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Om namo
bhagavate vasudevaya
by HH Satsvarupa Dasa Gosvami
excerpt from the book 'A Poor Man reads the Bhagavatam volume 1' [1.1.1]
...
To live the life of a Bhagavatam reader we have to practice the four regulative principles and chant Hare Krishna. We have to understand Krishna as Paramesvara, as Para-tattva. Otherwise, we'll miss the point. Reading - real, devotional reading - is deep, pure work. It's more important than constructing temples.
"Srila Vyasadeva therefore gives the reader the chance to gradually develop spiritual realization before actually relishing the essence of the pastimes of the Lord." He distinguishes between the internal energy and the external potency, which is within our experience.
The material world is only a shadow of reality. The spiritual world is the real world. Still, the material world also comes from the Lord. In one sense, everything is Krishna, but this world and that world are different. It is similar to the difference between freedom and imprisonment.
The Srimad-Bhagavatam gradually takes us from the Lord as cosmic creator and director with His attendant demigods to His transcendental incarnations, to instructions on bhakti and its goal. Finally, the Bhagavatam gives us Sri Krishna's eternal svarupa in the Tenth Canto.
Once someone asked Prabhupada about Joan of Arc and how she relates to the Bhagavatam. The devotee couldn't understand why she wasn't mentioned in its pages. Prabhupada said that she was present in the Bhagavatam. Any God conscious effort is part of the Bhagavatam.
Similarly, a devotee complained in a letter to Prabhupada that he was trying to study the Bhagavatam but that other devotees were making noise while constructing a new altar. Srila Prabhupada said that the construction noise was also Srimad-Bitagavatam. That's what I mean about my own life. A poor man begs and that's part of the Bhagavatam too.
Since I'm on the subject, consider this (from Cc. Antya 1.211-212):
Sri Rupa Gosvami said, I do not know anything. The only transcendental words I can utter are those which Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu makes me speak.
"Although I am the lowest of men and have no knowledge, the Lord has mercifully bestowed upon me the inspiration to write transcendental literature about devotional
service. Therefore I offer my obeisances at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality or Godhead, who has given me the chance to write these books."
This material world is maya, unreal. Reality is bliss, the life of truth. There is no ultimate truth in this world or in its leaders and masses, although there is a yearning for it in the hearts of the pious. Even that yearning, however, is covered by layers of greed, anger, and illusion. We must remove those coverings. It takes a lot of work. It can also be done in a moment by Krishna's grace if we are willing to submit to His process.
I don't advocate that devotees talk about the details of the material world just because that's where we're at. We don't want to stay at Brooklyn College or in the Manhattan subways forever. But what to do if we can't simply leap to Goloka? We're in Bhakti-devi's camp, preaching to each other in our khadi dhotis. We know the spiritual potency is real, but perhaps we haven't realized it yet. We're still repeating perfect knowledge while hoping to one day understand it.
Things appear real here only because Lord Krishna, true reality, exists eternally in the spiritual world with all His transcendental paraphernalia. We have already purchased our tickets to go there. Therefore, we sing at the departure gate.
Reading Srimad-Bhagavatam I think of many
things, alas not all connected
with the sports and teachings of the Lord.
But I'll be okay, delivered
by virtue of holding the book,
the Indian brick,colored volume with
dust jacket art of Goloka. emanating
brahmajyoti light and the Vaikunthas
and down under a cloud,
the material world.
God is omniscient. He knows what's going on in every He's omnipotent, the Supreme Controller of the universe. This is classic, powerful, transcendental theism, fixed on Lord Krishna as the One. This is Srila Prabhupada's presentation. We are all tiny spirit souls, one in quality with Krishna, but we never merge into Him; He doesn't disappear into a formless light. We are meant to live eternally in bliss and knowledge with Krishna in His abode.
When I first read this as a young man, I awakened to my path. Now I continue to imbibe it. There is nothing else to do but read Srimad-Bhagavatam. I hold onto the particular verses and purports for awhile, then read on. Do I retain anything? Some impression? Maybe. It seems to come unstuck from my mind and flow into
forgetfulness, so I read it again, pointing with a pencil along the page, left to right and down, guiding myself, reading aloud. I am trying to stay with the Bhagavatam, not abandon it for those other thoughts, those distractions. I keep it up for awhile, then take a break.
Why do I hesitate to say that I am
in Vrndavana,
hearing a bhajana loudspeakered
outside our ISKCON walls?
No one is abhijnah or svarat except the Supreme Lord. We all need to learn from someone, but God alone is independent. "Where does everything come from? Where does God come from?" We can't even contemplate it. No one can figure it out.
Many scientists and atheists dismiss it, but they can't explain how the universe came about without Krishna. He has inconceivable potency and needs no origin other than Himself.
Prabhupada argues that no one can approach God's intelligence and that the world's big brains should surrender to and become mahatmas - I close my eyes and hear it,
register it, and think over what he has said, what it means. I don't want to miss anything, but I want to honor it and feel it in my heart.
In the Padma Purdna, Gautama advises Maharaja Ambarisa to read Srimad-Bhdgavatam if he at all desires liberation from material bondage. It's complete in 18,000 Slokas. If we make a gift of the Bhagavatam on a full moon day, we will go back to Godhead. There is no doubt about its authority. Many distinguished scholars since Lord Caitanya's time - Jiva Gosvami, Sanatana Gosvami, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, and others-have written elaborate commentaries on the Bhagavatam.
"Is this a commentary on the scripture?" I asked Swamiji, as I purchased the first three volumes from his hands.
"Yes," he said. I meant, is this your subjective commentary. I wanted to show off that I knew how to read books. But I was interested too.
In this purport Lord Krishna is described as all-knowing, all-pervading, and completely transcendental. Western theologians and philosophers, however, have been baffled about the nature of God throughout the centuries. They cannot understand how God can simultaneously be immanent and transcendent. Neither can they understand how He can simultaneously be all-powerful yet apparently inactive in the face of the world's miseries. How can God be all-good, and yet have a connection to this place of misery?
Christian theologians have particularly wrestled with these concepts. Therefore, in the early days of Christian thought, they debated about an appropriate understanding of Jesus Christ. Was he God? But then how could he experience the passions of a man and thereby feel compassion? Then was he a man? But how could he provide the direct and infallible link to God? Was he half-man and half-God? Eventually, the doctrine was formed: Jesus was both man and God, because in order for him to feet real compassion for man's suffering, he had to experience it himself, and in order for him to provide a tangible link to God, he could not be man.
We see it differently. Krishna's compassion for all the living entities does not necessitate that Krishna become flesh and blood. Krishna loves His parts and parcels in a natural way because they are never separate from Him. God is inconceivable; He is beyond our comprehension. Therefore, it is wrong to measure God on our own scale. God has inconceivable potencies. Jiva Gosvami therefore sets this as the first criterion for acceptance and understanding of God - that we accept His acintya-sakti, His inconceivable power.
Inconceivable doesn't mean that God is beyond our love. Rather, one of His potencies is that He is bhakta-vatsala. He loves His devotee. Therefore, we should apply all intelligence, clarity, and humility in our approach to God.
We should become fixed in the basic definition of what God is. He is not a human being who is bound by time and space. He can simultaneously lose Himself in loving emotions with His pure devotees yet remain the all-knowing universal Supervisor. He simultaneously forgets Himself and yet remains in full remembrance of His power. Is this a contradiction? Yes. But all contradictions are resolved by His own inconceivable potencies.
Anyone who cannot accept this basic definition of God is an atheist or at best, an agnostic. A devotee thrills to hear of God's inconceivable powers. Therefore, the Bhagavatam has something to give all religions. The Bhagavatam teaches that God is all-great and full of love. We should worship Him. It teaches that God does not want us to suffer but that the suffering is due to our own misbehavior. As soon as we regret out rebellion and turn again toward God, we are immediately lifted out of our suffering. This information is applicable to everyone in the world.
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