Bhisma prays

[Guest guest]

Hare Krishna.

 

Since his holiness Bhaktivikash maharaja requested as much (some time ago

now--sorry for my delay), it may be auspicious to elaborate further on Bhisma’s

prayers in Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.9.33 and Srila Prabhupada’s purport:

 

tri-bhuvana-kamanaM tamAla-varNaM

ravi-kara-gaura-varAmbaraM dadhAne |

vapur alaka-kulAvåtAnanAbjaM

vijaya-sakhe ratir astu me ’navadyA || 33 ||

 

“Sri Krsna is the intimate friend of Arjuna. He has appeared on this earth in

His transcendental body, which resembles the bluish color of the tamala tree.

His body attracts everyone in the three planetary systems [upper, middle and

lower]. May His glittering yellow dress and His lotus face, covered with

paintings of sandalwood pulp, be the object of my attraction, and may I not

desire fruitive results.”

 

 

 

 

> tri-bhuvana-kamanam tamala-varnam

 

With these words, Bhismadeva describes Tamala Krsna.

 

 

 

 

> ravi-kara-gaura-varambaram dadhane |

 

Krsna is dressed in yellow (gaura). His yellow covering is as effulgent as the

sun's hands (i.e., each beam of sunlight is poetically considered to be one of

thousands of arms of the sun Deity, Surya-Narayana). If we can imagine that the

battle of Kuruksetra started early in the day, what a sight the rising sun's

rays illuminating Krsna's yellow silk must have been.

 

 

 

> vapur alaka-kulavrtananabjam

> vijaya-sakhe ratir astu me 'navadya ||

 

Bhismadeva also prays for “rati” (attachment and love). According to Krsnadasa

Kaviraja Gosvami (Cc. Madhya 19.192), there are two types of such loving

attachment: aisvarya (awe and reverence) and kevala (pure attachment free of awe

or reverence). Notably, Srila Prabhupada explains rati elsewhere as follows

(Cc. Madhya 19.177):

 

"The word rati is explained in the Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.3.41) as follows:

.. . . 'When a tenderness of the heart is manifested, there is rati, or

attachment. But those who are interested in being liberated from material

bondage will not manifest this tenderness.' This attachment is not like material

attachment. When one is free of material contamination, attachment for Krsna’s

service awakens and is called rati. In the material world there is attachment

for material enjoyment, but this is not rati. Transcendental rati can be

awakened only on the spiritual platform."

 

At the very end of his verse, Bhisma saliently implies that he wants to avoid

karma-misra-bhakti--as per Rupa Gosvami’s definition of pure devotional service:

“anyabhilasita sunyam jnana-karmady anavrtam.”

 

Rati is also another name for bhava-bhakti. Technically, bhava is one of several

more specific subdivisions of perfect love of Godhead (prema), but that is

different from rati as general bhava-bhakti.

 

It is our immense fortune that even we can gradually obtain Krsna-prema, by the

grace of Srila Prabhupada and Caitanya Mahaprabhu, simply by following their

standard process of Krsna consciousness in all sincerity (sradhha-ratir bhaktir

anukramisyati).

 

 

 

 

> “Sri Krsna is the intimate friend of Arjuna. He has appeared on this earth in

His transcendental body, which resembles the bluish color of the tamala tree.

His body attracts everyone in the three planetary systems [upper, middle and

lower]. May His glittering yellow dress and His lotus face, covered with

paintings of sandalwood pulp,>

 

See this today at:

 

http://iskconhouston.org/now_rgd.php?PHPSESSID=8609e4429c781b04c10625067b228494

 

 

 

 

> be the object of my attraction, and may I not desire fruitive results.”>

> PURPORT

> When Sri Krsna by His own internal pleasure appears on earth, He does so by

the agency of His internal potency. The attractive features of His

transcendental body are desired in all the three worlds, namely the upper,

middle and lower planetary systems.>

 

Srila Prabhupada doesn't specify whether these features are desired by people

who want to love Krsna--or by those who want to possess them independently of

Him! Either way, it’s true.

 

 

 

 

> Arjuna is described here as the conqueror, and Krsna is described as his

intimate friend.>

 

Perhaps this is why Bhisma also mentioned Arjuna in other verses in this same

passage.

 

 

 

 

> Bhismadeva, on his bed of arrows after the Battle of Kuruksetra, is

remembering the particular dress of Lord Krsna which He put on as the driver of

Arjuna's chariot. While fighting was going on between Arjuna and Bhisma,

Bhisma's attraction was drawn by the glittering dress of Krsna, and indirectly

he admired his so-called enemy Arjuna for possessing the Lord as his friend.

Arjuna was always a conqueror because the Lord was his friend. >

 

Arjuna was behind the Lord, and fully engaged, while Bhisma was in front of the

Lord, and could see His beauty fully. Hence it made such a profound impression

on Bhisma that he recalled it even much later, on his deathbed.

 

 

 

 

>Bhismadeva takes this opportunity to address the Lord as vijaya-sakhe (friend

of Arjuna) because the Lord is pleased when He is addressed conjointly with His

devotees, who are related with Him in different transcendental humors.>

 

There are two types of ragatmika (eternally perfect) devotees--those who are

related to the Lord in some formal or filial relation (sambandha), and those who

simply desire Him intensely (kama); Srila Prabhupada hints at these in his

purport to Bhagavata 1.9.22. Bhisma was less directly related than Arjuna.

 

 

 

 

>While Krsna was the charioteer of Arjuna, sun rays glittered on the dress of

the Lord, and the beautiful hue created by the reflection of such rays was never

forgotten by Bhismadeva. >

 

It would be difficult for anyone to forget such a beautiful depiction as this.

 

 

 

 

> As a great fighter he was relishing the relation of Krsna in the chivalrous

humor. Transcendental relation with the Lord in any one of the different rasas

(humors) is relishable by the respective devotees in the highest ecstasy.

 

There are four sthayi-bhavas (permanent, constitutional temperaments), or modes

of rati: dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhurya. These can be colored by seven

temporary, contextual (gauna) moods, which include virya--the chivalrous humor

conditioning the unique servitude of Bhismadeva. In ecstatic love, stimulants

(vibhava), ensuants (anubhava), and various ecstatic manifestations (sattvika &

vyabhicari) together produce the concrete experience of various rasas. There is

much more to be said about this, as has been explained at length by Srila Rupa

Gosvami and Krsnadasa Kaviraja.

 

 

 

 

> Less intelligent mundaners who want to make a show of being transcendentally

related with the Lord artificially jump at once to the relation of conjugal

love, imitating the damsels of Vrajadhama. Such a cheap relation with the Lord

exhibits only the base mentality of the mundaner because one who has relished

conjugal humor with the Lord cannot be attached to worldly conjugal rasa, which

is condemned even by mundane ethics.>

 

Srila Prabhupada generally gets right to the point like this.

 

 

 

 

> The eternal relation of a particular soul with the Lord is evolved.

 

Could anyone explain what this might mean? Evolution implies some sort of

change, whereas the particular relation is eternal.

 

 

 

 

> A genuine relation of the living being with the Supreme Lord can take any form

out of the five principal rasas, and it does not make any difference in

transcendental degree to the genuine devotee. Bhismadeva is a concrete example

of this, and it should be carefully observed how the great general is

transcendentally related with the Lord.”>

 

This is an important point, and Bhisma's exemplary sentiments provide a

“concrete” paradigm for us to emulate, for his relationship is most definitely

transcendental. As Srila Prabhupada already discussed very nicely earlier on

(Bhagavata, 1.9.19), Bhisma knows perfectly well about the various states of

love of Godhead, as well as the special glory of Lord Krsna: His loving

relationships with His various devotees. The difficulty Bhisma underwent on his

bed of arrows, and even the wounds he himself inflicted on the Lord’s

transcendental body, are manifestations of such bhava. There is much more that

could be said about anubhava, but there are nine characteristics (anubhavas) of

a devotee in bhava-bhakti, as mentioned in Caitanya-caritamrta (Madhya-lila,

23.17-19).

 

 

 

 

> The above verse exhibits the typically remarkable standard of poetry that

permeates the Bhagavatam, >

 

I think the technical name of the poetic meter here is Puspitagra; it's lines

are of unequal length (ardha-samavrtti). One of the twenty-six qualifities of

the devotee is being a “kavi,” like Bhisma, who expressed his devotional

feelings in ornamental language with all the poetic figures. Because so many

devotees are doing this since time immemorial, Krsna is called Uttamasloka.

 

 

 

 

> while fairly every sentence in the purport also has more significance than can

be adequately described.>

 

I’ve only elaborated here on a very little bit. Moreover, echoing what the

Srimad-Bhagavatam reminds us over and over again (cf., 8.23.29, 11.4.2, 10.14.7,

11.16.39, 2.7.40, 8.5.6, etc., etc.), Srila Prabhupada writes (in his purport to

Bhagavatam 1.16.2-30):

 

“Even if it were possible to count the atoms after smashing the earth into

powder, still it would not be possible to estimate the unfathomable

transcendental qualities of the Lord. It is said that Lord Anantadeva has tried

to expound the transcendental qualities of the Supreme Lord with His numberless

tongues, and that for numberless years together it has been impossible to

estimate the qualities of the Lord.”

 

MDd