not like to do – only to please Krishna. That is tapasya. And by that tapasya he pleased the lord and then the lord empowered him and even after empowering him, in the execution of his duty there was so much more tapasya. So this is how Krishna deals. We have to understand that lord Brahma is both physically as well as spiritually great.

From the material point of view, he is the great grandfather of every living being because everyone is ultimately born from him within this universe.

Brahma- The first Guru

So sometimes we have our family line. But it begins with Lord Brahma within this creation. Spiritually Lord Brahma is the first spiritual master in our line. So therefore he is our grandfather both materially and spiritually. It is said in English “ like Father like son”. We are supposed to become like him. And therefore Lord Krishna puts him in the situation that he expects all of us to be willing to surrender to. First Lord Brahma heard from his guru happen to be paramatma Krishna. The guru told him to perform tapasya. He performed tapasya and then he was empowered by guru and Krishna to fulfill the order of guru and Krishna. In the execution of their order he was willing to tolerate all difficulties and all problems. But he never gave up. Lord Brahma did not decide this creation is too difficult. “My own sons are trying to rape me”. I’ll create Vrindavan and then I’ll become a babaji. He was not thinking like this. If your guru told you go and do this then he would be very happy if you do it, believe me. But his guru wanted him to accept such a difficult responsibility and the test of his surrender. The qualification for him was he was actually dear to Krishna, as he was willing to execute the mission of his guru.

So in this way Lord Brahma the most intelligent creator was empowered by the lord. But then it is described in the Brahma vimohan Lila, how even this greatest lord Brahma, he was humiliated by Krishna. Because you see, sometimes when god empowers just to do great things, we become proud and in that pride our service attitude is diminished and Krishna who is very kind within the heart when He knows that we are sincere, after all we are Jivas, so we are subjected to being over come by higher powers. But because Krishna is so merciful, even when He sees such a great Jiva as Brahma being temporarily over powered, He is always there to protect him and sometimes He protects you by smashing you, by humiliating you. So Lord Brahma was becoming little proud that “I am the father” “I am the creator and everyone is depending on me” “I am the instrument” but yes still, look at what I am doing?

Krsna: Smashing Lord Brahma’s Pride

So Lord Brahma, he wanted to test who this Krishna is by stealing the cowherd boys and the calves. Of course we know the story, how Krishna expanded Himself in each calf and each cowherd boys. Then Lord Brahma came down and he saw them all and he was bewildered, how is this possible. And then right before his eyes each calf and each cowherd boys transformed into the four armed form of Narayana and each one had so many of the demigods, the sages, all worshiping Him all around. Lord Brahma could not believe what he was seeing. He was totally in illusion and bewilderment. Then he understood that the supreme is Krishna. So Lord Brahma came down and offered his obeisances, his pride was smashed by the will of the lord.

In the story of the Govardhan Lila even the great lord Indra, his pride was completely smashed by the will of the lord. So Lord Indra, these greatest most powerful living beings within all of the creation, you know even the demons like Hiranyakashipu they got their powers from Brahma. Hiranyakashipu conquered every planet and the universe but he would go near brahmaloka that was the one planet that he would not touch. Because he knew that he could not withstand the power of Lord Brahma. That was out of his jurisdiction. Lord Brahma accepted at the time when Krishna revealed His true glory at Brahmakunda in Vrindavan. Lord Brahma admitted that my lord, “I am nothing before you. You are everything. You are the supreme controller. It is you who are doing and empowering everybody. All we can be do as be your instruments. Our choice in life is whether we want to be an instrument in the hands of Maya or an instrument or Krishna.

So here we find that all the great demigods, who are associating with the demons to churn this ocean of milk, they were having tremendous difficulties. All of them combined. All the demons, who are so powerful, even more powerful than the demigods at that time. And all the demigods who are controlling all the affairs of the planets of the universe, all together they could not lift the mountain. So lord Narayan lift the mountain. All together, they could not keep the mountain from sinking in the ocean of milk. So Lord Narayana appeared as Kurmadeva to support the mountain. All together with all their joint powers, potencies and strengths as they were churning the top of the mountain began to until back and forth and they were not able to do anything. So the supreme Lord, “How wonderful, He performs his divine Lila”. He appeared with thousands of hands.

Now you may ask, why would He want to appear in such an incarnation with thousands of hands? It is wonderful story, isn’t it? He appeared with thousands of hands and then with one of those thousands not all of them but with simply one of them He effortlessly was able to do what all the demons and all the demigods could not do without their hands and all their bodies and all their strength to balance the mountain.

Krishna is all powerful. We never see Krishna is trained to do anything wonderful. Just like Srila Prabhupada, onetime he was in New York City and there is a place called Rock fellers center. There is a very famous statue of Atlas. You all heard about Atlas. The symbol of strength in the western world is the mighty atlas.

Krishna’s Inconceivable strength

Atlas, I believe he was in one of the Greek stories and Atlas was so powerful that he could hold the whole world on his shoulders. But he really had the strength and he was so powerful. So there is a big statue of the mighty Atlas and he is holding the world on his shoulders and his huge muscles are bulging and his faces you could is really straining hard. And Srila Prabhupada saw that he said, “Just see this mighty people are thinking, he is so strong, he is holding the world”. May be you cannot hold the world like this. But look at how he is straining to hold the world. He said, “When you ever see Krishna is straining”? Krishna in His mere expansion of Anantasesa is holding all the universes on heads and He is not, His muscles are not burgling and He is not straining. He is simply singing. He is constantly singing the glories of the Lord Hari, effortlessly. Similarly when Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill, He was only seven years old. Mighty atlas was a grown man and fully developed. When Krishna lifted the Govardhan hill with the little finger of His left hand at the age of seven, none of his muscles were burgling. He did not even have muscles. He just had transcendental potency and He lifted a rock. Actually one time the devotees painted Krishna during lifting Govardhan Hill or some painting and they made nice muscles on Krishna. And Srila Prabhupada saw this. He said, “Krishna did not have this ugly muscle”. He said, “Krishna He does not need these things for his power”. He said, “His body is very beautiful and graceful and very soft”. But yet He is still the most powerful of all powerful. So He lifted the Govardhan hill, He was not straining, six days, one more day left. He was just looking at the Vrajavasis, saying come, let us enjoy. In this way Krishna is all powerful.

So all the demons and all the demigods each one of them is millions of times more powerful than anyone of us. Each one of these personalities were such incredible maharathi figure, we cannot even imagine, just took place in Satya Yuga. But people had huge steel frame bodies then these are the most powerful warriors in all of Satya Yuga. And all of them perhaps millions of them all together they could not keep this mountain steady. So Lord Narayan, He appeared just to show them how insignificant they were. Just to show them. He appeared with thousands and thousands of hands. And they were thinking my god, how could so many hands and then with one of those thousands of hands, He did what all of them together could not do. He simply effortlessly without any strain or struggle touched the mountain and held that right in the place. That is the power of Him. That is the unlimited strength of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Why does He appear in such ways? To show us that, if you really want protection take shelter of Me. Why you are taking shelter of all these demons and demigods? Take shelter of Me. Are you taking shelter of your own potencies, you own intelligence, and your own power? It is great joke.

Krishna is revealing Himself in such a way, why? Just to show us who He is? And invite us to take shelter of Him, to surrender to Him.  Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said, “nämnäm akäri bahudhä nija-sarva-çaktis” that all of Your potencies, all of Your powers are within Your name, O’ Lord Hari. That means all of the strength of God is within His name and there is nothing. He is Ajita. He is unconquerable. There is no one or anything that can conquer Krishna. We should try to learn to take shelter of His names by that we become as unconquerable as Krishna because we are protected by the lotus hands of Krishna. This is not necessarily means our body. This means our soul. Krishna has created the material body, so whoever you are has to grow old, get disease, and die. Even the greatest of the Acharyas, their bodies went through these transformations. But the lord always protected their souls. If you want, you can protect the body also. But He guarantees, it is His promise that “If you surrender to me, if you sincerely call out My holy name I’ll protect you”. So it is very essential, it is very necessary to hear these wonderful stories of the divine lord’s Lila and to understand what the significance of these beautiful stories is. This narration by Sukadeva Goswami is specifically being spoken for the upliftment of all living beings within Kali Yuga.

“kåñëe svadhämopagate

dharma-jïänädibhiù saha

kalau nañöa-dåçäm eña

puräëärko ‘dhunoditaù”

It is said in Srimad Bhagavatam that after Lord Krishna left this planet and went back to Goloka Vrindavan. He descended within this Kali Yuga as the Bhagvad Puran “Srimad Bhagavatam” to give light and hope to all living beings. So these great narrations of Srimad Bhagavatam, if we hear them submissively and understand the real significance then faith develops within our heart and we understand knowledge. Now what is the goal of life? And how to attain it, to take shelter, to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is the process. In the final verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam describes that “nama sankirtanaya priyah”. That means in this age of Kali Yuga Simply chanting the name of the lord and offering obeisances by rendering service to Him, one can attain the supreme perfection of life.

Special Benediction to the Age of Kali

“kaler doña-nidhe räjann

asti hy eko mahän guëaù

kértanäd eva kåñëasya

mukta-saìgaù paraà vrajet”

Srimad Bhagavatam 12.3.51

That this age of Kali Yuga is filled with unlimited faults but there is one great benediction. That anyone who simply take shelter of the name of the Lord and accepts the process of Kirtan will attain the perfection of liberation. That is the promise of Srimad Bhagavatam. By giving this benediction the Srimad Bhagavatam is narrating so many beautiful historical references of all mighty power of the lord and all that power, all that glory, all that love, all that mercy, and all of His opulence’s are within His name. So why should we fear, why should we doubt? Why should we aspire for anything else of this world? Why should we chase after the mirages, the illusions of this world that promising us so much hope and happiness but ultimately we will be frustrated and ultimately dead, Why should we chase after the illusions of this world, This material existence. Why should we seek any security, any shelter, any happiness from those pleasures, form those forms, which are simply created for our suffering. Why not understand that the only shelter, the only refuge, the only happiness is in the service to the lord and His devotees. And with faith and confidence in the glory of the Lord, we can give our heart to the loving service of His devotees and we can chant the holy names with great faith. That is the conclusion of all the teachings of Srimad Bhagavatam.

So let us hear regularly, let us understand and let us applies this principle to our life. To apply these principles in our life “jyana and vairagya” “vairägya-vidyä-nija-bhakti-yoga- çikñärtham ekaù puruñaù puräëaù”. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself has come to teach Srimad Bhagavatam philosophy in this age. And He has taught us according to Sarvauma Bhattacarya “vairägya-vidyä-nija-bhakti-yoga- çikñärtham ekaù puruñaù puräëaù”. He had taught us the principle of vairagay, renuncitation. Here He taught us the principles of Vidya, knowledge. And He has taught us the principle of bhakti or devotion. Vairagya means to accept whatever is favorable to devotional service.

“vyavasäyätmikä buddhir

ekeha kuru-nandana

bahu-çäkhä hy anantäç ca

buddhayo ‘vyavasäyinäm”

Bhagavad-Gita 2.41

Real Vairagya

Vairagya means to accept the order of guru as one’s life and soul, put everything else aside and whatever guru wants I have faith and I will do it. That is vairagya. Vairagya does not mean being a brahmacäré, sannyäsé, grhasta, or vänaprastha. Vairagya does not mean fasting without water and -. These are little tinny parts of vairagya. But they all are factually external, unless we are obedient to the order of guru. That is the real vairagya. That is the ultimate vairagya.

Accepting the words of Acharyas

Vidya, knowledge. Knowledge means to understand things as they are not to calculate things according to our perception or according to our own condition of thoughts what is right or what is wrong? What will give me happiness or will not give me happiness? What will create bondage or what will create liberation? We do not know any of these things. Who we are to think that we know? Knowledge is born from humility. “paripraçnena sevayä”. When we approach the guru submissively and simply follow his instruction that is knowledge. Acarya upasana, one who hears from acarya. He knows things as there. That is knowledge. Knowledge comes from god, not from us. “dharmato sakshyad bhagavad pranita”

Bhakti means the process which is the only means of approaching the lord. Bhakti means to surrender. With that vairagya, with that knowledge we use it all simply for the pleasure of the Lord.

“väsudeve bhagavati

bhakti-yogaù prayojitaù

janayaty äçu vairägyaà

jïänaà ca yad ahaitukam”

Srimad Bhagavatam 2.7

Suta Goswami explains in Srimad Bhagavatam that one who engage in the process of bhakti or surrendering to the lord automatically all knowledge and all renunciation is manifesting such a person. There fore Krishna says, “sarva-dharmän parityajya” just surrender to me. Just become the servant of my servant of my servant. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught us that this is the meaning of surrender. To be the servant of the servant of the servant of the Lord and then all the power and all the glory of lord is there to lift us and to protect us.
Thank you, very much.
Hare Krishna.