Bhāgavatam — A Melody of Pure Wisdom

After the Kurukshetra war ended, the peerless hero was lying in the battlefield on the bed of arrows his grandson Arjuna prepared, befitting the great hero’s fond choice and predilection. The invincible Grandfather chose to await the auspicious Uttarāyaṇa (the sun’s journey northward) for shedding his body. Forbearing silently the sharp arrows thrust all over his body, he lay there during the last eight days of the battle and beyond. After the Mahabharata War, Sri Krishna’s arrival with Yudhiṣṭhira to his bedside was a feast to his eyes as well as festival to the heart.

Thoughts of God have always their magical effect on our mind. To illustrate this fact alluringly and effectively, in various ways, is the sole mission of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Commencing with the hymns of Bheeshma, flows the mellifluous current of devotion, to the song of the mendicant, Bhikshu, which Krishna cites soulfully in his last message to Uddhava. How meaningful and idealistic is the course of hymns, Sage Vyasa evolves and studs throughout the narration!

How to have the best from Śreemad Bhāgavatam

Inaugural words of Śreemad Bhāgavatam are marked with Śuka Muni’s own eulogy on the power of dispassion. Towards the end glitters the song of the mendicant.highlighting how the impact of adversity and affliction bestows dispassion liberally. All the rest serve to link the two instances exquisitely. The ascetic hermit’s flair for narrating the supreme Truth is indeed inimitable!

The discussion and delineation of principles, values, goals and truths, concludes in the 12th skandha with an appropriate re-statement, which, though brief, is quite compulsive. What more is needed to ensure that the readers and listeners grasp the message unfailingly?

Original Sanskrit Verse:

In which is sung the pure, enlightening, singular, supreme Knowledge.

All along, the reader will find this tune of pure wisdom in the Text, the choice delight of Paramahamsas, the enlightened, with its unique resolve to enrich and elevate others too to the same lofty pedestal.

A question may arise. What should be done to grasp this supreme Truth well? How? And what will be the benefit? The author makes the point amply clear:

Original Sanskrit Verse:

Hear this well, study it and reflect upon it. With the might and blessedness of devotion, does one then attain liberation.

Devotion is the one thread passing through all the 18000 verses of Śreemad Bhāgavatam. This divine emotion springing in man when he turns to God as the sole refuge and reliance, finds its fruition and fulfillment, if one is able to host that supreme Presence fondly in his own bosom.

The varied stories, dialogues, histories of great Souls and the rest, the Sage enchantingly and arrestingly presents in the text, are only to make the narration and its fruition sweet, facile and pleasant. An assortment of impervious reasons and irrefutable logic is set forth, without giving any scope for doubt or ambiguity.

None can refrain from falling in love with the beauty of words, the felicity of phrases and the melody of verses. Readiness and broadness of mind to hear or read the whole presentation is all that is needed. The powerful King Pareekshit, who immersed himself in the exclusive sādhanā of listening and thereby gained liberation, is alone sufficient to proclaim the greatness and grandeur of this text.

This elixiral wonder of sound which redeemed Pareekshit of his agony and doubts, bestowing immortality, and which also graced the listeners around with horripilation and ecstasy can be evaluated in many ways. But the best is what the author himself provides in conclusion:

Original Sanskrit Verse:

Whatever I have narrated to you citing stories of great men, who, spreading all their fame, have left their bodies and gone, is with the sole intent of instilling the twin notes of wisdom and dispassion. Understand that all this is but an astonishing profusion of words, and not anything literally factual.

Fascinating stories and descriptions lend power and charm to the narrations, making the mind exceedingly soft and sensitive, so as to absorb the deeper message. By themselves the stories do not constitute the ultimate knowledge. They need not either. What counts is the purpose of narration. It is always to instill purity, dispassion, sublimity and enlightenment. Should this be served in a harmless and appealing manner, the whole effort and style become meaningful and fulfilling.

Śreemad Bhāgavatam is a compendium of the Paramahamsa, enlightened order, not just a fanciful collection of stories. In it, from beginning to end, dazzle the incomparable skill and excellence of narration. The measuring rod or touchstone for a writing of this kind, is not so much what is said, but what for it is said and what effect it produces in the hearts of listeners.

None can eschew or escape this visible world. It possesses everyone like a holy ghost. None can easily resist or prevent the delusion and crookedness it casts. It is a distress, an irony, no doubt!

The one concern of Paramahamsa-narrators has thus been to awaken the victims of worldly delusion, induce comfort and hope to those, who under the stress and strain of life, get suffocated and lose all grip and confidence in themselves. To imbue the much needed presence of mind and inner strength, is the only compulsion running through the narrations.

The great poetic legacy of Śreemad Bhāgavatam was the outcome of this solemn mission.

Enchanting pilgrimage of contemplation

Intending to gain the skill the world cannot bestow, the glory the visible objects have no power to offer, values which even the life-partner cannot infuse or imbue, the Paramahamsa poet starts his journey together with Bharati and Saraswati (his tongue and wisdom). When he advances along with them, the rainbow of imaginary creations and emotional festoons begin to unfold. The measuring rod for their worth and fineness is whether the intended effect is aroused in the listener’s mind. The mission of narration and the presentation of the narrator are then bound to be meaningful and wonderful.

Whatever is not transpiring in the human mind but what should at all times, the inspiration and obstinacy to make this visible, is what inspired the ascetic heart and made his stout steel pen cut the fibres of palm leaves to document his narration. What wonder if the effort has become like flying a long kite! Is this not what happened for the other poet in Tretā-yuga also?

The broad heart of the hermit began Vaikuntha verily to fly aloft to get at the source of earth as well as the behaviour of its denizens, together with what all forestalled and followed. Its rambling, meandering, spotting various regions like Vaikuṇṭha, is in line with the human mind and reason. For, Vaikuṇṭha verily means the state devoid of the body. Yes, rising above body-consciousness, the mind has to get immersed in the depths of the Self. To have this fortune in wakefulness as in sleep, at one’s own wish and will, is the crowning glory of discrimination!

The mind too, given to emotional flair as well as the ecstasy of imagination, is at last obliged to eschew the diversion and come back to its source, like the kite, dropping its distance and height, coming back to the hands that let it fly aloft. By shedding wisely its habit of resting on other props for joy, and seeking instead to settle in its own poise, it finds lasting stability and freedom. To enlighten those in the turmoil of worldly life, about this infallible inner potential and fulfillment, is the sole aim of the hermit.

How strongly does Vedavyasa through King Pareekshit, depict this truth right at the outset! Ordinary minds would find it hard to draw inspiration and compulsion from examples that are woven around common-folk characters. Given to the habit of following the illustrious, people are prone to look to the strong and famous. The Paramahamsa-author knows best this psychology of the common man.