Srimad Bhagavatam – day 642
When the mind is fixed firmly upon the Lord, the face illumines due to bliss enjoyed
Krishna
“Merely with the touch of the Lord, Aghasura was freed from all his sins! Freed from all bondages, he was liberated. His soul merged into the Supreme soul. It is said that merely by listening to this story, the person is freed from all his sins.
The person who, through the medium of meditation, consecrates the form of the Lord firmly within his mind will obtain absolute merger with the Supreme Lord”.
The Lord inherently is formless. He is just a thumb-sized tiny image. That is why, even when he was an infant, Krishna exhibited His transcendental sports. After He turned into an adult, His dealings were more political and were grossly different from His childhood activities. As an adult, Krishna did not directly kill. He got the task executed through others. In His childhood however, He himself killed all demons. The person who, through the process of meditation firmly fixes the image of thumb-sized Krishna in his mind will be able to gain total control over his mind. More importantly, he will merge into the Supreme Essence or into the form of the Supreme Lord. The individual soul will merge into the Supreme Soul.
The Lord should be retained firmly in the mind. The person should indeed meditate upon Him with absolute concentration. The Lord should be consecrated firmly within the mind. Such a person will undoubtedly be blessed with the supreme liberation. This is undoubtedly true.
“Within the heart, the Lord manifests in the form of eternal bliss and drives away spiritual ignorance”.
The Lord enters the heart and drives away the spiritual ignorance which exists in the form of I-ness (ahamkara). Everyone should strive for eternal bliss (Ananda).
When the person who is engaged in meditation experiences bliss, the mind which is in the form of the sense organs will blossom. The face of the person will glow due to the bliss experienced. It will illumine. The senses will be rendered pure. The body will also be rendered pure. Even though this body is subject to destruction, it will horripilate and will be rendered pure. This is because the meditator will be experiencing the bliss of the Supreme Lord within his Self (atma).
For this reason, when meditating the mind should be fixed upon the Supreme Lord. The person who thus fixes the mind on the Lord and experiences the resultant bliss, will undoubtedly be blessed with liberation.
Although being a demon, Aghasura eternally thought about the Lord. ‘When will Krishna enter my mouth? When can I swallow Krishna?’ His focus was entirely fixed upon Krishna so much so that he was unaware of the boys who had entered his abdomen. In a way, he was immersed in penance. He remained unconcerned about the boys who had entered his abdomen. His gaze was entirely fixed upon the Lord. The boys who had entered his abdomen died due to the unbearable heat therein and not because he had swallowed them. The only boy whom Aghasura sought to swallow was Krishna.
In all the incidents covered thus far, all the demons who had arrived in Brindavana had come solely with the intent of killing Krishna and as such their minds were totally fixed upon him. ‘When can I kill the Supreme Lord?’- this was the only thought that ruled the mind in each of these demons. Here it is said that the bonded soul should have such a firm fixation upon the Lord.
When we fix our mind exclusively upon the Lord and meditate upon Him, our face will illumine due to the bliss experienced. Such a face appears calm and pleasant.
‘Those who, while consecrating true bliss within their heart meditate upon the Lord with the intent of merging into Him, will be freed from spiritual ignorance. This being the case, is there any necessity to mention that the meditator, into whose heart such Supreme Lord has personally entered, will be blessed with liberation, just as Aghasura had obtained?’
Having said this, Maharishi Suta addressed Śounaka and other Maharishis and said, “Srikrishna is the Lord of the Yadavas. He revived Parikshit and thus blessed the Pandavas. Parikshit was eagerly listening to the transcendental sports of that Lord who had protected him. His mind was totally soaked in listening to these divine tales. He once again requested Maharishi Śuka to narrate the stories as he was eager to listen to them.
Emperor Parikshit enquired, ‘O Maharishi Śuka! Why did the cowherd boys narrate this transcendental deed performed by the Lord during his fifth year a year later to the residents of Brindavan? Why did it take them so long? What was the reason behind it? I am curious to know the reason. O Mahayogi! You are my spiritual Guru. Please dispel this doubt of mine.
I presume that this is purely another illusion of the Lord. O Supreme Guru! We are the lowest among the Kshatriya (warriors). Even then we have obtained more fortune than others because, from you we are repeatedly drinking the nectar called the pure glories of Srikrishna’.”
Who could be more fortunate than us O Guru? We are fortunate to listen to the nectarous stories of the Supreme Lord from your lips.
“When Parikshit thus enquired, Maharishi Śuka, the son of Maharishi Vyasa, remembered Srikrishna. All his senses immediately became inward facing and he lost contact with this world. He immediately went into meditation. With great difficulty, he brought himself out from that stage and became conscious of this external world”.
Maharishi Śuka mentally merged into Krishna even as he was narrating the stories of the Lord. This is because when the mind meditates upon the Lord with absolute concentration, the Supreme Lord completely permeates the mind and the senses. The Supreme Lord pervades through the living entity completely. This happens when the person is in the state of Samadhi.
To reach the state of samadhi, meditation is a pre-requisite. To stabilize in meditation, absolute concentration is a must. To develop absolute concentration, one should desire it. The person should have a deep liking towards God. He should believe the Lord is everything to Him and should, with such deep love, sing His glories eternally. He should repeatedly listen to the glories of the Lord and narrate them to others. Only then will he obtain eternal bliss. If you put in efforts, you will also experience it. When any person is completely immersed in God, he finds it difficult to come out of that stage and return to normalcy. He will find his legs and hands to be heavier. ‘Why did this person needlessly disturb me from my state of meditation?’- he laments. He will appear as if he lacks bodily strength. This is because he was totally immersed in the Lord. He was meditating exclusively upon Him. The Lord had pervaded through their body and their senses.
Maharishi Śuka was in this state of samadhi. As he narrated the story of Krishna, he periodically slipped into Samadhi. He returned back to this world and addressed Emperor Parikshit.
With this the twelfth chapter of the tenth canto comes to an end.
Krishna Krishna