494 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 9
name, fame, pastimes, etc. Therefore, the concentration of the mystic
yogi and that of the devotee are not on the same level. The concentration
of the mystic is something mechanical, whereas that of the pure devotee
is natural in pure love and spontaneous affection. Bhismadeva was a pure
devotee, and as a military marshal he constantly remembered the battle-
field feature of the Lord as Partha-sdrathi, the chariot driver of Arjuna.
Therefore, the Lord’s pastime as Partha-sdrathi is also eternal. All the
pastimes of the Lord, beginning from His birth at the prison house of
Kamsa up to the Mausale-lila at the end, all move one after another in all
the universes, just as the clock hand moves from one point to another.
And in such pastimes His associates like the Pandavas and Bhisma are
constant eternal companions. So Bhismadeva never forgot the beautiful
feature of the Lord as Partha-sdrathi, which even Arjuna could not see.
Arjuna was behind the beautiful Pértha-sarathi while Bhismadeva was just
in front of the Lord. As far as the military feature of the Lord is concerned,
Bhismadeva observed this with more relish than Arjuna.

All the soldiers and persons on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra attained
their original spiritual form like the Lord after their death because by the
causeless mercy of the Lord they were all able to see Him face to face on
that occasion. The conditioned souls rotating in the evolutionary cycle
from the aquatics up to the form of Brahma are all in the form of maya,
or the form obtained by one’s own actions and awarded by material
nature. The material forms of the conditioned souls are all foreign dresses,
and when the conditioned soul becomes liberated from the clutches of
material energy, he attains his originai form. The impersonalist wants to
attain the impersonal Brahman effulgence of the Lord, but that is not at
all congenial to the living sparks, parts and parcels of the Lord. Therefore,
the impersonalists again fall down and get material forms, which are all
false to the spirit soul. A spiritual form like the Lord’s, either two-handed
or four-handed, is attained by the devotees of the Lord either in the
Vaikunthas or in the Goloka planets, according to the original nature of
the soul. This form, which is cent percent spiritual, is the svariipa of the
living being, and all the living beings who participated on the Battlefield of
Kuruksetra, on both sides, attained their svaripa, as confirmed by Bhisma-
deva. So Lord Sri Krsna was not only merciful to the Pandavas, but He
was also merciful to the other parties because all of them attained the same
result. Bhismadeva wanted the same facility also, and that was his prayer
to the Lord, although his position as an associate of the Lord is assured in
all circumstances. The conclusion is that whoever dies looking on the
