What is the significance of Shukadeva Goswami’s prayers in Bhagavatam 2.4?

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the holy names thank you question what is the significance of the prayers of shukadeva swami that are found in the chapter the process of creation which is the fourth chapter of the second canto answer this is this is one of the sweetest sweetest among the sweetest prayers in the bhagavatam where shukadeva swami for many of these prayers uses the chorus may the supreme lord may the lord oh lord please be pleased with me that is the chorus which he uses several times in his prayers so his prayers especially starting on the 19th one he talks about this now in these prayers you see that’s the mood so proceed the time now proceed the time may that’s how it is going so if you look at what he’s doing in these prayers he’s offering his obeisances he’s describing he’s describing the position of the supreme he is describing he’s he’s offering he’s giving description of the supreme he’s offering glorification to the supreme and he’s seeking benediction from the supreme so we could say that these three are the standard contents of all prayers yes that is that now that could be true especially for prayers in the bhagavatam at the same time there is something specially distinctive about this here that is that these prayers describe the absolute truth in ways that will be described by shukadeva swami further in the field but throughout the bhagavatam so normally if we consider the flow of the bhagavatam it flows it it directs its meditation from the world towards the through the world towards the source of the world that means we look at the world we observe and try to understand what is happening in the world so in these prayers he starts with the world and he says that that how it is the supreme lord who is beyond the three modes it is by him that the world is sustained now in some ways we will see a similar theme to the theme in these prayers appearing throughout the bhagavatam at the same time this is laying the foundation broadly in the bhagavatam the lord is described in two ways one is through philosophical analysis especially in relationship with the material world this we have in three phases of the virata rupa description the second canto there is the sankhya analysis in third canto and there is the cosmological description description of the bhagavatam cosmology in the fifth canto and through all these the point is that how our thoughts can be directed from the world towards the source of the world so all these three are are hinted at in the these prayers of of shukadeva swami and in a sense this is the first major prayer that shukadeva swami offers in the bhagavatam and we know how important prayers are for invoking the mercy of the absolute by which we would be able to speak effectively so of course shukadeva swami is offered prayers earlier also but this is a series of prayers and this is practically the only section where there are series of prayers by shukadeva swami shukadeva swami described the prayers of kunti and bheeshma in the first canto for example and shukadeva swami himself will describe prayers by various personalities such as prahlada and dhruva and gajendra and the gopis but his own prayers are special so just like if we have a class in which the speaker offers prayers and then the speaker explains the prayers by someone else so the speakers if the speaker is offering some prayers normally we just have some standard prayers speaker recites but if during before a particular class before there is a particular festival and the speaker may recite some words which is not the standard words but it is specifically related with the with the bhagavatam with the that festival so on the adhashatam we say we may recite a verse about radharani so similarly when at the start of the bhagavatam shukadeva swami is reciting these prayers that indicates that the specific prayer that he recites also reveals his thoughts his way of meditating on the divine and they form the we could say the devotional preamble for how he is going to present the message of the bhagavatam thereafter normally we think of prayers as okay we just go in front of the lord and fold our hands but the bhagavatam reveals prayers to be quite different and quite profound the prayers in the bhagavatam serve the purpose of not just establishing a devotional connection between the person offering the prayer and the lord but they also serve as an education for the philosophically understanding the the nature of the absolute but also education in terms of understanding the personal relationship of that particular prayer offerer if we use the word prayer for that with the divine and so these are the major prayers offered by shukadeva swami at the start of his narration now the acharya described that in the second canto when parishad maharaj asked what is the duty at the time of death shukadeva swami gives some answers and after a few chapters the whole bhagavatam could have ended but it’s because parishad maharaj asked multiple questions then he understands it becomes clear from the multiple questions that parishad maharaj has asked that we are here for the long haul sometimes after a class somebody may ask us a question and we may answer that question briefly but then the questioner the questions also reveal the level of the questioner as well as level in terms of level of knowledge level of interest and level of serious commitment to the subject and to understanding the subject so sometimes it may happen that we might find a very seriously interested person and you find such a person then the class may be for say 45 minutes one hour but the speaker might sit with that person for several hours or sometimes you might start a discussion with someone and then they ask one question and that question is so so thoughtful and thought-provoking that the discussion goes from that one question for hours and hours so when a person asks a serious question that indicates that they are in for the they are in for the long haul and the speaker also decides that okay this person is so serious that they deserve time so similarly parishad maharaj’s questions at the start of this chapter and shukadeva swami’s answer they indicate that now both of them are settling down there for the long haul so yes parishad maharaj had that question of what am i going to do at the time of death gayanti vishnu gatha he had said that i would like to hear the glories of vishnu but still he deferred to the sages to guide him about what exactly he should do at that time but when they didn’t but when they got confused till shukadeva swami came and shukadeva swami explained to him the principles of pure devotional service and we could say that he he could have completed the bhagavatam at several points in the second canto but it was the questions that kept the bhagavatam going and once the bhagavatam keeps moving forward by the end of the second canto the bhagavatam goes into the into the narration or goes toward the narration of the vidura metriya samvat and that question itself will that conversation itself will go on for a long long time almost two cantos so basically these verses indicate that shukadeva swami is is settling for the long haul and thus he offers long prayers which reveal his heart and which reveal specifically the way in which he is going to glorify the lord so the bhagavatam we could say it moves from philosophical devotion to to personal devotion of course it’s always personal but by personal i mean focusing on the personal manifestations of the lord the second third fifth cantos all talk about philosophically understanding how the lord permeates material existence whether we analyze it through virat rupa through sankhya or through the cosmology of the bhagavatam so how it all points to the supreme that’s what is focused on in the first few cantos there we don’t have lots of past times but after the fifth canto is over then it’s all filled primarily with pastime centered on the lord and we have various avatars being described elaborately we have some avatars described before just pruthu and others vamana is described so varaha is described briefly but there’s nothing like the description of prahlada narsimha which takes almost a full canto and of course there’s nothing like krishna’s pastimes 10th 11th cantos also so essentially these prayers without going worse without going to take reality of them worse by worse if we look at their broader context we can understand that they are talking about they are giving us a glimpse into the heart of the person who is going to take us to the heart of the bhagavatam and thus these prayers are especially significant thank you