Is touching the digital Bhagavatam in our phone equivalent to touching the book Bhagavatam?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
applause so the question is that Bhagavatam is not different from Krishna so when we touch the book Bhagavatam we are connected with Krishna but say when we have the Bhagavatam verses in our smart phone so when we are touching the smart phone are we actually touching Krishna or how do we see this ultimately ultimately sarva vidhi nishe dasa smarta ve satatam vishnu smarta ve nijatam the purpose of all rules and regulations is to always remember Krishna and never forget Krishna so whatever is favorable for our remembrance of Krishna we accept that and whatever is unfavorable we avoid that so now some devotees may feel that ok when I sit with the physical book Bhagavatam I am really feeling like I am studying Shastra and then that’s what stimulates their remembrance of Krishna some other devotees may feel that actually if I have a book I may not always be carrying the book with me if I am reading it on my phone or my computer and I can mark it, I have a page marker I can immediately go to that page I can have all my markings with me I can have my whole book with me so they may feel this is an easier way for me to remember Krishna so we in certain settings the traditional forms we do preserve it’s not that in a temple altar instead of the deities we are going to put a phone with the image of the deities we are going to have the deities over so in certain places the traditional forms will be there but at the same time we have to also remember the params and the structure, the form should serve the params the form should not obstruct the params so somebody doesn’t have a physical book then if the form they are reading that’s fine too the important thing is to remember Krishna so if you see as technology is progressing things are things are changing drastically before say Gutenberg when he made the printing press actually books themselves were a scarcity so Bhagavatam itself throughout the history of the bhakti tradition the book Bhagavatam was not very common the book Bhagavatam was rare it was there probably with some brahmanas we know that story of Srinivas Acharya when he wanted a Bhagavatam he actually went across from Puri to Bengal and then he came back to study under Gadadhar Pandit Bhagavatam had got completely worn out because of his tears so actually to get a copy you had to go from one state to another state and come back so in the past also the primary transmission of spiritual knowledge was through the oral tradition that people would come and hear every village, every town they had their sadhus they had their learned sabha, learned people and then there were travelling monks who would go from place to place and they would share so in the past also it’s not that most people were physically reading books it was that they were hearing so the primary mode of transmission of knowledge was through hearing then as books started getting printed so books became more and more available so in a sense the printing of books made access to physical books more widespread so naturally when something becomes more widespread there is a tendency to to devalue it a little bit so something is very rare so the Bhagavatam was only with brahmanas and in the village there may be two or three brahmanas who have a Bhagavatam then naturally the Bhagavatam would be very much respected now everybody has a Bhagavatam the respect for it may go down a little bit so now similarly if every phone has a Bhagavatam then the respect for it may go down but the point is that is simply a cultural form if you remember the spiritual purpose so spiritual purpose now if somebody has got say 18 volumes of Bhagavatam then if the Bhagavatam was only in one place in a village, people might even offer aarti to it, offer flowers to it but if the Bhagavatam is in every house it is not practical to worship it in every house maybe on special days we may do something for it so the cultural form in which Shastra manifests that has historically also changed in the past Shastra would be handwritten, Prabhupada did not insist that we have to have Shastra handwritten it was printed, that’s perfectly fine so today if you are using phones the cultural form certainly has certain reverence associated with it but there is cultural reverence and there is spiritual reverence spiritual reverence comes from realisation so if we have philosophical understanding that okay Krishna is manifesting through the Bhagavatam Krishna is manifesting through the Bhagavad Gita and that wisdom is available here then the spiritual purpose of remembering Krishna can be served even through the phone so the cultural form is important but the cultural form is meant to assist the spiritual purpose and if sometime the cultural form is not particularly easily available then whatever way the spiritual purpose can be served we should serve it that way so we may not exactly get the feeling on opening the pocket visa app or whatever on the phone that okay I am touching the Bhagavatam but we can be intellectually touching Krishna, we can be devotionally touching Krishna by hearing by using our intelligence to understand the Bhagavatam and by using our heart to devotionally connect with Krishna’s message in the Bhagavatam so Krishna always remains accessible the specific forms in which we access Krishna may vary according to time and circumstances but Krishna will always be accessible and the way to access him is through the devotional intent of our heart does it answer your question?