This Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is another Purāṇa, history. We have already explained. So sometimes a class of devotees known as sahajiyā, they say that "What we have got to do with the narration of Kurukṣetra battle?" They immediately jump to the kṛṣṇa-līlā, directly with the gopīs. And Kṛṣṇa's activities in other field, they think it is useless. But that is not the fact. Anywhere Kṛṣṇa is acting, that is transcendental. The battlefield of Kurukṣetra, historical references, description, so superficially it appears that what a devotee has got to do with this battlefield? But battlefield or no battlefield, wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, that is transcendental. This has to be understood. Otherwise, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, why he should indulge in describing how Uttarā's pregnancy was saved by Kṛṣṇa, how the brahmāstra was thrown by Aśvatthāmā? So Śukadeva Gosvāmī is liberated person. Why he should indulge in these material things? No. Those who are advanced, they know that Kṛṣṇa's dancing with the gopīs, that līlā and Kṛṣṇa's playing as the leader of the battlefield of Kurukṣetra, is the same. It is all transcendental. One should not make any distinction between the two. Saṁsthāṁ ca pāṇḍu-putrāṇāṁ vakṣye kṛṣṇa-kathodayam. Pāṇḍu-putrāṇām, the pāṇḍu-putras, or the Pāṇḍavas, son of Pāṇḍu, they're all devotees. Even their political affairs, because there is connection with Kṛṣṇa, it is kṛṣṇa-kathā. Those who are with poor fund of knowledge . . .
(break) . . . directly taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa or to take shelter of a pure devotee who is under the shelter of Kṛṣṇa. Mad-āśrayaḥ. So if one takes shelter of a pure devotee . . . Just like electricity: the powerhouse is far away, but the power is coming. Suppose your body is electrified, and if I touch, then my body immediately becomes electrified. And if somebody touches me, then other's body. This is electric. Similarly, one who is pure devotee, he's authorized by Kṛṣṇa, he's electrified. So if one takes shelter of a pure devotee, then he becomes purified. Yad-apāśrayāśrayāḥ śudhyanti (SB 2.4.18). That is the statement given by Śukadeva Gosvāmī. How the caṇḍālas can become purified? The example I have already stated. Then at the end, Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ (SB 2.4.18). This is the supreme transcendental power of Viṣṇu. He can do. Sometimes they say that unless the body is changed, how a caṇḍāla can become purified? Yes, body is changing. Because we do not know how the body is changing . . . Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā (BG 2.13), like that. Tathā means "like that." Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. So these are dehāntara. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā. This is dehāntara. Every moment we are changing our body. This is dehāntara. Kṛṣṇa says, the greatest authority. How you can say that there is no dehāntara? Yes, dehāntara. Suppose in my childhood I am born in a caṇḍāla family, but if by initiation, by taking shelter of a pure devotee, I become initiated, so dehāntara is there, going on. So if I take initiation seriously, so in the next dehāntara . . . Suppose yesterday I was a caṇḍāla. Now by this time there is dehāntara, and if I am purified by initiation . . . So this argument . . . Dehāntara is already there. Scientifically, in modern understanding, and on the authority of Kṛṣṇa's statement, dehāntara is going on. Not that somebody was European or . . . We take Europeans as mlecchas, yavanas. Yes, he was yesterday mleccha and yavanas, but he has changed his body, and after changing, if he's initiated, then dehāntara. Śudhyanti, he's purified. Śudhyanti.
So how this is possible, if we cannot understand . . . Because Lord Viṣṇu's energy is inconceivable. Inconceivable, acintya. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī has discussed. Unless you accept acintya-śakti of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you cannot understand. You have to accept. It is acintya, inconceivable, by us. But it is not inconceivable by the advanced devotees. Or anything being executed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, it is not inconceivable by Him. Svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8, CC Madhya 13.65, purport). He's so perfect in knowledge that what we are thinking inconceivable, that is very, very easily done with full knowledge by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So what is inconceivable by us, it is not inconceivable by Him.
Therefore we have to learn it from,
- tad viddhi praṇipātena
- paripraśnena sevayā
- upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ
- jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
- (BG 4.34)
We cannot understand directly. It is not possible. So we have to approach tattva-darśī. Just like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, tattva-darśī. He says śudhyanti. Yes, he's purified, although he is born of kirāta-hūṇāndhra-pulinda-pulkaśāḥ (SB 2.4.18), caṇḍāla. Caṇḍālo 'pi dvija-śreṣṭho hari-bhakti-parāyaṇaḥ. So it is inconceivable by us how a caṇḍāla can be dvija-śreṣṭha, more than a brāhmaṇa. It is inconceivable by me. But when we get a statement of the authorities like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and above that, Kṛṣṇa . . . Because the conclusion of Kṛṣṇa and the conclusion of pure devotee like Śukadeva Gosvāmī, they are the same. Just see here. Kṛṣṇa says, māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye 'pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ te 'pi yānti parāṁ gatim (BG 9.32). So unless one is purified, how he can go to parāṁ gatim? And Śukadeva Gosvāmī also says the same thing. Kirāta-hūṇāndhra. Pāpa-yoni. They are pāpa-yoni. Śudhyanti prabhaviṣṇave namaḥ. Simply we have to go through the process; otherwise everything is possible. That is the omnipotency of Kṛṣṇa.