Gita 10.6 See genealogy as an arena for manifesting Krishna’s actions in this world

Thank you In the last chapter we used the genealogy of the universe described how ultimately all living beings come from him now we see that vamshavali as a Sanskrit word is used the sequence of how people took birth in this world who gave birth to him that plays a significant role in many of the scriptures in the puranic narrations especially there are so many descriptions of who gave birth to whom 8th centaur, 9th centaur especially many of us if we are unable to sleep reading those centaurs of the bhagavatam where how some unknown, some person who never heard of gave birth to someone else whom they never heard of reading that list is an easy way of putting ourselves to sleep it can seem very uninteresting, very boring what is the point of the scriptures of giving so much time and specific about genealogy as you can see the bhagavatam it is spoken with Parikshit Maharaj having just 7 days to live so he really did not have time for just idle chit chat or family related chit chat when we talk about genealogy it is basically who married whom who united with whom who was born from that from the spiritual perspective it seems to be totally mundane bhagavatam also seems to take that take that is bhagavatam is among the various with various texts mainly in tradition it is quite strongly focused on pronunciation and highlighting the danger of worldly entanglement and yet that very same bhagavatam which they condense so how solar lights are like a deep dark well that diverge verses upon verses literally hundreds of verses describe what who did in which dark well and what happened by that why is this that is why we need to understand whatever is there in the bhagavatam in the context in which overarching purpose at one level the worldly activities that involve procreation and reproduction they are mundane and in that sense they are spiritual distractions at another level this world exists by the plan of the lord and an integral part of his plan is the plan for reproduction for the perpetuation of the species even though the spiritual perspective is worldly like an opportunity for soul to grow in their intelligence to grow in their capacity to love and ultimately learn to love the eternal for that purpose to be fulfilled soul needs to get appropriate bodies in appropriate circumstances and that has been arranged by the lord to be done through the process of union of the sexes so genealogy to dispute it all simply as mundane is at one level true if we want to focus directly exclusively on Krishna but at another level it is not exactly true it is not true at all in fact because we are we are not being Krishna conscious enough to see the plan of Krishna acting through genealogy the Bhagavatam in Chakraslokya defines maya as seeing anything significant to be separate from Krishna when one sees anything significant to be separate from Krishna then that is maya so to see the process of conception and reproduction to see the genealogy that results from that to not be able to see its connection with Krishna is also maya so for us as devotees when we are studying the Bhagavatam Sukhdev Goswami ultimately wants to help Parishad Maharaj to see his man in Krishna and through genealogy we see how Krishna has acted in the history of the world at different times in different ways the Bhagavatam's focus while describing genealogy is not just to give a precise or exhaustive list of who produced whom the purpose of the Bhagavatam is to highlight the transcendental amidst this genealogical that while one person was giving birth to another was giving birth to another in between there appeared people who exhibited the aspirations and the actions that enabled them to go beyond the cycle of birth and death and by these days that models examples of how others too can transcend the cycle of birth and death so just like say in sports say in baseball and football there might be a hall of fame where the most celebrated players are listed may be depicted also now everybody knows that there were hundreds probably thousands of players out of which these were a handful who were so celebrated who were so good that their name entered the hall of fame that means that these players in the hall of fame were one among few that is understood because we know from our general knowledge that there are so many other players also who are playing that game but in the case of history in the case of ancient genealogy we may not realize that so many people have come and gone and that's why the Bhagavatam gives a list and within that list we draw names of certain people who exhibited extraordinary personal characteristics and if those names had just been listed it would not be as glorious because we would not see it in context so by listing genealogy and then within that describing those who appeared in that genealogy by those whose consciousness was absorbed in spirituality then we appreciate the Bhagavata 7.3 statement that if you endeavor for perfection so that way if we see the action of Krishna within the genealogy then we will be able to we approach it with much more interest in Krishna consciousness and ultimately we understand through genealogy that this is how we, through some sequences similarly that is how we are connected that is where we came from and that is how we are connected with our source through the lineage of this world nowadays there is a great fascination with determining genealogy through genetics people shell out quite a bit of money to try to find out where their ancestors came from so that is done through the study of genetics where people may find out a distant ancestor of mine was from Africa and then a part of maybe this came from a father or my parents whose grandparents were in Europe or in India or whatever else so that desire to know oneself by knowing one's roots is a natural, almost universal human desire and the Bhagavatam channels that desire by taking us through the genealogical gene to the ultimate root of all existence that is Krishna so when we see genealogy not just as a as a routine recording of names of no importance or relevance when we see genealogy as a as a manifesto of spirituality and a manifesto of the rarity of spirituality then we can appreciate the genealogical sequences and we will learn to seek the spiritual, seek the transcendental within them and relish the transcendental.