Srimad Bhagavatam 2

Reflections on the Bhagavat II

by Michael Dolan/Bhakti Vidhān Mahāyogī

The Bhagavat is a transformational literature. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhakura says:

“The Bhāgavata is preeminently The Book in India. Once enter into it, and you are transplanted, as it were, into the spiritual world where gross matter has no existence. The true follower of the Bhāgavata is a spiritual man who has already cut his temporary connection with phenomenal nature, and has made himself the inhabitant of that region where God eternally exists and loves.”

Śrī Kṛṣṇa

Even those who operate at the highest levels of awareness will make advancement by going through the Bhagavat. This is because even self-realized souls want divine love. To live in balance as did Buddha and to understand that the world and all its suffering is temporary is certainly a great achievement; but it lacks divine love. To reach the ultimate nothingness of nirvana is to find peace and the end of suffering, but such an achievement is empty since it lacks the dynamic of divine love.

The Author in St. Petersburg, Russia, 2015

To realize as did Shankar that the soul is eternal and that this world is a delusion is to soar to the heights of undifferentiated oneness. To discover oneness with the universe is, arguably, a greater achievement than Buddhistic nirvana, but where is the bliss? Ananda or bliss is only possible where there is love. And Divine Love implies another, greater being than your self. Alone in the one-ness of infinity one may reach the peace of eternal being and understanding, sat, and chit. But the soul is composed not merely of sat, being and chit consciousness, but of ecstasy, ananda. Nirvana is an attempt at denial and nothingness, a negation of sat. Yoga takes us to sat and beyond, to awareness. But only divine love can take us to ananda, and divine love or bhakti is the purpose of the Bhagavat.

Even Buddha might have profited from a reading of the Bhagavat. He might have gone higher, instead of stranding his followers in the nada of nirvana. Even Shankar might have gone farther with a deep reading of the Bhagavat.

Buddha’s philosophy mirrors the ideas of modern science when he claims that the combination of different material elements has created your mental system. He teaches that with the dissolution of your mental system, nothing remains. This is his goal: nirvana. According to his 8-fold path, then, we must somehow dissolve the mental system. He recommends a number of practices, for example ahiṁsā, nonviolence, satya, truthfulness, and so on. He has made a cogent analysis of the material world and its illusions. But while he outlines the path to nothingness, he offers nothing for the eternal hunger of the soul. He may talk about “faith” and “obedience” as virtues, but he offers no understanding of divine love. The understanding of what is divine love distinguishes the Bhagavat from all other literatures.

Shankar goes deeper. He knows that the individual soul exists. He understands that atma is eternal and indivisible. Unlike Buddha, who rejects the Vedic tradition, Shankar accepts the evidence of the Vedānta, and embraces the whole ancient wisdom tradition of India’s scriptures.

Scriptures in Sanskrit are called grantha. There is an interesting verse in the Bhagavatam that explains the above point. It says that self-realized souls everywhere: those who are “of the book” and those who are not “of the book” will be inspired by the Bhagavat. Such self-realized souls whether they be ruled by scriptures (grantha) or whether they avoid books altogether (nirgrantha) will be impressed by the qualities and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Reality the Beautiful.

And what of Jesus? Was he not self-realized? Jesus Christ gives us a glimpse into the higher realm, however, that is not full-fledged theism, but only the basis. Christianity is an unclear, vague conception of Godhead. There is an idea of theism, of surrender, but in what shape, in what attitude? Is divinity really personal? How? What is he like? If he has personality what is it? Does he have a form or figure? And what about the soul? What is the soul? How is the soul related to divinity? If there is divine love what form does it take? All these things are unexplained and unclear in Christianity.

In the teachings of Jesus Christ everything is hazy, told through parables, sketched in vague metaphoric language. The kingdom of heaven is alluded to be it is as if seen from far off. It does not take any proper shape. The veil is never lifted. Jesus Christ has certainly achieved a high stage of realization; his followers have a powerfully felt religious experience. But the Bhagavat allows one to go higher, to see beyond the haze. The Bhagavat allows one a clear vision of the Supreme Absolute.

Christianity offers some idea of divinity and theism. It hints at the idea of immortality. But the Christian view of immortality is a reaction against the mortality of this world. If there is death in this world, the next world will be death-free, deathless. There, the soul is non-mortal or immortal. The word “immortal” is curious because it is simply a negation of la muerte, le mort, the mortal. But there is no positive conception of immortality given in the Christian tradition. There is no clear idea of what lies on the other side. Eternal life is given short shrift. We are told that “In my father’s house are many mansions.” But most of the ideas about immortality that were later incorporated into Christian doctrine by Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas derive from Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Plotinus. Saint Augustine in particular was a great proponent of the teachings of Plotinus. The Bible itself gives scant attention to a philosophical ontology of the soul. And Jesus himself, while he warns about the dangers of sin is quite vague in terms of describing a positive aspect of immortality.

Jesus Christ leaves out a clear view of the goal. He speaks in parables. What exactly is our positive attainment in eternal life? This is unknown. Immortality as a hazy, negative attribute means “no death.” But if the soul is truly immortal, what dynamic activity awaits us in the higher realm?

What is our positive engagement in the Lord’s service? The ideal of sacrifice is outlined by Jesus. He is, in a sense, the embodiment of sacrfice, of the teaching of “Die to Live.” We understand the sacrifice of his death. But what is the positive achievement of immortal life?

Submission is only a partial aspect of surrender in divine love. We must not only submit in gratefulness to the highest authority, but we must have a direct connection with Him, and complete engagement in His service. What would such engagement look like? The description is given in the Bhagavat.

So it may seem revolutionary to claim that even Jesus Christ might have benefitted by imbibing the teachings of the Bhagavat. But the claim of the Bhagavat is that even self-realized souls like Buddha and Shankar may profit from reading the Bhagavat. If Buddha and Shankar could attain a higher realization by contemplating divinity as “Reality the Beautiful” than why not Jesus Christ himself.

Indeed there are those who suggest that in the lost years of Jesus, when he wandered for years before taking up the cross, he had gone to India to study the devotional science. There he was known by the name Isha or Ishas. Many books have been published on the subject. Perhaps Jesus Himself knew of the inner teachings of bhakti, but felt them too confidential to be revealed to the fisherman and shepherds who followed him in the Galilean desert millenia ago. Perhaps the “vagueness” in his teachings reflects the need he felt to avoid casting pearls before swine and revealing the inner secrets of divine love to those who were unqualified.

We may never know. But we can assert with authority that all kinds of mystics, seers, and realized souls, even perhaps the Buddha, even perhaps Jesus himself take pleasure in the glories of the Lord.

There is a verse in the Bhagavat that best illustrates the kind of point I am trying to make here. It is called the atmarama shloka. This verse was especially loved By Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Śrī Caitanya

The story is told that when Śrī Caitanya was a young renunciate or sannyāsī, a wise old teacher named Sarvabhauma thought that it would be best if he knew the scriptures. Sarvabhauma did his best to train Śrī Caitanya in the meaning of the Vedānta as he understood it. Sarvabhauma, of course, followed the version of Shankar and advocated “one-ness” as the highest truth.

Śrī Caitanya listened respectfully to the old teacher, but in the end expressed his own view, and began by explaining that even those who have attained one-ness in self-realization want to go higher. The Bhagavat gives us the key to this higher realization: Divine love. Sarvabhauma was so impressed that he converted to the cause of Śrī Caitanya and wrote many treatises defending Vaishnavism.

Here’s the atmarama verse.

sūta uvāca ātmārāmāś ca munayo nirgranthā apy urukrame

kurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim ittham-bhūta-guṇo hariḥ

“All different varieties of ātmārāmas [those who take pleasure in ātmā, or spirit self], especially those established on the path of self-realization, though freed from all kinds of material bondage, desire to render unalloyed devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead. This means that the Lord possesses transcendental qualities and therefore can attract everyone, including liberated souls.”

Self-realized souls are called ātmārama. If atma means “soul” and rāma means pleasure, “atmaram” means “One who takes pleasure in the self.” Suta explains that self-realized souls may be considered munis.

A muni is one who is thoughtful, one who is grave or silent, an ascetic, a truth-seeker, a visionary, one who keeps great vows, one in the renounced order or a saint.

So, according to Suta, all saints, sages and truth-seekers--even those who have already achieved samādhi or enlightenment--want to go higher and enter the realm of divine love as explained in the Bhagavat.

Divine love itself is ahaitukīṁ: it is causeless, it is unconditional and has no limits. Divine love is unrestricted. It is not constricte by the rule of law or the rituals of the scripture. Divine love cannot be achieved or produced through any mundane process. It comes from above, or as Shakespeare said about mercy, “It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.” Like the strange and wondrous chataka bird who only drinks rain-water, we may only extend ourselves to the infinite and pray for the mercy of divine love to descend. We cannot force love. It comes from above.

And yet, even given the difficulty attendant on the realization of divine love, even saints and scholars well-established on the path to truth and self-realization are inspired when they hear of the qualities nature and activities of Bhagavan, that is to say Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Reality the Beautiful.

Suta then points out that this principle--the idea that bhakti appeals to everyone--is true not only for the learned, but also for the unlettered. He uses the word nirgrantha.

Both those who are strictly adhering to all the rigid rules and regulations of pure monastic life as well as those who are avadhutas and babas, who apparently live outside the rules are enchanted by the qualities and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa as given in the Bhagavatam.

This then is the purpose of the book.

While the Bhagavatam may recapitulate all the other Vedic scriptures, its inner purpose is to describe and exhalt the qualities and pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and promote bhakti, divine love.

The Bhagavatam explorers any number of ancillary matters: there are descriptions of the end of the Mahābharata war at the beginning of the book, with special attention given to the prayers of devotees like Kunti.

For example, Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, prays for distress, because she says that in times of difficulty she is closer to Kṛṣṇa. He appears in her darkest hour, and so she prays for even more danger. She understands that every wave is favorable. Every movement, no matter how apparently dark, brings light.

In the first and second Cantos of the Bhagavata, we find that Vyāsa is despondent; he is not satisfied with his version of Mahābharata. It stops short. Nārada appears before him to point out that he must give a deeper reading. Nārada goes on to teach how he himself became enlightened by serving higher realized souls, devotees of Kṛṣṇa. He was born again and later became a disciple of Lord Brahma, the creator.

As a prelude to the topics that will later be described in depth, the second Canto explains how God may be seen everywhere in the universe and how yogis attain liberation at the time of death by practicing fixed meditation on the Paramātma. A deeper reading of the Bhagavata will lead us to understand that even such yoga practice is superficial compared with the realization of divine love, bhakti.

After the seminal discussion between Nārada and Brahma is explored in depth, the Bhagavat goes on to outline the various incarnations of Godhead. The creation is described as the subjective evolution of the universe from consciousness. From undifferentiated spiritual energy to subtle material energy like mind the progressive stages are described. Unmanifest material energy is invested with subtle powers and gradually unwinds into the manifest material energy of the space-time continuum invested with mind and ego.

In this way, the Bhagavat recapitulates in its preamble the various matters previously discussed in other Vedic scriptures. By reading the Bhagavat there is no need to go over the previous versions of scripture. It is something like a software update. The update includes the previous version and is backwards-compatible. It retro-actively casts the former system in a new light and moves us forward to a more progressive system. The update includes what went before without disturbing the foundation; but develops the themes in a higher context.

The ancient teachings of the sage Maitreya on the nature of the creation and annihilation of the universe are included and expanded upon in conversation with other sages like Vidura and Uddhava and there is a profound discussion of the nature of the universal egg.

Subtle and gross movements of time and divine and demonic elements are discussed along with the creation of gods, demons, animals, and various species. In this way, all the ancient mythological systems of the Puranas are thoroughly rehearsed and recapitulated.

The first generations of humans are described along with the various progenitors or fathers of humanity such as Svayambhuva Manu and their consorts such as Satarūpa along with the offspring of the pious wives of Prajāpati Kardama and others.

All these discussions serve as the great preamble to an understanding of the importance of Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa. It is important to read the entire preamble of the book to establish the greatness of the Lord; otherwise the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa Himself may take on the aspect of children’s stories to be read as fairy tales to babes-in-arms by their aging grandmothers. But the pastimes of Almighty God are not bedtime stories. This is the importance of the preamble: to establish the glories and opulence of God before we arrive at the qualities and pastimes of the Personal Godhead.

The Bhagavata takes on a great number of subjects before arriving at its goal. It touches on the annihilation and creation of the material universe. Time and space, epistemology and divine knowledge, ontology or the nature of being, physics and metaphysics, ethics and morality, are all expounded on in the Bhagavat. But its central subject matter is divine love, as it is clearly explained in the conclusion to that great treatise in the 12th Canto of the work:

śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ purāṇam amalaṁ yad vaiṣṇavānāṁ priyaṁ
yasmin pāramahaṁsyam ekam amalaṁ jñānaṁ paraṁ gīyate
tatra jñāna-virāga-bhakti-sahitaṁ naiṣkarmyam āviskṛtaṁ
tac chṛṇvan su-paṭhan vicāraṇa-paro bhaktyā vimucyen naraḥ

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the spotless Purāṇa.

It is most dear to the Vaiṣṇavas because it describes the pure and supreme knowledge of the paramahaṁsas. It reveals the highest truth, above karma, and jñāna. There is nothing in this book about karma and jñāna. Above exploitation and renunciation is divine love, devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Reality the Beautiful. Anyone who seriously tries to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, who listens carefully to its message or and recites it with devotion, reaches that higher realm of positive immortality where one realizes divine love and bliss in constant dedication.

His Divine Grace Bhakti Sundar Govinda Mahārāja commented on this verse. He points out that Vyāsa was thinking:

“There was something wrong with what I presented previously, but here in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam there is nothing wrong; everything is clean and clear. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is purāṇam amalam, the spotless Purāṇa, and, yad Vaiṣṇavānāṁ priyam, all the Vaiṣṇavas have accepted it very dearly within their hearts.”

In the Purāṇas we read so many things, but here in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam here is nothing external, nothing extra to throw out. Therefore it is very dear to those who are wholeheartedly serving Lord Kṛṣṇa.Ecstatic knowledge with service to the Lord which develops up to bhāva and mahābhāva is given by Vedavyās. In Śrīmad Bhāgavatam we find only the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and that is the ultimate knowledge; it is not mixed with anything material.”