Generally our senses have a tendency towards the material direction, dhyayato visayan pumsah. The real penance is to control the flow of our senses from matter to spirit, control it from its flow from matter and project it unto spirit. ![]() In the middle of the summer they light a fire and they sit inside the fire, but these are not the real penances. We see sometimes when we go to places like Benares and Haridwara, we see people are performing these kinds of penances. They are the so-called penances: inflicting different types of sufferings to the body. Especially in India we see people are performing penances – so-called penances. So what is actually penance? Does penance mean to lie in a bed of nails or sit in the middle of fire? Or pinch your body with sharp objects? People do things like that. Bhuyas tvam tapa atishtha, become situated in penance and in the vidyam caiva mad-asrayam, vidyam, become situated in knowledge and become situated under My protection, mad-asrayam. One is ‘tapah’ and the other is, one is penance and the other is meditation. Don’t worry.” And here in this particular verse Krishna is giving the process how to receive Krishna’s mercy and He is talking about two things. ![]() So now the Lord is reassuring Brahma, “Brahma, don’t worry. You empower living entities and only by devotion to You one can become qualified.” But still Brahma was, although he prayed to the Lord in that way, he was worried, “How am I going to do it?” It’s a very difficult task so Brahma began to wonder, “What am I going to do? How am I going to do it?” He prayed to the Lord before that, “My Lord, it is You who enables everybody to execute different responsibilities. So Brahma had to assign them different types of gross material bodies. That means he had to design different types of bodies for living entities according to their mentality, according to their propensity and ultimately according to their subtle bodies. That means he had to make huge planets float in the space and then he had to fill those places with living entities. “How am I going to do such a difficult task?” And can you imagine what the task was that was assigned to Brahma? He had to first situate different planetary systems in their respective orbits. So Brahma, when he got to know what the Lord wanted him to do, at first Brahma became very worried. How many of you knew this verse? Raise your hands. Which is the verse of Bhagavad Gita 10.10? Such instructions of buddhi-yoga are directly imparted by the Lord from within, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (10.10). The directions were to come from within, and there was no necessity for anxiety in that task. The Lord instructed him that when he meditated he would very easily know where and how the planetary systems must be arranged. Brahma was entrusted with the work of creating the planetary systems. But His mercy is received due to our penance and perseverance in executing devotional service. The mercy the Lord bestows upon a particular person engaged in executing the responsible work entrusted unto him is beyond imagination. ![]() By these actions you will be able to understand everything from within your heart. O Brahma, situate yourself in penance and meditation and follow the principles of knowledge to receive My favor. Srimad Bhagavatam, third Canto, ninth chapter ‘Brahma’s Prayers For Creative Energy’, text thirty.īhuyah - again tvam - yourself tapah - penance atishtha - be situated vidyam - in the knowledge ca - also eva - certainly mat - My asrayam - under the protection tabhyam - by those qualifications antah - within hridi - in the heart brahman - O brahmana lokan - all the worlds drakshyasi - you will see apavritan - all disclosed. THE FOLLOWING LECTURE ON SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM, THIRD CANTO, CHAPTER NINE, “BRAHMA’S PRAYERS FOR CREATIVE ENERGY”, TEXT THIRTY, WAS GIVEN BY HIS HOLINESS BHAKTI CHARU SWAMI ON 16 FEBRUARY 2009 IN ISKCON UJJAIN, INDIA.
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