Bhagavatam study 14 – 1.3.35-44 – Bhagavatam is our light in this dark age

1.3.35 एवं जन्मानि कर्माणि यः कर्तुर अजनस्य च वर्णयंति स्मक्वयो वेद गुह्यानि रित्पते हे so here it is stated एवं जन्मानि कर्माणि thus the appearance and activities of the lord are understood what is it what is there to understand it because he is यः कर्तुर अजनस्य च so what is what is reiterated by Kunti Maharani later is being mentioned here also that he is actually not the doer he doesn’t take birth he doesn’t do any activities that’s the philosophical understanding of the absolute truth and at the same time he performs activities he appears appears this is transcendental वर्णयंति स्मक्वयो so कवयो the wise people in the past वर्णयंति have described it वेद गुह्यानि रित्पते वेद गुह्यानि that lord who is not very easily discoverable by the study of the Vedas वेद गुह्यानि but who is present रित्पते who is present in the innermost reaches of our own heart that lord we can attain and we can relish his presence we can relish his devotion by becoming connected with him वेद गुह्यानि रित्पते so इवं जन्मानि कर्मानि that lord whom we can search for in the Vedas and not discover we can discover in our own heart by the process of भक्ति so वेद गुह्यानि रित्पते the process of भक्ति centres on hearing about him speaking about him relishing his pastimes when we do this the the lord undiscoverable in the Vedas becomes discovered in our own heart Krishna also points to this when he says that सर्वस्ति चाहं रिधि सन्यिनि विष्टो I am present in the heart of all the beings मत्तसि तिर्जानम पोहनंच from me comes knowledge remembrance and forgetfulness वेद इश्च सर्वई रामेद विद्यो by all the Vedas I am to be known वेदान्त कृत्वेद विदेव चाहं Vedanta krut he is the compiler of the Vedanta and he is Vedavid he knows what the purpose the import of the Vedas is so thus it is the Lord who is our greatest benedictor and to the extent we surrender to him to the extent we devote ourselves to him the Lord undiscoverable through the Vedas becomes discoverable in the heart through the practise of devotion 36 text सवाइदं विश्वममोगलीलः सुझत्यवत्यत्तिनसजतेस्मिन् भुतेशुचान्तरहितात्मतंत्रः शडवर्गिकम् जिक्रतिशन्मुनेशः सवाइदं विश्वममोगलीलः so in this Vishwa Amoghalila the Lord whose activities are spotless is सुझत्यवत्यत्तिनसजतेस्मिन् so he creates, maintains and destroys the universes but he is not affected by it all न सज्जतेस्मिन् he doesn’t get entangled in all this भुतेशुचान्तरहितात्मतंत्रः भुतेशुचान्तरहिता so among all living beings अन्तरहिता he is living within them आत्मतंत्रहा he is although within the heart he is not affected by the disposition he is self-independent then he is beyond he is transcendental शाडवर्गीकम् जिग्रतीशडगुणेशः शाडवर्गीकम् means that he has six opulences which always stay with him जिग्रती and he is शडगुणेशः शडगुणेशः means शडगुणेशः शडगुन refers here to the six senses which act under the influence of the moons he remains the ईशः of them जिग्रती so it seems that he accepts for example when he descends in the world he seems to have a form just like our form and with this form he seems to be doing a lot of things but he can’t very easily understand how he is transcendental but he has his own self-existence which is not affected even when he descends to this world so Krishna is matter-proof sometimes we may have fireproof covering or a waterproof covering if we have an electronic gadget and we are afraid that it may get spoiled then we may have a or say by some water then we may have a waterproof covering to it so waterproof covering means the object itself is vulnerable but by that by having that covering it will not be affected by water but rather than so Krishna is not matter-proof in that Krishna doesn’t need a matter-proof covering that he because he has some aura around him some covering around him that covering protects him from contamination by matter it’s not like that suppose the gadget itself is waterproof then we don’t need any covering to protect it from water it is by itself waterproof so like that Krishna doesn’t need any covering to protect himself from the illusions of this world from the contamination by matter he does not need a waterproof covering he is himself waterproof he is of course you are not as waterproof you are not matter-proof over here so Krishna is matter-proof even when he descends in this world he still remains he still remains always transcendental so here that point is being made that repeatedly it is being stressed that although he does although he supervises oversees the creation, maintenance, destruction of this world why is it so important to understand the transcendence of the law because if we don’t understand the transcendence then we will ascribe material motivation to him so for example if something bad happens in our life we may think oh maybe God is seeking revenge maybe God is vindictive maybe God doesn’t so we will ascribe material motivation to God and God is not like a vindictive person who wants to take revenge for some small wrongs that we may do no there is a law of karma and law of karma is is a system of justice it’s not a system of revenge taking so we have to understand that Krishna when we understand that Krishna is transcendental then we don’t impute material motives ascribe material motives to him and thus we can see him as transcendental and thus we can move onwards in developing steady devotion to him because to the extent we understand that he is transcendental to that extent the material ups and downs we won’t be going up and down in our relationship with Krishna because of those ups and downs so he’s always filled with six opulences he’s always the controller of the senses although he accepts superficially so the scriptures give the example just as a person may smell the fragrance of a flower without coming in contact with that flower similarly the Lord indirectly senses the state of material existence and supervises and oversees it but without coming in contact with it directly text 37 so not so so anyone question anyone certainly not anyone by dexterity one who is the creator avaiti means to come to know jantu the living manisha is one is the controller of the mind means one whose mind is not controlled the mind is misdirected rather the mind is in control such a person who is such a person cannot understand the activities the person cannot understand the names the forms by how does it neither by mental speculation nor by verbal dexterity verbalisation natacharyam even he displays his pastimes natacharyam means he performs the actions as if he is a artist is a he’s playing a role in a drama the foolish so the Lord when he performs when he plays the role of actor in a drama now if the people are not when if the audience is not doesn’t know the who the hero is if the audience has not carefully seen the hero has not even recognised the hero then sometimes the disguise the costume for the drama may be so captivating that people are not able to recognise who the original person is they think oh this is the actor itself they’ll think they will not be able to identify the actor beyond the character the character is what is being depicted suppose somebody is playing the role of a policeman now actually that person may be who is playing the role of a police constable may actually be a may be a millionaire or a billionaire but when he’s playing the role of a police constable unless people can people know the original character original actor they will not be able to identify so like that unless we know the Supreme Lord the people who are ignorant about him when they see his manifest pastimes at that time they will not be able to see the character beyond see the actor beyond the character that means they will not be able to understand who the person is and they will mistake the role to be the reality so for example in Krishna Descends as say a Kshatriya prince in the Yadu dynasty some people may think that that’s all that there is to Krishna yes Krishna is a historical person who appeared in this world who actually was born and who was quite a shrewd diplomat and he actually acted with cunning to help his friend the Pandavas win and then eventually he was he tragically died in a criticidal conflict amongst his family members so now in a drunken brawl among them this is this might be the outline that people may have about Krishna so they are not this is the role which Krishna plays now of course when we’re talking about Krishna yes Krishna has eternally the Yadu dynasty in the spiritual world and Krishna is eternally having his own pastimes in a Kshatriya form in the spiritual world but still we have to understand that he’s transcendental he doesn’t belong to the Kshatriya varna he doesn’t belong to the Yadu dynasty all the members of the Yadu dynasty are transcendental all the members of the Yadu dynasty are ultimately even if they are even if they are exalted devotees still they are ultimately his part they’re his children he is not their descendant everyone is his descendant Krishna is no one’s descendant everyone is Krishna’s descendant so the lords transcendence cannot be understood thus Kunti Maharaja says that the lord manifests as a nutter and people cannot understand him so easily 38th text so that lord can know the supreme his glories his position which is parasya transcendental who can know him? that lord who is whose glories are who is enormously powerful he’s infinitely heroic who bears in the chariot in his hand chariot wheel in his hands this can refer of course to Sudarshan Chakra which Krishna carries or it can also refer to the past time of Bhishma of Bhishma versus Arjuna in the fight when Krishna took up a chariot wheel to protect Arjuna one who is without a reservation caused by an illusion means without any interruption without any reservation favourably worships the lotus the fragrance coming from the lotus feet of him so one who without any reservation and without any interruption worships the lord wholeheartedly that person can come to know Krishna the lord who has that we can come to know Krishna’s glories that lord who is the who has infinite glories and who is the carrier of the wheel so the Bhagavatam is stressing that these various incarnations are there the various pastimes are there on all these the lord is descending in this world and one may think that when he’s descending thus is he becoming materially affected or contaminated no not at all and is he becoming in any way deluded no not at all how he remains transcendental that we can understand when we practise uninterrupted devotional service so to the extent our consciousness is contaminated our conception of Krishna would also be contaminated and we will not understand his purity his transcendence but as we steadily practise bhakti as our consciousness becomes more and more contamination free then we will be able to move onwards and attain him gradually text 39 the in this world that was so successful that lord the supreme lord that the supreme lord was today was all pervading absolute truth who is the master of all the words kurvanti when one performs who he inspires in the hearts of people and people perform unto him sarvaatmakam wholeheartedly aatmabhavam with all the emotion of the heart nayatra bhuyah parivartah ugraham and one who perform bhakti like this bhuyah again in this world parivartah ugraham in the dreadful cycle of birth and death one will not be born again one may not have to enter again so so by approaching the lord thus by rendering devotion to him by enquiring about him in this way can we become successful dhanya can we become bhagwant ittham can we become knowledgeable about so suta goswami is here completing the answer to the question one of the questions was please describe the avatars of the lord and please describe his pastimes so in briefly the avatars and the pastimes are described and suta goswami started also by appreciating the questions of the sages and again he’s concluding by appreciating the questions he’s saying that it is by discussing of such subjects in this mode of devotion that one can gain appreciation of the lord and thus move towards liberation so devotion grants us appreciation of krishna and takes us towards liberation from matter so text 40 now the question may come okay if this sort of enquiries are so auspicious and this mode of enquiry about the lord’s pastimes in the mode of devotion is to be done so where is it done so he says this is done in the bhagavatam and he’s describing the glory of the bhagavatam that book which is called bhagavatam the puranas are those literature which gave a systematic understanding of the absolute truth through supplementary explanation beyond what is given in the vedas means that it is a manifestation of brahma it is manifestation of spiritual reality it is incarnation of krishna itself the bhagavatam is non-different from krishna so what does this purana contain it contains charitam the character the activities of the lord who’s celebrated through through choice poetry it has been compiled by bhagavan rishi so vyasadeva was earlier mentioned as one of the incarnations of the lord and here that reference comes back again when it is said that great sage whose manifestation of bhagavan he compiled it for the auspiciousness for all living beings so in the previous word the third word dhanya was used be successful and here how will people become successful that is for enabling people to attain that success this bhagavatam has been compiled which is all blissful swasthi means auspiciousness it brings all auspiciousness mahat it is glorious it is magnificent it is perfect this is a very important verse which talks about the glory of the bhagavatam so what are the important points it says it clearly names the purana there is no ambiguity and the first glory it says is puranam brahma samyitam it is a manifestation of brahman it is the incarnation of the lord so in this chapter we describe various incarnations the bhagavatam as the most accessible incarnation because we may say oh there are so many incarnations and that’s wonderful but they have all come and gone what can i do now how can i connect with the lord yes the past times of all those incarnations even if they have gone they have come and gone their past times are there in the purana named bhagavatam and we can get access to krishna through the recording of his past times in this purana uttama shloka charitam it contains so it is it is a manifestation of brahman the incarnation of the lord and it describes the glorious of the lord and it has been compiled by this great sage chakarabha kaman rishi and for what purpose nishiyasaya lokaya for giving the ultimate good for the people and it does indeed need to succeed dhan auspiciousness and greatness dhanyam swasthyanam mahat 41st text tad idam grahayam asa sootam atmavatam varam sarva vedeti hasanam saram saram samudratam so here briefly now suta goswami is giving the history of how the bhagavatam manifested so he said for doing good to people he compiled this bhagavatam which contains the past times of the lord and then what did he do after that tad idam grahayam asa then he ensured that it was accepted by it was received by it was digested and released by sootam atmavatam varam sootam his own son that was shukadeva goswami who was he atmavatam varam among those who are self-realised he was among the best among those people atmavatam varam sarva vedeti hasanam among all the vedas itihasas so the vedic literature are there the itihasas are there that means the sruti and sruti among all those literature saram saram samudratam so saram saram the essence the cream was samudratam was churned and taken out and that churned essence that churned nectar was given by the asadev to soota goswami sorry to shukadeva goswami the story we discussed briefly how shukadeva received it when he initially was very renounced and he just left home but when he heard a woodcutter hearing the lord’s glories speaking the lord’s glories he heard it and asked the woodcutter where did you get it from and the woodcutter said that i got it from your father then he went back to his father and heard from his father this point will again come later in the seventh chapter brief mention of this so here further goes on the history paritam param rishi bheem so that that satu that that shukadeva goswami who heard the bhagavatam he made it audible he spoke it so that others could hear who could who that other who could hear that is maharajam parikshitam so parikshit heard it krayopavishitam gangabhyam gangayam he had sat the to do a fast till death without food without water paritam param rishi bheem and he was surrounded by great sages so here the hint of the heart of the bhagavatam the conversation between shukadeva and parikshit which will be described from the second canto onwards which is the last part of the first canto describes the questions parikshit asks and shukadeva goswami starts speaking the second canto and it goes on till the fourth fifth chapters of the 12th canto that is being briefly foreshadowed here described briefly mentioned here not just foreshadowed mentioned here and these are all nectarian verses which are going on over here so here he says when krishna has gone back to his abode he has gone back to his eternal abode the spiritual world the bhagavatam is spoken and there’s this particular conversation between shukadeva goswami and the nimisharayan sages was happening after the departure of krishna from this world in fact soon after the departure of even parikshit maharaj but in the cosmic history krishna’s appearance is such a momentous event that from the point of view of vastness of cosmic history it appears recent but although it is recent the amount of emptiness that is created by the departure of krishna is huge and so when the concern is there for that he says krishna so dhamo padate so question may come up that in fact there was a question had been asked earlier that now where can where can how can we know about dharma where is dharma taking shelter off in krishna to the shelter of dharma has disappeared so that answer is given over here krishna so dhamo padate at that time so dharma and gyan these may have gone away with him but still so it’s not only that krishna has gone but along with that the kaliyuga has also come so that kaliyuga what does it do it destroys the spiritual vision of people so for example if a person has a torch has a very bright torch and that person goes away then we’ll be a little concerned but if soon after that person goes away when person the torch goes away in that time suddenly extremely thick clouds come in the sky and because of the clouded sky there are there is no light remains at all there’s no moon there’s no moonlight there’s no starlight so the source of light is also gone and further darkness is also thickened so such is our predicament in kaliyuga that krishna who is the source of dharma and dhyana he has departed and kaliyuga has also descended kaliyuga blinds us it takes away our capacity for spiritual perception because of which we just can’t understand spiritual reality and we get consumed in material reality getting caught and lost so because of this we are trapped what can we do source of light has gone and darkness has thickened so at that time there is puran the bhagavatam has arisen as a shining light like a sun it has arisen puran arka arka is the sun this puran has arisen like the sun to illumine us so to the extent we recognise that we are in darkness but we are not in darkness if we turn towards the source of light just like if in a if as i said the source of a person in the torch has gone away and the darkness has thickened but at that time we know that there is some other person who has come and who has an equally effulgent light equally bright then we will not feel so much disconcerted by the darkness so like that those who understand the potency of the bhagavatam and those who take shelter of the potency of the bhagavatam they will not feel like deluded disheartened and distressed by the darkness of Kani yes they will be distressed because we see others are in darkness but we will also feel encouraged because we have light of the bhagavatam and we can share this light of the bhagavatam with others and enable them also to become enlightened text 44 aham chaadhyagamam tatra nivishtas tad anugrahat soham vah shravai syami yathadhitam yathamati tatra kirtayato vipraso while Shukadeva Swami was just thus reciting the bhagavatam which had descended in the through the conversation between Shukadeva Swami and Dalshep Maharaj viprashir bhuritej saha viprashir viprashir is that great sage viprashi so from brahma rishi so brahma rishi and viprashi is the same thing vipra is one sage of brahmana bhuritej saha who is very extremely powerful very effulgent very wise aham chaadhyagamam tatra see so Shukadeva Swami is giving his credentials here and he’s saying that I was also present at that time aham chaadhyagamam tatra and I studied it I understood it at that time nivishtas tad anugrahat by his mercy tad anugrahat nivishtas I was not only situated there physically but I was situated there in my consciousness also I was attentive I was absorbed in hearing and thus I could understand the subject soham vah shravai shami and that very soham that very thing now vah shravai shami I shall let you hear I shall speak it so that you can also hear it and last last text last line in this what expresses his humility this is yathaditam yathamati yathaditam so as is my intelligence and as is my realisation as is my capacity to understand and my capacity to repeat as much as I understood and as much as I have realised I will speak it so the so Shukadeva Swami doesn’t think that because I was present personally I can explain everything as it is and certainly doesn’t think that I can explain it better than what Shukadeva Swami has explained no not at all he says as I have understood actually what was spoken he was or what was spoken there was extraordinarily phenomenal unparalleled the sage who spoke this was Bhurtejasa Vipradeshe Bhurtejasa but I was fortunate enough that I was there and I could hear and understand being attentive so according to what I have understood according to my capacity I will speak it yathaditam yathamati yathamati so thus after giving this historical precedent the conversation of the Bhagavatam will take off in this chapter where we have had primary description of how the Lord is the source of the creation the elements the living beings the various incarnations within this world and how despite pervading the world through his incarnation and expansions the Lord still remains transcendental of course one point before that was how Krishna is the source of all incarnations and then after that the stress was on how the Lord remains transcendental and because he’s transcendental by understanding him we can become transcendental and we can become liberated and to understand him we need to hear with devotion and practise devotion without interruption or reservation and such a hearing is possible when we relish the Bhagavatam and then the glory of the Bhagavatam is described as Brahma Samyitam Puranam Brahma Samyitam it is the incarnation of Krishna and it is Puranarka Dhanoditaha it has arisen to remove the darkness of Kali Yuga that has become especially thickened after the departure of Krishna and Shukadeva Goswami concludes by saying that I was fortunate enough to hear he gives a brief history of the Bhagavatam how the Asadev wrote it how he spoke it to Shukadeva Goswami how Shukadeva Goswami spoke it to Parikshit Maharaj Shukadeva Goswami is fortunate enough to hear it while Shukadeva Goswami spoke it and now he is going to recite it according to Yathaditam Yathamati according to his capacity in the next chapter we will discuss how the now one by one the thing is how fourth to sixth chapter will describe how Vyasadev himself wrote this for the people in general then how Vyasadev spoke it to Shukadeva Goswami very briefly mentioned and then how Parikshit came to the state of realise of hearing the Bhagavatam and appreciating the Bhagavatam that will be of renouncing everything so that he could hear the Bhagavatam that will be the heart of this canto which will be described from 7th chapter onwards to the 19th chapter