Twenty-three (Books)

Expressions researched:
"twenty-three"

SB Canto 3

The ingredients of matter are counted as twenty-three. The energy which acts as material nature in a combination of twenty-three ingredients is not the final source of creation. The Lord enters into the elements and applies His energy, called Kālī.

SB 3.6.2, Translation and Purport:

The Supreme Powerful Lord then simultaneously entered into the twenty-three elements with the goddess Kālī, His external energy, who alone amalgamates all the different elements.

The ingredients of matter are counted as twenty-three: the total material energy, false ego, sound, touch, form, taste, smell, earth, water, fire, air, sky, eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, hand, leg, evacuating organ, genitals, speech and mind. All are combined together by the influence of time and are again dissolved in the course of time. Time, therefore, is the energy of the Lord and acts in her own way by the direction of the Lord. This energy is called Kālī and is represented by the dark destructive goddess generally worshiped by persons influenced by the mode of darkness or ignorance in material existence. In the Vedic hymn this process is described as mūla-prakṛtir avikṛtir mahadādyāḥ prakṛti-vikṛtayaḥ sapta ṣoḍaśakas tu vikāro na prakṛtir na vikṛtiḥ puruṣaḥ. The energy which acts as material nature in a combination of twenty-three ingredients is not the final source of creation. The Lord enters into the elements and applies His energy, called Kālī. In all other Vedic scriptures the same principle is accepted.

SB 3.6.4, Translation:

When the twenty-three principal elements were set in action by the will of the Supreme, the gigantic universal form, or the viśvarūpa body of the Lord, came into existence.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

The Ninth Chapter, which has twenty-three verses, describes how Kṛṣṇa disturbed His mother while she was churning butter.

SB 10.1 Summary:

The Ninth Chapter, which has twenty-three verses, describes how Kṛṣṇa disturbed His mother while she was churning butter. Because she left Kṛṣṇa to see to the stove, where the milk was boiling, and did not allow Him to suck her breast, Kṛṣṇa was very angry and broke a pot of yogurt. To chastise her naughty child, mother Yaśodā wanted to bind Him with rope, but every time she tried she failed because of a shortage of rope when the time came to knot it.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 10.50.4, Translation:

With a force of twenty-three akṣauhiṇī divisions, he laid siege to the Yadu capital, Mathurā, on all sides.

SB 10.50.13-14, Translation:

(The Supreme Lord said:) My respected elder brother, see this danger which has beset Your dependents, the Yadus! And see, dear master, how Your personal chariot and favorite weapons have come before You. The purpose for which We have taken birth, My Lord, is to secure the welfare of Our devotees. Please now remove from the earth the burden of these twenty-three armies.

SB 10.52.6, Translation:

As the wealth was being carried by oxen and men under Lord Kṛṣṇa's direction, Jarāsandha appeared at the head of twenty-three armies.

SB 10.54.13, Translation:

In battle with Kṛṣṇa I and my twenty-three armies lost seventeen times; only once did I defeat Him.

In the commentary of Śrī Vīrarāghava Ācārya, the following extra verse is accepted after text twenty-three: "O demigods, even great sages, following the order of Viṣṇu, appeared in the forms of cows and calves to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by delivering milk."

SB 10.69 Summary:

In the commentary of Śrī Vīrarāghava Ācārya, the following extra verse is accepted after text twenty-three:

ṛṣayo 'pi tad-ādeśāt

kalpyantāṁ paśu-rūpiṇaḥ

payo-dāna-mukhenāpi

viṣṇuṁ tarpayituṁ surāḥ

"O demigods, even great sages, following the order of Viṣṇu, appeared in the forms of cows and calves to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead by delivering milk."

The Brahmā Purāṇa consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purāṇa of fifty-five thousand, Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa of twenty-three thousand, the Śiva Purāṇa of twenty-four thousand and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of eighteen thousand.

SB 12.13.4-9, Purport:

The Brahmā Purāṇa consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purāṇa of fifty-five thousand, Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa of twenty-three thousand, the Śiva Purāṇa of twenty-four thousand and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of eighteen thousand. The Nārada Purāṇa has twenty-five thousand verses, the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa nine thousand, the Agni Purāṇa fifteen thousand four hundred, the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa fourteen thousand five hundred, the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa eighteen thousand and the Liṅga Purāṇa eleven thousand. The Varāha Purāṇa contains twenty-four thousand verses, the Skanda Purāṇa eighty-one thousand one hundred, the Vāmana Purāṇa ten thousand, the Kūrma Purāṇa seventeen thousand, the Matsya Purāṇa fourteen thousand, the Garuḍa Purāṇa nineteen thousand and the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa twelve thousand. Thus the total number of verses in all the Purāṇas is four hundred thousand. Eighteen thousand of these, once again, belong to the beautiful Bhāgavatam.

CC Adi-lila

The transcendental sound oṁ is further explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Seventeen, verse twenty-three: "From the beginning of creation, the three syllables oṁ tat sat have been used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth (Brahman). They were uttered by brāhmaṇas while chanting Vedic hymns and during sacrifices for the satisfaction of the Supreme."

CC Adi 7.128, Purport:

"I am the father of this universe, the mother, the support and the grandsire. I am the object of knowledge, the purifier and the syllable oṁ. I am also the Ṛg, the Sāma and the Yajur Vedas."

Similarly, the transcendental sound oṁ is further explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, Chapter Seventeen, verse twenty-three:

oṁ tat sad iti nirdeśo brahmaṇas tri-vidhaḥ smṛtaḥ

brāhmaṇās tena vedāś ca yajñāś ca vihitāḥ purā

"From the beginning of creation, the three syllables oṁ tat sat have been used to indicate the Supreme Absolute Truth (Brahman). They were uttered by brāhmaṇas while chanting Vedic hymns and during sacrifices for the satisfaction of the Supreme."

CC Madhya-lila

The full name of the Nawab of Bengal (Hussain Shah) was Ālāuddīna Saiyada Husena Sāha Seripha Makkā, and he ruled Bengal for twenty-three years, from 1420 to 1443 Śakābda Era (A.D. 1498 to 1521).

CC Madhya 19.18, Translation and Purport:

While Sanātana Gosvāmī was studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the assembly of learned brāhmaṇas, one day the Nawab of Bengal and another person suddenly appeared.

The full name of the Nawab of Bengal (Hussain Shah) was Ālāuddīna Saiyada Husena Sāha Seripha Makkā, and he ruled Bengal for twenty-three years, from 1420 to 1443 Śakābda Era (A.D. 1498 to 1521). Sanātana Gosvāmī was studying Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with the scholars in the year 1424 (A.D. 1502).

CC Madhya 24.220, Translation:

“In addition to the nineteen meanings of the verse mentioned previously, there are these four further meanings when the word "ātmārāma" is taken to mean "those laboring under the bodily conception." This brings the total to twenty-three. Now hear of another three meanings, which are very suitable.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Chapter Twenty-three:

Why Study the Vedānta-sūtra?

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23:

Chapter Twenty-three:

Why Study the Vedānta-sūtra?

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

CHAPTER TWENTY–THREE

Delivering the Wives of the Brāhmaṇas Who Performed Sacrifices.

Krsna Book 23:

CHAPTER TWENTY–THREE

Delivering the Wives of the Brāhmaṇas Who Performed Sacrifices

Jarāsandha again attacked Mathurā, this time with bigger divisions of soldiers, numbering twenty-three akṣauhiṇīs.

Krsna Book 52:

When Mucukunda, the celebrated descendant of the Ikṣvāku dynasty, was favored by Lord Kṛṣṇa, he circumambulated the Lord within the cave and then came out. On coming out of the cave, Mucukunda saw that the human species had surprisingly been reduced in stature to pygmy size. Similarly, the trees had also been far reduced in size, and Mucukunda could immediately understand that the current age was Kali-yuga. Therefore, without diverting his attention, he began to travel north. Eventually he reached the mountain known as Gandhamādana, where there were many trees, such as sandalwood and other flowering trees, whose fragrance made anyone who reached them joyful. He decided to remain in that Gandhamādana Mountain region to execute austerities and penances for the rest of his life. It appears that this place is situated in the northernmost part of the Himalayan Mountains, where the abode of Nara-Nārāyaṇa is situated. This place is still existing and is called Badarikāśrama. In Badarikāśrama he engaged himself in the worship of Lord Kṛṣṇa, tolerating all kinds of pains and pleasures and the other dualities of this material world. Lord Kṛṣṇa returned to the vicinity of Mathurā, where He fought with the soldiers of Kālayavana and killed them one after another. After this, He collected all the booty from the dead bodies, and under His direction it was loaded on bullock carts and brought back to Dvārakā.

Meanwhile, Jarāsandha again attacked Mathurā, this time with bigger divisions of soldiers, numbering twenty-three akṣauhiṇīs.