A Structural Review of the Main Topics of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Lecture 4
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · 2020
Chapters
Invocational prayers and verses
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya Śrīvāsa oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narottamaṁ devīṁ sarasvatīṁ vyāsaṁ tato jayam udīrayet.
Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī. Ya swa no bhava maquilam sruti saramekam advyat madipamati, samsari nam karunayahapuranaguhyam, tam ya sa So
I will read tody to start this lecture from our little seminar on a very important topic. I will start with the text number seven of the 10th chapter of 2nd Kanto. Bhagavatam is the answer to all questions.
I read this verse at the end of my last class, but I will read the verse and purport again because it's relevant to today's discussion. Abba Sasha Nirodascha yatos thyas
adhyavasyate sashraya paramam brahma paramatmeti sabdyate. This is the definition of āśraya, the tenth topic of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Basically, the definition of where we have to take shelter of and how we should take shelter in one sense. But it's a definition. It's paribhāṣā in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam itself. So translation by Śrīla Prabhupāda.
The Supreme One who is celebrated as the Supreme Being or the Supreme Soul is the supreme source of the cosmic manifestation as well as its reservoir and wind-up. Thus, he is the supreme fountain head, the absolute truth.
As you probably notice, Śrīla Prabhupāda repeats the word supreme four times in this translation to stress that this is the supreme object of worship, this is where we should take shelter of.
And here is the definition of this supreme shelter or supreme absolute truth. It basically says that what is supreme shelter? What we should worship, what is the object of our worship?
That is the source of everything which is there. And the source at the same time is the source or the kos för ni rodr or distruktion. His one från whom everything appears. He is the one who maintains everything.
Jag taha Yena and Niroda Niroda Yasmin the one who destroys everything or the one in whom everything goes in after destruction. So that's the definition of Ashraya.
And it is said that this ashray is parambrahma, he is the supreme truth, and he is paramatma, Paramatmetti Shabdhyate. Śrīla Prabhupāda will explain that the word it implies Bhagavān.
He is Brahma, Paramatma, and Bhagavan, depending on the angle of vision.
Understanding forms of truth
Okay, purport of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Synonyms for the supreme source of all energies as explained in the very beginning of the Srimad Bhagavatam are Janmandya Syataha Vadanti Tattatvavidas Tatvam Yajgyana Madvayam Brammeti Paramatmeti Bhagavan Eiti Shabdhyate called Parabrahman, Paramātmā, or Bhagavān.
So it's basically different nomenclatures for the same entity.
It's not different, it's not something different because uh it's advayagyan. This vastu is advaya, it's not different, there is no differentiality within, but it's called differently uh because Because there is different angles of vision.
And therefore, Prabhupāda says this is the synonyms. This is not different vast, different entities, this is the same Advaya Jnana Vastu.
The word it used here in this verse, as I said, Paramat Meti Shabdyate, completes the synonyms and thus indicates Bhagavān. This will be further explained in the later verses, but this Bhagavān
ultimately means Lord Krishna, because the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam has already accepted the Supreme Personality of God as Krishna, Krishna's two Bhagavān Swayam. The original source of all energies or the sumum bonum is
the absolute truth which is called Param Brahma, etc., and Bhagavān is the last word of the absolute truth. But even with the synonyms for Bhagavān, such as Nārāyaṇa, Vishnu and Purusha, the last word is Krishna.
As confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā, Aham Sarvasya Prabhava Mata Sarvam Pravartate, etc. Besides that, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is the representation of Lord Krishna as a sound incarnation of the Lord.
Krishna Sve, Dharma Pagate, Dharma Jnana de Bhish Saha, Kalona Ashta Drishama Shah, Puranarka, Duna Uditaha.
Thus, by general conclusion, Lord Krishna is the ultimate source of all energies, and the world Krishna means that. And to explain Krishna or the science of Krishna, the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam has been prepared.
The first canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, this This truth in the first canto of Śrīmad Bhagavatam, this truth is indicated by the questions and answers by Sutta Goswami and great sages like Shonaka.
And in the first and second chapters of the canto of the canto this is explained. In the third chapter, the subject is more explicit, and in the fourth chapter, even more explicit.
In the second canto, the absolute truth as the supreme personality of God is further emphasized, and the indication is the Supreme Lord Krishna.
The summary of Srimad Bhagavatam in four verses, as we have already discussed, is succinct.
This supreme personality of Godhead is the ultimate issue, in the ultimate issue is confirmed by Brahma in his Brahma-saṁhitā as īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ.
So it is concluded in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The complete subject matter is elaborately explained in the tenth and eleventh cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
In the matter of the changes of the manus or manvantara such as the Svāyambhuva Manvantara and Cākṣuṣa Manvantara, as they are discussed in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh skandhas of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Krishna is indicated.
In the eighth skandha, the Vaivasvata Manvantara explains the same subject indirectly, and in the ninth skandha, the same point is there. In the twelfth skandha the same is further explained specifically regarding two different incarnations of the Lord.
Thus it is concluded by studying the complete Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that Lord Krishna is the ultimate summum bonum or the ultimate source of all energy.
And according to the grades of worshippers, the indications of the nomenclature may be differently explained as Nārāyaṇa, Brahmā, Paramātmā, etc.
So basically Śrīla Prabhupāda in this purport is establishing āśraya as Lord Krishna. The ultimate penultimate manifestation of āśraya as Lord Krishna and everything else is his partial representation.
Anyway, we will describe it in more detail in the lecture. Now let's chant.
Nama oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta- svāmin iti nāmine namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- pracārine nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupā Nityānanda Byonamun Maha Jay Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabunitananda
Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare
Adjanu Lambi Tabujokana Kavadatu Sankirtanaya Pitaruka Malaya Taksu Vishwam Baro Dja War Yu Gudharma Palu Vandeja Gat Priya Karow Karu Navatar
Three readings of scriptures
Yandah pravi ma vachim, ma praçupta, sandji vaya ta ki la shakti darah swadam, anjam chahasta charana, shravanat va gahtim, prhandam Bhagawte, puru shy to bim. Okay. So we continue with our review of Śrīmad-
Bhagavatam, and today I will start a very short review of the cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Explaining how all these cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam work work together to ultimately explain to us the ashray of Krishna.
And in fact, in this purport Srila Prabhupada explains in a very short manner how different cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ultimately indicate Krishna.
So it's very important before we start the whole book to have the complete overview of the book. How it works, and what is the contribution of each canto, and
what do we have to understand from each canto, what the what is the knowledge which we should derive from each canto. So this I will start explaining a little later, but I wanted
to refresh a little bit what we uh spoke last time to maintain the continuity. I explained last time that uh Lord Brahmā read scriptures of Vedas three times.
And it basically means reading scriptures from three different angles of vision. One is uh karmakāṇḍa or karma-mīmāṁsā, pūrva-mīmāṁsā.
When we read it and we only see or extract from the scriptures information which helps us to live happily in this world.
The second time when we read scriptures after trying to live happily in this world and understanding that this is a hopeless endeavor.
And no matter how much we try and how diligently we follow all the scriptures and all the minute details of and of rules and regulations, you know, we will still not be able to avoid old age, disease, and ultimately death.
So after reading the scriptures for the first time and extracting this sort of the layer of the meaning which is there in the scriptures, scriptures do teach us how to live in this world, how to become relatively happy in this world. That's there.
But after reading the scriptures for the first time and taking the first sort of uh layer of the meaning, we can read the scriptures for the second time.
And reading the scriptures for the second time means extracting from the scriptures what they have to say about liberation. This is the second reading.
When we become a little more mature and more realistic about the nature of life and less foolish, more experienced, we will get the desire of liberation and then we'll start reading the scriptures in a different with a different eyes.
And by reading the scriptures with a different eyes, we will see different statements in the scriptures. And ultimately, the conclusion which we will come about is
yes, scriptures talk about liberation. But this is not the ultimate meaning of the scriptures. Ultimately, the scriptures won't want to tell us something else. Shastra wants to tell us something else.
And this is the third reading of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is again Uttara Mimamsa. But as we know, there are two big schools of Uttara Mīmāṁsā, the Advaita Uttara Mīmāṁsā, Advaita Vedānta, and Dvaita Vedānta.
So the third meaning of the scriptures is bhakti. And the highest manifestation of this is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as in all the śāstras, these three layers are there.
But ultimately, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, according to the instruction of Nārada Muni, who gave to Vyāsadeva, who chastised Vyāsadeva and said that you just compromised too much.
You mix too much of this dharma, karma, and mokṣa in all other scriptures. Here Vyāsadeva is trying in a very clear way to explain to us that the ultimate meaning of shastra is bhakti.
Purpose of ten topics
So, this is what we were talking about, and I explained last time very elaborately, the ten topics of Srimad Bhagavatam or the nine topics of Srimad Bhagavatam, and how the nine topics of Srimad Bhagavatam ultimately explain the tenth topic.
And it's the design is very simple.
Actually, uh, as Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura will say in the commentary to this very verse, he said that the reason why the ten topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are being explained is just to explain the difference between jīva and the Lord.
And in this way, by pointing out the difference between the jīva and the Lord, because jīva cannot create this universe, jīva cannot destroy this universe. Well, well, destroy maybe can. That we are good at.
Anyway, so jīva you know everything the sin uh for বাঙাল life of the jīva is is being created by the Lord. Everything is being created by the Lord.
So here Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is explaining this difference, and by explaining this difference, hinting at bhakti.
Because if you understand that you are not independent, that you cannot really live independently and become happy independently of the Lord, and then the next natural conclusion is that you should perform bhakti, you should serve the source of everything which exists here.
So that's basically the implication why these nine topics are being explained in Shrimad Bhagavatam and how they're being explained.
So, atra sarga visarga sthānaṁ poṣaṇaṁ ūti this is this 10 topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which we already explained in details. And again, as I thought as I told last time when
we were discussing this, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam always has two railway how you say this? Tracks. Two tracks, yeah. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam always describes this in two tracks.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives the general description of the Supreme Lord of Āśraya.
Through these different topics, all these topics are just explanation of Āśraya because the Āśraya is the cause of all these topics starting with the sarga or elementary creation.
And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam always explains this āśraya in two tracks: general description, which means God. Īśvara, Bhagavān, you know, Paramātmā, whatever you call him. And then a very specific description, which is Kṛṣṇa.
Always in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this goes side by side, very general description of God, and ultimately hinting that behind this
general description there is this beautiful form of Bhagavān who is Kṛṣṇa, who is the most attractive personality of Godhead. So, this is what we described last time in our discussion.
And today I wanted to very briefly before we
Three metaphors for scripture
go to the review of the cantos, also tell that besides these two levels of or besides this three levels of meaning.
If we take specifically Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, if we take Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as a scripture, as I said, there are uh uh any scripture, any shastra has these three layers of meaning.
But if we take specifically Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam itself, there is three layers of meaning which are different.
This is again explained by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura because what he gives how he explains this, he says in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam itself, in the beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, there are three metaphors. And this is important for us to remember.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is compared in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in the 12th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as Dīpa, adhyātma-dīpa. This is the spiritual lamp. This is the first metaphor.
So this first metaphor is a certain meaning which we can extract from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam itself.
The second metaphor is given actually by Śrīla Prabhupāda in this verse, kṛṣṇe sva-dhāmopagate dharma-jñānādibhiḥ saha kalonaṣṭa-dṛśām eṣa purāṇārko ’dhunoditaḥ. Puranarka Dunoditaha.
So the second comparison, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is like sun. So it's a very drastic difference, right? Dīpa uh has uh some ability to dissipate darkness, but it's limited ability.
So in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are topics which elucidate the reality in a limited way, in a very beautiful but still limited way. And we can reach Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by uh trying to understand this uh layer of meaning.
Uh and I will explain what it means. Uh but then Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is like sun. Uh and sun uh has much greater capacity to illuminate. So that's another deeper meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
When this deeper meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will be revealed to us through our study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, through hearing of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we will see the greater context of life.
When we see when Deepa is illuminating something, we see very limited context. It's good to have dīpa, it's better than to be in darkness, but still it's limited.
Sun illuminates everything and we see everything much more clearly. And the third metaphor in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam itself is pibata bhāgavataṁ rasam ālayaṁ nigama-kalpa-taror galitam phalam.
So and the third metaphor of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is like ripen juicy fruit. So these three metaphors again explain three kinds of topics in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The first kind of topic gives some spiritual understanding of reality. The second kind of topic or explanation gives much greater understanding of reality.
And then the third kind of topics or explanations will give juice, will give you some rasa, will give you emotional satisfaction.
Creation and destruction topics
So yeah, and this is the three kinds of topics and when we take the first meaning or the first topics which explain the first meaning, what we will see, what is dīpa? Dīpa basically means if there is darkness.
In the darkness we feel fear.
We don't know what's going on, and our mind starts imagining all kinds of uh produces all kinds of fantasies and uh we become scared and if you know some noise is there we we become very scared.
So when we get this dīpa, the spiritual knowledge, then immediately the first effect is that you feel some solace or you feel less fearful, you feel much more confident, and you feel that you know it's not so bad. You understand something.
So, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that two topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam among these ten topics, they are like adhyātma Dipa, the spiritual knowledge. This is Sarga and Niroda. Sarga and Niroda.
If we understand these two topics, how this creation came about, how it was created by the Lord, how the elements are created, ten types of creation which are being described in the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Well, not ten types, the first first six types of creation.
When we understand the first six types of creation then and
niroda. Niroda is destruction. As it is explained here that niroda, or well, maybe not here, niroda, there are three types of niroda, three types of niroda, three types of destruction.
And one type of niroda which is very relevant to us is our own death. This is niroda, this is destruction. And why are we so much afraid of death?
Because while we are living, we have an illusion of being independent and the illusion of controlling the reality. But at death we know we lose our power to control.
We're completely we are completely incapable of controlling everything at the moment of death and after death. And that's why we are so scared.
So therefore, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains that these two topics, Sarga and Niroda, this is Adhyatma Dipa, the preliminary knowledge which can give us some relief or some understanding how the reality works and give us some sort of solace
that there is no point of being fearful. Lord is anyway in control. You are anyway not in control. It's just an illusion. You think that you're controlling everything.
And the Lord is kind of playing along with your illusion and says, Yes, yes, yes, you're great. Yes, my dear sir.
But ultimately, if we understand very clearly that yes, I'm not in control of my birth and I am not in control of my death. But there is the Lord who is loving, who is very kind, who is very merciful, who is behind this?
And then ultimately there is nothing to fear. So this is the first preliminary understanding which gives us some sort of again idea how to live in this world. There is no point of fear.
As one of the first presidents, I I don't remember who exactly, Benjamin Franklin or somebody one, of the first founding fathers of America, has said that you shouldn't fear anything besides the fear itself.
So, you should you should fear to become fearful. This is what you should do. Otherwise, there is no cause for fear. Fear is a very fearful thing. But if you understand that God is behind everything, then you know it's
like this adhyātma-dīpa, the spiritual knowledge illuminates everything. And you understand, yes, I'm not in control. God has created everything. God will take care of me. And ultimately, He wishes me well.
He's not a jealous old very angry person who is just you know trying to get revenging for his frustration in life. He is not a frustrated old person luckily for us so that's
so the sarga and nirodha, and this is the first meaning. And therefore, sarga is being repeated so many times in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It's amazing.
But in the first three cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the second and the third cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this elementary creation is repeated six or seven times, or even more. It's even very difficult.
Again and again and again, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam repeats the same thing. And I will explain a little later when we talk about the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, why it is so.
Because we know that initially, and Śrīla Vyāsadeva said, yes, I will describe the sweet pastimes of the Lord, and then seven or more times he describes creation again and again and again.
You know, this is the how the elements of creation are created, why it is so. Not without a reason. There is a very serious reason.
And you know, the first understanding that gives you some sort of initial spiritual understanding of reality. Sarga and nirodha is God. It's a very general description of God.
He is in charge of creation, this world, and he is in charge of destruction, so there is nothing to fear.
You know, mm first of all you're not in control of your birth, somehow or other you were born, so mm you were born by God, so and it's good. You feel it's good, right? I exist, it's good. It's a good thing, perhaps.
Understanding the broad context
And then but then you know then Niroda should be taken in the same way. Then Vishwanachakravati Thakur says that Visarga, Stanam, Poshanam, Uti, Manvantara and Ishanukatha is compared with sun.
So the next uh eight uh no not eight seven uh the next seven topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam uh This is the description. This is the meaning which is like sun. And let's talk about sun a little bit. What sun gives us.
Sun, as I said, completely dissipates the darkness of the night, completely dissipates fears. You know, everyone becomes enthusiastic to work.
And basically, when we talk about Shimad Bhagavatam, the sun gives us the greater context, as I said. This is. I wanted to say a few words about this topic or this concept of context.
You can only understand the meaning through the context. If we take a meaning of the word, the meaning of the word can be completely different according to the context, according to the sentence.
You know, I I have been working as a translator and I know it is, you know, in different context, the same words should be translated differently because semantic field of the world in different languages are different.
In any case, the point here is that to understand the meaning you have to know the context. Without the context, you cannot understand the meaning.
And that's exactly why normal quote-unquote people cannot understand the meaning of their life. Because they don't understand the greater context of their life.
That's why the first question which we should ask: why I have been born? Who I am? Who I am means what is the context of reality? Because people tend to isolate everything from the context.
When the science is trying to isolate everything from the context, studying some isolated subject matters by cutting off the connections with everything else because it's too complicated, the reality is too complicated for them to study,
ultimately, it gets a very wrong understanding of the meaning. They're trying to extract the meaning, to figure out the meaning, but ultimately, they cannot, because they lost the context.
They don't know the context how it functions in reality.
You know, I remember it, it was very clear my own experience. I was working as a scientist of biological science on a cellular level and I was trying to understand how the life works, but to understand how the life works, I have to kill everything.
And you know, but you cannot understand life by killing. It's not the way to understand life. So, and that's exactly the mistake which scientists do. They always try to make the context as narrow as possible.
Because they cannot really have the broader context.
And that's exactly the difference with the science of Krishna. Because the science of Krishna, which is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is trying to explain to us the complete full context of life.
And that's exactly what we will get when we reach Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and understand these seven topics, as I said. Then we will see how the karma works. What are the beneficial ways of karma and you
and know of pravṛtti-mārga or of enjoyment, how you should enjoy in this life and how you should not enjoy in this life. And how you should renounce this world and how you should not renounce this world.
So, because we always tend to make mistakes by narrowing the context. We don't understand what was there before, what will be there after.
We're trying to make the meaning from the very limited vision which we have, and therefore we make mistakes and therefore we suffer. We cannot enjoy properly. You can only enjoy properly.
You know that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not about, you know, to make you suffer in this world. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has all the scriptures help you to live happily in this world.
But to live happily in this world, in the true sense of the world, you have to understand how this whole reality works. Then you will be able to enjoy in a wholesome way.
You will enjoy in this world, and I'm sure I will be condemned by many and praised by also many by saying this, but uh that's a that's a fact.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is explaining these topics of visarga, sthāna, poṣaṇa, ūrti, all these things, you know, poṣaṇam, how you should nourish yourself. What is poṣaṇam? Poṣaṇam basically means to live the healthy life in this world.
How you how do you do it? Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam does explain this. No doubt about it. So, but Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains this by giving a very broad picture.
And when you have this broad picture, you will be able to understand how to do this because people what they do first they try to enjoy, it doesn't work, they suffer and they renounce the world also in a proper way.
So you can enjoy properly and improperly, you can renounce this world also properly and improperly.
So when Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī compares Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with the sun, he says that if you understand deeper meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, when you understand the first meaning of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, the effect will be you become fearless. No point of fear.
No point of fearing death. No problem.
When you understand the deeper meaning of life of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you will be able to live properly in this world, to enjoy this world and to renounce this world in a very wholesome way, not in an unhealthy way.
We can see that devotees, you know, they come to devotional service to eascon to Krishna consciousness and uh initially they renounce everything and they do it in a very horrible way.
They give everything up, they break all the relationship, they you know condemn everyone. And then after some time they understand that something doesn't work and they try to enjoy. And again, improperly.
And it just doesn't work. Therefore, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as a sun gives you this wholesome complete understanding, which is not easy.
But if you understand how this reality works by understanding all these topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and how the Lord is behind everything, then you will be able to live properly and this is more or less you
will be able to live properly and ultimately you will be able to get mukti liberation.
This second meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is how to live properly without being entangled in this world and how to ultimately get liberation.
Therefore, this second meaning is about visarga, Stanam, Posanam, Uti, Manvantara, Isanukatha, and Mukti. And Mukti. This is the seven topics.
So this is the the gift of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You know, if you understand a preliminary meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you become fearless.
If you understand the secondary meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you ensure your liberation. You know that you're not being entangled in this world.
You know that you're properly building your relationship without being too much attached to it and so on and so forth.
Rasa in sacred literature
That's the meaning of the second batch of the topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And then the third metaphor which is which has been uh given
by uh Śrīla Vyāsadeva himself in the third verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Pibata Bhagavatam Rasa Malayam. Nigamakal Pataror Galitam Palam Pibata Bhagavatam Rasa Amalayam. So it is Galitampalam.
This is the ripened fruit, Nigamakalpataror, of the tree of
the Vedas, of the tree of nigamas, uh tree of uh Vedic scripture, it's like uh desire uh desire tree, it can fulfill any desire. You know in the Vedas there are procedures, methods, processes to get anything you desire, anything you want. Therefore, it's nigama kalpataru.
But nigama-kalpataru galitam phalam, the ripened fruit of this tree, desired tree, the fruit which the tree himself wants to give to you is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and basically it means uh the emotional mm uh
emotional rasālaya, uh it's um uh uh emotional ecstasy uh which you can derive from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam if you understand it uh on the third uh or deepest meaning of the le uh deepest level of the meaning.
It basically means that, you know, you read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and we reach Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam in one way. Śukadeva Gosvāmī reached Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a completely different way.
Mahārāja Parīkṣit hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam on a different level. And if the real devotee who
who has the key to the third level of meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, even these apparently dry verses or even creation, they become completely ecstatic. They will just jump and sink and they they will come into ecstasy.
And of course, the uh Ashraya, the uh tenth topic of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about this. Ashraya uh description of Krishna uh is to give you the emotional connection with the Supreme Absolute Truth.
But again, we have to go step by step before we get to this. It's only available to bhāvukas and rasikas. Who are Bhavukas? Bhavukas, they are those who are on the level of Bhava.
And Rasikas, they are those who are on the level of Prema.
So this emotional uh content or emotional meaning of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam is available, but first you have to reach the level of bhāva and premā, then uh you will be able to enjoy this ripened fruit of the Vedas.
But before, even the sun is good enough, even spiritual lamp is also not bad.
Overview of first canto
So this is three meanings of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And as I promised to you, our next topic will be very short, concise, but still meaningful description or review of all the twelfth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
It's interesting that the second metaphor which we gave compares Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with the sun, and we know that the sun has 12 zodiacs.
And the sun in the 12 zodiacs behaves differently. Sun in Mesha in uh uh how you call it? Iris, Iris is different and the sun is is in Taurus, the Sun and Taurus is different than the Sun and in Mithuna. Sun and Mithuna is different than Sun is in uh anyway mixing the Sanskrit names with the English names.
But there are everyone knows that there is 12 zodiacs and the sun is different. Like now we are now the sun is in cancer. So the sun in cancer is uh is better at least in India than the sun is in in previous zodiac.
It's very hot when it's in Mithuna. So and it means basically that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also has 12 cantos. And in the 12th cantos, the Ashraya, Krishna is being described, but described in different ways.
As much as the sun behaves differently in the 12th zodiacs, the description is different in 12 different cantos. And if we take the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what is the meaning or is different in 12 different cantos.
And if we take the first canto of Shrimad Bhagavatam, what is the meaning or how to make sense of everything which is being described in the first canto. Of course, first canto is an introduction.
First and second canto is more or less introduction to the whole book. But the main meaning of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is Adhikari Tattva.
The first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is explaining this tattva of adhikāra, who is adhikārī to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam properly, who is the adhikārī or qualified person to speak Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and who is the adhikārī or qualified person to listen to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Basically, the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is extremely important because it lays down the methodology to understand the whole book.
If we don't understand the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we will not be able to understand the whole book, because we will not be equipped with the methods of understanding this book.
As I explained in our seminar on a number of occasions and times, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not an ordinary book. It's not the book which you can just read and just by reading understand everything.
Because this is the approach, this is the Avarohapanta. This is the uh sorry, this is Arohapanta. This is the approach when we are trying to understand. We are higher than Srimad Bhagavatam.
If we try to study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a normal quote-unquote way, in the way we study other subjects, we will be cheated. And actually, this is the fourth metaphor which is there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is like Mohinī-mūrti.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you can read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you will not be able to understand anything about Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you will be cheated, you will not get the proper meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is specifically composed in such a way to cheat you if you employ the improper method of understanding Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And therefore, the understanding of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is so extremely important.
If you understand the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you will get the key which will help you to open every other canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And basically, it is explained in the first canto of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam by three examples. There are three examples in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of transmission of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
First example is Sūta Gosvāmī and the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya. Second example is Nārada Muni and Vyāsadeva, or the Bhaktivedāntas, the sages who came to Nārada Muni.
This is the second story within the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. How Nārada Muni is teaching Vyāsadeva Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and how he himself received Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from Bhaktivedāntas.
And of course, the third and ultimate story about
Qualifications for spiritual transmission
transmitting of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a very successful way is Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Gosvāmī. For transmission to be successful, certain conditions have to be established.
And these conditions are indirectly and quite directly, actually, explained in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And these three examples are there, not without a reason, because these three examples is a description of the first level of qualification for the listener
and hearer of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, second level and the third level, highest level. The first level is Śukadeva Gosvāmī and the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya.
And this is the most accessible level for us because it is very clearly said in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that the sages of Naimisharanya are not free from material desires. They have material desires.
Therefore, they are engaged in this ritualistic sacrifice and it is specifically said that they become more or less smoked by this smoke of sacrifice.
You know if you're sitting too much by the fire, you become the smoke enters into you. And this metaphor is there to give you understanding that their heart is not completely pure. And this is a very good news.
You don't have to be pure to receive Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you don't have to be 100% pure to receive Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you still will be able to receive Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
But you have to have the complete faith into the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has to be qualified.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda specifically explains that some other technicalities of this method of receiving Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You have to go gradually, canto by canto.
You shouldn't jump into the tenth canto because you will not be able to understand it properly. You definitely have to have complete faith and respect. And this faith and respect is described by the word śuśrūṣu.
Śuśrūṣu means you have to have a very strong desire to hear and not only to hear but also to act to serve. So śuśrūṣu means literally means desire to hear but the conventional meaning of śuśrūṣu means desiring to serve.
So this is the minimum qualification for us to be successful in receiving Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, if we have this, if we want to serve, if we have faith into the speakers of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and if the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is qualified.
And what is the qualification for speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? He has to have blessings of his superiors. He has to be a disciple himself.
Basically, what is said about Sūta Gosvāmī, he's praised by the by the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya for being a disciple.
You know, if we hear somebody for us to trust him and to be sure that we receive proper knowledge, we have to know that he's connected.
That he's not concocting it from his own fertile brain and uh he's not doing it himself. He is representing his own spiritual master and he speaks on his behalf and he received blessings from his spiritual master.
This is how the uh indirectly the qualifications are being described. So that's very practical knowledge. If we want to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then what we have to make sure that this is work, that this is there.
Um, I already spoke for one hour, but I will speak for a few more minutes at least to finish this uh uh review of the first canto. I will not be able to go further. Huh? We can continue for like that violin.
Yeah, so I will not be able to give a review of the second canto, but at least first canto, I want to finish. So it's interesting, but there is more to say about this.
The second pair of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam uh of the speaker and the listener of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Vyāsadeva and Nārada Muni or Nārada Muni and the Bhaktivedāntas who came to him they have higher qualification.
Definitely if Vyāsadeva uh is much more qualified than the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya. And Nārada Muni is more qualified than Sūta Gosvāmī himself. And even in the previous life Narada Muni was very qualified and his qualification was described.
He was very humble. He was absolutely ready to serve and he was very renounced.
The difference, if we look at this different pair of speakers and listeners, is they have higher level of knowledge and higher level of renunciation.
As I said, that the lowest possible qualification is the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya, who are very pure, no doubt about it, but still have tinges of material desires. They don't have to be 10% renounced.
The second level is when you're completely renounced from this world.
When we study very carefully this other story about Nārada Muni, who is receiving Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the sages, we will see he's already completely renounced from this world. He is not interested in this world.
He's not interested even as a child. Even in playing, he's not really interested. He's mumuksu from the beginning. He wants liberation, he wants to get the higher knowledge.
And very humbly he serves the sages for a long time. uh and uh not for a long time, for four months and then receives their remnants gets their uh their uh mantra their mercy and ultimately realizes the Lord.
And the same way, Vyāsadeva is being described as very, very knowledgeable and also very renounced. The second level of this. And the third level is the highest level of renunciation and highest level of knowledge.
This is how Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is trying to explain to us in an indirect way, uh this Adi Kartattva. When we study how Śukadeva Gosvāmī is being described, he's completely renounced from the very beginning.
See, what is this verse? Taravined us. He's already completely renounced. More renounced than Nārada Muni, more renounced than Vyāsadeva.
When Vyāsadeva runs behind his son, the ladies, who are Apsaras taking bath in the pond there, they become shy and they dress themselves. And he asks them, "Why didn't you dress when my son was running?" He's a young boy.
They said, "We know he's not interested in these things, But you are still to a certain extent. So this is the third level of the speaker. And the listener Maharaja Parikshet are being described also very beautifully.
His qualifications are described in the 12th chapter of the first canto and after that starting from his birth. And what we can see also, what we can notice by studying this description
so in the first canto, we will see that the more somebody is qualified, when the more qualified pair of speakers and listeners are being described, then the more emphasis is given to the listener.
In the beginning, there is more emphasis in the qualification of the speaker. When we're dealing with the neophyte devotees as ourselves it's more important than the speaker is qualified.
There is less emphasis on the qualification of the listener because there is no qualification in the listener. So it just doesn't really exist.
The only qualification is your desire to hear and your certain level of humility, uh respect to the speaker. But the speaker has to be qualified to impress upon us the deeper meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
But when we go to the higher levels of this transmission of this transcendental knowledge, then the listener has to be extremely qualified.
Shukadev Goswami will not come to a Brooklyn Temple or any other temple and all of a sudden start speaking. First of all, because he's not dressed. He probably will not be allowed into the temple room.
You know he will probably be driven away. You know, and he's not shaven up, obviously, and there are so many other discrepancies.
What I mean to say is that Śukadeva Gosvāmī will not explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to anyone and everyone. He will only explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to somebody who is qualified. And who is qualified?
Maharaja Pariksit is qualified. Even if somebody else in the audience will ask him to explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he will say, yeah yeah, right, very good. Hare Krishna. I don't have time.
But when he met with this completely extremely qualified person who doesn't have any other desire, who is completely uncanting, he doesn't have any other goal, then the heart of the speaker will be open and he will be able to reveal the highest truths.
Therefore, to get this higher understanding, like oftentimes people, devotees in this con, they say that my guru is not qualified, and this and that, or you know, sometimes so this guru is not qualified, that guru is not qualified.
We are not qualified. You know, when when we get the proper qualification, Guru will come, no doubt about it. This is one of the meanings of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You get the Guru which you deserve.
And if you don't get other guru, it means that you're not qualified. Maharaja Pariksit was qualified, therefore, he got the guru who is the most qualified. Because Krishna is behind this.
Krishna is arranging this meeting between the speaker and listener of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam because Krishna is. Krishna wants that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam would be spoken.
Pariksit's unique spiritual status
So that's how it is, and we will see
that the qualification of Śukadeva Gosvāmī are very briefly described in the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the second chapter, when Sūta Goswami glorifies his spiritual master, and then in the seventh chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam also, Ātmārāma ca munayo, there will be this description that Śukadeva Gosvāmī was completely renounced, but he was attracted by the qualities of Krishna.
But for the qualification of Maharaja Parikshit there is seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth chapter.
This all chapters they are in different ways described the qualification of Maharaja Parikshet even by the means of his bondage with his family members.
When the qualification of Pandavas are being described indirectly, it indicates what is the quality of their descendant Maharaja Parikshit. But also in these chapters which are directly
or indirectly describe the qualification of Maharaja Parikshit or of the listener of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, also very important things are being said. Basically, what it means, what we are describing now,
both speaker and the listener have to be devotees. And there are three grades or three levels of the qualification of devotees. We know Kanishta, Madhyama, and Uttama.
So both listener and the speaker have to be qualified either on one level or another level or on another level. They have to be devotees, it means they have to have bhakti.
Maharaja Pariksit already has bhakti of the highest level. He met with Krishna in the womb. There is hardly anyone else in this world who met Krishna face by face, eye by eye, you know, in the womb.
So he is already extremely qualified. But please listen very importantly. Ultimately, what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam wants to say, uh you have to have bhakti in the beginning to receive more bhakti by listening, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And this minimal level of bhakti is that you're humble, you're respectful, you're eager to hear, and this is how this qualification is being described.
But because bhakti is very difficult to perceive, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is describing instead, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is describing the extrinsic characteristics of bhakti, concomitant characteristics of bhakti, which are jñāna and vairāgya.
If somebody has bhakti, he will have jñāna and vairāgya.
That is the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is said, jñāna-vairāgya-yuktayaḥ. So if you have bhakti, then jñāna and vairāgya, the renunciation and knowledge will manifest within your heart.
So, what is being described in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that how the bhakti manifests differently on three different levels.
And how it gives you different level of knowledge and different level of renunciation. Like if we take eighth chapter of the first canto, uh we will see amazing knowledge of Queen Kunti. Why is this knowledge is there?
She was she herself says, I'm a woman, I am a woman. I'm not qualified to study Vedas. According to strict rules of varṇāśrama, women were not allowed to study Vedas. Still, she gives amazing knowledge, and actually in the
10th uh chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, uh the ladies of uh Hastināpura they express their knowledge from their heart.
In the 11th chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Queens of Dvārakā they express their knowledge and citizens of Dvārakā. It's all ladies. Why ladies? Because this knowledge is not a theoretical knowledge.
It's a knowledge which comes into the heart from your bhakti. If you have bhakti, then the knowledge will be there. You will be able, and how this knowledge will manifest, uh you will be able to live your life properly.
She first explains how by living her life she deserved this knowledge which she gained. She actually explains how the knowledge came to her through the life of devotion. So this life of devotion is uh uh qualifies
you to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If you live the life of a devotee, you will be able to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And we can see, you know, there are many different examples in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Queen Kuntī, Bhīṣmadeva, he expresses his knowledge and his renunciation.
You know, he expresses his amazing knowledge, so much so that he is able to convince Maharaja Vitishtira to take the kingdom. Whereas Krishna couldn't do this. Krishna wants to say that. He's more knowledgeable than myself.
Why? Because he's a bhakta. He's not a scholar and a you know orthodox meaning of this world. He's he's he's maybe not a scholar, but he knows this.
He knows all the truth and all this wisdom are from within the heart, because he is a devotee. And naturally Jnana and Vairagya comes to you.
And then the Pandavas, Pandavas, they are so renounced, and when they hear that Krishna is not there, they completely lose the interest.
And you know, Dhṛtarāṣṭra is a contrast to this in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He's not a devotee. Therefore, even when we hear when he hears vidura, it doesn't really click what vidura wants to say to him.
So that's again the example of how the knowledge can be unsuccessful.
This knowledge of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not necessarily—there is no assurance that the knowledge of Srimad Bhagavatam will be transmitted, but the only assurance of that it will be successfully transmitted is your devotion to Lord Krishna, to the personal Lord, from the very beginning.
Your faith. Sushru Shokh Sradadhana Sya, Pasudeva Katharu Chi.
So if you from the very beginning have this devotion and if you upgrade your devotion through listening to Shrimad Bhagavatam, Nityam Bhagavatam Sevaya, then your ability to understand the deeper meaning of Shrimad Bhagavatam will be increased.
And ultimately you will get the same result as Maharaja Pariksit. What is the result of listening to Srimad Bhagavatam?
Mahārāja Parīkṣit, he—he became gopī-bhāva, our ācāryas explained that he—he obtained uh he obtained the body above which is more important it's not body in in in our gross sense it's a spiritual body, emotional body, he obtained this emotional relationship with Krishna as a gopi.
So this is what is being explained in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Conquering the age of Kali
And there are few more topics, important topics in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is also for us important to understand what is there.
Kali-yuga is the most very important secondary topic in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because Kali-yuga makes everyone disqualified,
but Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is immune to the vices of Kali Yuga. And therefore, Maharaja Parikshet uh he was immune to the vices of Kali Yuga. He was able to conquer over Kali. He stopped the influence of Kali.
And there is very important another implication from this stories of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, is that how did he stop the influence of Kali? By stopping these four sinful activities.
And if we want to be immune to the vices of the age of Kali, we have to strictly follow four regulative principles. That's a very important qualification, which is again there.
As I said, all the topics of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about the qualification: how to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. What is the methodology?
What is the process of receiving this knowledge of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? Not theoretical knowledge, but the practical knowledge, realized knowledge. As I said, Parokhasgyan.
Parokshagyan means the knowledge which goes directly on into your soul, which you will not be able to lose at the moment of death. You will lose because it's in your mind.
You will not be able to keep this knowledge because your mind will be disturbed at the moment of death.
But the realized knowledge, uh, Parokshagyan Aparokshagyan, so sorry, Aparokshagyan, the realized knowledge, the direct knowledge. Paroxhagyan you will lose. Aparokshagyan you will not lose.
So uh for that you have to live the life of a devotee. You have to understand, you have to have the face. Uh without this, you will not be able to understand anything.
So this is uh one important secondary meaning of or sekundary topic of the first kanto. And there is another important secondary topic of the first kanto. First kanto is basically retelling us Mahabharata.
First Kanto is giving us the inner meaning of Mahabharata.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, uh Śrīla Vyāsadeva, who is the author of both Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Mahabharata, is retelling Mahabharata in a very short and abright version, but giving the meaning. What is the meaning of Mahabharata? This is the devotion to the Lord.
Because so many people read Mahabharata and become bewildered. What is the message of Mahabharata?
So Śrīla Vyāsadeva is repeating the same story, more or less, in the first canto of uh Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for those who will not be able who was not able to understand the inner message of Mahabharata. The message of Mahabharata is devotion to Lord Krishna, nothing else.
And that creates knowledge and renunciation within your heart, and bhakti makes you qualified to understand the message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So that's the contribution of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to understand the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It gives us the key or the methodology to understand it. So I guess I have to stop now.
We have few minutes to uh uh to answer the questions.
Answering audience questions
Yes. So thank you very much. Um we certainly have questions. Uh one or two questions were answered during the course, the fragment, when you were explaining the qualifications of both the listener as well as the speaker.
But there is another question. This question was asked by Adupama Kadarani Masasi and I also had a similar question.
She asked the question was centered around um there are many speakers who give classes on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam should we choose who we hear from or should we hear from any any strong devotee who's giving class. What impact does an exalted devotee's b class have on sincere listeners? That was her question.
And very similar that I also wanted to ask the Maharaj is that you spoke about deeper meanings and you also spoke about a listener has to be qualified and what Anupam Almandadi is asking is for the qualification of the speaker.
So what we really want to understand from you is how do we become qualified listeners so that we can actually move from parokshakyat to a parokshakyat because parokshadyat as you explain has a tendency to be lost at the time when you need it the most, which is death, as you explained.
But that's the fear we live with. And we take the shelter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam but continue to live in fear because our jñāna is parokṣa.
So how do we get into the upper realm where that we don't lose it because you said that it goes direct to the soul and then it'll come in handy when you need it to post so if you could reason lightness uh
questions that are to proposal if you want to ask you basically I explained this already in my talk but, I can emphasize certain things which I might not have mentioned.
The main qualification of a listener is not only to listen to Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam but to live life of devotion.
As we see in the example of Bhīṣmadeva, in the example of Kuntīdevī, in the example of Pandavas and in the example of Maharaja Parikset himself.
We don't know much about the lives of the sages of Naimiṣāraṇya, but of course they are generally pure. But you know, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the book which explains the greater book, the book of life.
We are in the school of Krishna and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is basically, you know it's not different from the book of our life.
We have to see all the events of our life through the lens of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, through the lens of devotion. Bhagavatam, through the lens of devotion. Krishna is behind this.
And sometimes it's very difficult, sometimes it's it's almost impossible. It's actually very interesting. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that there are two types of people who live in this world.
Generally, devotees are not included in those two broad categories. He said there are people who are happy in this world and they are sleeping.
They are happily sleeping by enjoying different illusory enjoyments of this world. And there is the second category of this world of the people who live in this world,
they are fainted because the life is too difficult and they're suffering too much. So we have two semi-conscious entities in this world. Some are sleeping and some are already fainted.
So basically what he says that none of them is really conscious, none of them is really consciously interacting with God through the events of their life.
They're either sleeping or they are completely, you know, they've fainted because it's too painful. And uh this is what what is happening. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a waking up call uh for us.
And uh we have to have again the minimal qualification uh for the speaker, for the listener, is to live the life of devotion and to have faith in the speaker.
Answering the question is that whether we should choose between the different speakers? First of all, we anyway choose. Whether I say to you, don't choose, or I say to you, choose, we anyway choose.
We have some speakers whom we like, we have some speakers whom we don't like. Some speakers tell a lot of jokes naturally, or tell some stories. Some speakers have the ability to bring us deeper so we anyway choose.
But as a matter of etiquette we have to respect anyone who speaks Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Therefore, according to the custom he is sitting on vyāsāsana, he is occupying the position of Vyāsa, whether he is, you know, deserving or not. We're respecting in his person by respecting Śrīla Vyāsadeva. Vyāsadeva.
He's sitting on the place of Vyāsadeva and hopefully vyāsāsana will give him some power to speak properly. Because it's the seat of Yasa.
So, and it it does have an effect. Actually, it does have an effect. It's not a joke.
If you sit on an elevated seat and you know you you you really understand that you are supposed to speak on behalf of uh very great uh people in Parampara. So you know you may become the transparent media.
But the minimum qualification is that he has to be a disciple himself, as I said.
As Sūta Gosvāmī, his qualification is described in this way: your gurus blessed you, uh you have all kinds of knowledge, uh, you know six systems of philosophy.
It is also said there, Śrīla Prabhupāda says that somebody who speaks Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam uh has to know six systems of philosophy and of course you know bhakta John may not know the
details of Vaiśeṣika's system of philosophy on Nyāya, but nevertheless he's kind of he's a bhakta, he's a uh he's sincere, he's sitting on the seat of uh Vyāsadeva, and he's a disciple.
If he's a disciple, Śrīla Prabhupāda says, What is this art? This art is art of submissive hearing.
This is Prabhupāda's phrase, the art of submissive hearing of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And the speaker is qualified, it means he's not changing the message. He is transmitting the same message in a very humble way. So in this way, he is qualified.
And you know, if you come to the class and somebody is sitting there,
you have to respect Vyāsadeva, you have to respect the system. Śrīla Prabhupāda was very emphatic. He wanted that all the His disciples would give classes. So we don't discriminate in this regard.
But we also stress this point that somebody has to be a disciple. Thank you Maharaj we will move to the next question. This is a question from Holidar Prabhu.
This question is how to reach the level of reading, how to read as a regular practice. Yeah, I said you have to get bhāva on a bhāva level then. Sorry, yeah.
He says it's much in my life, it seems hard reading, completing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam once, how to come, just practically.
No, it all boils down to the desire. Actually, the qualification, the main qualification of the listener is the desire. You know why Maharaja Pariksit was so qualified? Because he didn't have any other desires.
He knew that here is the somebody who can answer all my questions, here is and ultimately the, this is book which can answer all my questions. All my questions.
If you understand that this book will answer all my questions, I will not waste my time by reading some other literature news google news or Facebook news so you
When we have faith, we have enthusiasm. When we have enthusiasm, we have energy. When we have energy, we have time because the desire is there. Ultimately, it soul boils down to the desire, and desire comes if this uh uh understanding of this moment uh this wow moment comes that, you know, here is the book which can answer all my questions. This is uh uh this is actually the uh title of this uh chapter which we are reading. Bhagavatam is the answer to all questions. So if if we understand this, uh you know then there is no read uh there is no need to read some other book, some psychology book or some other book. If we master Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we will definitely understand everything. And we have enough time, no doubt about it. Maharaja Pariksit had only seven days. Thank you, Maharaj. That was uh question on behalf of all of us. I would say thanks to you that I have a few questions in this other to capture a wide context of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam requires the ability to think broadly. And if a devotee has not this skill, well, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will broaden our scope. There's no doubt about it. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will give us the broader perspective and ultimately will give us a very the perspective which will enable us to think broadly why do we think in a very narrow manner. Only because we are not capable, because we are not seeing the broader context. What's really happening with us? We have a very narrow lens and of our own experience. We have experience of being of some suffering in this world, of some enjoyment of this world. And usually when we see something, we interpret the meaning of this through this our own experience, which was very narrow. So, what Srimad Bhagavatam will do, Srimad Bhagavatam will immediately smash your narrow approach to the life, you know. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will say. You only suffer, you don't understand the meaning of your sufferings because you don't understand what was before, what was the cause of this suffering. You don't understand what Krishna is uh has in store for you, what he will give to you uh after this suffering will end. Uh you don't understand this. And Srimad Bhagavatam will explain that life is not as narrow as we see it. And therefore, by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, our scope and our intelligence will be broadened ultimately. And then we will be reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a broad way. So it's it's a process. It's it's a self-qualifying process. Yes, we are not able to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam because our perspective is too narrow now. But by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we will broaden our perspective and that will ultimately give us more deep understanding of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam. Therefore, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam has to be read again and again and again. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is sādhana. Reading of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is sādhana. And there is a very specific sutra in Vedānta-sūtra which says that sādhana has to be repeated again and again and again, because we have problems, we have impurities in our heart which are being removed through the repetition of the same process. I don't know how to uh wait. There are a few more questions I will answer now. Yes. Will a highly qualified listener similarly enjoy Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from different levels of speakers? Yes. We have an example of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura who came to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam class by Devananda Pandit. And Devananda Pandit, even though he didn't understand the higher meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and was explaining some dry philosophy, Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, he was in complete ecstasy. So much so that he even fainted right there in the class, which was not really appreciated by the students of Devananda Pandit. So it's definitely a fact. The qualification of the listener is more important than the qualification of the speaker. Because it is Vyāsadeva's Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is Śukadeva's Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it is the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of Śrīla Prabhupāda. They already transmitting very high knowledge. It's just we are not qualified to receive it. Otherwise it's not. So it's more important to understand the qualification of the listener or hearer. How is parokṣa-jñāna different from aparokṣa-jñāna in practice? See, parokṣa jñāna is by definition parākṣa. This is the jñāna which you don't have yourself, somebody else has this knowledge. He tells you and you receive it, this is indirect knowledge. Aparokṣa-jñāna means the direct knowledge. You know, you may theoretically know that you are the spirit soul, you're not this body. But since you don't know it in practice, you're still afraid of death, and you know you still suffer so much. But if you, like a very simple example: those people who have near-death experience, let's say, successful near-death experience, who went through this experience, left their body, saw their body, you know, completely understood they're not this body, have some mystical experience encounter with higher beings, usually when they come back, their life very drastically changes. They become better people, they become fearless, you know, they become very joyful, they have the broader perspective of life, so on and so forth. So they have aparokṣa-jñāna, direct knowledge. It's very direct knowledge. If you see your own body and if you see that your body is dead and you still see it, so you understand I'm not this body. So and uh but the beauty of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is that you can get parokṣa-jñāna by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or Bhagavatam is that you can get Paroksagyan by reading Shimad Bhagavatam or by listening to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You can get some sort of experience. But again, it requires qualification. If you hear in a proper mood, then the understanding will become deeper, will go deeper than on the level of your intellect. It will go much deeper. It will leave the impression in your soul, basically. That's what it is. Very deep impression, spiritual impression. But it requires, and it will take some time, but it's—that's the point that when Śukadeva Gosvāmī was listening, I that's the point that when Sukhadev Gaswamy was listening, I was explaining it last time. When Śukadeva Gosvāmī listened to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he didn't only listen Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he saw Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhagavatam, he saw Shimad Bhagavatam. And when he was retelling Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he was not just remembering, oh, what was this verse? I don't remember what was this oh yeah. Do you remember what was this verse after that? No. He was explaining what he saw in front of himself. And therefore, he was able to speak, even what uh what mm mm some of the hearers of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam think. He is the Muni who can enter everyone's heart. He became on the level of the super soul, because it's only super soul who can enter everyone's heart. But he is Tam Sarva Bhuta Hridaya Muni Manato Smy. I'm going down to this Sukadev Gaswami who can enter any everyone's heart. Why? Because this this is the level of realization he was on. And this is in practice. So at least we have this example. And it means that by listening to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam long enough and properly enough we will be able to uh to get a paroxagyan, not just paroxyan. Please uh okay. Just yesterday I had the question why in chapter 19 Śukadeva Gosvāmīuh has more importance than Vyāsa Deva. So plus I could okay. This is just okay. Understand it because Śukadeva Gosvāmī is the high level of understanding pronunciation of Western, isn't it? Yes, it is. Because if I understand properly, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is the Mahārāja Parīkṣit Master. Yes. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is the Mahārāja Parīkṣit Master. You understood it properly. Okay. There is no more questions. We do have two or three more questions, but uh it'll be nice if we can cover that part, is that possible? Yeah, quickly, yes. Five more minutes I can spend. Alright. Uh there's one question from Radhabhakta Prabhu who says uh was asked basically we hear about NASA discovering various millions of galaxies and endless stars when we hear about various universes in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, does it mean these galaxies? I lost you. But I I hear about NASA Yes, yes, yes. Yes, I hear this. Does it mean that these galaxies are different universes? Yeah. Yeah, uh it's actually a very interesting question, and I was always wondering how it is. Jiva Goswami in one place explains that when it is said that there are these layers of the elements uh within uh outside of the universe uh which can which constitute the universal shell. This universe is a, is an egg, therefore it's called Brahmanda. And in the outer covering of this shell, these layers of the elements, and if you know, how does it combine with the picture which we see around us? But Jiva Goswami explains actually very beautifully. He says that the eggs are there on all levels. There are different eggs. It's like Russian Matryoshkaas, you know, this matryoshka: one doll and another doll and another doll and another doll. So this uh elementary brahmanda, the original Brahmanda, which is there, has these outer coverings of the elements. But within this bigger egg, there are smaller eggs of different galaxies. So it's quite possible that these galaxies which we see around us are different universes within the bigger Brahmanda, bigger universe which is covered by this elementary eggs. So it's quite possible, according to Śrīla Jīva Goswami, It's not that youana småle univers är så coverd. Now, det är within this big egg. There are many smaller eggs. So we have two uh quick questions. One is uh from Vikram Prabur. His question is to understand is he would like to have your guidance for beginners like me to understand Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with best of our abilities, shall we start Bhagavad-gītā first and then try for Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam or we can do both in parallel? I would say you should do both in parallel as Prabhupada established. He wanted to have classes on Bhagavad-gītā in the evening, classes of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam in the morning. And in fact, Śrīla Prabhupāda's explanation of Bhagavad-gītā is from the perspective of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Sometimes people have this strange idea, I want to understand Bhagavad-gītā without this as it is, so to speak. But Bhagavad-gītā as it is, is the Bhagavad-gītā which is written from the perspective, broader perspective of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Again, the same sort of mentality or approach which is there, people try to narrow the context. But actually, you can understand the meaning, the broader the context you have, the more proper meaning you will derive. So if we try to understand Bhagavad-gītā without Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, it will be difficult. But Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā in the light of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will become very it's very easy to understand Bhagavad-gītā from the perspective of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Because it places everything in the proper perspective and makes it very logical. People when they try to understand, you know, like I read some scholars, they try to, you know, decipher different level layers in Bhagavad-gītā. This was written first, then something was added, then somebody else came and he added something else, you know, they they become completely lost. They don't see the whole thing. They don't have samāndvaya, the harmonious whole or harmonious understanding. And Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives this perspective which makes Bhagavad-gītā very easy. So you should do both definitely. Thank you, Mahārāja. And this is the last question now from Ankam Bandaji. Her question is, Mahārāja, you mentioned that on the first level of reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, one will know how to enjoy the material world. On the second level, on not immediately. Don't be in a hurry. On the second level. Well, well, Dhruva Mahārāja was one of them. For example, he wanted, he fulfilled his desire, he lived 36,000 years here, he went to Vaikuṇṭha planet, so on and so forth. I mean Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam explains how. And it will be very clearly when we see uh when we understand you know how each uh canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam progressively deals with this subject matter. So it as I explained what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is about, Visarga, Visarga means secondary creation. Visarga means how our body is created. Why our body has this constitution? Why somebody else, somebody has Vāta constitution, somebody else, Pitta constitution, Kapha constitution, this and that. So that's Visarga, secondary creation. Secondary creation, from secondary creation, Sthānam is there, the place where we live. Why do we live in this environment? How our environment is created by us. How we influence our environment by our mentality. And then Sthānam Poṣaṇam and how we maintain our life living in this environment. So this is all. If we know the secrets, if we know uh you know how I am constituted, uh what is the environment, how I should create this environment, how I should get the maintenance. That ultimately the Lord is behind and He's maintaining me, how if I uh have this uh point of view, this very clear vision, then I will be able to live in this world and not being entangled. You know, enjoy means uh you know basically live happy life as it is said in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, uh live healthy life. What is this verse? Uh uh Anyway, in the second chapter of the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Kāmasya nendriya-prītir, you should uh satisfy your inreas, uh the desires of your injuries of your senses in a healthy way, but it should not be the goal of your existence. You should have the higher goal to inquire the truth, to understand the truth, but at the same time there is no, there's nothing wrong in living healthy life. So, yeah, this is the verse. Kāmasya nendriya-prītir. Nārto Jiveta Yavata, yes. Okay. That's it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Alright, Maharaj. So thank you so much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya! Direct and indirect knowledge
Cosmic structure in scripture