Why does the Bhagavatam say that literature glorifying Krishna is imperfectly composed when such literature is meant to attract people to Krishna?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
To enhance our mode of service If Krishna’s Manifestation in this world Are meant to attract the soul to use the free will Properly, then the Bhagavatam Says that Krishna’s Literature may be imperfectly composed Still wise people will accept it So why should it be imperfectly composed If it is meant to attract people Yeah, good question First of all I would say Let’s look at what that imperfectly Composed means This is in the Conversation between Narada and Vyas And Narada Is telling Vyasadeva is already Compiled all the Vedic literature And still he is dissatisfied And the Vedic literature is often quite Artistic, literary So in this Section of the Bhagavatam The stress is on The Superiority Of Bhakti as compared to anything else So Bhakti Is what is important A few verses before it is said that Even if there is Gyan and Vairagya There is no Bhakti, it is not of much use So if Bhakti is there, everything Becomes valuable So in that same vein What Narada Puni is telling Here is that you have written all These literature, this Tadvagasargo is one verse and Verse before that or after that is Chaitra Padam Hare Risho Those literature which do not glorify Krishna There is a pilgrim Which prays for crows So what he is saying is You have written all this literature But They are not directly glorifying Krishna Therefore they are not Really that valuable In contrast if there is some literature Which Glorifies Krishna Then that is perfect and even If it is imperfectly composed So now imperfectly composed means The point is not that devotees will Glorify Krishna imperfectly But even if there is some Material imperfection The spiritual purpose of glorifying Krishna Is far more important And that is what is to be seen That is what wise people see That is that verse Murkho vadati Vishnaya dhiro vadati Vishnave That Like we have Vishnu And adjective of Vishnu is Vishnave Vaishnava Murkho vadati Krishnaya dhiro vadati But somebody may say Like we Krishnaya There is Krishnaya And there is Vaishnave Somebody might take this adjective Somebody might say Vishnaya Or Krishnave somebody might do it like that But it says that even if somebody Chants like that Still bhavagrahi janatana The lord sees the intention So often in bhakti literature The stress is given On how the Material aspect of bhakti The material aspects In the performance of bhakti don’t matter Like the famous Patram, Vishwam, Phalam, Toyam When you offer something simple to Krishna If it is offered with devotion Krishna will accept it So now of course that doesn’t mean Devotees will simply offer fruit flower Devotees will offer elaborate feasts Chaitanya Charitama describes How devotees make so many items and offer Similarly devotees will artistically glorify Krishna But the important thing is not artistry The important thing is the devotion And of course when devotees Want to glorify Devotees also should learn The necessary skills and glorify Because there are two aspects One is that Even if our glorification is materially imperfect Still it will please Krishna In that sense it is perfect But if it is to attract people in the world It also has to be attractive So that’s why Prabhupada also writes Our attempt to present this Wisdom In a foreign language will definitely fail But it is a science of Technical values It is a Technical science of spiritual values Intermediate persons will Look at the values But then of course Prabhupada says He knew that his English was not English had some Some grammatical issues So then eventually when editors were there He employed those editors To correct the things So that means Prabhupada Was ready to glorify Krishna Even if it is imperfect But if the opportunity to make it perfect was there Prabhupada took that opportunity also So That’s why If we are devotees Looking at another devotee Then even if the devotee is doing something materially imperfect Still we shouldn’t bother about it But If we are trying to present something to new people Then it has to be As materially also Well done as possible So I would say The context is different Here the context is The potency of devotion To please Krishna and the potency of devotion To purify our heart Doesn’t depend on its material perfection But if we consider that Devotion is meant to attract people’s hearts Then it has to be presented In such a way that it attracts people So the contexts are different in two places Transcendental literature is imperfectly composed Does it mean Vyasadev’s compositions are imperfect? Well It’s grammar And even Today if you consider Shakespeare He is considered to be the Acharya of English writing But there are authors Who have done PhD studies Pointing about faults in Shakespeare’s English So now You could put it in two Three different ways One is that Shakespeare was a great writer But his writing was More of his creative imagination And everything But some grammatical issues were there The second could be that Maybe that was the convention at that time And we are looking at it from our convention And we are thinking it is wrong And third is that grammar Is also not exactly fixed The rules of grammar also keep changing Some usages Which were considered unacceptable 30-40 years ago Now they may be considered acceptable So sometimes Shakespeare might use something Which was wrong at that time But because he has used it It has become standard now So similarly There are There is some scholar Who has done his PhD And written a whole book Pointing out faults in the Bhagavatam Sanskrit In the light of Vedic Sanskrit He said this should be like this This should be like this Now there are places Chakravarti Path also When he is giving his commentary He says this Grammatically this word should be A but it is A And he says this is a poetic license Because Bhagavatam is poetry So it is poetic license And sometimes he just Nonchalantly says this should be E But it is A He doesn’t Deny that He doesn’t emphasize that So He just states that So I would say grammar When it is imperfectly composed As we talked about It is that the grammar sometimes May not be Exactly Exactly right as per rules of grammar Which also keep changing So in that sense it may be imperfectly composed So when Prabhupada says What he is teaching is the technical science of spiritual values And the language is not important What does he mean by that exactly Basically Science is used Not so much in the sense of The way the word science is used You do experiments, you do research, you publish papers Science basically means A systematic body of knowledge Which Prabhupada is using And he is talking about how there are principles of bhakti yoga Chanting the holy names Worshipping the deities which can purify our hearts And In that case The language In which it is said may not be very important Many scholars Sometimes have issues with Prabhupada’s translations also Because they feel This word actually does not mean this If you know Sanskrit Sometimes we may find that The word for word translation that Prabhupada is giving Is actually not the dictionary meaning of the word Sometimes it happens like that So then the example I gave for this is Say suppose there is some ancient branch Ancient Chinese medicine Which Cures cancer And there is some Practitioner of the Chinese medicine Chinese person Who has cured many people of that cancer And then that person learns English And then after Learning English, that doctor Translates the Chinese manual of that Medical system into English In contrast You have an English expert Who is a linguist That person is good in English, that person is good in Chinese also And that person Translates the manual into English If tomorrow I had to take Treatment Whose authority would I trust? The Chinese doctors or the English language scholars Yeah because he has lived it Yeah so So similarly What Prabhupada is saying is this is a process of transformation And in that sense Technical science of spiritual values means It offers us Transformation And the language is in that sense Even if some grammar is off As long as we understand Essential principles and practice them We will be transformed That’s what he is focusing on