Why does the Bhagavatam end with impersonal knowledge?

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Transcript

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so the final instruction of Goswami to Parishad Maharaj seems to be more of impersonalist atma gyan type of instruction so why is that? yeah there are two things there first is that the process of spiritual education often includes the process of testing the candidate that means we see that our Acharya has described that in the 6th canto at the start when Parishad Maharaj has heard the description of the hellish planets in the 5th canto he asks compassionately how can some people be saved from the hellish planets and the answer that is given at that time is Shukdev Goswami first says people can do karma kanda rituals for purification and Parishad Maharaj says no this won’t work, people still have those dormant desires and then he gives another answer then you can do all the rituals of gyana, gyana kanda he says that, ok that is better but that will also not completely purify, then he says ke chit kevalaya bhaktya vasudeva bhagvat agam dhunvanti karasneya nihara nivaskaram do bhakti to Vasudeva and then this is the right answer so what is happening is that the student’s understanding is tested and sometimes a teacher gives an understanding which is not the highest an understanding which is lower to check whether the student has understood or not suppose we give a class and we say Krishna is the supreme personality of God that is the theme of the class and then at the end of the class in summary I say therefore the impersonal Brahman is the absolute truth now if the audience has been sleeping throughout the class they will not respond at all but if they have been attentive then they will ask, hey you said earlier this now you are saying this, how is it like that so the point which I am making is when there is education often there is testing there is testing so Shukadeva Goswami also tests his audience so we see in the 10th canto he has talked about the Krishna Leela in the 11th canto also he has talked about Krishna Leela in Uddhava Gita he talks about his personal realization and after that he goes towards personal realization he talks about bhakti to the personal manifestation as the highest and in the 12th canto when he is talking about Atma Gyan what happens he says that therefore meditate on yourself as the soul, give up the animalistic intelligence of thinking of yourself as the body and realize that you are indestructible, realize that you are imperishable realize your spiritual identity now what is Parikshit Maharaj’s response Parikshit Maharaj does he say oh this is what I will do he actually so this is a test from Shukadeva Goswami to check what is Parikshit Maharaj’s understanding and if you see the verses thereafter Parikshit Maharaj expresses gratitude but he says I will meditate on the supreme law, he doesn’t say I will meditate on the Brahman, so he is a student, Shukadeva Goswami is a teacher so he doesn’t directly rebut the teachings of his student, teachings of his teacher but he doesn’t accept those teachings, he says in this way oh saint, oh great saintly person you have blessed me now I will meditate on the supreme law and the another point is that Jiva Goswami in his Bhagwat Sandarbha he says that how can we know what is the essential message of a book somebody may say oh this section is very important therefore this is the conclusion somebody says this section is very important, this is the conclusion how can we know what is the essential message of the book so he uses what is called as Tatparelinga, you know in the Vedic tradition, Tatparelinga linga means sign or marker, so Tatparelinga means marker of meaning, signs of meaning so there is a Tatparelinga what is that Anukrama Upasamhara Abhyasa Apurvata Apala five characteristics five markers of meaning it says the first is Upakrama Upakrama is what comes in the beginning Upasamhara, what comes at the end Abhyasa Abhyasa means that which is repeated again and again Apurvata Apurvata means that which is not told anywhere else Apurva, unique Phalam, and that which is given as the Phalashruti, that is called as the fruit so if you look at a book and look at these five things what is told in the beginning, what is told in the end what is repeated most consistently what is distinctive or unique in the book and what is the fruit of reading that book or then by these five characteristics we can understand what is the essential message of the book it’s like if someone gives a class they start by, today I will talk about this subject that is Upakrama in the beginning they have said this is the topic I am going to talk about Upasamhara, now let me summarize so you can say, ok this is the summary so like that, these are the five ways so then he does an elaborate analysis in the Bhagotsan Darbha of all these five points and he shows how Bhakti to Bhagawan is what is talked about in the beginning in the Bhagavatam, it’s talking about a it’s talking about a conscious absolute truth and then after that the conclusion, now the last verses is what Nama Sankirtanam Yasti Sarva Paaka Pranashanam Pranamo Dukkha Shamanas Tam Namaami Haribaram the Bhagavatam doesn’t conclude by saying go meditate on impersonal Brahman it concludes by saying do Nama Sankirtan and that will free one from all sinful reactions the phalash then further if we see Abhyasa what is repeatedly told in the Bhagavatam we will find some references to impersonal Brahman but all the cantos of Bhagavatam are filled with pastimes of the lord and his devotees what is most consistently and repeatedly coming is Bhakti Apurvata unique to the Srimad Bhagavatam is the 10th canto elaborate description of Krishna’s pastimes Krishna Leela is talked about in many other Puranas but it’s talked most in the 10th canto and then Phalam, if you look at the phalashruti at the end, what Suta Goswami seeks, what Suta Goswami tells Asyanta Hanyavido Surasura Gana Devaya Tasmayi Namaha it says that lord who has no end, who is worshipped by the Devatas, who is glorified by the Vedas and the Puranas and the Upanishads I bow down to him, I devote myself to him, I offer myself to him so if you look at the phala of the Bhagavatam that is talked about we see that it is eminently personal so from all these characteristics we can understand that Bhakti to Bhagavan is the essential message of the Bhagavatam and based on that we can infer as Vishwanath Chakravarthy Thakur does that the particular references to Atma Gyan in the trans-canto chapter they are a test by Sukadeva Goswami to check whether Parikshit Maharaj has understood, got the highest point or still is caught at a lower level and Parikshit Maharaj reflects by his resolve to meditate on Krishna that he has got the highest point Thank you very much