Srimad Bhagavatam

The conception of varṇāśrama is to make people gradually realize their spiritual identity and thus act to get free from material bondage. Bhīṣma advised for all human beings nine qualifications: (1) not to become angry, (2) not to lie, (3) to distribute wealth equally, (4) to forgive, (5) to beget children only by one’s wife, (6) to be pure in mind and hygienic in body, (7) not to be inimical toward anyone, (8) to be simple, and (9) to support subordinates. These are the preliminary qualities for a civilized person.

The brāhmaṇas need to control the senses and follow the Vedic way of life. This means he must study the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhāgavatam and the Bhagavad-gītā. For learning the Vedic knowledge, one must approach a person who is a pure devotee. The kṣatriyas are advised to give charity. They must be well versed in the scriptures, but must not become teachers. They must be trained in military education and must be chivalrous. The warrior class including the leader should personally fight in the battle field. The vaiśyas are advised to protect the cows and thus increase milk production. Agriculture and distribution of foodstuff are the primary duties of the mercantile community backed by education in Vedas and trained to give charity. Kṣatriyas protect the citizens and vaiśyas protect the animals. Industrial economy can only increase the artificial living of vested interests without producing the essential needs of mankind namely rice, wheat, grains, milk, fruits and vegetables. The śūdras are meant to serve the other three sections of society and attain all comforts of life. The higher castes should always look after the maintenance of the śūdras, and they should provide them with old and used garments. The śūdras should be sumptuously fed before any sacrifice is performed.

The āśrama-dharma is to awaken knowledge and detachment. The brahmacārī āśrama is the training ground for the prospective candidates. They are taught self realization and detachment. One who fails to assimilate the spirit of detachment is allowed to enter family life. But the detached person can take sannyāsa and live on charity alone. Household life is for one who is attached, and the vānaprastha and sannyāsa orders of life are for those who are detached from material life. The brahmacārī āśrama is meant for training both the attached and detached.

Mokṣa dharma entails conquering lust, anger, desires, avarice and bewilderment. To be free from anger, one should learn how to forgive. To be free from unlawful desires, one should not make plans. By spiritual culture one can conquer sleep. By tolerance one can conquer avarice. Disease can be avoided by regulated diets. By self control one can be free from false hopes, and money can be saved by avoiding undesirable association. By practice of yoga one can control hunger, and worldliness can be avoided by culturing the knowledge of impermanence. False arguments can be avoided by factual ascertainment, talkativeness by gravity and silence, and fearfulness by prowess. Perfect knowledge can be obtained by self cultivation.

Women are considered as a power of inspiration for men. Shyness is important for women.

The simple process for pleasing the Lord is to install the Deity of the Lord at home. By concentrating on the Deity, one may progressively go on with the daily routine work. Worshiping the deity, serving the Deity, hearing Bhāgavatam, residing in a holy place and chanting the holy name are all inexpensive items by which one can please the Lord.

Thereupon that man who spoke on different subjects with thousands of meanings and who fought on thousands of battlefields and protected thousands of men, stopped speaking. He withdrew his mind from everything else and fixed his eyes upon the Lord, who stood before him, four-handed, dressed in yellow garments that glittered and shined. Being a pure devotee, Bhīṣma had very little to do with the detailed performance of yogic principles. Simple bhakti yoga is enough to bring about perfection.

Looking at Kṛṣṇa, Bhīṣma was freed from all inauspiciousness and was relieved of all bodily pains caused by the arrow wounds. Thus all the external activities of his senses stopped, and he prayed to the controller of living beings while quitting his body. The soul is originally pure and so also the senses. By material contamination the senses assume the role of imperfection and impurity. By revival of contact with the Supreme Pure, Lord Kṛṣṇa, the senses again become freed from material contamination. In the presence of the sun like Kṛṣṇa, there is no possibility of darkness like material contamination. Being the provider of all necessities for all living beings, Kṛṣṇa provided all facilities to fulfill the transcendental desires of His great devotee, Bhīṣma.

Bhīṣma praised Kṛṣṇa as Bhagavān full of six qualities, best of the Yadus, superior to all other forms of the Lord, and absorbed in bliss with His associates. After describing thus the main qualities of the Lord, Bhīsma then described the secondary qualities by saying that the Lord contacts māyā by glancing for evolving mahat-tattva from which arises the sequence of material creation. He does this in His forms of the puruṣāvatāras.

Kṛṣṇa, the intimate friend of Arjuna, had appeared on earth in His transcendental body, which resembles the bluish color of the tamāla tree. His body attracts everyone in the three planetary systems. Bhīṣma prayed for Kṛṣṇa’s glittering yellow dress and His lotus face covered with paintings of sandalwood pulp be the object of His attraction, and that he may not desire fruitive results. He saw that intense yellow from Kṛṣṇa’s upper and lower cloth sparkling in the sun’s rays as Kṛṣṇa stood on the chariot of Arjuna. Bhīṣma admired his enemy Arjuna for possessing the Lord as his friend. So he addressed Kṛṣṇa as vijaya-sakhe. Although Kṛṣṇa was present before Bhīṣma, Bhīṣma did not use the second person to address the Lord. This indicates his attraction for the Lord’s sweetness absorbed in vīra-rasa during the battle, and his absorption in relishing it.

Bhīṣma visualized Kṛṣṇa on the battlefield with His flowing hair turned ashen due to the dust raised by the hoofs of the horses; beads of sweat wetted His face arising from efforts because of His affection for Arjuna. All these decorations, intensified by the wounds dealt by Bhīṣma’s sharp arrows, were enjoyed by the Lord. Bhīṣma is a great devotee of the Lord in the relation of dāsya. Thus his throwing of sharp arrows at the transcendental body of the Lord is as good as the worship of throwing soft roses upon Him. The arrows slightly pierced the armor of Kṛṣṇa and not really His skin. Moreover, the Lord’s body which is completely spiritual is never hurt by the arrows or any other weapons hurled at Him. Spirit is never pierced, burnt, dried or moistened as explained in the Gītā. The Lord acts like a conditioned soul to bewilder the asuras and the non believers. Thus Bhīṣma’s piercing the body of Kṛṣṇa is a bewildering problem only for the atheist. Bhīṣma repented his acts but the all merciful Lord was never reluctant to come before Bhīṣma’s deathbed, even though He was ill-treated by Bhīṣma on the battlefield. Bhīṣma’s repentance and the Lord’s merciful attitude are both unique in this picture.

Viśvanātha Cakravartī says that the wounds created on the body of the Lord by the arrows of Bhīṣma were as pleasing to the Lord as the biting of a lover who bites the body of the Lord directed by a strong sense of sex desire. Thus the fighting as an exchange of transcendental pleasure between the Lord and His pure devotee was not at all mundane. Bhīṣma is a devotee in the chivalrous relation, and so he fixed up his mind on Kṛṣṇa in thinking about Kṛṣṇa’s wounds.