​Why is Krishna not revealed in the Vedas – why was Bhagavatam needed to reveal him?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. So why is Krishna hidden in the Vedas? Why is he not revealed directly? And why is Srimad Bhagavatam needed separately to tell about Krishna’s supremacy? It means desire for filling tree.
And if we consider a supermarket a supermarket will contain primarily the products that people want to purchase. Now there may be some products which are really good for people which the people need, which people will greatly benefit by but if the supermarket is truly to be a supermarket has to provide what people need. It has to provide what people want.
It may also provide what people need but if it provides only what people need and doesn’t provide what people want then it’s not a supermarket. Then we could say it’s a hospital which is giving medicines to people for curing them or something like that. The idea of a supermarket means that whatever people want to purchase in a market all of that is available in one place.
So similarly the Vedas mean a Kalpataru. They are the fulfillers of our desires. And because most people have material desires so therefore the Vedas primarily give material things.
The Vedas primarily contain injunctions or guidelines for people to be benefited materially and in this way in the level of Dharma. So now somebody could well say that but why have a supermarket if we know what people need and just give it to them. That is in principle fine but in practice if people don’t want that and the so-called supermarket is offering only that then the people may never come there at all because they think that what we want is not available here and they will go elsewhere.
So like that we can see if you consider concentric circles of varying radii and the Vedas are like a very big concentric circle which help accommodate a large number of people in the circle of Dharma. That means at the level of we could say religious materialism or pious materialism. So people who are interested in material things they get that within the precincts of Dharma and then if we envision a pyramid so from those outer circles we move upward, upward, upward, upward till we come to the top where there is like a peak.
So from the Vedas and there are largely Karmakandi sections which provide material results for material sacrifices, material rituals. From there onwards there is a gradual elevation of consciousness. So the Vedas have a plan to accommodate a wide variety of people and for accommodating a wide variety of people they contain a wide variety of rituals and practices and they do talk about Bhakti, they do talk about Krishna but it is very indirect because that is not what people are interested in and in one sense this is a different approach to elevating people’s consciousness.
In the Bhagavatam Narada Muni actually chastises Vyasadeva and he says, that people are anyway attached to material things and you have also given them material rituals and they will think that this is all that there is to it and therefore they will not get elevated. Now that can be a problem but in the Vedas there is a gradual pushing mechanism by the practice of Karmakanda people gradually come towards Gyanakanda and if they come towards Upasana Kanda they come towards Bhakti gradually. So now in the Bhagavatam Narada Muni exhorts Vyasadeva to adopt an alternative strategy.
He says, just give the direct glories of the Supreme Lord. Yashobhagato Amala the glories of the Lord spotless glories of the Lord, you speak them directly. That is a different strategy which each the Bhagavatam itself recognizes that this is not going to appeal to a large number of people.
It itself says right in the beginning that one has to be Nirmat Saranam Sadam one has to be non-envious or at least one has to have some understanding of life’s spiritual dimension by which one can move towards becoming non-envious. See as long as we are materialistic we just cannot avoid being envious. Because we will see how much other people have and based on how much other people have we will automatically be feeling that oh I should have something I should have more than them.
So in material consciousness envy is almost unavoidable. It is in devotional consciousness that spiritual consciousness when we can be transcended. And at least people should have some basic intelligence by which they can aspire for spiritual spiritual wisdom, spiritual insight.
And thus they can move onwards towards Krishna. So that so the Bhagavatam in that sense is offering knowledge for for people who are at the summit of spiritual evolution or people who are at least having sufficient intelligence to rise, to aspire for that summit of spiritual understanding. So there is a progressive program in which people who are at a very low level of spiritual evolution they can also be accommodated.
And people who are ready to go towards the highest level they are also facilitated. So by the indirect revelation of the Vedas a large number of people are accommodated. And by the direct revelation of the Bhagavatam the serious spiritualists are also facilitated.
Thus the Bhagavatam, thus the broad Vedic program accommodates and facilitates everyone.