(Kadamba Kanana Swami, June 2011)

We saw how easily Bhisma Dev gave up the royal throne, just because of that fisherman! That ruthless, jealous, cold blooded, bargaining fisherman who wanted his son on the throne.

Bhisma Dev said:

"Okay, no problem".

It wasn't even like:

"Well, you know……….well this is very painful, what you are asking here".

No, there was nothing in his heart like that. It wasn't painful for him to give up the throne. And that was not just a throne, since that was like unlimited opulence….inconceivable opulence. But he was not interested. Therefore, Bhisma Dev was thoroughly free from the enjoying propensities. He was thoroughly free from the material energy, and had no desire to be in this world.

Whilst he was here, he was simply serving Krishna. That was his meditation. Not only was Bhisma not just desiring to be in this world and enjoy the material energy, Bhisma Dev was also not desiring to get out of this material world. He also did not think about liberation as his meditation!

One mood is the mood to enjoy, and the other mood is:

"Oh god, this world is too much! It's just a world of frustration; it's a world of pain; it's a world of suffering; it's a world of misery. We got to get out of here, if we can do anything to get out of here, and out of this world!"

That meditation was also not Bhisma Dev's daily or constant meditation. His meditation simply was:

"Let me serve Krishna!"

So that is vaisnava. Bhisma Dev was beyond karma and beyond jñānī. He was on the level of:

'sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam', [Cc. Madhya 19.170].

As mentioned in the 'Pancaratras', he was only interested in satisfying the senses of Krishna!