Srimad Bhagavatam — Dvitiya Skandha, Shloka 22
The First Step in God Realization: The Glory of Hearing and the Virāṭ-Rūpa Meditation
राजोवाच यथा सन्धार्यते ब्रह्मन् धारणा यत्र सम्मता । यादृशी वा हरेदाशु पुरुषस्य मनोमलम् ॥ २२ ॥
rājovāca yathā sandhāryate brahman dhāraṇā yatra sammatā yādṛśī vā hared āśu puruṣasya mano-malam
রাজা বললেন—হে ব্রাহ্মণ, কীভাবে ধারণা করতে হয়, কোথায় তা গ্রহণীয়, এবং তা কেমন হলে মানুষের মনের মল দ্রুত দূর হয়—এ সবই দয়া করে বিস্তারিত বলুন।
The dirty things in the heart of a conditioned soul are the root cause of all troubles for him. A conditioned soul is surrounded by the manifold miseries of material existence, but on account of his gross ignorance he is unable to remove the troubles due to dirty things in the heart, accumulated during the long prison life in the material world. He is actually meant to serve the will of the Supreme Lord, but on account of the dirty things in the heart, he likes to serve his concocted desires. These desires, instead of giving him any peace of mind, create new problems and thus bind him to the cycle of repeated birth and death. These dirty things of fruitive work and empiric philosophy can be removed only by association with the Supreme Lord. The Lord, being omnipotent, can offer His association by His inconceivable potencies. Thus persons who are unable to pin their faith on the personal feature of the Absolute are given a chance to associate with His virāṭ-rūpa, or the cosmic impersonal feature of the Lord. The cosmic impersonal feature of the Lord is a feature of His unlimited potencies. Since the potent and potencies are identical, even the conception of His impersonal cosmic feature helps the conditioned soul to associate with the Lord indirectly and thus gradually rise to the stage of personal contact.
FAQs
This verse shows Parīkṣit Mahārāja seeking the approved method and object of dhāraṇā specifically because true meditation should quickly cleanse the mind’s impurities, not merely calm it temporarily.
Facing imminent death and desiring the highest good, Parīkṣit asks Śukadeva for the most effective, authorized focus of meditation that leads to rapid inner purification and spiritual realization.
Use a clear, approved spiritual focus in daily practice—steady attention rather than scattered thinking—so the mind becomes cleaner and more devotional instead of being driven by distraction and anxiety.