SB 1.1.2 (1962)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT No. 2
Dharmah projjhita kaitavo tra Paramo nirmatsaranam Satam vedyam vastavam atra vastu shivadam tapatraounmulanam Srimad Bhagwate Mahamuni krite kim ba parair iswarah Sadyo hridy avarudhyate tra kritivih shushruvis tatkshanat.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS
Dharma—religiosity, Projjhita—completely rejected, Kaitava—covered by fruitive intention, Atra—herein, Paramah—the highest, Nirmatsaranom—of the cent percent pure hearted, Satam—devotees, Vedyam—understandable, Vastavam—factual, Atra—herein, Vastu—substance, Shivadam—wellbeing, Tapatrao—threefold miseries, Unmulanam—causing uprooting of, Srimad—beautiful, Bhagwate—the Bhagwat Puranam, Mahamuni—the great sage (Vyas), Krite—having compiled, Kim—what is, Ba—the need, Poroir—others, Iswara—the Supreme Lord, Sadyo—at once, Hirdy—within the heart, avarudhate—become compact, Atra—herein, Kritivih—by the pious men, Shushruvis—by culture, Tatkshanat—without delay.
TRANSLATION
In this Bhagwat Puranam all so called religious activities, covered by fruitive intentions, are completely rejected and the highest Truth, understandable by the cent per cent pure hearted devotees, is inculcated. The highest truth is the factual reality distinguished from the shadow is described herein for every one's welbeing and causing uprooting of the threefold miseries. The beautiful Bhagwatam is compiled by the great sage Sri Vyasdeva (in his mature stage) and as such what is the need of other scripture (for self realisation)? As soon as a person applies his attentive and submissive aural reception to the messages of this (Bhagwatam) the Supreme Lord at once becomes fixed up compact by such culture (of knowledge).
PURPORT
The term religiosity includes four primary subjects namely (1) pious activities (2) economic development (3) satisfaction of the senses and at last (4) liberation from the material bondage. Religious life is distinguished from irreligious life of barbarous condition and practically human life begins from the life of religiosity. Eating, sleeping, fearing and mating all these four principles of animal life are common both to the animals as well as to the human being. Religiosity is the extra business of the human being and without religiosity the so called human life is as good as that of the animal. Therefore, in the human society there is some form of religiosity aiming at self realisation with reference to the eternal relation with God.
In the lower stage of human civilisation there is always a Competition of lording it over the material nature or in other words there is a continuous rivalry for satisfying the senses. And driven by this consciousness of sense gratification religiosity is performed. Pious activities or religious functions are performed with an aim generally for the purpose of some material gain. If such material gain is obtainable otherwise then even the so called religiosity is neglected as we can see in the modern set up of human civilisation. The economic conditions being seemingly fulfilled otherwise no body is interested in religion now. The church, mosque or the temple all are now practically vacant places and they are more interested in the factories, shops and cinemas than the religious places formerly erected by the forefathers of different path of religiosities. This proves definitely that religiosity is performed for economic development and economic development is needed for sense gratification. And where one is baffled in the matter of sense gratification he takes to the cause of salvation in order to become one with the Supreme whole. Therefore, all these stages are different types of the same aim of life namely sense gratification.
In the Vedas the above mentioned four activities are prescribed in regulative way so that there may not be any undue competition for the purpose of sense gratification. But Srimad "Bhagwatam" is transcendental to all these sense gratificatory activities of the material world. It is purely transcendental literature understandable by a particular class of men known by the name of devotees of the Lord, who are above the comparative field of sense gratificaton. In the material world there is keen competition between the animal to animal, man to man, community to community or even nation to nation for this sense gratificatory activities but the devotees of the Lord are above them. They have nothing to compete with the materialist because they are on the path of back to Godhead where there is everything eternal full and blissful. Such transcendentalists are cent per cent non-envious and therefore pure in heart. In the material world every one is envious of every one and therefore there is competition. But the transcendentalists or devotees of the Lord are not only freed from all material eviousness but also they are on the contrary, kind to every one for endeavouring in the matter of establshing a competitionless society with God in the centre. The socialistic idea of society is artificially competitionless because even in the socialistic state the competition is for the post of dictatorship. The fact is, therefore, that the state of sense gratification is the order of materialistic life take it either from the Vedas or from the common human activities. As mentioned above there are three divisions of the Vedas namely the stage of fruitive activities as to get promotion in the field of better planets like the heaven etc. and above this there is the activities of worshipping different demigods with the same intention of getting promotion in the different planets of the different types of demigods and lastly the activities of reaching the absolute Truth in His impersonal feature to become one with Him.
Impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth is not the last word. Above the impersonal feature there is the Paramatma feature and above it there is the Personal feature of the Absolute Truth. Srimad Bhagwat gives us the information of the Absolute Truth in His Personal feature above the impersonal feature. It is therefore more than the topic of impersonal philosophical speculations and as such Srimad Bhagwatam is placed on the higher status than the Jnanakanda division of the Vedas. It is higher than the Karmakanda division as well as Jnanakanda division and more than that it is above the Upashanakanda division because Srimad Bhagwatam recommends the worship of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krishna the Divine son of Vasudeva. In the Karmakanda division of the Vedas there is competition of supremacy in the matter of reaching the heavenly planets for better sense gratification. And the same competition is there in the Jananakanda or Upashnakandas. But Srimad Bhagwatam is above all of them because it aims at the Supreme Truth, the substance or the root of all categories. In other words it may be taken that from Srimad Bhagwatam we can know the substance as well as the relativities in the true sense and perspective. The Substance is the Absolute Truth the Supreme Personality of Godhead and all emanations from Him are relativities in different forms of energies. The Living entities are also relative energies of the Substance. The substance is related with all different types of His energies and therefore nothing is different from the Substance but at the same time the energies are different from the Substance. The conception is not self contradictory. Srimad Bhagwatam explicitely deals on this simultaneously one and differential philosophy of the Vedanta Sutra which begins with the Janmadyasya Sutra.
Such knowledge of simultaneously one and different from the Absolute Truth is really for the well being of the knower; otherwise the mental speculators mislead the people by wrongly establishing the energy as absolute. When it is factually understood the situation becomes more pleasing than the imperfect conception of monism or dualism. Development of this consciousness leads one at once to the stage of freedom from the threefold miseries. The threefold miseries are (1) in relation with the body and the mind (2) in relation with our dealings with other living being and (3) in relation with the acts of providence on which we have no control. Srimad Bhagwat begins from the surrender of the living entity unto the Absolute person with clear consciousness of the devotee's oneness with the Absolute and at the same time his eternal position of servitorship of the Lord. In the material conception of his life he thinks himself falsely as the lord of all he surveys and therefore he is always troubled in the above mentioned three fold miseries of life. But as soon as he comes to know his real position of transcendental servitude at once he becomes freed from all the above mentioned miseries. The servitorship position of the living being is wasted in the material conception of his life with a false sense of overlordship. This servitorship is transferred unto the Lord in pure consciousness of spiritual identity and at once the living entity becomes freed from the encumbrances of material affliction.
Over and above this, Srimad Bhagwatam is the personal commentation of the Vedanta Sutra by the great author himself. And that also in the mature stage of his spiritual realisation through the mercy of Narada. Sri Vyasdeva is the authorised incarnation of Narayan the Personality of Godhead. Therefore, there is no question about his authority. He is the author of all other Vedic literatures but surpassing all of them he recommends the study of Srimad Bhagwatam. In other Puranas there is different method of worshipping the demigods but here in the Bhagwatam only the Supreme Personality of Godhead is mentioned. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Whole body and the demigods are His different parts of the body. As such by worshipping the Supreme Lord there is no need of worshipping the demigods because the Supreme Lord is at once fixed up in the heart. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has recomended this Srimad Bhagwatam as the spotless Puranam on account of its being distinguished from all other puranas.
The mode of receiving the transcendental message is to get it through the ears by submissivenes. No challenging mode can help the receiver in getting or realising the transcendental message. Herein therefore one particular word is used for our proper guidance. This particular word is Shushrusu. One must be anxious to hear about the transcendental message. And this qualification of hearing with interest is the prime qualfication for assimilating transcendental knowledge.
Unfortunately less fortunate persons are not interested in giving patient hearing to the message of Srimad Bhagwatam. The process is simple but the application is difficult. Unfortunate persons will find out enough time for hearing ordinary social, political and all sorts of idle talks but when they will be invited to attend a meeting of the devotees assembled to hear on Srimad Bhagwatam, the unfortunate creatures will either be reluctant to attend such meeting or they will indulge in hearing the portion of it where they are unfit to enter in. Professional readers of the Bhagwatam indulge in the confidential topics of the pastimes of the Supreme Lord which seemingly appear to be sex literature. Srimad Bhagwatam is meant to be heard from the beginning of the literature and the class of persons who are fit to assimilate it is also mentioned in this sloka. Such bonafide audience for hearing the Srimad Bhagwatam are generated after many pious deeds but an intelligent person, by thoughtful discretion, can believe in the assurance of the great sage Vyasdeva and give a patient hearing to the message of Srimad Bhagwatam in order to realise directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And without undergoing the different stages of Vedic ways one can at once be lifted to the position of Paramhansa simply by agreeing to receive patiently the message of Srimad Bhagwatam.