A Structural Review of the Main Topics of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Lecture 5
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · 2020
Главы
Invocational prayers and introductory review
Omnamo Bhagavate vasudevaya bhagavate. Omnamo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, Oh no Bhagavate Vasudevaya Narayanamastyam, sritya, naram chevanarotamam, naram chevam, devi saraswati, Tato Damu Diraje, Naštapraja Shwa Badrishu.
Nittyambhata Sevayan, Sevayan, Bhagavatama Shloket, Bhagavatama Bhakti Bhava Tina Sti, Bhakti Bhavatin Sti, Yamprava Janta Manopetampetakrity, Dwajpayana, vi raha katara, Utreti tanyot aravo vinius, tam sarva butridayam ne tosn.
Yes, we are continuing with the structural review of the main topics of Shrimad Bhagavatam, and I described the ten lakshanas of Mahapurana,
or particularly Shrimad Bhagavatam, how the ten topics, nine topics of Mahapurana are there to distinguish the or to separate, to give them full description of the tenth topic which is Ashraya or the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
We touched on many different subjects, and yes, I did give a brief review of the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, which is the canto describing Adhikari Tattva, the truth about the
candidate who can understand Shimad Bhagavatam. So today we will do, I believe all the rest of the cantos.
I will not delve into the details, but I'll try to give a very broad overview so that you can have an understanding of what's going on in Srimad Bhagavatam completely.
Because when we come to close, when we zoom it uh then we may lose the broader context. And I stressed the necessity of broader context in my previous talk.
It's the broader context which gives the meaning to the details. Without broader context, the details become meaningless. And that's exactly what happened when we read Srimad Bhagavatam in a too slow pace.
We lose the meaning of particular stories or details what they are supposed to give to us because it can only be known through the broader context of the whole book. That will be today's topic.
We can continue these talks for some time for two, three more sessions, there is something else to speak, but today I wanted to give.
I don't know if I will uh do the whole twelve cantos or uh just the beginning, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth cantos. But probably at least up to the sixth canto we can do today, that's for sure.
Necessity of hearing about external energy
And to introduce this topic, I will read a very important verse.
This is the last verse from the seventh chapter of the second Kanto of Srimad Bhagavatam, which basically explains why the beginning topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are extremely important, even though the higher topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the main intention of the speaker.
This point is being repeated by Śrīla Prabhupāda and his purports, but this verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam specifically deals uh with this particular subject matter.
So Mayam varnayato mushya ishvarasya no modata taha Srinvatah Sradayani Tyam Maya Yatma Namuhiati Mayam affairs of the external energy Varnayatah while describing Amusya of the Lord, Ishvarasya of the Personality of Godhead, Anumodataha, thus appreciating Srinvata thus hearing Shradaya with devotion nityam regularly Maya by the illusory energy Atma the, living entity, na never muhyati, becomes illusioned.
Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda. The Lord's activities in association with his different energies should be described appreciated.
Namoda Taha basically means one should be very happy to hear about this uh katha, this about the dealings of the Lord with his different energies, appreciated and heard in accordance with the teachings of the Supreme Lord, Anu Modataha. If this is done regularly with devotion. Shradhaya Nityam and respect. Shradaya means also respect. Then one is sure to get out of the illusory energy of the Lord.
Mayatma namuhyati. So Mayam varnayato amushya.
When one hears how Amushya, the Supreme Lord, associates with his Maya basically, or Varna, when he describes Ishvarasyanu Modataha and when he is very happy to hear about this and Srinvatahya Numodataha very very much happy about this subject matters.
Srinvata Shradaya Nityam Maya Yatmana Mohyati He will not be bewildered by the illusory energy of the Lord.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda. The science of learning a subject matter seriously is different from the sentiments of fanatics. Śrīla Prabhupāda is brilliant.
So he basically wants to say that if you want to learn any subject matter, a subject matter, any subject matter seriously, you have to approach it systematically, exactly what we are doing now.
And it's different from the sentiments of fanatics. You know, we may be very emotional about this, uh, but um you know the fanatics they lack systematic approach to a subject matter, to any subject matter.
They are very chaotic in their approach. Fanatics of fools may consider the Lord's activities in relationship in relations with the external energy to be useless for them.
And they may falsely claim to be higher participants in the internal energy of the Lord. But factually, the Lord's activities in relation with the external energy and the internal energy are equally good.
The word māyā of course may mean both internal and external energy. Usually it's applied to the external energy, but we know that Yoga-māyā is also māyā, energy of the Lord.
So there's no difference for the serious listener in the dealings between the Lord and these two energies.
On the other hand, those who are not completely free from the clutches of the Lord's external energy should devoutly hear regularly about the activities of the Lord in relationship with the external energy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda says that if you are not completely free, then you have to hear with devotion about the activities of the Lord with the external energy.
They should not foolishly jump up to the activities of the internal energy, falsely attracted by Lord's internal potential activities like his rasa-līlā. Leila.
The cheap reciters of the Bhagavatam are very much enthusiastic about the Lord's internal potential activities and pseudo devotees absorbed in material sense enjoyment falsely jump to the stage of liberated souls and thus fall down deeply into the clutches of external energy.
Some of them think that to hear about the pastimes of the Lord means to hear about his activities with the gopis or about his past times like lifting the Govardhana hill and they have nothing to do with the Lord's plenary expansions as the puruṣa-avatāras and their pastimes of the creation, maintenance, and annihilation of the material worlds.
But a pure devotee knows that there is no difference between the pastimes of the Lord either in rasa-līlā or in creation, maintenance, and destruction of the material world.
Rather, the descriptions of such activities of the Lord as the puruṣa-avatāras are specifically meant for the persons who are still in the clutches of the external energy.
Topics like the rasa-līlā are meant for the liberated souls and not for the conditioned souls. The conditioned souls therefore must hear with appreciation and devotion.
With appreciation and devotion, the Lord's pastimes in relationship with the external energy and as such acts are as good as hearing of rasa-līlā in the liberated stage. A conditioned soul should not imitate the activities of liberated souls,
Lord Sri Chaitanya never indulged in hearing the Rasalila with ordinary men. In the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the signs of God, the first nine cantos prepare the ground for hearing the tenth canto.
Listen very attentively because this is exactly why we're reading this particular purpose. Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining the meaning of the nine cantos. They are preparing the ground for the hearing of the 10th canto.
This will be further explained in the last chapter of this canto. In the third canto, it will be more explicit, a pure
devotee of the Lord, therefore, must begin reading or hearing Shrimad Bhagavatam from the very beginning, not from the tenth canto. We have several times been requested by some so-called devotees
to the 10th skanto immediately. But we have refrained from such an action because we wish to present Srimad-Bhagavatam as the science of Godhead and not as the sensuous understanding for the conditioned souls.
This is forbidden by such authorities as Lord Brahmā by reading and hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam as a scientific presentation. Śrīla Prabhupāda is hammering this point. Srimad-Bhagavatam is a science.
And science needs to be approached scientifically or systematically.
The conditioned souls will gradually be promoted to the higher status of transcendental knowledge after being freed from the illusory energy based on sense enjoyment.
Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports of the second Canto, seventh chapter of the Srimad-Bhagavatam entitled Scheduled Incarnations with Specific Functions. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!
Namo Vishnu Padaya Krishna Prashtaya Bhutale, Srimati Bhaktividanta Swaminitinami, Namaste Saraswati Devi, Gouravani Pracharini, Nirvisha, Sunyavadi, Paschatade S Vancha Kalpataru Besha, Pripasindu bevacha, Patianam Pavanebyo, Vaishnavyo, Namnu Maha. Já Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhintananda, Shriad Adwita Gathara Srivassadi Gora Bhakta Vrindha Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hari Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ramahari Ram Rama Ramahare Hare.
Adjano Lambita Bujoka Sankirt, Nai tarok malai taksa, Biswam varo, Vija varu you Gudharma palu, Vandai Jagat priya carov karu navantaru.
Tantah pra vissi mamavama Vchacham ma E Mamam Prasuta Sanji Vayata kila shapti darh Swadam Anjamat Bagati Pranana Bhagavathi, Puru Satum. Swasyastu Vishwasya Kalah Prasidatam dyantu Bhutani, Shivam mit Hodi Yamanascha Badramba Jatata Doksaja, Avesha Tam Nomatir Atvihaituki
Hare Krishna, my dear friends, known and unknown. I'm very happy to speak with you again on this subject matter, which is very beneficial for the soul.
Theoretical knowledge versus direct spiritual experience
So, last time we finished our discussion on one very important topic which I wanted to touch a little bit in the beginning of this class, also because it has something to do with this particular verse.
We spoke about two types of knowledge which I mentioned several times during these talks: Parokshagyana and Aparoxagian, indirect knowledge, which we receive, basically theoretical knowledge which we receive from external sources.
And Aparoxagyan, when this knowledge becomes our own experience, it becomes direct knowledge.
When we talk about the spiritual subject matters, it's extremely important because we can be very theoretical knowers or scientists of spiritual science.
But ultimately, we have to become vijnanika, the real scientist, we have to get this aparoksha gyan, the direct knowledge of these subject matters. So, what is the difference?
And this is this explains why, as I said last time when we talked, why Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam while describing the qualification of both speaker and the listener gives more importance to the qualification of the listener.
Whereas in the material science there is much more emphasis on the qualification of the speaker. Listeners, we hardly have any qualifications. You can be nobody, you know, anybody to listen material subject matters.
And it doesn't matter because the material subject matters don't stress this point that it should go to this aparoksha level, not remain on this paroksha level, theoretical knowledge.
So, basically what is the difference between the two? When we hear, some saṁskāra is remained in our consciousness, in our mind. And it you know doesn't matter what we're hearing.
And the relative depth of this saṁskāra is different.
And aparokṣa-jñāna, basically this type of knowledge, when the saṁskāra becomes very deep. The superficial saṁskāra is called theoretical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is good enough to be repeated for the exam and then to be
forgotten. Because the saṁskāra is really shallow and it very quickly will be erased by some other saṁskāra, so covered over by some other saṁskāras, which we call the loss of memory, forgetfulness.
You know, but aparokṣa-jñāna gives such a deep saṁskāra that it can never be forgotten. It can never be erased. It can never be even covered over by some other samskaras. It will always be there.
So, and then this aparokshajnana is needed to pass the final test, the test of death. If it is a superficial knowledge, it will be forgotten because the intensity of the experience during the time of death is too much.
And this intensity will overshadow the shallow samskaras which are there. We will forget about them. But the deep samskars, on the contrary, will surface.
Because in the critical situations, the deeper samskaras become active. There is a funny story about one minister. He was a minister in one court in ancient India, and he spoke so many languages.
And all the languages he spoke perfectly with perfect accent, so that nobody knew where he is from and what is his mother tongue. So, and everyone was wondering and you know betting, what is his mother tongue?
Because and he never said this. They didn't know; he would keep it a mystery.
It's not like my English you can immediately say that I'm Russian, trying to speak English with heavy Russian accent, or you know, some other accents are there: German accent or Norwegian accent or Swedish accent or American accent or British accent whatever.
So he was different. He could perfectly speak any language. So ultimately, two of his enemies decided to bat and find out. So what they did in a dark place, say at night when he was going back, they just attacked him.
And in this violent attack, he started crying and he cried in his mother tongue. So, because that was his deepest samskara.
Other samskaras were equally deep, or not equally deep, also deep, because he was very good at these things. But the point which I want to make is that at the critical time, the deepest samskara will surface.
And that's exactly what we're trying to do during this lifetime.
We're trying to make this samskara, Hare Krishna samskara, or spiritual samskara, or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam saṁskāra, as deep as possible. Then we will be guaranteed. Then it will be sure.
It has to become much deeper than any other saṁskāra.
Then only uh Narayanam Antah Sarve uh N Narayanam Antah Smariti Smiritira Narayanamante Smiritir Narayan Mante. Ante Narayanum Smeritir. So uh Smriti. And the end we should remember Narayan.
So, how to what makes the saṁskāra deep?
Role of regular hearing in deepening impressions
That's very important because we're talking about science. And basically, this verse explains how to make the saṁskāra of hearing deep. Therefore it is said nityam.
If you listen again and again and again and again, then saṁskāra becomes deeper every time you listen about this. Nityam, regularly listen.
And then śraddhayā, śraddhayā means with devotion, śraddhayā means with respect, śraddhayā means without pride. That's what śraddhayā means.
Then māyā yatmana na muhyati, then only māyā will not influence you, you will not be a victim of māyā. So So it's a great science and it's it's a beautiful science.
Basically, what is meant here is that when we listen again and again and again, by putting aside our false identity, false ego, our pride, our heart will become open to this knowledge.
You know it's one thing to listen and always estimate what we hear and try to judge it and try to you know develop or uh how to say this uh nourish our pride while listening and at the same time criticizing the speaker, you know, he doesn't know what he's doing and this and that.
You know, we we all know how to listen this way. It's not called śraddhayā. Śraddhayā means by faith, by devotion, by respect.
So that will leave the impression because why the impressions are shallow which we get because they are filtered through the cell of false ego.
When we have false ego, whatever we experience it's more or less, it's very much distorted by our false ego and the impression is not so deep.
Whereas why the childhood impressions are so powerful and so important exactly because the child doesn't have the protective shell of the false ego.
The child is very vulnerable to any impressions and therefore it's so important to protect the child, it's so important to give him good saṁskāras.
And good saṁskāras basically means protect protective pious saṁskāras, and therefore there are tensum scars which are there which should be given or administrated to a child which should be necessary to protect the child from the negative influences so to speak.
So therefore all these rituals, purificatory rituals are called samskaras because they leave certain protective samskaras uh in the mind of the child.
But that's little uh how you say this deviation little deviation from the main topic. So basically you have to have the deep
samskara, you have to follow this template, you have to follow these rules, you have to do it regularly, you have to do it with devotion.
You have to have trust in a person whom you hear, and that what it means, śraddhā. Śraddhā means trust. And when you do this, uh then uh hearing will change you internally.
You know, deep samskaras change our personality, shallow samskaras do not, shallow samskara will remain the same with a little extra knowledge here and there, with little extra covering.
But the core personality will not be changed by shallow samskaras. scars. You know, it's interesting. I also mentioned last time when we were finishing our discussion about near-death experiences.
Usually, people who have near-death experiences and they're all very strong, they remain changed personalities when they come. The whole direction of life changes. Why?
Because they got this extremely deep samskara, which changed the whole personality and the whole direction of life, the whole, you know, perception of life and everything else.
But the same thing we should do without waiting for near-death experience. We may not have near-death experience, we may only have death experience, which is not the same. And having death experience, it's too late.
Near death experience is, as Prabhupada says, second chance. But the death experience, well, it will be second chance, but in a different settings. So therefore it's very interesting that according
to Vedic philosophy or Vedic culture, when one begets the diksha, gets initiation in the spiritual line, he's called dvija, twice born. It means he's born anew, it means that he's again vulnerable to samskaras.
He is again open to all the samskaras. He's again open to the influence of his spiritual master and he makes himself specifically open to this. He is making special endeavors to become vulnerable and
to become open to the saṁskāras, especially saṁskāras of hearing. Therefore, all these conditions are always there. Hearing is very effective and very powerful, but only if this conditions are in place.
Shraddha, Nityam, and basically yes, Shradhaya, Sradhayan Vitaha. When you are endowed with face. So that's the little introduction to this topic, to
our important topic which we are talking about, how to listen Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to have deep saṁskāras and to experience ananta-rūpiṇi prīti to remember about the Lord at the end of our life.
And therefore, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives more uh emphasis to the qualification of the listener because the success of hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is more dependent on the qualification of the listener.
How one listens, how open one becomes, how much he understands the seriousness of this matter, how eager he is to hear about these subject matters.
And therefore Prabhupada says here that basically this eagerness is very important, eagerness to hear about these topics. That's extremely important. And hopefully my talk will make you little more eager.
That's my highest ambition. If you become a little more eager to hear about that's the success of this talk.
So again, uh first canto we more or less covered, we were talking about uh different uh different uh topics of the first canto but the main topic is the Adhikari Tattva. And uh it's also touching the uh Kali Yuga because Kali Yuga is closely related to this topic.
In Kali Yuga, people are unqualified. They are unqualified to follow any other process. And even the process of hearing is too difficult for people in Kali Yuga. It's really difficult.
And therefore, especially now there is this clip mentality that is developing when people can only have a very short uh attention span, you know, for a few minutes and then they're off to to click to some other you know engagement and some other uh page or some other video or something else.
You know, a few minutes you can have somebody's attention if you are lucky. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not like this, it requires serious attention.
So that's the topic of the first canto, different stories of the first canto describe directly and indirectly the qualification of the listeners and the speakers.
Focus of the second canto on sadhana
And I also mentioned last time, I believe, that the main topic of the second canto is sadhanatva.
Because basically the second canto starts in the end of the first canto where Maharaja Parikshit asks his question, or rather his two questions.
What one should hear at the time of death when somebody is dying, mriyamanasya, of somebody who is dying, who is in the process of dying. And that refers to all of us because we are all in the process of dying.
So Maharaj Pariksit basically asked Sukadev Goswami, the great sage whom he met at the end of the first canto, the speaker and the listener came together. He asked what one should hear and what one should not hear.
During this time of dying. Otherwise, during our life, which is devoted to dying. So, what one should remember and what one should not remember?
What one should speak about and what one should not speak about during this lifetime. It's equally important and this two parts of this question.
Because what happens, we may listen to something which is beneficial, but we also in the meantime we listen to so much garbage. why we're still in māyā, why we still have so many desires. Exactly.
Because we hear and we speak and we remember about so many unnecessary things, unbeneficial things, among, something which is abhadra, which is impure.
Unfortunately, especially now in the internet era, it's a very common practice.
So having asked these two questions, he is asking about sadhana what should do during the lifetime or when one finally realized dull as he is that he is dying.
You know, everyone is dying, but uh we need 80 years of life to realize that you know it's it's coming, it's approaching. So that's a very unfortunate situation. Therefore, second canto, that's the main topic.
But specifically this topic is being dealt with in the first four chapters of the second canto.
It's interesting that first Śukadeva Gosvāmī starts by criticizing materialistic people who are basically not following sadhana.
Or they follow their sadhana, but their sadhana is the sadh of death. Sadhana of just basically, you know, to die. That's their prayana. There's no other prayojana. So he criticized them in a few verses.
He says that in a fourth or in three first verses, he says that materialistic householders are engaged in sex during the nighttime and they are earning money during the daytime.
And they listen so many other subject matters, so many other garbage. That's what they do whole day long. Listen and listen and listen and listen and go from one news page
to another news page and listen all kinds of grāmya-kathā, all kinds of all kinds of slander and all kinds of gossip, so on so forth.
And then he says that the famous verse tasmād bhārata sarvātmā bhagavān īśvaro hariḥ śrotavyaḥ kīrtitavyaś ca smartavyaś ca C He says, if somebody is afraid of death, what he should do, he should hear about Bhagavan Ishwara Harihi and he should remember about him, and he should speak about him.
So he gives this conclusion as usually in the beginning. It's a usual design of spiritual subject matter, you first give the conclusion. It's called pratiggya.
You declare in a very solemn way the conclusion which you want to arrive, and then you you go roundabout way and say what one shouldn't do, but ultimately come to the same conclusion at the end.
So that's uh That's the way how the second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam starts. And in the first canto Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī is explaining the meditation on Viratrupa or on the gross form of the Lord.
It's a sort of yoga, yogic meditation, becausecause and because that's a very common practice, uh, but ultimately, yeah, and because that's a very common practice, uh, but ultimately, yeah,
Meditation on the universal form of God
he wants to say that yes, this is something important because let me explain why it is important for us.
Um Because when we hear that we should think about the Lord, we have a very wrong impression that from now on I know what to do, I should think about the Lord. Let me think about the Lord.
But we have to be very clear that we cannot think about the Lord. Why we cannot think about the Lord? Because we don't have direct experience of the Lord.
And when we think about the Lord in the wrong way, we imagine the Lord.
And people think that to think about the Lord is to the imagine, is to imagine the Lord. And Śukadeva Gosvāmī describes this in the second chapter of the second canto. But basically, he wants to say, no, no, don't do this. Thinking about the Lord is not a question of imagination.
And you know, being happy about your imagination, oh, I am so elevated, I'm thinking about the Lord all the time. No, you have to relate to something which you have experience of and try to connect this with the Lord.
That's exactly why Śukadeva Gosvāmī, even though his main purpose is not to give us this sadhana, but he starts the second Kanto with this sadhana of meditation on the Viratrup.
He says all the time when we think about the Lord, the methodology should be that it's something which we know on our own experience.
And then, you know, we enhance it by reading Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this and that, but, uh, it's important not to mix or not to exchange the real thinking about the Lord with some imagination.
And that's exactly why Śrīla Prabhupāda says that it's so important for us to hear about the experiences or the pastimes of the Lord with the material energy because we have direct experience of this.
We should start at this point, not at any other point, because any other point
when we jump up, as Prabhupāda says, to Rāsa-līlā, Govardhana-līlā, or any other līlā, we are jumping up, and basically we offend the Lord by our, uh, you know, very proud attitude that I can think about the Lord.
You cannot. You cannot. But we can think, we definitely can think about the pastimes of the Lord related with this material world. And that's where we have to start.
So therefore, virāṭ-rūpa goes first, and then in the third chapter, Śukadeva Gosvāmī is explaining the meditation of a yogī on the form of the Lord in the heart. And again he explains the yogic meditation, which is not his real intention.
And only in the third chapter of the second canto he starts with the real sadhana.
Again, it's very important when we talk about any subject matter to before saying what this subject matter is, to say what this subject matter is not. So that we would not mix it in our polluted consciousness. So that's why these first three chapters are there.
But it's very interesting that Śukadeva Gosvāmī himself hardly speaks about this bhakti sadhana in the third chapter of the second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
It is Śaunaka Ṛṣi, not even Sūta Gosvāmī, but Śaunaka Ṛṣi, he speaks about bhakti-sādhana, how to engage our senses. Rather than prematurely engage ourselves in meditation on the Lord, in a style of yoga.
It's more or less being rejected in the previous description, so in previous two chapters. Shona Karisha starts speaking how to engage different organs in a negative way.
He says that if the head is not boiling down, it's just the place for a turban, nothing else. And if the ears don't hear about the Lord, it's like the holes of the snake.
And if the mouth is not speaking about the Lord, it's like the frog's tongue which is uh speaking all kinds of nonsense and inviting deaths to us.
So he explains this science of devotional service or Vaidhi Sadhana Bhakti. Basically, in the very beginning, Śukadeva Gosvāmī gave this definition of Vaidhi Sadhana Bhakti, Tasmāt Bhārata Sarvātman.
And also he says etān nirvidyate manasām, this is 11th verse of the first chapter or of the second Canto, he stressed the importance of the chanting of the holy name. He gave the main building blocks for the sadhana.
But then Śaunaka Ṛṣi is explaining it in relationship to our body, how we should more or less consciously engage our body in the service of the Lord, different limbs of the body, hands, different senses, hands, ears, nose, tongue, head by bowing down, and ultimately heart.
This description culminates in his famous verse where he says that the heart of those who are by pronouncing or remembering actually. Remembering the names of the Lord Harinama-japa.
If the heart will not melt, this is the heart which is blocked by fences or iron iron framed heart. Very hard heart.
So this description is there: very important descriptions which we should read. It's a poetic description of the whole sadhana. And that's basically the essence of the second Canto.
Engaging physical senses in devotional service
But there are very interesting points later on.
But in the fourth chapter when Śukadeva Gosvāmī after describing this, starts answering the question of Mahārāja Parīkṣit: Please explain to me the beginning of creation, how Brahmā created this world and about the conversation between Brahmā and Nārada, Śukadeva Gosvāmī himself shows what it means to be engaged in devotional service, what bhakti-sādhana is. He glorifies the Supreme Lord verse after verse after verse, many many verses.
The series of verses of the fourth canto is the practical illustration what it means to do bhakti. You know, like today I was in some Sangha,
internet Sangha of devotees, and somebody says, you know, let's do something, some bhakti, but what is bhakti? It's very mysterious. Yes, it is mysterious in one sense because it's internal energy of the Lord, that's true.
But at the same time, it's not so mysterious.
If we engage ourselves, uh, especially engage our heart in these uh topics in describing or in glorifying the Lord in trying to glorify the Lord on the basis of our own experience and we all have experience enough experience to glorify the Lord. Every one of us.
If we try to search within our heart, we will find so many reasons to glorify the Lord. And that's exactly what Śukadeva Gosvāmī is teaching us in this fourth chapter of the second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
He is explaining to us what it means to glorify the Lord by finding
the reasons of it not formally, not officially, not mechanically, but by finding the reasons for it within the core of our and while pouring out this conclusion from our heart. And that will be bhakti.
And there's nothing else. There's nothing else. Bhakti is not anything else. When we just try to search within the heart the presence of the Lord and speak something about this presence.
And we all have, we all have some experience of it. And the more we do it, the more profound this experience will become.
So now this is where in a very interesting junction because in the fifth chapter of the second canto, and in the sixth chapter, and in the seventh chapter, and in the eighth chapter and in the ninth chapter and in the tenth chapter and the remaining chapters remaining six chapters of the second
canto not so much importance is given to the sādhana-tattva. Basically, Śukadeva Gosvāmī starts with the first topic of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is sarga, atra sarga, visarga, sthānaṁ, poṣaṇam ūtayaḥ and we learn this verse hopefully by heart.
This is the first verse of the tenth chapter of the second canto. And in the fifth canto, in the fifth chapter, he says about sarga. In the sixth chapter, he speaks about visarga, the secondary creation,
and in the seventh chapter, he speaks about Manvantara.
He touches three very important subject matters from the superficial point of view very prematurely, because the scheduled incarnations is the subject matter of the ninth canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, īśānukathā. But even in the second canto, in the seventh chapter, the whole chapter is beautifully describing all these incarnations.
So basically, it's a very important point. And I will explain it a little bit. What Śukadeva Gosvāmī wants to say to us. First of all, he gives us again sādhana, it's sādhana.
Sadhana is talking about the past times of creation.
And it's really sadhana because in the first three cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this subject matter is repeated so many times. And suddenly it is something which is repeated again and again and again. So Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī is stressing this point, emphasizing this point.
This is your sadhana. Listen about this. Listen again and again and again. Don't say that you already understood this. You didn't understand this. How can you understand this?
But uh uh I will explain while explaining the main subject matter of the third canto, why it is so important. I will explain a little bit here also. But it's extremely important.
So he basically again teaches us the sadhana so he speaks about Sarga, Visarga, and Manvantara.
And Sarga, the the primary creation, the first creation, and Visarga secondary creation basically creates the scene for the Lord to appear. And this is the meaning of these three chapters together.
You know what is this material world? What is the purpose of this material world? The purpose of this material world is to rectify the conditioned souls. How to rectify the conditioned souls?
By the means of the Lord coming here on this scene and performing his pastimes. Līlāyā te bhuvanāni jītāḥ.
So in Brahma-saṁhitā, Lord Brahmā says that Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa, so when one hears about this Rasa so when one uh hears about this
Līlāyā te bhuvanāни jītāḥ, when Lord comes and when he comes, he conquers over this world, jayatī-āśram, jayati. He comes again and again and again and again to show that he is the supreme. Here I am.
Don't say that I don't come. So this whole world: the Lord didn't abandon us, didn't leave us on our own. He's caring about us and therefore he comes himself.
It's almost impossible to believe, but it is, and this is his saving grace. And that's exactly what is being described.
And in these three chapters, basically, the short description or short synopsis of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is given. It's the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which is narrated by Lord Brahmā to Nārada Muni.
Lord Brahmā, addressing Nārada Muni, describes primary creation, secondary creation, and scheduled information, uh scheduled incarnations of the Lord. So that's um the uh second uh the next part of it.
And when Maharaja Parikshet hears about this, this is the first Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which he hears.
Already the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, more or less, the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is completed because in this seventh chapter of the second canto, so much emphasis is given to Krishna Avatār, particularly among other Avatars, he is definitely distinguished from others, most important.
And as I said, this verse which we read is the last verse of the seventh chapter of the second canto.
Where again Śukadeva Gosvāmī is preparing to us, he said, I explained to you the creation, but I'm going to do it many times more. Don't worry about this. Prepare for this. It is important.
So I will skip this description which is there because we are only giving the general overview of the topics.
I just want to explain how Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam works. How it goes, how it flows, not from narration point of view, but from the point of view of the essence which is being transmitted through this flow of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
And then in the eighth chapter, Maharaja Parikshit asks many, many questions. Something like 30 questions.
And then then he said, I asked you so many questions, but if you're kind to me, you please answer even those questions which I didn't ask.
Because I may not have enough brains, I may not have enough understanding to ask all the questions, important ones.
So you please uh take over from this point you have the carte blanche, you please uh describe the topic of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a systematic way so he asks his questions in a more or less unsystematic way, which is should be expected from the listener.
But he also gives this freedom to the speaker, which is again very important. The listener has to give the freedom to the speaker to express himself and has to show his eagerness.
By asking one question after another question. He's inspiring Śukadeva Gosvāmī. I can tell you, it's very depressing when you talk and talk and talk and nobody asks any questions.
Because you think you know okay, everyone was sleeping because Naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhadreṣu, all the disturbing elements from the heart was eliminated by listening to Bhadriso, all the disturbing elements from the heart was eliminated by listening to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and everyone is snoring happily by putting his microphone on a mute mode.
But uh anyway, Parikshit is definitely an ideal listener. An ideal listener is somebody who always inspires the speaker by asking the questions.
It's not a hint but it's a little anyway it's a little um complaint or grievance. So he asked these questions from Śukadeva Gosvāmī.
Brahma's vision and the four essential verses
And Śukadeva Gosvāmī starts the ninth chapter by answering two first questions of Maharaja Parikshit, only two first questions.
But then he starts describing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a systematic way by explaining how Lord Brahmā, the secondary creator of this world, was born on the lotus flower, and how he was bewildered, and how he heard two syllables, tapa, and how he concentrated his mind.
So please concentrate your mind because concentration of the mind this is what is meant by tapa. Tapasya doesn't mean external tapasya when you torture your body, when you don't eat anything.
When you don't drink, when you just do daṇḍavats, parikrama all day long.
This may have its place, but ultimately, the ultimate tapasya is to concentrate the mind, is to really be attentive and concentrate with, meditate with some depths.
So this is what Lord Brahmā did because this is the order of Lord of the Lord to Lord Brahmā. And it is said here in this chapter that the Lord read scriptures three times.
This is how He concentrated His mind basically on the subject matter of the Lord on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because Bhāgavatam is the book about the Lord. This is the subject matter of the Lord.
So and his meditation, his contemplation, his sadhana becomes successful. Again, even though superficially the subject matter of sadhana is finished in the first four chapters, but it's not.
In the fifth, sixth and seventh chapter the subject matter is again being delineated by being described. The sadhana is being described by these descriptions of the of this chapters.
And then it's continued in the ninth chapter.
It's continued in the eighth chapter because in the eighth chapter, Śukadeva Gosvāmī Maharaja Parikshit asks questions, and this is a part of the sādhana. To ask questions all the time, to listen and ask questions and to answer these questions. That's sādhana.
This is all descriptions of sādhana. So please uh don't underestimate how important it is. And then you know sadhana of Brahmā, which is being described described as his contemplation on the Lord, is successful.
He sees Vaikuṇṭha. He sees this amazing vision. He gets to the spiritual world.
His mind is transferred to the spiritual world because he wanted to be equipped for the creation and he wanted not to be touched or influenced by the external energy of the Lord.
Therefore, he was meditating and uh the Lord gave him this facility and he got this vision. This mystical vision of Vaikuṇṭha, beautiful uh description is there. In the ninth chapter, in the beginning of the ninth chapter.
And then the Lord comes Himself to Lord Brahmā, and as Prabhupāda translates, he shakes his hand. My dear Lord Brahmā, very good. He's shaking his hand.
The Sanskrit word for shaking hand here, Sprishati. He touches his hand. But basically, it's shaking hands. So this is a very authentic habit of human beings, which is not allowed during lockdown. You can only do Namaskar.
But it is definitely there in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The Lord Himself says, My dear uh Lord Brahmā, you're successful in your meditation, and why I will explain to you subject matters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And he says, There is only four subjects matters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we have time, if you have time, if I have time, let's see how it goes.
We may in some other lectures describe this Catuḥ-ślokī of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in a more detailed way because Catuḥ-ślokī of Śrīmad Bhagavatam is again the essence of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But the Lord Himself says what are these four subject matters?
It's easier to remember because for dull-headed people of Kali Yuga, it's difficult to remember ten subject matters unless you are genius. It's very difficult to remember ten subject matters. Four subject matters.
Three is better, but four somehow rather we can by great you know tension in our head remember.
Four fundamental themes of the Catuḥ-ślokī
So please do remember what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is all about. The Lord says in the beginning of His description of Catuḥ- ślokī of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, that there is jñāna vijñāna rahasya, and tad-aṅga. These four subject matters.
He calls these four subject matters by these four names which are very important for us to understand.
He says that the first subject matter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is jñānam. And jñānam, as we know, is theoretical knowledge. Jñānam paramaguhyam me, it's a very high, very confidential theoretical knowledge which is given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Yadvijñāna-samanvitam. But this is not just theoretical knowledge, it's also accompanied by vijñāna. And we will know what it is. Sarahasyam, together with rahasya, tad-aṅgaṁ ca. Together with aṅga, with a part of it.
Gṛhāṇa gaditam mayā. So I will explain to you this and please listen, gṛhāṇa gaditam mayā. Please listen it very attentively with high concentration
so that the saṁskāra becomes very deep. Please listen with high attention. What is so important? Because this is four topics of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which will be described in four verses. And what is this?
Paramaguhyam me. The jñānaṁ paramaguhyam me is the knowledge of the Lord. That the Lord basically existed before the creation, will exist after the annihilation of this world.
And is existing during the existence or maintenance of this world. He is there. He is right here. He's not there. He is here. He is not some remote subject matter. He is very relevant. He was there.
He will be there, he is there. Why is it called jñānam paramaguhyaṁ me? It's called jñānam because we do not have the direct experience of this knowledge. Simply like this. We have to take it by face.
Therefore, it's called jñāna. We do not have any direct experience of the presence of the Lord, but we need to take this theoretical knowledge. This is one of the subject matters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is speaking about the Lord who is adhokṣaja, who is imperceptible to our senses.
That's uh important subject matter, even though he is imperceptible and we cannot know him, we have to understand that without his presence nothing would happen.
So this is the first subject which is called jñānaṁ, the subject matter of the Lord who is imperceptible to the senses. Therefore, it's called jñāna. Theoretical knowledge. Second subject matter, vijñānaṁ.
But Śukadeva Gosvāmī is not only talking about the Lord. You know there are some spiritual books which talk about only unknowable subject matters.
Subject matters which we don't have spiritual experience, and it's very hard to relate to them. Because, you know, yeah, maybe it's like this, maybe it's not like this.
So vijñāna needs to be there, and vijñāna, it's our vijñāna. Why it is called vijñāna? Because we do have direct experience.
What we do have direct experience of, we have direct experience of being in touch with the Lord's energy. So that's the next second subject matter.
Extremely important subject matter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: the description of the Lord's energy, which is directly perceivable by our senses.
Not only this kind of energy, there is yogamāyā which may not be directly perceivable, but mahāmāyā is definitely perceivable by us.
So therefore, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not only talking about the Lord but he talks about our own experience and explains the realm of our experience through this knowledge of the Lord.
The whole vijñāna or the whole science of energy, material energy, is explained by the understanding that the Lord is there.
Lord is definitely there, He is the Creator, He's behind everything, and He is controlling everything. Even though it superficially doesn't seem so. Superficially everything is automatic.
There is no direct involvement of the Lord. So that's the very confidential knowledge of rahasy-rahasya, not rahasya, yet it's confidential knowledge of vijñāna, how the energy of the Lord works.
That's the second verse of the catuḥ-ślokī of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam. First verse was Ahamevāsam evāgre. The second verse uh was of course that's a very famous verse. So it explains two kinds of energy of the Lord.
Yathābhāso yathā tamaḥ. Two comparison, the energy of the Lord is compared with two ways it may be just same,
reflection, ābhāsa, or it may be same, darkness. So and there are so many descriptions, it's specifically it's a very how to say väg definition because in a väig definition you can inkludes so many other stuff. It's a very um concentrated knowledge because there is a lot of there.
This uh yathābhūta so yathā-tāmaha it's uh jīva who is in māyā, ābhāsa and material energy prakṛti, it's vidya avidyā, two parts of māyā. It's also can be considered as spiritual energy.
Well, not spiritual energy, but anyway, so many explanations are there. But the basic point is that to explain how the energy works in relationship with the Lord.
And if you try to explain how the energy works outside of the relationship of the with the Lord. You are basically lost, you are in Maya. Well, we definitely will not be able to do twelve canthes. That's for sure.
With this speed. But anyway, I'm not I'm very quickly describing the second canto. We almost finished with the second canto. So what is Rahasya?
Jñānam is the knowledge about the Lord who is adhokṣaja. Vijñānam is the knowledge about the energy of the Lord, how the energy works, and uh we have direct experience of this working of the Lord's energy, therefore it's called vijñāna.
So rahasya means why it is given to us, why do why is this material energy there? What is the purpose of it? That's rahasya.
Because everyone has experience of dealing with material energy, suffering within material energy, or enjoying within material energy. But nobody understands what is the ultimate purpose.
The ultimate purpose is rahasya, it's very confidential. What is rahasya? Ultimate purpose is to gain love of Godhead. Premā is rahasya. And prema is explained in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
That's a very important subject matter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So that is the third verse of Catuḥ-ślokī rahasya, prema, yathā bhavati bhūtāni.
Basically, the Lord explains how you develop love by understanding that I am there within your heart and I am at the same time outside of the universe.
I am entering everything in this creation, and at the same time not entering in everything of this creation. This understanding itself will evoke love.
If you understand this, it's very interesting because in the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is this description of Uddhava Sandesh, how Uddhava comes from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to Vrindavan and how Udhava basically this conveys this same message of the third verse that as much as the great material elements enter and not enter this creation, in the same way, I am entering and not entering, I exist and not exist.
So there it will be explained how Gopis listening this message of Krishna will listen to three times, understanding it deeper and deeper and deeper. And that will give them deeper and deeper experience of love.
First, they thought it's just some uh yoga, some some theoretical knowledge, and they kind of rejected it, but then they thought no no uh our kanai is not like this.
Our Shyam cannot just uh say something like this, something so hard-hearted. He he cannot be like this. He cannot send his intimate friend to us with this strange message.
So they asked Uddhava to read it again and Udhava read it again, and they realized more deeply, but still they were a little confused, and then Udhava read it again and again, and ultimately they realized Krishna is talking about the love.
He says, I'm always with you. Basically, Prema as the confidential subject matter of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is this message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that: the Lord is already with us. We are not separated with Him.
It's just our Maya which is separating us with Him. And if we understand this deeply, we will experience His presence. And experience of His presence means love.
So that's the third verse of Chatuh-sloki of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And the fourth subject matter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, of the fourth verse of Chatuh-sloki of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was what?
Jana, Vijana, Rahasa, Anga. Tad Anga. Tad Anga. Tad Anga, extremely important verse of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to which Śrīla Prabhupāda writes the most profound and the most extensive purport probably in the whole of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tad Anga, Tad Anga Tatva Deva Jigyasyam Tattva Jigyasunatmanaha Anvaya Vyatreka Bhyam Yatsyat Sarvatra Sarvada.
A person who is searching after the Supreme Absolute Truth, the personality of Godhead, must certainly search for it up to this in all circumstances, in all spaces, in all space and time, both directly and indirectly.
Must certainly search for it. It's probably must certainly search for it. It's probably a little misprint here. Must certainly search for it, not must. So basically, this four subject matter of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
So jñāna, vijñāna, rahasya, and sādhana. And again, sadhana is the main subject matter of the second canto.
So sādhana is given the most important stress among the catur-śloki of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam because by sādhana you will realize rahasya. All this previous truths, jñāna, vijñāna, and rahasya, will be realized by sādhana.
And sādhana has to be performed again and again in all spaces, in all the times, sarvatra, sarvadā, anvaya-vyatirekābhyām directly indirectly, and it means so many things.
It means rāgānuga-sādhana, it means vaidī sādhana, it means all kinds of stuff which Śrīla Prabhupāda very detailed explains in the purport of this verse.
So that's basically catur-śloki of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in the tenth chapter which is the main subject matter, and again suddenly stressed here.
And in the tenth chapter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, as we explained, the 10th subject matters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam I already told this. There is no need to stop at this point.
We already know how it is explained in the 10th chapter of the second canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Significance of repeating the creation accounts
But then, very interestingly, Śukadeva Gosvāmī starts in explaining creation for the second time. In the short second canto, which is one of the shortest cantos, uh well
not but one of them, uh two times sarga and visarga is being described. And in the tenth verse, and the very interesting example Explanation of the reason why it is being
done for the second time is given especially by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura in his purport to this verse, 10th verse of the second of the tenth chapter of the second canto. He says why do you start again? Not again.
Oh my goodness. I already know that first Lord glanced the prakriti and then prakriti from prakriti mahatattva appeared and from Mahatattva appeared. And there are different slightly confusing descriptions.
Sometimes it is said Mahatattva and from Mahatattva ahaṅkāra-tattva. Sometimes it is said in 11th Skandha it is said that Mahatattva then sūtra-tattva then ahaṅkāra tattva.
Sometimes it is said that Mahattva is predominantly sättvika. Sometimes it is said that Mahatva is predominantly Rajasic. So some confusion is there, but it's very easily reconcilable, the whole picture. It's just slightly different descriptions of the same process.
So you can say, why again? Why again? And again I will explain why again. Already Śrīla Prabhupāda explained in the purport. I already explained why.
Again, there is a place, very important place here to explain why it is necessary.
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that all the conditioned souls are sleeping. And there are two categories of souls: those who are sleeping peacefully, they are enjoying material enjoyments, they are sleeping, and those who are in unconscious state because of the sufferings.
You know, we all know, we all have been in those two states of unconsciousness. Sometimes we're just happily enjoying and thinking that everything is fine. And sometimes we're too much suffering.
It's too much such a pressure upon our head, and we just curse everything, but we are totally unconscious. It's basically in both cases we cannot be at present.
Neither enjoyment nor suffering places our consciousness in the present moment. We are always engaged in some dreaming or in some lamentation, shoka or fear by shoka or moha.
We are not at the present moment, we are unconscious, and, uh, Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura says that because of the, please listen very carefully, because of the compassion to those unconscious living entities.
These descriptions are given in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gives this description of creation again and again and again to give us some chance to get interested and to get out from this semi-conscious state which we are in now.
The example which Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura gives, he says that he gives the Ayurvedic principle. He says that if you burn yourself, then Ayurvedic ointment against the burn is of the hot nature.
You should apply some ointment which is hot, not cold. Instinctively, we think we should apply something cold. But Śukadeva Gosvāmī says no, no. You can only cure yourself from the burn by something hot.
So it means that if we are attached to māyā—and we are attached to māyā, I is not appropriate. There is no question of if we are attached to Maya.
For those who are attached to māyā, Prabhupāda says in the purport which we read, These descriptions are necessary because by reading very carefully these descriptions
which will be given three two times in the second canto,
three times in the third canto, and two times in the 11th Kanto, and you know, so many times during Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. By reading these descriptions, we can be cured from this attachment.
We can get interest because we will understand that the Lord is behind everything. So, I'm already speaking how much We're perfectly fine with it. As long as you're okay.
Okay, so I will only introduce the uh the subject matters of the next cantos in a very brief way.
I more or less finished with this second canto description which is describing Sarga Visarga and Sadhana, but even describing Sarga Visarga and Manvantara from the point of view of sadhana, that it should be our sadhana, stressing the point of sadhana.
So that's the second canto. Very short description of second canto, and very short description of the Chatushloki of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Alignment between Vedānta-sūtra and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam cantos
I will just very briefly introduce the subject matters of other cantos.
If we take Vedānta-sūtra, Vedānta-sūtra, we know that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the commentary, natural commentary, written by the same author to Vedānta-sūtra.
Then Vedānta-sūtra, it's actually very interesting to see how the structure of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is paralleled with Vedānta-sūtra.
Vedānta-sūtra composed of four parts, and the first part is declaring the Samanvaya, the harmonic reconciliation of all the different scriptures. This is Brahman. Brahman is Tattu Samantha, the main subject matter.
And then the second part of Vedānta-sūtra is called Virodhi Pada, or something like this. The the P padadad,ha which refutes the opposing views.
And this refutation of the opposing views is continued also in the third pāda of Vedānta-sūtra partially.
Even though third pāda of Vedānta-sūtra is mainly sādhana-pāda and the fourth pāda is prayojana-pāda, but still we can still see the refutation part, the other philosophies are being refuted.
So if we consider from the point of view of Vedānta-sūtra, that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the natural commentary on Vedānta-sūtra, we'll see the same sort of design in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The third canto is the refutation of Sāṅkhya philosophy, which is very important and from which Vyāsadeva starts his second part of Vedanta Sutra.
Refutation of Vedānta philosophy, or sorry, not Vedānta philosophy, Sāṅkhya philosophy of Kapila, not our Kapila, but the Kapila Muni.
So it it's it's very important because he says that Pradhana is the source of everything. So refutation of uh Sankey philosophy is the third canto.
Refutation of Karma Mimamsa philosophy or karma Mimamsa concept is the fourth canto. Refutation of false renunciation,
which is more or less the subject matter of Advaita jñāna or Uttara Mimamsa, is the subject matter of the fifth canto. The independence of bhakti, the independent nature of bhakti is the subject matter of the sixth canto.
How to acquire bhakti, what are the means to get the bhakti within our heart is the subject matter of the seventh canto. Śaraṇāgati or surrender oneself to the Lord is the subject matter of the eighth canto.
And then Manvantara Ishanukatha, the Advent of the Lord in this material world and relationship with the Lord of those souls who already surrender to the Lord if this is the subject matter of that ninth canto.
Who is the Lord when He comes? How He retains His transcendental nature even by being in touch with this material nature, and how different devotees relate to him. This is the subject matter of the ninth canto.
In this way, by refuting all these opposing points of view, the materialistic Sāṅkhya and the Karma-mīmāṁsā,
when you speak about prosperity, the false renunciation of Uttaramimamsa or Advaita Jnana, by establishing the independent nature of bhakti,
by establishing the main process of bhakti, which is surrender, and by explaining how to relate to the Lord when He comes to this world, we are prepared to understand the tenth canto.
Because in the 10th canto, the advent of the Lord to this world is being described and uh his relationship with his various devotees.
We will not be able to understand this, to appreciate this uh fully unless we go through this whole process of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So this is how this is what Srila Prabhupada is explaining in the purport which we read that starting from the third canto and second canto, when the creation is being explained, we are ultimately clearing our heart, cleaning our heart and preparing our heart to the advent of the Lord which will be described in the 10th canto.
Otherwise we will just read it and we will say okay okay yeah yeah, yeah. Nice, nice n,ice. No, but we will not understand what's going on there.
So that's the design of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That's the structural design. And very briefly, I wanted actually to finish today the whole thing, but you know, somehow rather
such can of us too detailed description. I'm sure I will finish next time, you know, explain uh in more detail this subject matter.
Today I just announced these main topics which are there and which are very much parallel with the description being given in Vedānta-sūtra.
Question and answer session on practical sadhana
So that's it for today. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Prabhu, was uh like every other session uh um really very deep and you know honestly we could have gone on with it, but I guess um uh time is always a factor.
So we have a few questions and um there's one question that I'm asking myself.
Particularly you have been stressing in the sessions on the parokṣa and aparokṣa jñāna. And clearly it's it is very clear that there is a journey involved to be moving from an indirect understanding to the direct understanding of the subject matters of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
Wherein you also very emphatically expressed that aparokṣa-jñāna is straight to the soul and therefore at the at the time when it means when when actually the crucial time which is to give up this body, uh unless
we have come to the stage of aparokṣa-jñāna, it possibly would be in the category of uh, correct me if I'm wrong, as śāmā eva hi kevalam. That means whatever you may have done, it doesn't come to any help.
Having said that, you also said about clearing cleaning and clearing of the heart in your just uh the last explanation of all the cantos. Yes.
Now the and then the third thing that you said is you have to put aside your false ego.
If you really want deep saṁskāras where all the other saṁskāras are kind of embedded over by the deep saṁskāras of hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, wherein you said therefore it has to be nityam.
So the question is, how do we put aside this false ego?
And as practicing devotees, we still kind of hold on to this false ego both in terms of our engagement with the with the external energy of the Lord and the material environment that we are in and also as practicing devotee, we are part of an institution and we can entrap in a false hero that comes from that. This is the most m the most vicious part of the poll sequel.
I am a devout so really uh we are stuck both ways so I'll be very grateful, Rāmarāya, if you could really enlighten us at least I need it for myself and if it is beneficial to others.
Okay. I only have fifteen more minutes. So we should try to take questions, then I have to save it for next time. But this was something I have been, you know, I think so, I'm deep.
We have to be involved with the material world, but you know,
as it is said here, the māyā will not... If we hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam again and again, so the point is that we should be very protective when it comes to our interaction with the spiritual material
world and the protection is coming from these topics, from hearing these topics. If we hear these topics with utmost attention, then we will be protected.
There will be covering which will protect us, it will kind of impregnate us, and we will be waterproof or maya-proof, so to speak, by this by being impregnated by the subject matters of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So, how to get this saṁskāra so deep, how to become egoless when we hear. Well, therefore, you know, the speaker is sitting on a higher seat, everyone is sitting lower. It really has a significance.
You know, sometimes you come to an audience and everyone is sitting on this on the chairs or armchairs or on the sofas or once
I was in, uh, in Indradyumna Swami, uh, uh, how is it called? No, Woodstock, Woodstock, and then the hippies, oh my goodness, they were lying down and they were drinking beer hearing.
So this is not a very efficient way of listening, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It more or less uh kind of tunes you in uh and uh gives you a certain mood. You you have to become you know, humble.
When you sit on the chair, there is a very subtle psychology behind it.
When you sit on the chair, you immediately feel like lording it over. You just look, you know, who is there. When you sit on the floor, you become immediately more humble. It's really, you know, all these external things they help us to become more humble, to become more more susceptible
to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, more approachable and subject matter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam will be more influential will influence us more if we do like this.
So all kinds of means, you know. We can we can chant some prayers, we can bow down.
Therefore, it is the speaker of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He has to put Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam on special āsana. This is a sacred book. Always being in this position of a disciple. You know, I'm a disciple. I'm a disciple.
I'm not a guru. I'm a student of Śukadeva Gosvāmī. I'm a student of Vyāsadeva. I'm a student of this guru-paramparā. I am a humble follower of Śrīla Prabhupāda. I'm listening to him with utmost attention.
So that's the mood, and that means śraddhā. Therefore, Prabhupada translates it with respect to how he translates this in this verse which we read.
Nityam ānanda śraddayā with devotion and here he says with devotion If this is done regularly, with devotion and respect. So with devotion and respect and with trust, with some openness of the heart.
So basically that's what it is. And if we do it, we will be protected from all these interactions. And as far as these other conceptions, they will automatically be removed.
You don't need to even consciously know about this. I will try to explain how all these concepts are there, imperceptibly within our psyche.
The Sāṅkhya philosophy, Atheistic Sāṅkhya philosophy, the karma- mīmāṁsā philosophy, they are there. They are not it's it's not somebody else who is outside there.
All these philosophies are within our heart. So, but they will be removed. Just by reading the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you will be removed of this problem of Sāṅkhya philosophy. or this understanding.
You know, like I recently spoke with one devotee, he's a scientist, he's a physicist, and he's teaching students. And he he became a devotee not so long ago, a couple of years, he started chanting.
And he says, I'm still continue teaching them, even though I don't believe anymore what I am teaching. So how did it happen? His whole life, he's a professor, his whole life he was teaching. Now he doesn't believe it. Why?
Because he read the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This is the best way to to be converted from the science into the spiritual science. Any other questions? Thank you, thank you. Um now yeah there are more questions.
So the first question came from Anupama Rādhārāṇī. Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, please accept our daṇḍavats. Please accept my obeisances. Thank you for your wonderful class. Which makes the listeners dive deep into the lecture of spiritual thank you.
My question is, how do saṁskāras act on us when we are very little and not aware of even what is going on around us? Is it the same as a jñāna-sukṛti?
What happens if our shallow saṁskāras overshadow our deep spiritual saṁskāras at the time of death? That will not be happen. That will not happen.
The shallow saṁskāras cannot overshadow the deep saṁskāras at the time of death.
Because the shadow samskaras can influence us, no doubt about it, during our lifetime because of the interplay between subconscious and conscious mind.
You know, sometimes we can see we have very deep goals and deep saṁskāras, and nevertheless, we being influenced superficially by something and diverted to a certain extent.
That may happen, but it's not going to happen during the time of death. Don't worry about this.
The time of death is a very fruitful time because all the fruits which you have obtained during this lifetime by doing sadhana will come to you.
You may not be aware of all the fruits which are coming from this sadhana, but they will come to you. You will reap these fruits, especially in the time of death.
Like Ajamil, he was not really aware of what is going on while he was calling his son Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa. And uh then he even liked calling him Narayan. He was calling him without any reason, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa. So he didn't know what's going on, but he encountered the great result of this at the time of death.
So that's not a problem, don't worry about this.
So regarding uh the samskaras, how they influence our life, it's basically we get a saṁskāra, and saṁskāra means saṁskāra means not just memory, but memory connected with some emotion.
And the deeper emotional impact of the event, deeper emotional component of saṁskāra, the deeper is saṁskāra.
So you can deepen saṁskāra by repeating the same thing again and again and again. This is one way of deepening any saṁskāra.
Or you can deepen the saṁskāra by increasing the emotional effect of or component of the experience which you have. So because there is and what is emotion?
Emotion, it's like somebody translates it, it's from Latin word emovera, which means moving. It's energy. Emotion is energy in motion. It's basically emotion, it's a very powerful energy.
So when some experience which we have is recorded in our psyche, in our consciousness, with emotional impact, it has an energetic component, and this energetic component is pushing
us either to avoid the same experience, we feel fearful of repeating the same experience, or to strive for the same experience. And this way some saṁskāras influence our life.
You know, the more emotional effect, the more emotional saṁskāras we have, the more scary we will become of certain things or the more attracted we will become of certain other things.
So that's basically how the saṁskāras are influencing our life. So can we take one more question? Yes, we can take one more question and I will have to answer a couple of questions which I have here. Okay.
So this is a long question, but I'll try to take one or two parts of it. From Radha Pramottavu. He says we hear about the question is we hear about the creation. Should we meditate on the creation when we see around?
Should we meditate on creation when we see around for realization. What does it mean to have experience of Lord from creation? And then he says, Mahārāja Vṛtra, bhakti means to glorify the Lord with our experience.
Then how do we get how do we get benefit if we offer prayers from the prayers offered by great devotees of the Bhagavatam?
Also, if we read the prayers of the Bhāgavatam without understanding the meaning of the phrase, does it have benefit? Yeah, it does have benefit, but less benefit.
So the first part of the question is how to see the Lord within the creation.
Basically, to understand that the Lord is, I will explain this in the next class when I will talk about the third canto, the design of the third canto.
But basically the idea is that we understand that the Lord is behind everything. That He is moving.
He is the mover, He is the cause, He is still the cause, even though He may not be so visible, but still He is the remote cause. And there is a very interesting verse.
In the third canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which I will probably read tomorrow or yeah, next time when we meet together.
So it means to understand that everything which we see is the energy of the Lord and it's directly acting under the Lord's guidance and under the Lord's supervision. Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram.
So it's uh mayādhyakṣeṇa, my uh adhyakṣa, my supervision is there in this material world.
And to see how it is, and especially if I understand how ahaṅkāra-tattva works, how avidyā works, how avidyā influences us, how the avidyā covers over our consciousness. You know, we will be able to really see the workings of this energy of the Lord and the Lord behind.
And by seeing this energy, we will not be bewildered, we will always be in contact with the Lord. So there was some other part of the question which I forget while uh answering this. Ah about the prayers, yes.
There is definitely a benefit of repeating the prayers of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, even though we may not have direct experience, because by repeating these prayers we meditate deeply, and meditation is the way to get the direct experience.
When we speak or think about it again and again and again, the saṁskāra becomes deeper, the knowledge, the realization becomes deeper. And the example of it is Lord Brahma.
He was meditating on the Lord again and again and again, and ultimately he got revelations. So that's why all these prayers are there, and we may repeat them.
And especially if we repeat them by investing our heart into this prayers. If we repeat them, investing our heart into these prayers, then of course the effect of saṁskāras of these prayers will be more.
Because we will be able to feelingly say this. Again, this emotional impact. Whatever we do, if we do with emotion, it will have a greater influence upon us. If we do it mechanically, it will not have.
Or it will have very insignificant influence upon us, upon our psyche. But if we do it emotionally, so if you feel emotionally then definitely. And we should. It's our sadhana, it's a part of our sadhana.
If we feel some prayer is very relevant for us, we should repeat it. Like I repeat the prayer of Dhruva Maharaj, Yam Tah Pradishya Mamavacham, Imam Prasuptam, Sanjay Vayatakila Shakti Dharaswadamna.
So every time before lecture I say this, you know, by meaning that, you If you want me to speak about Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, please speak through me. If you want me to speak about Shimad Bhagavatam, please speak through me.
So I will answer one more question and I will leave you with your permission. In the light of all the above, why did the book of Krishna, Krishna book, be published by Śrīla Prabhupāda almost immediately?
Well, Śrīla Prabhupāda did want to give us the direct experience of the 10th Canto. He was not sure. And he knew that if he gives this book with his explanations,
which are very down-to-earth, which always referred to our experience.
Not just lofty idea, lofty concepts, which make all this subject matter very, I don't know, very I don't know how to say this, but Śrīla Prabhupāda would probably say very strongly.
But Prabhupāda, his approach is very much down-to-earth and very philosophical. And he always brings us to some basic points. So he gave us Krishna Book. He wanted us to understand what's going on in the 10th Canto too.
But at the same time, he gives us the warning that when we are attached, we have to first very thoroughly understand
how māyā works, it basically means to understand how mind works. Because if there is a place where the māyā sits, where the māyā sits, it's between
Because if there is a place where the Maya seat, where the Maya sits, it's between our two ears. So that's where māyā is. So we have to understand how our mind works, how our intelligence works, how our false ego works.
And in this way we will be able to understand this subject matter of creation because yat ha pinde tathabramande or yathabramande tat. This is a very important Sanskrit saying.
The microcosm and macrocosm are the same. The design is the same. Pinda and Brahmanda are built according to the same design.
So while reading this macrocosmic description, we have to scale it down to the microcosm of our own consciousness and understand how it really works within our psyche, within our heart. That's uh that's how it will work.
Thank you very much. Again, I'm grateful for your all, the Vaishnavas and Vaishnavis. We thank you from the core of our heart again. Thank you.
Your kind association and a very wonderful, deeply enlightening uh session today and we will follow the next one two weeks later.
I request all the assembled Vaishnavas we will send you the details of it but please in the next few weeks that means to Friday after we will look forward to having Maharaj again.
Maharaj please accept our most respectful of it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.