19900111 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.13.62

The following is a lecture given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on January 11th 1990 in New Tālavana farm in Carriere Mississippi. Class begins with the reading of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10^th canto, chapter 13, verse 62.

dṛṣṭvā tvareṇa nija-dhoraṇato ’vatīrya
pṛthvyāṁ vapuḥ kanaka-daṇḍam ivābhipātya
spṛṣṭvā catur-mukuṭa-koṭibhir aṅghri-yugmaṁ

Translation: After seeing this, Lord Brahmā hastily got down from his swan carrier, fell down like a golden rod and touched the lotus feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa with the tips of the four crowns on his heads. Offering his obeisances, he bathed the feet of Kṛṣṇa with the water of his tears of joy.

Purport: Lord Brahmā bowed down like a stick, because Lord Brahmā’s complexion is golden, he appeared to be like a golden stick lying down before Lord Kṛṣṇa. When one falls down before a superior just like a stick, one’s offering of obeisances is called daṇḍavat. Daṇḍa means “stick,” and vat means “like.” It is not that one should simply say “daṇḍavat.” Rather, one must fall down. Thus Brahmā fell down, touching his foreheads to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, and his crying in ecstasy is to be regarded as an abhiṣeka bathing ceremony of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet.

(Jayapatākā Swami: In India, the Vaiṣṇavas when they see each other, many times they are - daṇḍavat! daṇḍavat! bow down your feet! bow down your feet! Like you sit. (devotees laughing). So, they don't they don't bow down. They say daṇḍavat! 

When you are doing Daṇḍavat, you bow down. Why it is said. They are like that. That is why here it is put in the Bhāgavatam. Shouldn't simply say daṇḍavat. You shouldn't wait a second, you mean it. Pay obeisances.)

He who appeared before Brahmā as a human child was in fact the Absolute Truth, Parabrahmān (brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate). The Supreme Lord is narākṛti; that is, He resembles a human being. It is not that He is four-armed (catur-bāhu). Nārāyaṇa is catur-bāhu, but the Supreme Person resembles a human being. This is also confirmed in the Bible, where it is said that man was made in the image of God.

Lord Brahmā saw that Kṛṣṇa, in His form as a cowherd boy, was Parabrahman, the root cause of everything, but was now appearing as a human child, loitering in Vṛndāvana with a morsel of flute in His hand. Astonished, Lord Brahmā hastily got down from his swan carrier and let his body fall to the earth.

Usually, the demigods never touch the ground, but Lord Brahmā, voluntarily giving up his prestige as a demigod, bowed down on the ground before Lord Kṛṣṇa. Although Brahmā has one head in each direction, he voluntarily brought all his heads to the ground and touched Lord Kṛṣṇa’s feet with the tips of his four helmets. Although his intelligence works in every direction, he surrendered everything before the boy Kṛṣṇa.

It is mentioned that Brahmā washed the feet of Kṛṣṇa with his tears, and here the word sujalaiḥ indicates that his tears were purified. As soon as bhakti is present, everything is purified (sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam). Therefore, Brahmā’s crying was a form of bhakty-anubhāva, a transformation of transcendental ecstatic love.

Thus ends the Bhaktivedanta Swami translation and purport. So text 62 chapter 13 canto 10, the 1st of November 1990-5-04 gaurabda in the second parārdha of Lord Brahmā..

Jayapatākā Swami: So, this beautiful pastime revealed to Lord Brahmā, the transcendental position of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are so mysterious that unless Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself to His devotees, His pastimes are not easily understood.

Here Lord Kṛṣṇa revealed Himself to Lord Brahmā and then Lord Brahmā could see that Kṛṣṇa was indeed the Absolute truth. So, he got off his swan carrier. This is not an ordinary swan. Lord Brahmā's swan carrier can travel all over the universe. It is a type of not transcendental but very spiritualized or very at a higher subtle type of swan which will travel all over the universe faster than the speed of light.

In fact, one-time Lord Śiva wanted to come down to Māyāpur very quickly to see Lord Caitanya. His carrier is Nandi, the big bull. So, he thought the bull goes too slow. So, he requested Lord Brahmā they could borrow his car, I mean his swan (devotees laughing) Because he wanted to get there in a hurry. They borrowed the swan and he zipped down to Māyāpur Navadvīpa dhāma.

So, there is a temple in Navadvīpa dhāma known as Haṁsa-vāhana, meaning a place where Lord Śiva came quickly to Māyāpur using Haṁsa, the swan carrier of Lord Brahmā and the Haṁsa-vāhana, the deity is under water 364 days in a year and comes out one day here for being worshipped from the water.

So, this swan is the very fast carrier. Lord Brahmā is also not ordinary person but he is the original living entity in the whole universe. His bowing down on the ground before Lord Kṛṣṇa.

But Brahmā doesn't have to walk, he can float. But for Kṛṣṇa, he goes right onto the ground and touches his head to the lotus feet of the Lord. In the Vedas, there is a lot of description about Brahmā and about Lord Śiva.

So, you will find that many people worship Lord Śiva or Lord Brahmā in India. Not many people worship Brahmā because he was cursed not to be worshipped in the temple and do something but Lord Śiva especially is worshipped and Lord Brahmā is appreciated. There are some places where he is worshipped but not in proper temples.

So, when in his pastimes one says that Lord Brahmā is bowing down to Kṛṣṇa accepting Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme Absolute Truth. Several places Lord Śiva, he also glorifies Lord Kṛṣṇa.

So, this way those who have faith in Brahmā or Śiva is, should be easy for them to accept supreme transcendental position of Lord Brahmā, of Lord Kṛṣṇa. excuse me. So, it's a type of logic that if Lord Brahmā is great, Lord Śiva is great, then they accept Lord Kṛṣṇa is the greatest. Well that's a pretty important point.

Lord Brahmā didn't recognize Kṛṣṇa at first but then now after he showed all the Viṣṇu forms, showed him the transcendental forms coming from Gopāla, then it's very clear that Lord Kṛṣṇa's position is supreme. Lord Brahmā is feeling ecstasy in serving Lord Kṛṣṇa.

One day during the Mahā-prakāśa pastime when Lord Caitanya was showing His transcendental form that He was also Kṛṣṇa. And Haridāsa Ṭhākura came before Him offering his obeisances and all of a sudden, he could see that he was Brahmā, Lord Caitanya was Kṛṣṇa. Then he fainted on the ground and he became conscious then again, he was Brahmā and Lord Kṛṣṇa was Lord Kṛṣṇa. Purpose of offering one's obeisance’s falling down on the ground and paying obesenses is a for surrender. Even the west they book understand that bowing down before someone is something pretty significant because people say I am not going to bow down before no one. I am not going to bow down before no man. They don't, so bowing down is something significant otherwise there wouldn't be, they wouldn't stay so emphatically they are not going to do it, they don't want to do it.

Prabhupāda explains that by bowing down before the Lord, this is very good for developing one's God consciousness.

In fact, in the beginning and beyond, he talked to devotees that well you just try bowing down. Someone said- Why why are you bow down. You know why. Bow down to Lord Kṛṣṇa and he will reciprocate. Kṛṣṇa, He will protect us. So, importance of the actual transcendental position of Lord Kṛṣṇa is one lesson from this verse. Importance of bowing down, the procedure of bowing down. Not that one, the one goes down quickly to a prostrate position.

Sometimes there is a confusion because women would like to also offer their prostrate obeisance’s. They think that there is some kind of a prejudice between men and women. Why men are offering prostrated obeisance’s and why women are not. There are some letters circulating around demanding equal rights in bowing down (devotees laughing). But apparently the breasts of women are have got some special significance in relation to mother Bhūmi. I don't remember offhand the full import but for that reason a woman breasts are not supposed to touch the ground in paying obeisance’s.

So that's why they are only through the pañcāṅga kneeling because they are not, their breasts are not supposed to touch the ground when they offer obeisance’s.

I saw a verse in Haribhakti Vilāsa that mentions, at the time I didn't think it was a purport thing, so I didn't like read the purport everything and all the details but  I just remember seeing that is one of the instructions given says that something that ISKCON is made you know, trying to create some kind of caste distinction or nobody should feel bad about it. It is apparently that rather something special about a woman's body that some things you are supposed to do in different ways and then but any case mentally one is to fully surrender by way of bowing down is also we are surrendering our mind.

Lord Brahmā bowed down. He bathed the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa with the tears of love. In the bowing down, different parts of the body mentioned in the last part is our mind. We are also offering our mind to the lotus feet of the Lord.

Another important aspect Prabhupāda brought out is that the Brahman or Absolute Truth, the Parabrahma was appearing before Lord Brahmā as a child, as a human like child.

They get conversations with the Christians and in the Vatican, they portray that God is old man. But here it is stating how God appeared as a young child. Of course, they object it in the American and they painted the actual figure of God because I once saw speculative.

But when in Kṛṣṇa conscious movement proclaims that the Lord appears in various human like forms from various age groups up to the youth. He doesn't become middle or old age, always stays youthful.

Sometimes people object how can this be. But they don't know what the Lord looks like except that man is made in the image of God. That means that the Lord must be having a human like form. It must be like a human form if we are made in His image. So, this truth is that we build in the Vedas, also that the Lord appears in human like form but He is not a human. He is always the Lord. So, this is an important aspect because nowadays there is a lot of confusion due to Māyāvādī philosophy.

Even many Christians believe that God might be some kind of an energy pulse or something, some sort of impersonal reality. The Muhammadans say that the Allah is nirākāra. He is having no material ākāra or form because the Vedas also say that the Lord is nirguṇa. He is without material qualities but the Lord is having, that doesn't bar the Lord from having spiritual qualities or is spiritual form which is actually what the Lord has. When we think of the Lord as impersonal, then we also tend to think that everything is mechanical and this precludes us from giving our love to the Lord.

So, it is very important that we understand that how the Lord is a person. Lord Kṛṣṇa posessed many different forms. Just like we know that He appears in the Viṣṇu form as Varāha, as the boar, the Matsya, the fish, Kūrma, the tortoise and so on.

So, this quote from the Bible that God appears in a human life by His, that man is made from the image of God confirms that the personal form of Kṛṣṇa, the form as human like form is the original form of God in their point of view which is what the Vedas say

īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ

anādir ādir govindaḥ
sarva kāraṇa-kāraṇam

 

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ

kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam.

What is the mysterious difficult for people to understand how Lord Kṛṣṇa can appear in His form as a cowherd boy with a morsel of, having flute in His hand, playing just like a cowherd boy, running in the forest and still be the Absolute Truth? It is very difficult for anyone to comprehend except for the pure devotees of the Lord. So Kṛṣṇa explains bhaktyā mām abhijānāti.

Except for my devotee no one else can understand. So Brahmā had done some mischief with Lord Kṛṣṇa. So now when he is bowing down, his heart is purified because he is overwhelmed in great devotion for Lord Kṛṣṇa.

In the Vedas, there are many examples of great devotees seeing the Lord. That's something unusual. They ask people other religion, what does the God look like? What does He do? Well, they say nobody can see Him.

But actually, the Lord can be seen. The Lord can be seen performing His different pastimes all of the time but if when He wants to reveal Himself to different devotees, many different devotees have seen Lord Kṛṣṇa throughout the ages. When I was trying to fly to India, my flight was misdirected for eleven and a half hours. We were stuck in a airport without being let out of the plane.

So, I got surrounded by a group of eventuality Christians (devotees laughing) and tried to discuss about the personality of Godhead but they didn't want to pin it down. They didn't want to accept that the Lord could be human like form (not clear 18:26) into this world or. They could accept only Jesus could come to the world. They couldn't accept that God, the father could come. And anytime would get to a particular crucial point in the discussion, they would say - well, it's a mystery. These are things that we don't know. This increases our faith to know that there are some things we don't know but increases our faith to know many things that are previously unknown. But they are revealed by Kṛṣṇa if they like to hear them.

So Kṛṣṇa does reveal Himself but He reveals Himself to His devotees. But this is special really special mercy because Brahmā wasn't acting exactly in a most devotional mood. But still He revealed Himself to Lord Brahmā.

So you can accept that this is a special causeless mercy that Lord Kṛṣṇa showed to Lord Brahmā due to our previous devotional service unto the Lord Kṛṣṇa's purely His causeless mercy He revealed. must be Brahmā had done so much service before and then Lord Kṛṣṇa even though He wasn't in the most devotional mood at that time, He revealed Himself.

First, He revealed His Viṣṇu form and then shocked and stunned Lord Brahmā and then Lord Brahmā wanted to offer his worship to Lord Kṛṣṇa. And then Kṛṣṇa revealed Himself and His two-handed form.

So, in this way everything became purified. When we realize that glory of the Lord then we realize that we cannot relationship as the servitor of the Lord. Then all the other temporary designations recede to the backup, may become purified. This is very important because now a days there is lot of problem in the world due to this superficial designation, upādhī.

Upādhī means designations or body consciousness. Someone thinks they are white or black, or someone thinks they are Jew or catholic or Palestine.

Someone thinks that they are Asian or American or European, Latin whatever. And this is always creating problems in the world.

Even just recently in Georgia there is some problem some rational crisis came out and one ice golf still not fully settled.

In Mississippi, it's an ongoing potential problem all the time. Because somebody considers that white someone is black. Things like that.

In the Middle east because of someone thinks they are Arab but someone else is a Jew, Israeli and therefore a lot of problems are there.

So, there's no easy solution for this. Even they make some temporary truce, later on things crop up.

In South Africa, there is also lot of problems which they are trying to settle but it's not fully settled. One devotee from Africa was preaching in Nāmahaṭṭa tour in India and he told all the people that, his name was Anandini Das. He brought the point that in South Africa there is an apartheid prejudice according to the skin color. But that in, that even though now as in some other world but previously only the Hare Kṛṣṇa temple was the only religious monument in the entire country practically where they had people from all the different communities living together without any caste distinction.

There would Indian origin, African origin and European origin, all the different racial representatives were all there because they didn't have any consciousness of the body as being their real self. Because they had devotion to Kṛṣṇa, they could see that they were all eternal spiritual souls. And this is actually the solution for this rational prejudice in the world that people should become devoted to the Lord. Then they become free from all this temporary designation. How this happens? This happens automatically by the mercy of the Lord.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda once said his books should go to every person. If they can read his books, they can understand easier what is devotional service? Maybe they can even become fixed in devotional service since the special benediction of the Lord specially in this age Lord Caitanya has made this opportunity very accessible.

In India this problem is going on right now between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims when they attacked India parallelly created history. They took out many Hindu temples including the temples of Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Rāma and one power pretty heavy-duty model emperor, he built one mosque right over the birth place of Lord Rāma some thousands of years ago. Over a thousand or about a thousand years.

Then now the Hindus they wanted this temple of Rāma should be returned and the mosque should be moved. This is creating a lot of, that could be solved, that problem probably could be solved by sober minded Muslims and Hindus like get together and solve it. The problem is that most people are not sober minded and they just identify as a kind of racial or a racial designation as a matter of pride. Whatever it maybe, we got everything, we got a master, we don't want to go. And the others say, well, we don't care you know we want to get it. We want to have our temple. So, most people are not that Kṛṣṇa conscious, that they are really wanting to see Rāma worship so much. They may never even go to the temple after that but is a kind of a racial thing. It's attracted the mind of many people as a matter of prestige that this thing happened. And it's a racial thing that Muslims they don't want to give it and so there is riots going on now for the past week every day.

And this is the nature of course of Kali Yuga that it cannot, you get all these unnecessary arguments. But the thing that fills it if I made a mistake that it's religion, that’s the fault. It's not a, it's a lack of real spiritual understanding. That's the real problem. And the fact that people are simply identifying with their body, so these conditioned souls, they are considering that I am a you know, I'm a Muslim, I'm a Christian, I'm a Hindu.

Whether they practice or not, it's simply a more designation than actually a belief that they deeply adhere to. Say if actual spiritual knowledge were given, then the people would become purified from this false designation. Lord Caitanya when He had a, one devotee was there who was like a Lord. He was a general also for one for the emperor Hussain Shah.

When Hussain Shah was a young man, he taught him military art. That time Hussain Shah was a young prince. He was a teacher. So, Hussain Shah was misbehaving and with his horse whip, he whipped him at the back once, this Hindu kṣatriya Lord and then later. But apart from that they had a very close relationship. It was actually deserved it. Later of course, he ascended to the throne and became the emperor. The Lord remained the Lord and the general. But the queen saw that the emperor had a little mark in the back.

Apparently the whipped pretty heavy, so left a little bit of scar or some kind of a mark and she said how did this happen. And he didn't want to say well somebody whipped me. Somebody whipped you!! Who is that person? I want to know. But then the emperor wouldn't tell her because didn't want her wrath to go on this Hindu Lord but believe his name was Buddhi manta Khan. I may be mistaken. I might be mistaken.

So eventually she kept humbling at them. He told her who did it.  Then she said I want him to be killed. It's a matter of prestige. But the emperor wouldn't do it. He says uncle to me you see and he was my teacher. How can I kill him? She kept insisting that atleast atleast you convert him.

So, one day the emperor decided okay I'll convert him. In those days the understanding of what it was to be a Hindu was so superficial that someone thought if you got contaminated you are outcaste. So, we are followers of the Vedas was something very changing one’s religion was something very superficial. The actual teachings given in the Vedas sanātana-dharma is our eternal religious principles to be servitor of the Lord.

Question of changing like this doesn't come up. But in Kali Yuga the brāhmaṇas created this havoc so that if a Muhammadan spit in a glass of water and made to drink it or throw it on you, you are considered polluted. And then no brāhmaṇa would accept you as a member of Vedic culture, so they are outcaste. So then in this way today there is you know 12% or more Mohammadans in India.

Some states like in Bengal over 25% just because of this kind of speculative idea about somebody's identity.

So, the king, the emperor brought in this Lord and said I am going to convert you.

He said - why? why?

And he was like clearly that respectable Hindus weren't converted like that. It was done only as a kind of punishment. He said no because my queen is insisting because you whipped me once when I was a prince. I don't want to do it but if the queen insists I can't say no. Currently he was a henpecked emperor.

So, then he spit in a glass of water. They held him.

Oh! no! no! thrown over.

Now is it. Now you are no longer (devotees laughing) Vedic, you are now Muslim you know. So, then he went to different brāhmaṇas and requested them.

Somebody said- Well, go to the bottom of the Ganges (devotees laughing). So that will kill me. So yes, but next birth you will take birth as a Hindu. This wasn't like what he was looking for (devotees laughing). You can see how people (gurudeva smiling) didn't convert back. You know their solution is like aver like one-way dead-end roads. So somehow, he came to Lord Caitanya asked how he could get purified.

Lord Caitanya thought for a second and then said you just chant Hare Kṛṣṇa three times. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Okay you are purified. He became one of the big generals of the saṅkīrtana movement after that. Someone said why 3 times, 1 time is enough. One harināma is enough to purify one who has so many sins, more than what one can commit but with measure.

So, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness this idea caste or creed or colour, designations and false identification are crossed over. The reason, but to get people be Kṛṣṇa conscious, we need to give them Śrīla Prabhupāda books.

If they can get the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda, then they can read, they can understand what is the actual purpose of life, who they are?

So, it's not uncommon that one who identifies strongly with the body and identify with other similar types of bodies. Even though there is nobody similar to Lord Brahmā but he was identifying with his body. He thought that his body was better than Kṛṣṇa 's body would at first but then when Kṛṣṇa revealed His unlimited potency, then Brahmā became overwhelmed with devotion fell down at His feet. Became purified from his dehātma-buddhi as a Brahmā and he became fixed in his identity as a devotee of the Lord.

So, this is purpose is to that people can identify daiva-varṇāśrama means daiva part means we identify as devotees. We don't identify that I am a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. We identify I am a devotee of the Lord. But my body has got a particular nature. I am not my body. Though I use my body according to the type of the nature that the body has. Although I'll keep my own identity very clear that I am a pure devotee of the Lord. I am a nitya, eternal living entity. This consciousness is lacking in the previous varṇāśrama system, especially the perverted varṇāśrama system that the generated during this Kali Yuga. So that created all these problems.

So, we don't want to reproduce neither as a possible to reproduce a kind of caste system. What we want to do is organize a society and educate the people a large about their spiritual identity. Because we have a material body which has a certain nature, everyone different.

So, for the organization of society, we do according to varṇāśrama but we don't ever lose sight of our actual spiritual identity as eternal devotee of the Lord. So that even as somebody has a Brahmā body or they have a Śiva no they have whatever this deva body or human body or Brahmān or vaiśya or śūdra or type of body. They all engage in devotional service. When they engage in devotional service, when they are identifying as a devotee of the Lord, actually they are purified. 

Even though they may be superficially functioning according to a particular varṇa or āśrama but actually they are purified. This is what the world needs and this is what the Kṛṣṇa conscious movement is offering to the world. Yesterday in the library, we were doing some service for Lord Kṛṣṇa, so I just happened to look at a devotees public library database and most of the Bhāgavatams were there on the (not clear 33:22) first canto first part Bhāgavatam every copy is not there. But all the other cantos up to the 9th canto is there.  There is only another small books that there are only nectar, science of self-realization, Bhagavad-Gītā 1972 edition few copies.

But under Bhaktivedānta Swami folder nothing under this Kṛṣṇa. Under Kṛṣṇa if you look under Kṛṣṇa, only thing you will find is a dia course where did Joey disappear in the Hare Kṛṣṇa something like that and monkey having sticks 16 copies. Why, there's only 2 copies of Bhagavad-Gītā with 16 copies of, see there's a definite bias in the anyway under Kṛṣṇa there's no Bhagavad-Gita is not under Kṛṣṇa.

Actually, the quarter of Bhagavad-Gītā should be cross referenced. We should have our reason, our Kṛṣṇa, the librarian should get the cross references there proper. Kṛṣṇa spoke the Bhagavad-Gita but under Kṛṣṇa there's no mention of Bhagavad-Gītā. So only way you can find the Bhāgavatam is if you look Bhaktivedanta Swami or you actually give the actual title. But if you look at Kṛṣṇa, I don't know how the other conference they have but atleast I didn't use database. I just put those 2 mains.

Under yoga it wasn't dated. Under yoga there were some other bhakti books. But I didn't see bhakti Bhagavad. So people don't actually know even what these books stand for what they mean probably they are librarians and other cross reference but Bhāgavatam could be a cross reference to know thousand times. So many important instructions are there. Specially each volume could have its own cross reference according to, some volumes are talking of Brahmā some Lord Śiva and some different things.

People in general they need these books. But even if they go to the library, the books are there, they can't get through them very easily. They have to know the name Bhaktivedanta Swami or they have to pick up, I don't know how they find it you see. Not very easy to get to. If someone has a problem, this ecological problem or racial develop for a book to sell the college well they want to have a book to sell. These different problems.

Actually, these answers are in different parts of the Bhāgavatam. But if they look in the in the in the index of the database, they won't find Bhāgavatam won't come up unfortunately. That's why even though the books are in the library, still we had to distribute the books so that people because that's the only way they are not going to, easily get them in their hands.

So Brahmā is crying, but he is crying in ecstacy. He is crying in joy. This is the perfection of life is when we can cry in love of Kṛṣṇa, cry in ecstacy for Kṛṣṇa. Prahlāda forgot everything, his possession, his. He just fell down at the feet of Kṛṣṇa and put his head at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.

So, we can understand how glorified Lord Brahmā is. How merciful Lord Kṛṣṇa is.  

Śrī Śrī Rādhā-kānta ki jai!!

Śrī Gaura-Nitāi ki jai!!

Śrī Brahma Madhva Gauḍīya paramparā ki jai!!

Śrī Śrī Brahma deva ki jai!

Any questions?

How does a devotee of the Lord be constantly prideless? How can a devotee be proud when the devotee never forgets that everything that the devotee is able to do is simply by the mercy of Guru and Kṛṣṇa.

In the Bhagavad-Gītā, there's an important verse. Find it Savyasācī. This is a word that comes very often. Lord Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that he is a nimitta-mātra. That he is simply a via media for manifesting the Lord or instrument for manifesting the Lord's mercy, the Lord's will.

And then in the purport Prabhupāda very nicely explains what verse is that? That he should act as an instrument.

So, some of them were the full Grover's I know nimitta-mātra Savyasācī. It's because we forget, we think that we are the doer.

Therefore, we get into the difficult. Kṛṣṇa explains how, it's actually the bewilderment of māyā that we think we are the doers. That we are the sole cause of our action. kartā iti manyate, doing that we get puffed up but we have to remember. Just like there was this devotee Govinda who was servitor. Although he was the disciple when somebody came up to him and glorified him. You are very great. You have all good qualities.

Then he said yes. And then Ramanuja said all the Vaiṣṇavas are supposed to be very humble. Then he asked him how is it that you are saying like that. And he said well I know that before I was a devotee, I know transcendental spiritual qualities. And they have any qualities now that they are seeing. It must be that they are seeing simply the good qualities of the Guru. That only by his mercy can I do anything. Because a Guru's given me some mercy. That's why it's seen accepting their praise. Actually, I don't have any special good quality or credit because I have nothing spiritual about me when I came. That's actually simply the mercy of the Lord and His devotees. it's my Guru.

Any other question?  Well that's why everything we do, we do it according to sādhu, śāstra, Guru. That according to the sādhu, śāstra, Guru if Brahmā had considered what he was doing, then he would not have done like that.

So, to avoid that kind of mistake we should also not act on the platform of false ego but do everything considering what will be pleasing to Guru and Kṛṣṇa and what was authorized by previous great devotees.

Read the verse.

tasmāt tvam uttiṣṭha yaśo labhasva
jitvā śatrūn bhuṅkṣva rājyaṁ samṛddham
mayaivaite nihatāḥ pūrvam eva
nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savya-sācin

Therefore, get up and prepare to fight. After conquering your enemies, you will enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasācī, can be but an instrument in the fight.

Purport: Savyasācī refers to one who can shoot arrows very expertly in the field; thus Arjuna is addressed as an expert warrior capable of delivering arrows to kill his enemies. "Just become an instrument": nimitta-mātram. This word is also very significant. The whole world is moving according to the plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Foolish persons who do not have sufficient knowledge think that nature is moving without a plan and all manifestations are but accidental formations. There are many so-called scientists who suggest that perhaps it was like this, or maybe like that, but there is no question of "perhaps" and "maybe." There is a specific plan being carried out in this material world. What is this plan? This cosmic manifestation is a chance for the conditioned souls to go back to Godhead, back to home. As long they have the domineering mentality which makes them try to lord it over material nature, they are conditioned. But anyone who can understand the plan of the Supreme Lord and cultivate Krsna consciousness is most intelligent. The creation and destruction of the cosmic manifestation are under the superior guidance of God. Thus the Battle of Kurukṣetra was fought according to the plan of God. Arjuna was refusing to fight, but he was told that he should fight and at the same time desire the Supreme Lord. Then he would be happy. If one is in full Krsna consciousness and if his life is devoted to His transcendental service, he is perfect.

Any question?

Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jai!!

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam ki jai!!