Bhagavatam Overview – Canto 1 – Setting the Scene of Devotion in Separation

Hare Krishna.
Welcome to this canto by canto overview of the Shrimad Bhagavatam. We will in this series of talks discuss the structure the flow and the thread of the message the thread of the development of thought and the message of Shrimad Bhagavatam. So we will go over all the 12 cantos in a canto by canto overview in this talk we will do an overview of the first canto.
The first canto comprises of 19 chapters and it describes three at three levels the origin of the Shrimad Bhagavatam. So if we consider it the Shrimad Bhagavatam has two broad levels of conversationists. The first conversationists are Sutra Goswami and Shaunak and other sages at Naimeshwaran and then there is Shukadev Goswami talking with Parikshit Maharaj at Shukatav.
So that conversation will actually begin the second canto. So if you consider the first circle that is Shukadev Goswami and the sages of Naimeshwaran that the first level conversation. So that will be talked about here right from the first start of the first canto itself and Shukadev Goswami the primary narrator of the first canto and then apart from that there is the second level narration the build up for the two characters the background of the two characters of Parikshit Maharaj and Shukadev Goswami will be described in this canto and then how the two came to meet together to have a discussion that will be described in this canto and thereafter the the questions that Parikshit Maharaj asks which start off the narration of the Bhagavatam are described here and Shukadev Goswami’s answer starts in the second canto.
Shukadev Goswami significantly does not speak directly in this canto. So these are the two levels that are described. Third is of course in Vyasadeva’s compilation of Srimad Bhagavatam how he compiled it after writing everything else and not feeling satisfied that is described in the fourth of six chapters.
So that is the that is his conceptualisation and then he is rendering it in literary form that will be described also. So the mood of the first canto is that it is setting the scene for devotion in separation. The Srimad Bhagavatam attains a zenith in the 10th canto and within the 10th canto also the Ras Panchadhyaya chapters 29 and 33 are the climax and within that the Gopi Gita chapter 31 wherein the when the Gopis sing their song of separation from Krishna that viraha bhakti is considered by many acharyas to be like the highest emotional ecstasy that is revealed in the Srimad Bhagavatam and that mood of viraha bhakti is foreshadowed here in the first canto by talking about separation at various levels.
So there are many many separations that are talked about because there are many departures that happen in the first canto and we’ll see how this scene is set for separation in the first canto. Now the first chapter is called as questions by the sages. The first three verses in the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.1, 2 and 3 are broad invocation verses which give the theme of the Bhagavatam.
The Bhagavatam starts with a non-sectarian invocation of the absolute truth as janmaadhyasya taha anvayadhitar tashcharpeshv abhijyesvarad. So it starts that we are meditating on the absolute truth and the definition of the absolute truth is given the same as what is given in Vedanta Sutra and this way the Bhagavatam establishes its connection with the Vedanta Sutra by indicating through having a similar start that it is going to address similar themes. So it does not say that it is going to talk about the glories of Krishna right here.
It says from a non-sectarian point of view, from universal’s point of view it says that we are going to meditate on the absolute truth and there is of course the prayer om namo bhagavate vasudevaya which comes with it. The first prayer invokes the absolute truth, first verse. The second verse talks about the glory of the Srimad Bhagavatam, how it gives the vastavastu, how it can really gives the absolute truth and how it can release us from all mischief and to truly relish its import we need to be non-envious.
paramo nirmatsaram satana and most importantly what it says is dharma kaitava projjhita. This is a very dramatic statement of intent here that it states that it is going to push aside, drive away all some religious principle and focus only on the principle of pure love, of pure devotion to the Supreme Lord and then so it starts with meditation the absolute truth then it forces that we focus on not just meditation but pure devotion on the absolute truth and then it says in third verse that pipit bhagavate rasamalayam so that pure devotion when we come to the personal manifestation of the absolute truth and relish in pure devotion that is something which is not just meditation on it that is positive relish that is there. So drink oh rasika people.
So in the third verse the bhagavatam reveals its link with the extensive and honoured rasa tradition that has been there in India and here the bhagavatam states that it is going to give us rasa and another very important point of this verse is nigram kalitam phalam that this is it brings its connection so first it has talked about the connection with vedanta. Vedanta is one of the schools of thought that are there. Now the bhagavatam tells its connection with veda.
What is it? It is it is the vedas are like a tree the bhagavatam is its fruit. In this way the bhagavatam accepts the vedic authority and also also establishes its own position as the conclusion of the vedic authority and then after these three momentously important verses then the scene shifts to naimisharanya where the sages are performing sacrifices and they ask questions. They ask questions to Suta Goswami.
Now Suta Goswami is a great learned sage who is there in the SM. He has just arrived and then they all offer their respects to him and they ask him questions and now if he sees questions the questions that are asked to them to him are also very universal. It’s not directly asking it asks you know there are so many scriptures which is the essential scripture there are so many dharma which is the best dharma.
What is it that will do the fullest what will be the greatest the best good to all living beings and in this way the bhagavatam focusses on questions of universal relevance and of course the sages have assembled at the advent of the age of Kali and they perform sacrifices for involving auspiciousness in the age of Kali but while they are performing fire sacrifices they also realise that these sacrifices will not have as much potency and so they ask what is it that is the way that people can be delivered in Kali yuga and this conversation is happening soon after Krishna has departed so they ask also that please tell us about the past tense of Krishna how he appeared why he appeared so I’m not going to get a technical analysis of the six questions here suffice it to say that these questions are what set off the discussion that Suta Goswami launches into and these questions are of universal relevance and importance. Now Suta Goswami starts speaking from one of the second chapter and he begins by offering obeisances to Shukdev Goswami and very beautiful glorification also and normally when one person appreciates another person what about that other person is appreciating that also tells us not only about that person but also about this person about the appreciated and the appreciator both we come to know so Suta Goswami says that how great is that Shukdev Goswami that he was so detached that he just left home without performing any rituals and his father called you know his son did not answer at all the only thing only who those only those who answered were the trees and the trees echoed his call and because they were also feeling separation from him so he was he was so dear to everyone so that means he was so dear to everyone he was so detached that he was did not care for he was not attached to his father and that he had transcended the Vedic ritual that’s why he went without performing any rituals and then he talks about how bad Shukdev Goswami for uh for like enlightening people gave the torch light of knowledge Adhyatmadi Pam he gave this torch light and after describing this and offering obeisances to Narayana Rishi so there are a set of verses where he offers obeisances and then he gives in crux the answers from 6 to 22 1.2.6 to 22 second chapter is entitled as Divinity and Divine Service by Srila Prabhupada we will focus uh in order to avoid too much technicality over here we’ll stick to the titles that Srila Prabhupada has used for the Bhagavatam later on when we study the first canto and all the Bhagavatam in detail we will look at other titles whenever it’s appropriate so divinity and divine service is the title and the focus is that it reveals divine service means devotional service divinity is the is the absolute truth Krishna but in his multiple manifestations are also talked about here so 6 to 22 are very important verses which give which are among the most quoted verses in the Bhagavatam by Srila Prabhupada and by the Prasadacharyas also because they give both the conclusion of the Bhagavatam and the process of the Bhagavatam so the conclusion of the Bhagavatam is it begins with what is the paradharma by which bhakti is performed for the supreme lord and then in this analysis first how if there is parabhakti then uh the other paths will automatically come in the story that the jnan and vairagya will come whether the parabhakti is there then that is the perfection of doing vanashram dharma also and on the other hand if bhakti is not there and it all becomes and then after talking about the glory of bhakti then this discussion moves to the object of bhakti and that is said that the object has multiple manifestations brahman paramatma and bhagwan and this discussion focusses on the bhagwan manifestation and bhagwan can be approached through those who are devoted to him and that’s why we hear from them and we serve them and then the process by which we become purified by hearing through hearing is described how how the anarthas from the heart go away progressively by the practise of bhakti and how that in this way all doubts go away the knots of karma stop the desires and and they’re able to become self-realised it will become god-realised so after describing this process of bhakti so what was going to happen is what should be was suta goswami is going to is describing here that is what the bhagavatam will use opportunity to do bhagavatam gives the opportunity to hear about appear and in this way become purified so what has been told theoretically the bhagavatam will then give the opportunity to experience practically by giving us so much substance to hear about krishna and then it goes on to talk about this first second chapter goes on to talk about various manifest various kinds of worshipable laws and there are tamasic there are the deities that are worshipped by tamasic people rajasic people and the sattvic and how the sattvic is the highest the ghora rupa the terrible forms are not worshipped by the those who seek transcendence so in one sense the bhagavan is focused more clearly through various metaphors in the second chapter of the bhagavatam and then after thus focussing on bhagavan and the third chapter gives us a brief synopsis of the various incarnations that are going to be dealt with further in the bhagavatam not all of them but many of them so there is a list of incarnation that comes in 1.3 that is first canto third chapter then other list of incarnation which comes in 2.6 second chapter and then these incarnations are progressively described in the various cantos of shivam bhagavatam so now in this list of incarnations which is described in third chapter the significant point of that is conveyed by shiva prabhupada through his title also that is krishna is the source of all incarnations so therein essentially the point that is made is that the bhagavatam is a book focussing not just on bhagavan but bhagavan in his very sweet and intimate manifestation of krishna and we will see that among the 335 chapters of the shivam bhagavatam 90 chapters are devoted to krishna in the third canto in the 10th canto and actually uh many of the chapters almost all the chapters in the 11th canto uh the 30 or chapter that are there in the 10th canto are also devoted to krishna some of them are devoted to his past times and much of it is devoted to krishna’s instruction which is uddhavida so in that sense directly over 120 chapters out of 335 are devoted to krishna so even in terms of number of chapters it’s more than one third and in terms of overall number of verses also the time that the past time of krishna occupy one third or more of the bhagavatam so the bhagavatam not only uh declares that krishna is source of all incarnations etechamshakalapamsa krishnastabhagwan svayam indraridakulam lokam vrdayanti yenge so all these incarnations are the source they they are manifesting amsha or etechamshakalapamsa they are amsha or kalam or kalaha they are parts of parts of parts but krishna is the source of all of them and in this particular verse the bhagavatam reveals its focus on the manifestation of krishna who will be revealed much more in detail now the bhagavatam in this way reverses what is considered to be the hierarchy by people that krishna vishnu has an incarnation one of them is krishna but that is from only from the point of view of those who consider god as the initial administrator who comes down in response to calls for help but then so that means there is this world and there is god as the administrator so when we call to god god comes into this world but beyond this god has his own abode and his abode is not just a place where he’s administrator very reciprocals intimately and and among those abodes the abode of krishna is the highest that the greatest intimacy is there so the bhagavatam expands the frame of work framework and then it reveals that while it is not wrong to say that krishna comes from vishnu that in the sense that when we pray to vishnu when the devatas pray to vishnu one of the incarnations that comes krishna but a more complete truth is that beyond that there is a spiritual world and there the incarnations exist eternally and therein krishna is the most intimate manifestation the absolute truth and he is the source of all manifestations so the bhagavatam doesn’t the directly contradict but it expands the scope thereby revealing how krishna is the source of all incarnations and there are many incarnations described in this and in briefly the past times of those incarnations were described and the thrust again of the bhagavatam in this canto is to reveal in this chapter is to reveal how a eshwara has so many manifestations one of the significant verses there is that there are as many incarnations as there are waves in the ocean so now the name the number of waves in the ocean is innumerable so there are innumerable incarnations now why is why are there infinite incarnations because krishna’s love for us is infinite and that’s why he comes again and again he comes again and again to give us opportunity is to be delivered and of course in the second and third chapters while talking about incarnations also talked about how the supreme god manifesting this world and maintains this world through the purusha avatars so the sankhya analysis where the concept of purusha is introduced is is extensively explored that is introduced in the bhagavatam also and this will also come repeatedly and especially in the third canto now chapters four five and six are the narada yasa samvad so till now what all has happened in the bhagavatam the bhagavatam is established that bhakti is the highest and bhagwan is the bhakti is the highest sadhana and bhagwan is the highest was mentioned in that second chapter but the various manifestations of bhagwan and among them the highest is krishna is established in third chapter then it is described that what is going to recite how has this been composed so this bhagavatam how was it composed the now it goes to a setting where now vyasadev is in deep meditation and some state of dissatisfaction he has written a huge library of books practicals he has written the is put into written form the veda and divided into so divided into four groups so that it will be accessible manageable entrusted it to his trustworthy disciples and he has written the it he has written in the mahabharata he’s written in the purana writing purana but still he’s not satisfied he’s thinking why i’m not satisfied he himself thinks the yasadev is also a learned person and he thinks and he realises that actually i have not glorified the supreme lord properly and herein the bhagavatam reveals again it demonstrates through yasadev’s example what was told in 1.2.6 that what will satisfy the heart that when there is bhakti only that will satisfy the heart nothing else will satisfy so the bhagavatam illustrates that over here by stating that vyasadev is not satisfied although he has written so much he’s not satisfied but then it will reveal that when he does this he glorifies the supreme lord in this chapter the bhagavatam calls it the spotless glory of the lord when he demonstrates when he glorifies and he disseminates then he becomes super siddhati he becomes joyful and here just as yasadev looks within and then he looks up he looks within and he gets the answer and he looks up and he sees his spiritual master naraguni is there and naraguni reiterates what yasadev has inferred and there’s a there’s a two-way vindication or reiteration of the message from within and from without he gets the same message and you have to glorify the supreme lord purely and now what is the glory of bhakti and what is the glory of how that glory manifests in the life of sadhaka that naraguni tells so first naraguni gives instructions about how bhakti is so potent that even if a person is not qualified properly that person glorifies and even that glorification is faulty in the technical sense but in the devotional sense it is filled with potency so on the other hand if somebody writes very poetically but is not glorifying the lord that is useless so again the point is bhakti is what gives value to everything and everything all knowledge should be used for glorifying the supreme lord for the purpose of bhakti that what the words that prabhupada quoted for telling us that even science can be used to glorify the supreme lord so the point is all branches of knowledge should be used to glorify krishna for the sake of bhakti after talking about this in the next verse the bhagavatam moves on and talks about how in the next chapter so here the process of bhakti is described and how even from various different angles bhakti is glorified how it brings value to everything and how in the path of bhakti there’s no failure even if somebody falls that person will still have taste and will continue on and attain success on the other hand even if another path somebody attains success that success ultimately turns to be futile so through multiple angles naraguni glorifies bhakti and stresses drives on that message to riyasudeva that therefore you should glorify bhakti and you should glorify the object of bhakti that is bhagavan and then in the sixth chapter through the fifth chapter onwards and in sixth chapter naraguni tells his own story so it is one thing to theoretically glorify something but it is it’s quite another it has a huger far greater level of conviction when that is demonstrated practically so after saying that bhakti can purify everyone naraguni demonstrates that by telling his own story and he tells about how he was a maidservant son in an earlier life and you know maidservant son means there’s no mention of his father so at one level you could say it is a very impure birth but even in that what has been told in 1.2 that if one serves hears from them then one will become purified whatever level one may be at that’s what is demonstrated so naraguni he by serving these sages he taking their prasad and hearing from them he gets such a transcendental taste and here again something is foreshadowed that how to be with death by absorption in the lord beyond death so naraguni narada is the boy at that time he faces the death of his mother and how does he deal with it rather than just grieving over the his mother was the only person he had he was a now orphan boy but rather than seeing that as a devastating loss he sees it as a liberating opportunity now there is no distraction now that he is focused on the supreme lord and in this way how the bhagavatam can convert adversity and opportunity is demonstrated how naraguni does that and how the bhagavatam will enable parikshit maharaj also to do that in dealing with the devastating curse that he gets that is foreshadowed here in the bhagavatam and similarly whatever devastations reversals adversities we face in our life we can also tolerate and transcend them by absorbing ourselves in the bhagavatam so naraguni tells his own story and he says how he went into the north he went into the towards the north and performed austerity and he got a sight of the lord and then the lord disappeared and the lord disappeared he felt intense separation from him and what are the lord’s message he couldn’t see him but he heard a voice saying that this craving for me will purify you and you will see me in the future birth and here again there is viraha bhakti there’s one glimpse and there is no longer any glimpse but that viraha bhakti has such potency that it purifies narada and then actually narada dies but death is just a transition to a far greater destination and what happens narada becomes like boy narada becomes the great saint naraguni who is transcendent and liberated able to go anywhere and everywhere simply absorbing glorifying the lord naraguni’s liberated state is not just physical that he can just by desiring like a transcendental cosmonaut go to whichever part of the universe he want but it is also emotional and spiritual that wherever he goes he doesn’t get entangled because he’s absorbed in glorifying the supreme lord and that state is attained by the magical potency of bhakti after telling this thrilling narrative for a disciple to hear directly from the person of the spiritual master how i came to bhakti krishna consciousness that is so enlivening but this is a dramatic narrative and then naraguni again reiterates the same message to me therefore now meditate meditate and understand what is the absolute truth and then put it in words glorify that absolute truth by which people will be benefited people will be purified people will be elevated and liberated and this saying this the naraguni departs this is where six chapter moral sense in the seventh chapter it is titled the propolis son of drona punished so here the first verses are very important in his bhagavata sandarbha the first few verses and naraguni jiva goswami describes how the vision that vyasdev has is what defines what he will what the bhagavatam is essential message will be so vyas vyasdev after hearing the exhortation of naraguni sits down in meditation he actually does that and then what does he see he sees the supreme lord so again i am not quoting many verses in this because i don’t want to make this class very long just quote the relevant fragments from those verses so he sees the supreme lord he sees maya under his control and he sees the jiva under maya and he sees that if that this jiva can be connected with bhagwan through the bhagavata katha through the bhagavata then the jiva will come out of the auspiciousness so maya which is acting as a blocking wall between the jiva and the lord and it’s keeping the jiva under illusion that maya can be removed that wall can be broken through by the shreeman bhagavatam and then anarthopashyamamsakshat that for removing all arathas that bhagavatam will be composed and then what happens he starts meditating so at this point the essence of the bhagavatam the essential message is that there are three entities there is the there is the there is a lord there is maya and there is jiva and the jiva can come out of maya by taking shelter of the bhagavatam and actually this is the essential philosophy by the taking shelter of bhagwan through bhagavata katha through bhagavata shravan kirtan this is the essence of all philosophy and it’s told in the four verses and this is what bhagavatam will further expand upon and now the bhagavatam moves forward and it starts the scene with the son of drona punished so now why does the bhagavatam start from here you know it’s like the bhagavatam is remembering the mahabharata in one sense the mahabharata has happened and the events after the most after the traumatic catastrophic war of kurukshetra has happened bhagavatam takes off from there the point of the bhagavatam is that it is setting the scene for the meeting of its two conversationists that is shukadeva swami and parichit maharaj so shukadeva swami is described very briefly where it is said that so his whole story is not told over here but it is simply mentioned so now here the narrative goes back so the goswami is has told this that naravya samvad he has told as he has told about jyasa’s meditation and then the bhagavatam moves forward to okay this is the essential message that is going to be revealed and it is going to be revealed through the conversation between these two people parichit maharaj and shukadeva swami so then he starts introducing shukadeva swami and when he introduced shukadeva swami he says that how he was he was already renounced and liberated without any attachments but still he studied the shrimad bhagavatam why did he study the shrimad bhagavatam that is so that he could so this is asking why did it take such a formidable work to study he said because that is transcendental and that brings such great taste so the here the post liberated status of the message of shrimad bhagavatam is talking about it’s established through the post liberated attraction of shukadeva swami to shrimad bhagavatam so here there’s a very strong uh refutation of my impersonalism that shukadeva swami although he was liberated he was attracted towards the bhagavatam that means bhagavatam is a post liberation attraction most attractions in this world are pre-liberation in fact they stop us from going towards liberation but the bhagavatam is the post liberation attraction of liberated souls so that is established through this very short description of how shukadeva swami studied the shrimad bhagavatam and mastered it that story is of course told elaborately elsewhere about how he was going out into he just left home and renounced but he heard uh urkatar speaking the shrimad bhagavatam and he was so captivated by it he asked him why did you hear it he said oh i heard it from your father oh my father and he went back to his father and he heard the shrimad bhagavatam from him and he became a bhagavatam he became a mahabhagavatam who would eventually speak the full bhagavatam to parikshit maharaj and after that now the setting starts for the story of parikshit maharaj so one conversation is how he became fit for speaking the conversation that is told very briefly and now the next part will be how the other conversation is that is parikshit maharaj how he came to a position where he became in urgent need of real shrimad bhagavatam that will be talked about in the second part now so here from chapter 7 the just the stage before parikshit maharaj’s birth is described that ashwathama he tries to kill the child in the womb of uttara and this way he tries to kill the only success only descendant or the the heir of the pandavas and he wants to end that dynasty because he feels this does this dynasty that killed my father it was this dynasty that caused the defeat of our side i want to take revenge and kill so the protective potency of krishna how krishna comes intervenes and protects that is described now of course the bhagavatam starts off uh slightly before that how ashwathama has killed all of all the all the warriors at night in saptik parva and then krishna and arjuna are in pursuit that’s where krishna krishna enters for the first time in the bhagavatam as a charioteer of arjuna as a servant a bhaktavatsarya of krishna is demonstrated right in the first scene in his first bhagavatam and he guides arjuna when the brahmastra starts coming arjuna asks how has this come and he krishna explains over here and when he explains then after that uh he uses brahmastra to counter and they think that brahmastra has been countered and both the brahmastra has been removed but ashwathama redirects his brahmastra to try to kill uttara uttara’s womb the child in uttara’s and krishna realising that although krishna is on the chariot krishna comes and in the womb of uttara uttara who prays to krishna so there’s actually almost a similar prayer arjuna prays to krishna please guide me and uttara prays to krishna please save me and krishna uttara is actually in a safe chamber woman chamber but suddenly she feels a great danger and she begs please protect the child in my womb and krishna comes and fights that brahmastra was unstoppable but krishna sends it back defeats it and the embryo in the child sees oh i was about to die and who is this effulgent transcendental person who came and saved me i want to know who it is and his name becomes the child who is eventually born in the name parikshet why because he’s always doing parikshan of everyone parikshan see everyone to find out is this the person whom i had met is this the person whom i had met is this the person whom i had met whom i had seen in the not exactly because there’s no conversation directly whom i had seen so he wants to know and in this way he is always examining so again the same mood of viraha is there and he doesn’t have darshan of the lord ever again he has darshan only in the womb because by the time he grows up krishna has already departed from the world in fact actually krishna the point is that parikshit never gets to meet krishna the anna parikshit never gets to meet krishna directly there is the point is that he has the memory of krishna forever ingrained within him and that is what he cherishes and relishes and actually and now the scene moves onwards this parikshit is not yet born so then what happens here after krishna has saved both arjuna and then uttara’s child parikshit from the brahmastra arjuna by giving guidance and parikshit by personally intervening then there’s the revisiting he returns and he says now the danger is off let me depart to dwarka and kunti prays please don’t depart and again these are also prayers of devotion in separation these are prayers of extraordinary devotion where kunti prays that my dear lord you know let if calamities can bring out union with you can can let calamities come nobody in this world want calamities but he says that that which people want to avoid but i want them again and again if that brings us in contact with you and her mood is she doesn’t want separation but at the same time she doesn’t want other relatives and the other divorce of krishna and dwarka to be separated so therefore he says my dear lord whether i’m separated from you whether i’m united let my consciousness always flow towards you time let my consciousness always flow towards you my lord with this prayer and then offering obeisances he krishna krishna sakha he offers obeisances and he ends the prayer krishna smiles and does not respond in any way to her prayers but the offering of prayers krishna accepts and that is enough for kunti maharani and then now yudhishthira requests please stay on for some time and krishna agrees to stay on he cannot refuse yudhishthira this sincere request and you know that yudhishthira is still mortified by the enormous bloodshed and loss of life that happened in the kurukshetra war and krishna has a further plan to glorify his devotee so then seeing that yudhishthira is still very grief struck krishna himself instructs he asks his instructor all the great sages instruct but nobody is able to pacify yudhishthira and therefore krishna says let us go to krishna and hear from krishna and here krishna stays on so that the glory of vishnupitam is revealed to the whole world so the eighth chapter was the prayers of kunti but all these events also happen in the eighth chapter and the ninth chapter is then the vishnu’s departure and in vishnu’s departure there are many valuable motives that come up one the most important is how vishnu gives elaborate instructions they go on for the instruction go on for days and days and days and finally when the uttara and the auspicious time comes for him to depart then he fixes his consciousness on krishna and offers beautiful prayers that very beautiful my lord you are the most attractive form in the whole all the three words and the vision of devotion that vishnupitama has is incredible normally most people would think of god as coming i am suffering and god will come to deliver me from suffering but the vision of devotion that vishnupitama has is of god coming to kill him you know he says i want to remember you in the form when you lifted a chariot and charged towards me but your hair was scattered and there was sweat and blood droplets on your forehead and he charged towards me let my rati be under this form of the lord and i did more sure i desired to die thinking of this form of the lord my lord and after offering choice prayers vishnudeva departs from the world and here two things vishnudeva’s glory firstly in pacifying rudrstha because he gives various instructions on various levels of dharma and finally he focusses on pure devotion and one of the important things that he tells rudrstha over there in that section is also that that ultimately the lord’s plan is inconceivable if you just stick to his plan there will be auspiciousness for all of for you and he demonstrates that through his own life wherein in his own life what did he do he said that actually i stuck to the devotion of the lord what is the result now he’s right here to give his mercy to similarly you stick to his plan also don’t try to analyse his plan just surrender to it and this is what rudrstha accepts rudrstha becomes pacified by this and then thereafter the next thing that happens is that rudrstha moves on and rudrstha moves when is that sorry so the ninth chapter is this that rudrstha is pacified bheeshma departs and then there’s just a quick mention of the event that are going to happen that this is maharaja going to perform ashwamedha yagya that is in a prelude mentioned over here but then the essential the 10 chapters the 10th and 11th chapters are krishna departs from dwarka and krishna arrives in dwarka and herein the essential message is of again separation and so when krishna departs from from the pandavas kingdom to go to dwarka the pandavas are in great separation and yet they fondly and reverentially let krishna depart and then after that when he arrives in dwarka the devotees there are so delighted to meet him they are overwhelmed with joy and very poetic descriptions first there in the 10th chapter there are poetic descriptions of the ladies in the pandavas kingdom how they glorify krishna how wonderful is their joyous prayers of exalted realisation and devotion and then when the queens of krishna and others in the middle of krishna when they hear krishna’s and the jubilant it is as if the dead have come back to life and they run out to greet krishna the queens send their children to run out and as krishna hugs the children and they feel the queens feel krishna’s embrace with them and they feel gratified they feel satisfied they feel pacified so these are very emotionally moving descriptions which depict love in separation and depict love in union and in this then the 12th chapter marks the birth of emperor parikshit so the previous chapters from 7 to 11 are events which describe are describing events that happened related to him but prior to his birth the threat to his life and how he was rescued and other event that happened it’s building up towards parikshit’s birth and there is profuse glorification of parikshit by the astrologers who declare how he is like who is he’s like the like so many great personalities who had who have been on the universe earlier and by those profuse comparisons the glory of parikshit is demonstrated in extraordinary ways and incidentally that that parikshit will die because of a curse is mentioned also at that time but yudhishthira maharaj is not very worried about that because he has seen that as long as he is going to live wonderfully that is more than enough that’s what is needed he’s going to live a life of dharma life of bhakti he’s going to be exemplary king that is there how he died that after that if he’s going to die this is eventual destination is assured yudhishthira maharaj also here demonstrates a fearlessness about death which is characteristic of the shaman bhagavatam and a similar fearlessness will be demonstrated by parikshit maharaj also by absorbing himself in the bhagavatam and then after this description of the glories of parikshit maharaj then the events move forward in 13th chapter describes how vritrashtra quits home and again in this chapter the cutting instructions of vidura which bring about detachment in parikshit in vritrashtra’s heart are the emphasis and how vritrashtra becomes disentangled by those instructions so there are two aspects you know for one is to become attached from the material and second is to become attached to the spiritual and both happen by hearing from the bhagavatam so now vritrashtra is not is exactly a devotee and because he’s not exactly a devotee and at that particular point he is not in a position where he can appreciate krishna’s glories so what vritra focusses on is detachment from the material and it’s cutting instructions to achieve that purpose and then vritrashtra achieves a state of elevated destination that he would not have achieved without vritra’s instructions so the bhagavatam’s the bhagavat’s capacity to vritra is also bhagavat and his capacity to give an appropriate message for elevating people is demonstrated and then and basically the storyline is moving towards how parikshit maharaj will become ready for hearing vrishamit bhagavatam the 14th chapter is on is actually describing the it’s entitled the disappearance of lord krishna but essentially there is there is primarily description of the ill omens that affect the effect that are seen by yudhishthira which he describes to bhima and there are very very scary descriptions over there of how the whole the whole existence nature and earth and everything seems to be a state of gloom and doom and that actually foreshadows now there is going to be gloom and down at the material level inevitably but if at the spiritual level one takes shelter of the lord then it all can be transcended so that gloom and doom is very vividly described in the 14th chapter and that even yudhishthira after describing to bhima significantly bhima doesn’t speak one word over here although bhima is such a powerful warrior over there in the kurukshetra war unstoppable practically but when destiny is playing its own way when the supreme lord is withdrawing even he can do nothing except just hear even he with his formidable power cannot avert the will of the supreme lord which is going to manifest through his disappearance so then as the next chapter starts it is arjuna who appears in fact arjuna has appeared in the previous chapter but he starts speaking in this chapter arjuna is completely disconsolate condition and yudhishthira is alarmed to see this condition and he asks now what has got you to this condition he speculates in various reasons and finally he thinks is it because krishna has departed and his voice falls his voice chokes and thinks how is it possible has it really happened and arjuna tells him this is what has actually happened that that supreme lord who’s my friend has now departed that lord who had benedicted you who had by whose arrangement you had been able to perform the sacrifice rajasvi sacrifice he has departed that lord who arranged by which b who arranged for bheema to defeat jarasandh he has been defeated that lord who arranged for me to go to heavens and make even defeat even shiva satisfy shiva by my fighting skill that lord has departed that lord who enabled me to satisfy indra by my heroic powers defeat the enemies of indra and indra could not defeat that lord he has departed that lord who enabled me to survive and succeed in the kurukshetra war against hundreds and thousands of warriors that lord has departed and he says my bad lord he was so used to affectionately joke with me sit with me and have intimate talks with me that lord has departed what is the point of my life without him is i am overwhelmed with misery and this is the intense feeling of separation that arjuna is experiencing and within that separation there is immense absorption and there’s upsurge of agonised yet ecstatic devotion and it culminates in arjuna remembering the instructions of the gita remembering to remember krishna and to seek shelter in the remembrance of krishna and thereby transcend the misery so there can be material miseries which hearing about krishna and remembering him can help us to transcend and there can be spiritual miseries of separation from krishna that also hearing about krishna can enable us to transcend and arjuna demonstrates that by taking shelter of krishna in a very deep way and then this chapter pandavas retired the part time and essentially the pandavas leave knowing that krishna has departed they also announce the world and they also attain perfection so they don’t want to stay in this world where krishna is no longer there they end so parikshit has grown adequately but he’s entrusted as the king and parikshit becomes the king and then the next chapter describes the heroic way in which parikshit deals with kali so it starts with a setting of a bull and a cow talking that’s this 16 chapters how parikshit received the age of kali and and then it is punishment of the age of kali and how parikshit was cursed that’s all described in the next chapter that’s how the bhagavatam moves onwards towards its climax towards the setting of the scene where the conversation between shukudagatva swami and parikshit maharaj will begin now here in this conversation again various values are sacred that are talked about in the conversation between between the cow who is actually mother earth bhumi and the bull who is dharma and they are talking all this why this wicked wicked person impersonating as a kshatriya is actually tormenting the cow tormenting the bull and parikshit heals all this and springs into action and now there is normally we would think that a hero means a person has to fight fight fight in overpower overpower the enemy villain the enemy and then his heroism is demonstrated but parikshit is so glorious that his enemy surrenders without a fight he says that i am no match to you i am no match to you so rather than trying to fight he just surrenders and he says please give uh please give me shelter i am surrendered to you and parikshit recognising that it’s kshatriya principle to give shelter he gives shelter and he’s also saharan raya he sees that in kali in kali yuga when kali’s influence is going to come in kali yuga that even if somebody desires to do good that good will have effect therefore he agrees to give shelter to parikshit and to kali so so it’s actually his capacity to subdue kali is itself a greatly heroic feat that parikshit performs and parikshit rules heroically and the way kali will infiltrate will be through the act of a rash brahmin son and that will be described in the next chapters so then what happens parikshit after he subdued kali and restrained him then in the next chapter parikshit goes once for hunting and then he’s exhausted he’s thirsty and he comes to the hermitage of shamik rishi where he asks for water but the rishi is absorbed in meditation and therefore he does not respond and parikshit is so tired that that he feels that that he feels that is this sage actually pretending to be absorbed in trance that’s why he’s neglecting me and he feels that you know you you are you are disrespecting me therefore i am disrespecting you are you did not show me any courtesy so at least i will follow the courtesy and i will offer you a garland but in a gar because you showed me not showing courtesy so it’s a sarcastic reciprocation where he says that i’ll offer you a garland of a dead snake but now sometimes this is all a part of the transcendental arrangement of the lord for the bhagavatin manifestation in the world so so then as when this happens the rishi’s son is a boy but he has parametric powers and he says all day he arrogates to himself the position of krishna he says krishna has gone now and therefore there’s no one to correct adharma and what is this great adharma that a kshatriya who’s meant to be like a dog guarding the house he says the brahmanas are actually the lords of the house and the kshatriyas are like dogs kshatriyas are guardians of society that is very respected but he treats them like dogs and he this dog if a dog comes into the house the dog is not giving water who allows the dog to come into the inner parts of the house so like that my father did not allow giving water so what’s so what’s wrong in that so he has done mariyadabhati krama and he deserves he is supposed to punish and he curses him you’ll die in seven days and as parikshit maharaj is going back so i think so why did i do such a thing no maybe that sage was actually absorbing meditation and that’s why did not hear me i should not have done like this and he himself prays my dear lord for my sin whatever atonement is there whatever punishment is there that the punishment come upon me that i’ll never again fall to this mentality of offending the brahmanas and meanwhile shamik this shrinvi goes and starts crying in front of his father and told what happened shamik feels so remorseful he just tells his child you know why didn’t you do such an who will protect the world who will stop kali now this king has gone and this king goes away but he quickly sends a message to the king and when parikshit hears this he sees this as an opportunity to disentangle himself from the world doesn’t see it as an injustice as a disproportionately vindictive reaction for a small infraction he sees this as an opportunity and he very trusting looking at him immediately to his son and successor he departs he departs to the forest and he comes to the banks of the ganga and he sits among the sages determined he says that i have decided to fast taken a vow to fast and i have decided that i just wanted to he himself feels that the best thing to do will be for him to hear harikatha and he asked them to speak harikatha but then he says that this is what i think but you please you are all great sages and knowing that parikshit’s departure parikshit is a great king and his departure is going to be a great event sages from all over the world come all over the universe practically come there and actually similarly sages have come earlier and bhishma was about to depart and again they assemble over here and as they’re discussing you know he asked what is the duty of a person about to die as all the sages are contemplating and they all have different thoughts of what might be the best thing to do so at that time shukde comes over there and shukde is a young lad and he is actually so indifferent to the world that he’s just covered with the directions and people not understanding the ordinary people the children and others not understanding his exalted position they’re thinking what is this mad man walking around with unclothed and they’re teasing him and they’re making fun of him but shukdev is completely completely transcendental to it and but when he comes in with his effulgent form all the people are suddenly get up and they know because they know how exalted he is and then the children and women and now they all are sitting back home you’re taunting this person but all these great sages are respecting this person what have you done just flee from there you should not have offended this curse he should not curse let us get out of his sight before he curses us shukdev was so transcendental he has no intention of cursing anyone and then parichit maharaj offers respect offers obeisances to shukdev swami and he says it is by great fortune that you have come here to bless me at this time of death surely it is because my ancestors the pandavas are such great devotees that krishna has arranged for you to come otherwise you hardly ever come to householder like us you’re so renowned that you stay at a householder’s place for a time longer than the time required to milk a cow but you come now please tell me what is my duty what is the duty of a person generally the duty of a person about to die i beg you for this answer so it is this at this point the first canto ends so the intense devotional mood of parichit maharaj’s urgent enquiry is what is the last note that the shri bhagavatam first canto gives us and that urgent need to hear about the lord if we can get that then the bhagavatam’s blessings will shower down upon us and our heart will be open to relish that relish that blessings to be benefited by those blessings to be uplifted and liberated by those blessings so how the bhagavatam unfolds further we’ll discuss in our next talks thank you