Is the Biblical Adam-Eve story of creation reconcilable with the Bhagavatam’s description of narration?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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so when we look at the Bhagavatam narration of how creation takes place, the biblical narrative of Adam and Eve being there in Eden so how do we reconcile that, is it literal or what see the Adam and Eve story whether it is literal that is a matter of debate even among Christian theologians so there are because there are several issues with that because they say that the immediate criticism of the literal interpretation of the Adam and Eve story is that Adam is a person who lived long long ago and he committed a sin and that is also not a very grievous sin, say it one apple so now to say to say that because of that sin now everybody is contaminated with evil all the problems in this world have come because of that one thing alone you know that means all the earthquakes that occur, all the aid that occurs in the world all the millions of people they die, they die because someone ate an apple you know, if it had not been such a grave subject it would be a laughing matter even from a philosophical point of view the idea that that one act is the cause of all suffering for everyone that is philosophically problematic so another problem that comes up with the idea is that evil becomes transmitted like a genetic defect from Adam he is evil and through him because he is the progenitor of everyone, so everyone is evil so there are Christian theologians also who give theological interpretations of this and even the seven days in which God created the world, whether those seven days literally refer to seven earth days or they refer to phases in the earth history or whatever, that is also a matter of debate within Christian theologians, so now first thing we need to recognize is that we it’s like comparing oranges and apples if I ask which fruit is better, is orange better or apple better they are two different fruits, you cannot literally compare them so the biblical narrative is coming from a particular frame of reference it’s coming from particular way of looking at things and Bhagavatam narrative is coming from a different frame of reference and that’s why we cannot compare both of them and the certain principles are definitely true the principle that when there is suffering, our suffering increases because of rebellion against God so if we consider Adam’s act of eating an apple, not just as an act of eating an apple, but an act of rebelling against God of wanting to enjoy separate from God, then that makes a broader sense and then we also see that this is something which is the cause of our suffering, Krishna says in the Bhagavatam achitta sarva durgani mat prasadat atta chetam ahamkara nashosyasi vinamsyasi, you act according to my way be conscious of me, you pass over obstacles if you don’t, you will be lost so if you look at that more in terms of principles rather than as a literal narrative then we can make broad philosophical sense of the story and whether it is literal, as I said even Christians they can’t explain their own philosophical understanding and the basic problems of life by taking that story only literally so that particular kind of now there are some devotees who try to correlate Adam and Eve with one particular Manu called Adam and Havyavati now that is that sort of correlations are fine but there is a whole world view that is associated over there and just saying that these names are present in the Vedas and those names are also present over there this name is similar it glosses over significant philosophical differences that are there so that particular incident because it comes from a different frame of reference we focus on the principles we can’t analyze from the Bhagavatam’s perspective the principle of rebelling against God and that causing our suffering that is a perfectly compatible principle the literal narrative is of course as I said it doesn’t it doesn’t agree with the Bhagavatam narrative of things and Yugoslavia gives the explanation that no the Bhagavatam is the Amala Puran so what to speak of literature like Bible even within the Vedic literature we understand because the Bhagavatam is what is written by Vyasa in the maturity of the revelation so the Bhagavatam is the highest praman and whatever other things are given in the other literature in the other Puranas also to the extent they agree with the Bhagavatam to that extent we say that they are telling the truth to the extent that they are not agreeing with the Bhagavatam that means it is a relative truth given for a particular purpose just like we have certain scriptures which may talk about certain other devatas as supreme that is for people with a particular mentality to offer them limited elevation so Krishna’s mercy there is always the frame there is always the frame of reference for understanding the absolute truth without considering the frame of reference we will not be able to understand what the absolute truth is and the frame of reference is so important that once we understand the frame of reference we will also understand the absolute truth does not always speak the absolute truth what does that mean? In Govardhan Leela Krishna speaks Karma Nivamsa Krishna says actually why do you need to worship the devatas you can simply you just do your duty and the devatas will give they are duty bound to give the results this is not the Vaishnav philosophy at all why is Krishna speaking this no Krishna is playing with Indra’s ego over here he is telling Indra you are irrelevant he is inflaming Indra’s ego so the Acharya has explained and this is not just Acharya’s interpretation they are not imposing their words on Krishna’s Krishna himself speak other things at other places so the point is even when Krishna speaks something himself there may be a particular context in which he is speaking it and if you understand that context then you will understand that this may not be the absolute truth all the time so we have to understand the Siddhanta from the Shastra and then see everything in the light of that Siddhanta be it within the Bhagavatam itself within the broad Vedic literature or within scriptures outside the Vedic literature let that answer your question any other questions