Skip to main content

ŚB 5.5.35

Devanagari

इति नानायोगचर्याचरणो भगवान् कैवल्यपतिऋर्षभोऽविरतपरममहानन्दानुभव आत्मनि सर्वेषां भूतानामात्मभूते भगवति वासुदेव आत्मनोऽव्यवधानानन्तरोदरभावेन सिद्धसमस्तार्थपरिपूर्णो योगैश्वर्याणि वैहायसमनोजवान्तर्धानपरकायप्रवेशदूरग्रहणादीनि यद‍ृच्छयोपगतानि नाञ्जसा नृप हृदयेनाभ्यनन्दत् ॥ ३५ ॥

Text

iti nānā-yoga-caryācaraṇo bhagavān kaivalya-patir ṛṣabho ’virata-parama-mahānandānubhava ātmani sarveṣāṁ bhūtānām ātma-bhūte bhagavati vāsudeva ātmano ’vyavadhānānanta-rodara-bhāvena siddha-samastārtha-paripūrṇo yogaiśvaryāṇi vaihāyasa-mano-javāntardhāna-parakāya-praveśa-dūra-grahaṇādīni yadṛcchayopagatāni nāñjasā nṛpa hṛdayenābhyanandat.

Synonyms

iti — thus; nānā — various; yoga — of mystic yoga; caryā — performances; ācaraṇaḥ — practicing; bhagavān — the Supreme Personality of Godhead; kaivalya-patiḥ — the master of kaivalya, oneness, or the giver of sāyujya-mukti; ṛṣabhaḥ — Lord Ṛṣabha; avirata — incessantly; parama — supreme; mahā — great; ānanda-anubhavaḥ — feeling transcendental bliss; ātmani — in the Supreme Soul; sarveṣām — of all; bhūtānām — living entities; ātma-bhūte — situated in the heart; bhagavati — unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead; vāsudeve — Kṛṣṇa, the son of Vasudeva; ātmanaḥ — of Himself; avyavadhāna — by the nondifference of constitution; ananta — unlimited; rodara — like crying, laughing and shivering; bhāvena — by the symptoms of love; siddha — completely perfect; samasta — all; artha — with desirable opulences; paripūrṇaḥ — full; yoga-aiśvaryāṇi — the mystic powers; vaihāyasa — flying in the sky; manaḥ-java — traveling at the speed of mind; antardhāna — the ability to disappear; parakāya-praveśa — the ability to enter another’s body; dūra-grahaṇa — the ability to perceive things far, far away; ādīni — and others; yadṛcchayā — without difficulty, automatically; upagatāni — achieved; na — not; añjasā — directly; nṛpa — O King Parīkṣit; hṛdayena — within the heart; abhyanandat — accepted.

Translation

O King Parīkṣit, just to show all the yogīs the mystic process, Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, the plenary expansion of Lord Kṛṣṇa, performed wonderful activities. Actually He was the master of liberation and was fully absorbed in transcendental bliss, which increased a thousandfold. Lord Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, the son of Vasudeva, is the original source of Lord Ṛṣabhadeva. There is no difference in Their constitution, and consequently Lord Ṛṣabhadeva awakened the loving symptoms of crying, laughing and shivering. He was always absorbed in transcendental love. Due to this, all mystic powers automatically approached Him, such as the ability to travel in outer space at the speed of mind, to appear and disappear, to enter the bodies of others, and to see things far, far away. Although He could do all this, He did not exercise these powers.

Purport

In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 19.149) it is said:

kṛṣṇa-bhakta — niṣkāma, ataeva ‘śānta’
bhukti-mukti-siddhi-kāmī — sakali ‘aśānta’

The word śānta means completely peaceful. Unless all one’s desires are fulfilled, one cannot be peaceful. Everyone is trying to fulfill his aspirations and desires, be they material or spiritual. Those in the material world are aśānta (without peace) because they have so many desires to fulfill. The pure devotee, however, is without desire. Anyābhilāṣitā-śūnya: a pure devotee is completely free from all kinds of material desire. Karmīs, on the other hand, are simply full of desires because they try to enjoy sense gratification. They are not peaceful in this life, nor the next, during the past, present or future. Similarly, jñānīs are always aspiring after liberation and trying to become one with the Supreme. Yogīs are aspiring after many siddhis (powers) — aṇimā, laghimā, prāpti, etc. However, a devotee is not at all interested in these things because he is fully dependent on the mercy of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is yogeśvara, the possessor of all mystic powers (siddhis), and He is ātmārāma, fully self-satisfied. The yoga-siddhis are described in this verse. One can fly in outer space without the aid of a machine, and he can travel at the speed of mind. This means that as soon as a yogī desires to go somewhere within this universe or even beyond this universe, he can do so immediately. One cannot estimate the speed of mind, for within a second the mind can go many millions of miles. Sometimes yogīs enter into the bodies of other people and act as they desire when their bodies are not working properly. When the body becomes old, a perfect yogī can find a young, able body. Giving up his old body, the yogī can enter into the young body and act as he pleases. Being a plenary expansion of Lord Vāsudeva, Lord Ṛṣabhadeva possessed all these mystic yoga powers, but He was satisfied with His devotional love of Kṛṣṇa, which was evinced by the ecstatic symptoms, such as crying, laughing and shivering.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the Fifth Canto, Fifth Chapter, of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, entitled “Lord Ṛṣabhadeva’s Teachings to His Sons.”