Shloka 35
Secondary Creation Begins: Brahmā’s Productions, the Guṇas, and the Emergence of Orders of Beings
या वा काचित्त्वमबले दिष्टया सन्दर्शनं तव । उत्सुनोषीक्षमाणानां कन्दुकक्रीडया मन: ॥ ३५ ॥
yā vā kācit tvam abale diṣṭyā sandarśanaṁ tava utsunoṣīkṣamāṇānāṁ kanduka-krīḍayā manaḥ
Whoever you may be, O beautiful maiden, we are blessed to behold you. By your play with the ball you have stirred the minds of all who look on.
Demons arrange many kinds of performances to see the glaring beauty of a beautiful woman. Here it is stated that they saw the girl playing with a ball. Sometimes the demoniac arrange for so-called sports, like tennis, with the opposite sex. The purpose of such sporting is to see the bodily construction of the beautiful girl and enjoy a subtle sex mentality. This demoniac sex mentality of material enjoyment is sometimes encouraged by so-called yogīs who encourage the public to enjoy sex life in different varieties and at the same time advertise that if one meditates on a certain manufactured mantra one can become God within six months. The public wants to be cheated, and Kṛṣṇa therefore creates such cheaters to misrepresent and delude. These so-called yogīs are actually enjoyers of the world garbed as yogīs. Bhagavad-gītā, however, recommends that if one wants to enjoy life, then it cannot be with these gross senses. A patient is advised by the experienced physician to refrain from ordinary enjoyment while in the diseased condition. A diseased person cannot enjoy anything; he has to restrain his enjoyment in order to get rid of the disease. Similarly, our material condition is a diseased condition. If one wants to enjoy real sense enjoyment, then one must get free of the entanglement of material existence. In spiritual life we can enjoy sense enjoyment which has no end. The difference between material and spiritual enjoyment is that material enjoyment is limited. Even if a man engages in material sex enjoyment, he cannot enjoy it for long. But when the sex enjoyment is given up, then one can enter spiritual life, which is unending. In the Bhāgavatam (5.5.1) it is stated that brahma-saukhya, spiritual happiness, is ananta, unending. Foolish creatures are enamored by the beauty of matter and think that the enjoyment it offers is real, but actually that is not real enjoyment.
FAQs
This verse compares the mind to a ball tossed in play—when one beholds captivating beauty, the mind can be thrown into agitation and restlessness.
Meeting Devahūti, they acknowledge that seeing her has affected them, illustrating the natural power of attraction and setting a human, relatable tone within the unfolding creation narrative.
Recognize agitation as a movement of the mind triggered by perception, and redirect attention toward sādhana—hearing and remembering the Lord—so the mind is steadied by higher taste.