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THE SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM The Bhagavatam, or Bhagavata Purana, is held to be the most significant of all the Puranas. It has about 18,000 verses in 12 cantos and is the most widely read and one of the greatest works of devotion ever written. It is a book that goes to the core of understanding God and reveals the bliss of devotion to the Supreme Being, the depths of which make the other Vedic gods, such as Shiva, also hanker for it. This Purana describes how Vyasadeva came to write it and details the pastimes of the various avataras of God and His prominent devotees, but especially the pastimes of Lord Krishna. Other descriptions include the process of the universal creation and annihilation, the characteristics of the four ages or yugas, and much in the way of the teachings of Lord Krishna and Vedic knowledge. Five hundred years ago Sri Chaitanya Mahaprahu, along with other scholars of the Vedas, relied on and researched the Bhagavatam extensively for information on the Absolute Truth and became immersed in many stories about Sri Krishna in their spiritual ecstasies. The Bhagavatam is Sri Vyasadeva’s own commentary on all the Vedanta philosophy. It brings to light all the different aspects of the Absolute Truth, but especially the personal characteristics of Bhagavan Sri Krishna as the final conclusion of all Vedic understanding. This is why those who are impersonalists or monists, believing God ultimately has no form and, therefore, performs no activities, never reach the Bhagavatam in their Vedic studies. But if they do read the Bhagavatam, they are sure to interpret it in an impersonalistic way and, thus, deprive themselves of the truth and purity that they could derive from it. Srimad-Bhagavatam is considered the postgraduate study of the Bhagavad-gita. The Bhagavatam does not elaborate on worship of the other demigods or on rituals that award various temporary material benedictions as do some of the other Vedas and Puranas. Therefore, the Bhagavatam completely transcends all other philosophical viewpoints of the Vedic literature. This is confirmed in the Garuda Purana (Brahma Kanda, 1.45) where it states: “The wise declare knowledge to be manifold, consisting of various grades--high, low, and middling. All that knowledge is found in the Bhagavata Purana. Hence, Bhagavata is the highest of all Puranas.” Furthermore, in the “artho 'yam brahma-sutranam” verse, it fully states: “The Srimad-Bhagavatam is the authorized explanation of Brahma-sutra, and it is a further explanation of Mahabharata. It is the expansion of the gayatri mantra and the essence of all Vedic knowledge. This Srimad-Bhagavatam, containing 18,000 verses, is known as the explanation of all Vedic literature.” It is explained in the first verse of the Bhagavatam that it aims only at selfless devotional service to Lord Krishna. This is what separates it from all other Puranas. It ultimately delivers one to the Divine bliss found in the loving pastimes that Lord Krishna displays in His spiritual abode of Goloka Vrindavana. This topic is beyond the Vedas and Upanishads, which do not go near to that depth or level of spiritual understanding. The Shruti scripture (Vedas, Brahmanas, Upanishads), besides giving information on the process of rituals, primarily consists of knowledge of the futility of material existence, the temporary nature of the material creation, the bondage of the jiva souls in this existence, and the spiritual nature of the individual souls and the Supreme Being. They explain that the goal of life is liberation from the material worlds by returning back to the spiritual domain through the process of understanding karma, spiritual knowledge, renunciation, and devotion (bhakti). They do not explain much beyond this, or at least the finer details of what is beyond. They do not take you to the bliss of spiritual activities, nor the pastimes of Goloka Vrindavana, the most intimate and confidential spiritual abode of the Lord. That is why it is especially the Bhagavatam that begins to explain the supreme bliss of devotional love in the eternal pastimes that go on in the Vaikuntha planets, and in the Vrindavana atmosphere. It is this Bhagavata Purana that first reveals the supremacy of Lord Krishna’s love and the reciprocation that He provides above all other forms of God. The Bhagavatam is the highest manifestation of the bliss that comes from purely concentrating on the Supreme without any material inebriates. It is from this platform that one can go deeper and deeper into such love and bliss, which then manifests even profounder realizations and experiences. The second verse of the Srimad-Bhagavatam explains this point and what this Purana consists of and who can understand it: Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, the Bhagavata Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhagavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva, is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need for any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within the heart. As it is stated, this knowledge can be understood by those who are pure in heart. This means that those who are envious, atheists, or who read it with some ulterior motive will never be able to fully comprehend it. But for those who listen submissively and sincerely with an open mind, all the mysteries of the highest truth will gradually be revealed. That highest truth is “reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” Not that we can make up our own reality, but we must understand what is actually reality. Even though we can find information about Lord Krishna’s pastimes in all the Puranas, particularly the Skanda Purana, Padma Purana, Vishnu Purana, and the 129 chapters of the Brahma-vaivarta Purana, as well as details about Radharani in the Devi Bhagavat, there is a difference in the Bhagavatam. The difference is that the other texts relate the pastimes like a reporter giving a description of the events. But in the Bhagavatam, especially in the 10th canto, the bliss of these pastimes is presented from a participant’s point of view, one who is involved, and not from a spectator who is merely watching and describing the proceedings. This is the way Vyasadeva was inspired by Narada, and how the Bhagavatam had been spoken by Shukadeva Gosvami to King Pariksit. King Pariksit had seven days left to live and asked for the most essential spiritual truth, so Shukadeva Gosvami spoke the Bhagavatam to him. This is also how the reader can dive deep into the rasa, or the taste of the loving relationship that is displayed between Lord Krishna and His devotees in Goloka Vrindavana. This loving bliss is not experienced or seen in the relationships with Shiva, Durga, Brahma, or Vishnu, or in their abodes. It is only available with Sri Krishna in Vrindavana. It is this bliss, this ever-increasing happiness, for which we are always searching, intentionally or not, knowingly or unknowingly. This is what the Bhagavatam delivers for one who can dive deep enough.