How do we differentiate between scriptural principle and detail?
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Transcript
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between the two, thank you. How can we know from scripture what is the detail and what is important to understand Actually Prabhupada was asked this once, Prabhupada was talking on a morning walk there is some description that in Dwaraka King Ugrasen had thousands and thousands and thousands of servants so a devotee was telling Prabhupada that if we tell this to the scholars they start laughing at us they say where were all these thousands of people living where were where were the toilets so now Prabhupada could have replied Krishna can do anything and that is true but Prabhupada chose a completely different tack over here he said among all the thousands of verses in the Bhagavatam was that the only thing you found to tell the scholars there are so many other things in the Bhagavatam why not focus on that so essentially we don’t what is the essential principle and what is the detail we cannot go over each verse and say this is the principle, this is the detail but the Bhagavatam has a particular purpose the purpose is as we know Parikshit Maharaj took shelter of Krishna and whatever inspires us to take shelter of Krishna we focus on that certain things which do not necessarily inspire us to take shelter of Krishna we can downplay that downplay that doesn’t necessarily mean we reject it so for example in the 6th canto it is said that Chitraketu had 10 million wives now somebody may ask how can one man have 10 million wives now you see in that story nowhere is it said that Chitraketu had some mystic powers Krishna had many wives, Krishna would expand and he was there with all these wives nowhere is it said Chitraketu had any special mystic powers by which he could be with so many wives at the same time so Chitraketu is seen as an ordinary person over there he could not even get a child although he wanted to so he is a limited being now if you look at the whole purpose of the story the purpose of the story is that no matter what you do to become happy materially Chitraketu did not have a son so he was unhappy he got a son, he was temporarily happy but when he lost the son again he became unhappy so the main message of the story is that material things cannot make us happy and for that message the 10,000 wives is not a vital detail the 10,000,000 wives is not a vital detail the main purpose of the story is to illustrate that although he had so much facilities still he was not happy although he had so many things to get him materially he was not happy Lord Chaitanya himself says that the great poets glorify Krishna with many different figures of speech and one of the figures of speech is exaggeration, hyperbole so someone may consider that 10,000,000 wives is a hyperbole and that is perfectly fine it is not that Bhagavatam’s foundation is based on whether Chitraketu had 10,000,000 wives or not no, Bhagavatam’s message is that Chitraketu was trying to become happy by something other than loving Krishna and he was frustrated in that so the 10,000,000 doesn’t have to be taken as a literal figure so in general in both our own study of scripture and in our teaching scripture to others we should focus on that which helps people come closer to Krishna so that is if we are telling the Chitraketu story it is not even necessary to tell that he had 10,000,000 wives he had many wives but he could not get a child so again to summarize the answer what is the principle and what is the detail the Bhagavatam right in the beginning itself in the second chapter of the first canto says that the purpose of even the practice of dharma is dharma svanusita pumsa vishvaksena kathasuya na utpadeya yadiditam shramaya vahikevanam that which utpadeya yadiditam that which increases our attraction to Krishna that is valuable everything else is shramaya vahikevanam everything else is a waste of time so from that perspective that which helps attract us towards Krishna and helps us attract others towards Krishna that is the central principle of the Bhagavatam and everything else is subordinate so how to deal with that, how to explain that there are different devotees who are more scholarly, scientific specially trained, they can take care of those issues but we should focus on that which attracts our heart to Krishna and attracts others heart to Krishna I was talking with his grace Ravindra Sourav Prabhu he is one of Srila Prabhupada’s senior disciples so even now when I read the Bhagavatam there are so many questions I get how does this make sense so he said I just put them in mental double codes and go on mental double codes and go on so the idea is that we are studying Bhagavatam for a particular purpose that is to learn to love Krishna and that which helps us to love Krishna we focus on that we don’t reject the other part of Bhagavatam but we don’t have to highlight that either in our study or in our sharing with others does it answer the question it can be for people who grow up in Krishna consciousness that little square there of disagrees can become the major so it can start to become bigger because you say if these things don’t quite make sense to me maybe everything doesn’t make sense so it can be challenging to know