SRIMAD BHAGAVATAMCANTO 1 CHAPTER 9 TEXT 22-25

Worship of Lord’s devotees is more valuable

TEXT 22

tathāpy ekānta-bhakteṣupaśya bhūpānukampitam

yan me ’sūṁs tyajataḥ sākṣātkṛṣṇo darśanam āgataḥ

Yet, despite His being equally kind to everyone, He has graciously come

before me while I am ending my life, for I am His unflinching servitor.

Depending on Krsna is living entity’s nature

• The Supreme Lord, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, although equal to everyone, is still more inclined to His unflinching devotee who is completely surrendered and knows no one else as his protector and master.

• Having unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord as one’s protector, friend and master is the natural condition of eternal life.

• A living entity is so made by the will of the Almighty that he is most happy when placing himself in a condition of absolute dependence.

• The opposite tendency is the cause of falldown. The living entity has this tendency of falling down by dint of misidentifying himself as fully independent to lord it over the material world.

• The root cause of all troubles is false egotism.

Depending on Krsna is living entity’s nature

• The appearance of Lord Kṛṣṇa at the deathbed of Bhīṣmajī is due to his being an unflinching devotee of the Lord. 

• Arjuna had some bodily relation with Kṛṣṇa because the Lord happened to be his maternal cousin. But Bhīṣma had no such bodily relation. Therefore the cause of attraction was due to the intimate relation of the soul.

• The Lord is more pleased when He is addressed as the son of Mahārāja Nanda, the son of Yaśodā, the lover of Rādhārāṇī. 

• Bhīṣmadeva is conscious of this sweetness of transcendental humor, and therefore he likes to address the Lord as Vijaya-sakhe, Pārtha-sakhe, etc., exactly like Nanda-nandana or Yaśodā-nandana. 

•  One should not try to establish the relation directly; there must be a medium which is transparent and competent to lead us to the right path.

TEXT 23

bhaktyāveśya mano yasminvācā yan-nāma kīrtayantyajan kalevaraṁ yogī

mucyate kāma-karmabhiḥ

The Personality of Godhead, who appears in the mind of the devotee by attentive devotion and meditation and by chanting of the holy name, releases

the devotee from the bondage of fruitive activities at the time of his

quitting the material body.

• Yoga means concentration of the mind detached from all other subject matter. And actually such concentration issamādhi, or cent-percent engagement in the service of the Lord. 

• Such a yogī devotee of the Lord engages himself twenty-four hours daily in the service of the Lord so that his whole attention is engrossed with the thoughts of the Lord in ninefold devotional service, namely hearing, chanting, remembering, worshiping, praying, becoming a voluntary servant, carrying out orders, establishing a friendly relationship, or offering all that one may possess in the service of the Lord. 

•  Such a perfect yogī is enabled by the divine grace of the Lord to concentrate his mind upon the Lord with a perfect sense of consciousness, and thus by chanting His holy name before quitting the body.

• Devotional service to the Lord does not kill the natural desires of the living being, but they are applied in the right cause of devotional service.

• General Bhīṣmadeva is referring to a particular type of yoga called bhakti-yoga, and he was fortunate enough to have the Lord directly in his presence before he quitted his material body.

TEXT 24

sa deva-devo bhagavān pratīkṣatāṁkalevaraṁ yāvad idaṁ hinomy aham

prasanna-hāsāruṇa-locanollasan-mukhāmbujo dhyāna-pathaś catur-bhujaḥ

May my Lord, who is four-handed and whose beautifully decorated lotus face, with eyes as red as the rising sun, is smiling, kindly await me at

that moment when I quit this material body.

• Bhīṣmadeva knew well that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the original Nārāyaṇa. His worshipable Deity was four-handed Nārāyaṇa, but he knew that four-handed Nārāyaṇa is a plenary expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Indirectly he desired Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa to manifest Himself in His four-handed feature of Nārāyaṇa.

• A Vaiṣṇava is always humble in his behavior. Although it was cent-percent certain that Bhīṣmadeva was approaching Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma just after leaving his material body, still as a humble Vaiṣṇava he desired to see the beautiful face of the Lord.

• A pure devotee is never very anxious to go back to the kingdom of God. He entirely depends on the good will of the Lord.

• He is equally satisfied even if the Lord desires him to go to hell. 

• The only desire that a pure devotee entertains is that he may always be in rapt attention with thinking of the lotus feet of the Lord.

• Bhīṣmadeva wanted this much only: that his mind be absorbed in thinking of the Lord and that he pass away thus. That is the highest ambition of a pure devotee.

TEXT 25

sūta uvācayudhiṣṭhiras tad ākarṇya

śayānaṁ śara-pañjareapṛcchad vividhān dharmān

ṛṣīṇāṁ cānuśṛṇvatāmSūta Gosvāmī said: Mahārāja

Yudhiṣṭhira, after hearing Bhīṣmadeva speak in that appealing tone, asked him, in the presence of

all the great ṛṣis, about the essential principles of various religious duties.

• Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa inspired Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira to ask Bhīṣmadeva in the presence of many great sages, indicating thereby that the Lord’s devotee like Bhīṣmadeva, although apparently living as a worldly man, is far superior to many great sages, even Vyāsadeva. 

•  Another point is that Bhīṣmadeva at that time was not only lying on a deathbed of arrows, but was greatly aggrieved because of that state. 

•  His pure devotees are always sound in body and mind by dint of spiritual enlightenment, and thus in any circumstances a devotee of the Lord is in perfect order to speak of the right way of life. 

•  The father likes to see the son become more famous than himself. The Lord declares very emphatically that worship of His devotee is more valuable than the worship of the Lord Himself.