Understanding the Bhagavatam’s chronological and conceptual flow

​Bhagavam class at ISKCON, Laguna Beach, USA

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna. So, Mr. Karampu suggested that I speak something about the structure and the flow of the Bhagavatam. So, I’ll try to speak my small understanding.
I’ll speak this in terms of the conceptual flow and the chronological flow of the Bhagavatam as far as I have understood it. The Bhagavatam has 335 chapters out of which a majority 90 chapters are in the 10th canto. And clearly the 10th canto is the heart of the Bhagavatam that everything is leading towards the 10th canto.
We could say towards Krishna Leela, which is described primarily in the 10th canto and to some extent in the 11th canto also. So, now the 11th canto is primarily not so much Krishna Leela as Krishna Shiksha. The Uddhava Gita is 24 chapters in the 11th canto.
So, Krishna is the essence of the Bhagavatam in that sense. And the Bhagavatam has become the most celebrated among all the Puranas in many ways. And the main reason for that is a beautiful description of Krishna’s pastimes.
From the philosophical perspective, our Acharyas have quoted the 11th canto extensively, Uddhava Gita. Usually previous Acharyas have quoted 11th canto and to some extent 3rd canto. Of course, they have quoted from various sections, but intensively in the 11th canto.
And in that sense, philosophically, as well as in terms of past Leela, the Krishna Leela is the central part of the Bhagavatam. Now, in terms of chronology, the first canto of the Sumit Bhagavatam is setting the scene. Basically, setting the scene is done in two different ways.
First is, it describes the scene of Namisharanya assembling to discuss about Krishna and then Suta Goswami comes over there. But then, the evolution of the Bhagavatam is described in two ways. First is through the Narad Vyasa Samvat in chapters 4, 5 and 6, where how the Bhagavatam is distinct from all other Puranas.
That is described. It tells, Vyasa Dev is told by Narad Muni, the thinking of the body and the mind as the objects of self-realisation. Focus on the soul.
Focus on satisfying the Lord. So, that distinctiveness of the Bhagavatam is talked about in the 4th, 5th, 6th chapters. And from 7th chapter onwards, basically the Bhagavatam starts describing the protagonists.
Now, how the two people, Shukadeva Goswami and Parikshit Maharaj meet. So, 7th chapter briefly describes how Shukadeva Goswami becomes enlightened. It’s a very brief description over there.
And after that, the Bhagavatam starts off more or less where the Mahabharata ends. Mahabharata war has ended. And from there, it’s like the back story.
Sometimes there is a novel, in order to… If there is a big fight with which the novel is starting, then why are they fighting? So, describe that as a back story. So, then the Bhagavatam gives the back story to describe how Parikshit Maharaj becomes renounced. And Parikshit Maharaj comes to the level of hearing Krishna.
So, from chapter 7 to chapter 19 is essentially the back story, which builds up the setting for Parikshit Maharaj renouncing the world and coming to… hear from Shukadeva Goswami. And in this process, in these 11-12 chapters, at least in the first 7-8 chapters among them, the Bhagavatam gives a glimpse of Krishna Leela. And that is a precursor of what is going to come in the 10th canto.
Nowhere else in the Bhagavatam is Krishna Leela described as vividly or as elaborately as in the first canto. So, the first canto, in that sense, sets the scene for the main discussion. And along with that, it also gives a precursor of the sweet pastime that are going to come in the 10th canto.
Then, in the second canto, it is Shukadeva Goswami speaks for the first time, actually. And Parikshit Maharaj asks a few questions and Shukadeva Goswami answers those questions. And in a sense, by chapter 6 of the second canto, you could say that Parikshit Maharaj’s questions have been answered by Shukadeva Goswami and Shukadeva Goswami could have left at that time.
But Parikshit Maharaj asks further questions. And as he keeps asking further questions, from the third canto onwards, roughly now, I won’t go into technicalities, from the third canto onwards, the Bhagavatam becomes more chronological. First, it is conceptual.
Whatever questions Parikshit Maharaj is asking, Shukadeva Goswami is answering. But from the third canto onwards, the Bhagavatam can be read like the biography of one day of the universe. What happens in one day of Brahma’s life? So, in the third canto, it starts with describing the process of creation.
And then, from there, it chronologically starts. Okay, Brahma appears and then the Kumaras appear. And then, like that, the sequence goes on.
And then it comes to how Swayambhu Amanu appears. And from the third canto onwards, till the eighth canto, basically, the Manvantara of Swayambhu Amanu is described. So, the various descendants within Swayambhu Amanu’s dynasty, they are described.
So, Swayambhu Amanu’s pastimes are described in the sense of how he gets Devahuti married to Kapila. So, the central chronology of the Bhagavatam is what is happening in Swayambhu Amanu’s Manvantara in the life of his descendants. And in that, it goes off on, not exactly tangents, but it goes off on elaborating certain things.
Just like, you know, even if when we look back at our past in our life, you know, the past doesn’t stretch like a straight linear line. If you look at our past, there are certain times in our past which are very significant. And other times, we may not even remember them.
So, the past never stretches back like a straight line. It is a line, but within that, there are significant movements which are very prominent in our memory. And other moments may be just like a blur, or they may wipe it out also.
So, within one day of Brahma, within that in Swayambhu Amanu’s Manvantara, at that time, what the Bhagavatam does is, it focusses on the special people in that Manvantara. And what is the speciality of, what makes those people special? That they are devoted to the Lord, or they become devoted to the Lord. So, Swayambhu Amanu has several daughters.
Bhagavatam doesn’t focus so much on Akuti. It focusses on Devahuti. Because Devahuti’s son is Kapila, who is an incarnation of the Lord.
So, that is the third canto. So, the whole Kapila shiksha comes while describing the Manvantara of Swayambhu. And then, after that in the fourth canto, Swayambhu Amanu’s descendants go on.
Then there is Dhruva. There is Dhruva’s pastime which comes in the 9th and 11th chapters. Then similarly, later on, there is another descendant of the dynasty, there is Pruthu.
His pastimes come later. So, if you see, the chronology that is going on is, within Swayambhu Amanu’s dynasty, whatever is happening is described. And then, the one dynasty, or one line of succession in Swayambhu Amanu’s descendants ends in the fourth canto.
And in the fifth canto, what happens is that we go back to Priyavrata. So, the other son, Uthanapada and Priyavrata. Sorry.
Yeah, Priyavrata. Uthanapada and Priyavrata. So, from Priyavrata, it starts in the fifth canto.
Now, before that, I forgot one more point. That when Parikshit Maharaj in the second canto asks questions, which really opens up the Bhagavatam. So, at that time, Shukadeva Goswami says that similar questions were asked by Vidura to Maitreya.
And then, the second canto more or less ends with the setting of the Vidura-Maitreya Samvat. And a third canto and fourth canto. So, the biggest conversation in the Bhagavatam, apart from the meta-conversation, we could see the meta-conversation is between Shukadeva Goswami and Sages of Navisharanya.
Second, that is Shukadeva Goswami and Parikshit Maharaj. Now, within that, within this conversation, the biggest conversation is between Vidura and Maitreya. So, that actually extends over third and fourth cantos full.
And then, Parikshit Maharaj asks again, okay, what happened to his other sons? And then, he starts from that dynasty. So, Priyavrata’s story is told. And then, Priyavrata, while doing this, while, one of his accomplishments is that he moves his chariot in such a way that he creates some changes in the cosmos, extraordinary changes.
And that mention, now, within that, he goes on to further describe, say, Rishabhadev and Bharat and Jadbharath story comes up. But that special mention about how he created some changes in the structure of the universe, practically speaking, you know, by his moving his chariot, that is the trigger for the questions about cosmology. And then, the fifth canto describes the cosmology.
And then, from the sixth canto, the question that comes up over there is, okay, people are going to hell, how can they be saved? That’s how the Ajamil pastime comes up. And then, after that, the descendants of Diti are described. And like that, again, the chronology goes back to Swayambhu Manu’s sons.
So, Swayambhu Manu’s sons now, descendants. So, now, among them, it is described. So, now, within this, there are diversions also.
Diversions, not exactly diversions, but that when some philosophical question comes up, some other pastimes may also be told. So, the Ajamil pastime is not among Swayambhu Manu’s descendants. That is the question which is asked based on the description of the universe.
And then, after that, so sixth canto has Vritrasura’s pastime. And then, like that, there are several other pastimes also. And we come to the seventh canto, where the theme comes up while describing the descendants of Diti and how the Lord saves the descendants of Aditi.
It has described in the sixth canto. So, the question comes up, you know, is the Lord partial? Is He equal to all? And in answer to that question, the Prahlad Narsimha pastime is told. And that practically takes the seventh canto full.
Towards the end of the seventh canto also, there is a discussion on Varanashram Dharma. That is also based on Prahlad asking some questions. And then, there it’s quoted again, Yudhishthira asking some questions to Narada Maharaj.
So, basic point is that Prahlad’s pastime goes to seventh canto. Now, the eighth canto, there is like a fast forward. Eighth canto, it is described how Swayambhu Manu renounces the world.
And he offers prayers. That is described in 8.1. And after that, Bhagavatam moves forward and from Swayambhu Manu is the first Manu. From there, the Bhagavatam moves on through the lives of seven Manus very quickly.
Within that, then we come to the Vaivasvat Manu, which is the current Manu. And within that, Gajendra pastime is there. So, in that course, from moving from Swayambhu Manu to Vaivasvat Manu, the Gajendra pastime is described.
And after the Gajendra pastime is described, then from there onwards, the eighth canto description is there. From eighth canto, the Bhagavatam is describing our manu-mantra. And then, within that manu-mantra, various events that happen are described.
In the ninth canto, Ramlila is described. And in fact, in the last chapter of the ninth canto, so the various avatars that are described in ninth canto, there is Parashuram description, Ram description, Ayati description, all these are descendants within Vaivasvat Manu. Now, actually in the last chapter of the tenth canto, of the ninth canto, Krishna-lila is described in brief.
So, Shukadeva Goswami could have completed Krishna-lila also in one chapter. Just like you complete Ramayan fast, you have to complete that also. But Vamshavistar, Parikshit Maharaj asked the question, please describe this in detail to me.
And then that question becomes the impetus for the tenth canto. And tenth canto also till chapter 55 is more or less chronological. Till chapter 55.
Of course, it’s not entirely chronological. Jiva Goswami in the Gopal Champu and Sanatana Goswami in the Vaishnava Toshanitika. Vaishnava Toshani is a commentary on the tenth canto of Bhagavatam.
So, there they do something like a critical reading of the Bhagavatam and they describe, okay, this pastime is told here, but this pastime actually happened here. This pastime happened here. Now, till 55th chapter, more or less the Bhagavatam is chronological.
But after 55 chapters, it becomes more inspirational. So, what happens is, there he describes the marriage of Krishna with Rukmini and after that he describes immediately sons of Rukmini. And then what happens to them? And then he goes back and describes the other marriages, the other marriages of Krishna.
And like that the Bhagavatam goes on. Now, it’s moving more based on inspiration. And if we come towards the end, you know, we have Sudama Krishna pastime.
The part of it happens before, part of it happens afterwards. Actually, in between the chapters, I think 75, 76, 77, when Balram goes on a pilgrimage, that’s the time when the Kurukshetra war happens. So now, the Acharya has described that actually it’s significant that the Bhagavatam does not mention the Kurukshetra war at all practically.
There’s no direct reference to the war. It’s indirectly recollected by many people, but in the narrative of Krishna Leela, it is not mentioned at all. So, why is that? You know, it’s like say, you know, if there’s an Indian newspaper and India is fighting with Pakistan and the Indian newspaper doesn’t refer to India-Pakistan fight at all.
You know, why would they do that? So, the idea is that Shukde Goswami wants Parikshit Maharaj to focus on the remembrance of Krishna and the Kurukshetra war was when Parikshit Maharaj’s father died. And he doesn’t want to trigger that memory. You know, Parikshit never saw his father also.
His father died before him. So, he doesn’t want to trigger that memory at all. So, he just bypasses the Kurukshetra war and he focusses on Krishna Leela which will enhance the remembrance of Shukde Goswami, of Parikshit Maharaj.
So, as a backflash, he does go back and tell, later on in the 82nd or 83rd chapter, he tells about how his grandparents got married. You know, how Arjuna and Subhadra got married. He tells that story of how Arjuna kidnaps Subhadra, but that comes later on.
Chronologically, this happened much earlier. By this time, if you go chronologically, the Kurukshetra war is already over in 75-76 chapters. But in the 83rd chapter or 84th chapter, I think, that describes Arjuna’s marrying Subhadra.
So, it’s afterwards from 55 chapters onwards. The point I am making is trans-chronological. So, Jiva Goswami explained that there is Smriti and there is Spurti.
Smriti is cultivated remembrance. Spurti is spontaneous remembrance. So, initially, the Bhagavatam is based on Smriti.
Shukadeva Goswami is recollecting and telling, okay, this is the question, this is the answer. But as he comes more and more to Krishna’s intimate pastimes, he goes into ecstasy. And then he starts narrating based on Smriti.
Spontaneous recollection from one point to another point to another point. And this is actually a manifestation of his ecstasy. And then the narrative goes on from the 10th canto to the 11th canto, where Krishna… where eventually Vasudeva gets instructions from Narada Muni and the other sages.
Vasudeva recognises Krishna’s supremacy. He knows it, but Narada Muni highlights that. And then afterwards, when the Yadu Dvaha, by Krishna’s arrangement, the Yadu dynasty stay on earth ends, then Krishna’s departure is described.
And Krishna’s last instructions are elaborate instructions. They come as the Uddhav Gita. That goes on as a 26 chapters in the… 24 chapters in the 11th canto, which is also a very long canto.
And the 12th canto, actually by chapter 4 or 5, the Parikshit Shukadeva Goswami Samvat ends. So, Shukadeva Goswami walks away and Parikshit Maharaj gets absorbed and the snake comes and he… snake bites and that’s… one says the end. But afterwards, Shukadeva Goswami keeps… sorry, Shukadeva Goswami keeps speaking.
And the remaining 10th canto is actually Shukadeva Goswami speaking. So, when Shukadeva Goswami speaks, that goes on till the end of the 10th canto, which contains also the description of the eventual departure. Sorry, not the eventual.
It contains the further stories which… further stories which supplement the theme of the Bhagavatam. And it concludes with the glorification of the Bhagavatam. nama-sankirtanaṁ yasno viṣṇu sarva-pāpa-pranāśinam pranāmaṁ duḥkha-śamanaṁ tam namāmi harim param That by glorifying Lord Hari, we can become free from all misery.
This is the chronological flow of the Bhagavatam. Now, if you want to look at the conceptual flow, how the Bhagavatam’s concepts develop. So again, the theme is set right in the first verse itself.
First and second verse. Normally, there is the impersonal school of thought where there is meditation, dhīmahi. Dhīmahi is deep meditation.
In the Gayatri Mantra also, we say dhīmahi. So often, a dhīmahi, that meditation can be done on personal absolute also. But the dhīmahi is usually associated with meditation on the greatness of the all-pervading effulgence.
The Bhagavatam starts with dhīmahi, but then just two verses later, there is pibatya-bhāgavatam rasamālayam muhur aho rasikā bhubhībhāvukhā rasa, drink rasa. So now, drinking rasa, relishing rasa, that is very much related with the personal conception. Now, we can meditate and appreciate the impersonal absolute, but we relish the leela of the personal absolute.
So in a sense, conceptually speaking, the Bhagavatam starts with meditation on the absolute truth which is often seen as personal and takes us to relishing the beautiful personal manifestation of the absolute truth. In that sense, we could say that the Bhagavatam is like the conceptual autobiography of Śukadeva Goswami. There is a chronological autobiography where, you know, I was born here, I went here, I did this, I did this.
We describe the events. But there is a conceptual autobiography, that means, how my understanding evolved. Okay, this was my conception earlier, this is my conception, this is my conception, this is how now I have come to this conception.
That’s like a conceptual autobiography. So Śukadeva Goswami is an impersonalist earlier and he comes to personalism. So he describes various narratives which actually invert conventional understandings of dharmic principles.
So what do I mean by invert conventional understandings? Actually, we see, normally, dharma, artha, kaav, moksha are considered to be very glorious. But the Bhagavatam says this is all kaitava dharma. dharmaprojita-kaitavotra-paramo nirmatsarāṃ sthāṃ.
And that is, when Śrīla Prabhupāda was asked by, I think, Professor Hopkins, which is the, what is the most important section of your teachings, if somebody wanted to study very briefly. So Prabhupāda quoted these two verses, 1.2.9 and 10. He said that, dharmasyāpavargasya nārtho arthāyapakalpate nārthasya dharmaikāntasya kāmolābhāyaiskutā kāmasya nendriya preti lābho jīveta yāvatā jīvasya tattvo jijñāsā nārtho yasya karmam.
So this is what these two verses state that, actually, normally, it says dharma is for artha, artha is for kāma, kāma is for moksha. But the Bhagavatam says, no, dharmasyāpavargasya nārtho arthāyapakalpate, dharma is not for artha, dharma is for apavarga. Apavarga is liberation from material existence, attainment of the spiritual world.
And then if you get artha, artha is also not for kāma. dharmasyāpavargasya nārtho arthāyapakalpate nārthasya dharmaikāntasya kāmolābhāyaiskutā Don’t use artha for kāma. Use artha also for the param, for the supreme benefit.
And then kāmasya nendriya preti. We have desires. Desires are not meant for gratifying the senses.
Rather, use your desires to learn about the absolute truth. kāmasya nendriya preti lābho jīveta yāvatā As far as gratifying the senses is concerned, do what is necessary for sustaining the body and the purpose of life. Direct your desires for jīvasya tattva-jityāsa.
Understand the truth of life, the reality of life. nārtho yas cheha karma bhi There is no other purpose to life. Nothing else meaningful.
So in that sense, the normal Vedic culture considers dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa to be important. But Bhāgavatam says no. It is attainment of liberation that is important.
And that same thing is actually at the heart of the Bhāgavatam. Normally, there are many adventure stories where some hero is under life threat. If you know, the king may tell a hero that you have to get this treasure from so and so place.
And if you don’t get it, you will be killed. Or your loved one will be killed or whatever. So the hero is under threat of life.
And the whole adventure story is about how the hero meets many dangers and actually survives and succeeds. So normally, you know, if somebody were in mortal danger and then that person’s death, at the start of the movie itself, that person’s death is prophesied. And the whole movie usually will be exciting if it describes how eventually the hero escapes the death.
But the Bhāgavatam starts by describing that Parīkṣit Mahārāja is cursed to die. And then it goes on and actually it lets Parīkṣit Mahārāja die. There is no miraculous intervention by which Parīkṣit Mahārāja is saved.
So what is the Bhāgavatam doing over here? The Bhāgavatam demonstrates, in the conception of dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, we do religion so that God helps make our material life better. You know, I do dharma so that God will give me artha and He’ll fulfil my kāma. That is a normal understanding of religion.
And that is also a valid way of approaching God. But that is not the highest. And the Bhāgavatam demonstrates through its central storyline that don’t expect God to help you materially.
So He does such a serious ratha, seven days continuous hearing. Krishna could have saved his life after he had done such austerity. Krishna could have countered the curse.
But the Bhāgavatam’s demonstration is, the Bhāgavatam’s central message is that God helps us not by setting things right materially, but by raising our consciousness about the material. So the Bhāgavatam’s, in one sense, you could say it’s a tragedy. Parīkṣit Mahārāja is cursed to die and he dies.
There’s no miraculous intervention. But the miraculous intervention is that Krishna manifests as Krishna-katha, as Krishna-smṛti. And Parīkṣit Mahārāja gets absorbed in the remembrance of Krishna.
And by that remembrance of Krishna, he transcends both the pain of his austerity and even the pain of his death. So the essential message of the Bhāgavatam is in that sense different from the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa talk about a great war in which the hero wins the war.
But the Bhāgavatam talks about a war against death in which ultimately, in one sense, at the material level no one can win. But spiritually one can win over death also. And that is the essential theme of the Bhāgavatam.
That the Bhāgavatam talks about how we can transcend death by absorption in spiritual sound. And that’s why again and again in the Bhāgavatam, there are discussions where people are absorbing themselves in Krishna-katha. And for the sake of absorbing themselves… So again, I started by talking about how the Bhāgavatam inverts.
Many people think the impersonal is higher than the personal. Bhāgavatam describes how somebody evolves from the impersonal to the personal. People think dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa is the goal.
The Bhāgavatam inverts that. And it focusses on bhakti and says bhakti trumps dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa. Now, Parīśit Mahārāja had bhakti and by the power of bhakti, what he did was he transcended death.
Although from the point of view of dharma-artha-kāma-mokṣa, it was a tragedy for a young person to have a kingdom and to be cursed to die. But from the point of view of bhakti, it is the supreme victory. And then again and again, the Bhāgavatam demonstrates how bhakti trumps other conventional forms of religiosity.
So its primary narrator, Śruta Goswami itself, it is said that he was not very good at reciting Vedic mantras. He was not all that good, but he is made the central narrator of the Bhāgavatam, second narrator we can say. And then, if we look at the various stories within the Bhāgavatam, this is of course an elaborate subject, but I’ll just give 4-5 examples.
Above the Bhāgavatam trumps normal conventions of what is good and what is bad. So, in the 6th canto… Okay, let me go for the first 5 cantos before that. So, one way the Bhāgavatam guides us, the purpose of the Bhāgavatam is not to rescue Parīśit Mahārāja materially, but to rescue him spiritually by giving him remembrance of Krishna.
So then, how do we remember Krishna? Prabhupāda says on the way to Krishna in his book that all knowledge comes from Krishna, but all knowledge doesn’t begin from Krishna. What does that mean? That means, you know, ultimately whatever knowledge we have, it comes from Krishna. But, you know, it’s not that suddenly I wake up and start thinking about God one day.
It is that we look at the world around us. We observe the world and we think about the world and then we may think, where did this world come from? And that way we will think of God. So knowledge usually, enquiry and knowledge begins with the world around us.
Even when we want to be spiritual, we cannot deny the material world around us. It exists. So the Bhāgavatam gives us 3 frames of approaching the material world with a spiritual vision.
The first comes in the 2nd canto where there is the Virāṭa Rūpa. The Virāṭa Rūpa is actually different from the Viśvarūpa that is described in the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. The Viśvarūpa is a revolution.
Krishna gives this revelation. I give you the eyes, Arjuna, see this. Whereas the Virāṭa Rūpa is not a revelation, it is a conceptualisation.
The Bhāgavatam says this is how the sages conceptualise the Virāṭa Rūpa. So conceptualisation means that actually in the 14 planetary systems there is no Virāṭa Rūpa loka where the Virāṭa Rūpa exists. The Virāṭa Rūpa is a way of seeing the world in a theistic way, in a God-centred way.
Let’s see the various impressive features of the world as features of the body of God. And because it’s a conceptualisation, and this conceptualisation actually comes repeatedly, you know, right in the 10th canto when Akrura is offering his prayers to Krishna in the Yamuna river, at that time also he describes this Virāṭa Rūpa. And sometimes some features are described differently, you know, which planetary system is the thighs, which planetary system is the legs, which planetary system is knees, which planetary system is the waist.
That slight difference might be there. Because why? The point is not that this has to be accurately correlated with that. The point is that we look at the world and see it in a God-centred way.
So those people who think that big means it has to be materially big. And for them it is described that God is so big that the mountains are like His bones, that the trees are like the hair on His body. That the ocean is like… the sea is like the water in His navel.
How big He must be! This is one way the Bhagavatam helps us look at the material world spiritually. The second is through its analysis of Sāṅkhya. Sāṅkhya is the analysis of material elements into its components.
Sāṅkhya is a very influential school of thought. The Bhagavatam helps us to see Sāṅkhya spiritually. That means, in the Mahabharata it is described that there are 3 kinds of Sāṅkhya.
24 Sāṅkhya, 25 Sāṅkhya, 26 Sāṅkhya. 24 Sāṅkhya means it is atheistic or materialistic Sāṅkhya. It just analyses the material elements and says there is nothing beyond it.
25 Sāṅkhya is monistic Sāṅkhya. That there is matter in 24 elements and the 25th element is the Absolute Truth, Brahman. 26 Sāṅkhya is there is matter, there is Jiva and there is Bhagawan.
So the Bhagavatam is 26 Sāṅkhya. Sāṅkhya was an existing frame of thought present at that time. But how to see it in a God-centred way? How to see it in a way that the Sāṅkhya analysis can direct us towards the Supreme Lord? That is what the Bhagavatam offers to the Devahuti Kapila Samovar.
And in the 5th canto, the Bhagavatam then looks at the world in terms of its cosmic components, the various celestial bodies. And again the purpose is what, if you look at it, I was a part of the planetarium team at one time. So then, for some time I was there.
So then we look at the verses. Now the description of the planetarium comes primarily from 15th chapter to 25th chapter. Now there are almost 700 to 800 verses in this.
Out of that, actual verses that describe cosmic distances are less than 100. Even while describing the universe, it is described that, okay, you know, residents of Jambu Diwa, they worship this form of the Lord and they offer prayers to the Lord. And then the prayers are described.
And quite often the prayers become quite long. So the Bhagavatam is not focussing on cosmology. Its purpose is to show that, okay, the cosmos is so big, so vast.
But throughout this cosmos, there is dharma and there is bhakti. And the emphasis is, okay, whatever body we look at, oh, there are people also who are devoted to the Lord. And therefore, I should be devoted to the Lord.
And the Bhagavatam’s mood is not to give an exhaustive description of the cosmology. The Bhagavatam’s purpose is to show how we can see the cosmos as pervaded by God, by devotion to God. And similarly, we can become inspired to become devoted to God.
That’s in the fifth canto. Now within this also, if we see there are, this is how the Bhagavatam helps us look at matter and see matter in a God-centred way. And from the sixth canto onwards, now before this also there are some avatars of the Lord described, like Varaha is described.
But from the sixth canto, the focus shifts from the world to the descent of the Lord in this world. And when the Lord descends into this world or when His devotees act, again, the idea is material religiosity is trumped by spiritual bhakti. So in the sixth canto, normally, the Puranas are filled with descriptions of wars between the Devas and the Asuras.
And the Devas are considered good, Asuras are considered bad. But the Bhagavatam trumps this by describing the war between Vritrasura and Indra, where Vritrasura is considered, is shown as far better than Indra. So both are actually pious.
In fact, Indra is also a devotee. But Indra is a Sakaam bhakta, who is attached to the heavenly kingdom. And Vritrasura is a Ishkaam bhakta.
So the normal hierarchy of the Devatas being better than the Asuras, that is inverted. If bhakti is there, then the Asura can become greater than the Devata. And this is demonstrated even more powerfully in the seventh canto, where Prahlad is shown to be not just a devotee who is present amidst demons, but also a devotee who is greater than the Devatas.
At that time, it is described that even Devatas submit to Hiranyakashipu. Narada Maharaj submits to Hiranyakashipu. But Prahlad does not.
And again at the end, none of the Devatas are able to satisfy Hiranyakashipu, Narasimhadev. But Prahlad says, Brahma dayo surgana munayatho sangha, so sattvai katham gathayo vachasam pravahai, naraditum puruganai radhnapi vipru, kim toshtu marati same harir ugra jate. So Prahlad says, actually I am ugra jate, I am born in low family.
The Devatas have not been able to satisfy you, my dear Lord, but how can I satisfy you? But he is actually able to satisfy. So in this way, the normal hierarchy is trumped by the Bhagavatam. Okay, Devatas are higher than the Asuras, but no.
If Asura has bhakti, the Asura becomes higher than the Devata. Same thing is illustrated again in the 8th canto, where Bali Maharaj and Indra, the confrontation is described. And actually Bali Maharaj loses everything materially.
So from the material perspective, Indra is the winner. And the Lord sides with Indra in one sense and takes the kingdom away from Bali. But from the spiritual perspective, Bali Maharaj is the winner.
Why? Because the Lord gives the kingdom to Indra, but the Lord gives himself to Bali Maharaj. He comes and stays with him. This is actually something similar to how at the start of the Kurukshetra war, Duryodhana and Arjuna wanted to choose.
Duryodhana chose the army, Arjuna chose the Lord. In the 9th canto, further we have the Paranashram hierarchy subverted. We have Durvasa Muni who is a Brahmana and a Sanyasi.
Ambarish Maharaj is a Grihastha and a Kshatriya. But he is shown as greater. Who is shown as greater? Ambarish Maharaj is shown as greater.
And this attains its zenith in the 10th canto in two past times. This is the 23rd chapter where actually the Brahmin patnis are shown to be higher than the Brahmins. So there is gender hierarchy, there is caste hierarchy, there is cosmological hierarchy.
All of them are inverted if there is bhakti. And then the highest devotion that the Bhagavatam glorifies is the glorification of the gopis. And the gopis are simple cowherd women.
It is not described that they are performing austerity, that they know the Vedas. Now they have done all this but that is not their thrust. They are simple cowherd women.
And in fact the Bhagavatam goes so far as to say that they actually give up even their family responsibilities to go towards Krishna. They are having their family but they leave it all to go towards Krishna. And in this way the gopis actually demonstrate give up all varieties of dharma for the sake of Ma Mekam Sharanam Rajanam.
Now for a woman, chastity is extremely important, especially in a conservative society. If chastity is lost, everything is lost for a woman. But the gopis are ready to risk their reputation.
The Bhagavatam is actually, in one sense, achintya. The Bhagavatam describes how the gopis live despite the opposition of their family members. And they go to Krishna.
But after the end of their last nilaya, the third day of the chapter, it is described that when the wives come back, the husbands do not resent them because actually they went in the spiritual body and they felt that their wives were there with them only. So what happens is, from the gopis’ perspective, their sacrifice is described. But from the world’s perspective, their reputation is preserved.
So there is one Hindu scholar. He says, this idea sarva dharman parityajya. They find it difficult.
God has come to establish, Krishna has come to establish dharma. How can it be sarva dharman parityajya? So this scholar has written a whole essay and he says that actually there was a mistake in the rewriting of the Gita. Now there is a transcript when you do the pathantara from one manuscript to another.
So he says actually not sarva dharman parityajya, it should be sarva adharman parityajya. Now actually give up adharma and become a devotee, not give up dharma. But actually the Bhagavatam, the Bhagavata’s theme is very elevated, the conclusion.
And that is demonstrated in Bhagavatam. That for the sake of God, we should give up not only the bad, but for the sake of God, we should be ready to give up even the good. And in that way, the gopis demonstrate the super most devotion.
And that’s why the Rasa Panchayat, the chapters 29 to 33 are considered the zenith of the Bhagavatam. I’ll conclude with one point that normally the Puranas have a lot of effusive phalashruti. Any leela that we hear, Oh! You will go to heavens and you will enjoy heaven for so long or you will get unlimited wealth.
You will become free from all diseases. So there’s a lot of blessings. Phalashruti is described after the narration of pastimes or hearing of pastimes.
But these 5 chapters which are the… which describe the highest devotion of the highest devotees, what is the phalashruti described after that? It’s said that actually by devotion to the supreme… sorry, by hearing this leela of Vishnu, it’s significant that in the whole 5 chapters of the Rasa Panchayat, the word Vishnu never comes. It’s always Krishna, Govinda, Hari. First reference to the absolute Krishna as Vishnu comes in the last verse.
So the idea is don’t think this is an ordinary man-woman relationship. It is actually the Supreme Lord Vishnu who is here. And if you understand the leela of Vishnu, the krida of Vishnu, hear it, Shraddhanito Anushunayadhavanayate.
Faithfully if we hear it, what will happen by that? We will become? Bhaktim param bhagavati patilabhya kamam. We will get bhakti, parabhakti. Now Krishna talks about parabhakti as the highest fruit.
You know in 18.54-55 says, one becomes Brahma bhuta prasannatma na socati na kankshati sama sarvesu bhutesu madhbhaktim labhate param. So it’s a very very long process of karma yoga, gyan yoga. Then one comes to parabhakti.
But it’s just by hearing about the gopis, leela with Krishna, one can get parabhakti. And let’s say that also one will become free from kama. That the Bhagavatam is described in the third canto.
There’s a verse which says, the most auspicious thing that can happen for people is two things. They become attached to Supreme Lord and they become detached from matter, detached from the world. And the Bhagavatam, these two things will happen by hearing the Rasa Panchadhyay.
So that’s how the Bhagavatam beautifully describes the perfection of the love of the gopis. Thank you very much.