Everything about The Bhagavata Purana totally explained
The
Bhagavata Purana (also known as, or simply ) is one of the
Puranic texts of
Hindu literature. Its primary focus is the process of
bhakti yoga (loving devotion to the Supreme Lord) in which
Vishnu and/or
Krishna is understood as the Supreme all-embracing God of all gods (
Bhagavan).
The Bhagavatam takes the form of a story being told by a great
rishi known as
Suta Goswami, to a host of assembled sages, who ask him questions in regard to the various
avatars, or descents of Vishnu within the mortal world. Suta Goswami then relates the
Bhagavatam as he's heard it from another sage, called
Sukadeva. The language of the Purana closely resembles Vedic which may indicate an early dating or a variety of other possible possible reasons to resemble the archaic texts.
Bhagavata Purana is considered a natural commentary on the
Vedanta-sutra and is used as a textual source for all
Vaishnava Theology. It is the most celebrated of the
Puranas.
Origin and dating
Historical scholarship suggests that the text was written in the 9th or 10th century CE as part of the development of the
bhakti movement.
The Purana describes
Airavata and his descendants as four
tusked. Such
elephants, possibly
Gomphothere, lived in
Miocene-
Pliocene, and are mentioned also in
Sundara Kanda of
Ramayana.
Interdisciplinary and inter-textual studies are appearing which try to confirm the ancient status of this Purana.
Some scholars place author of the Bhagavata Purana to be roughly contemporaneous with
Nathamuni, who is believed as well to be concerned with sanskritization of the
bhakti tradition. Thus the first verse of the epic contains reference to both the
Brahma Sutras and the
Gayatri of the
Rig Veda. The language of the Purana is accepted to be closely resembling
Vedic texts rather than Puranas, thus its believed to be of early or Vedic times origins or written to resemble Vedic texts.
Contents
Introduction
The Bhagavata Purana is a narration of a conversation. King
Parikshit (Grandson of
Arjuna-
Pandavas and son of
Abhimanyu), who has been cursed by a
Brahmin to die in seven days, decides to give up his kingly duties to learn about the goal of life. As he prepares for his impending death, the saint
Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who has been searching for a suitable disciple to whom he might impart his great knowledge, approaches the king and agrees to teach him. Their conversation goes on uninterrupted for seven days, during which the king doesn't eat, drink or sleep. During this time the saint explains that one's goal in life is understanding the supreme absolute truth defined as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna.
Table of Contents
» 01: Creation
02: The Cosmic Manifestation
» 03: The Status Quo
04: Creation of the Fourth Order
» 05: The Creative Impetus
06: Prescribed Duties for Mankind
» 07: The Science of God
08: Withdrawal of the Cosmic Creations
» 09: Liberation
10: The Summum Bonum
» 11: General History
12: The Age of Deterioration
Scientific content
The Srimad Bhagavatam speaks to several topics that have in modern times been topics of scientific speculation and research.
The Third Canto (Chapter 11) offers calculations of time, pegging the briefest unit to the interval needed for atomic combinations, the longest to the entire duration of the universe.
An example of
Time Dilation (a topic in modern physics) appears in the Ninth Canto, wherein King
Kakudmi and his daughter
Revati travel to
Brahmaloka to meet the god Brahma. After spending a short time in Brahmaloka, King Kakudmi and Revati discover that during their short stay there, many thousands of years have passed on earth and all the people he once knew have died long ago, and even their names had been forgotten in the mist of time.
The Third Canto describes in some detail the development of the embryo in the womb, starting from the time of conception.
Incarnations of Vishnu
The Bhagavata Puran first addresses the Supreme Personality of Godhead in all of His glory:
» His eyes are the generating centers of all kinds of forms, and they glitter and illuminate. His eyeballs are like the sun and the heavenly planets. His ears hear from all sides and are receptacles for all the Vedas, and His sense of hearing is the generating center of the sky and of all kinds of sound.
The Bhāgavatam describes the various
līlās of twenty-five
avatāras (incarnations) of
Vishnu. It should be however noted that although its is usual to speak of Vishnu as the source of the avataras, this is only one of the names of god of
Vaishnavism who is also known as
Narayana,
Vasudeva and
Krishna and behind each of those names is a divine figure with attributed supremacy in
Vaishnavism.
Krishna
In the tenth canto of The Bhagavata Purana describes
Krishna's childhood pastimes as that of a much-loved child raised by cowherds in
Vrindavan, near to the
Yamuna River. The young Krishna enjoys numerous pleasures, such as thieving balls of butter or playing in the forest with his cowherd friends. He also endures episodes of carefree bravery protecting the town from demons. More importantly, however, he steals the hearts of the cowherd girls (
Gopis). Through his magical ways, he multiplies himself to give each the attention needed to allow her to be so much in love with Krishna that she feels at one with him and only desires to serve him. This love, represented by the grief they feel when Krishna is called away on a heroic mission and their intense longing for him, is presented as models of the way of extreme devotion (
bhakti) to the Supreme Lord.
Translations
- Gita Press has a two-volume English and Hindi translation (contains Sanskrit text and English translation).
- Kamala Subramanian has written a concise version of this book in English.
- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, has written a multi-volume edition that includes the Devanagari, its Roman transliteration, word-for-word meanings, a translation and commentary. It is available through ISKCON centers across the globe and major bookstores. The tenth canto was completed (from chapter 14), and the eleventh and twelfth done, by his disciples.
- A Telugu version of this Purana was rendered by the poet Pothana in the fifteenth century.
- A transcreated work, known as the Bhagavat of Sankardeva, is the primary theological source for Mahapuruxiya Dharma in the Assam region.
- A condensed Srimad Bhagavatam in Sanskrit, the Narayaneeyam, was composed by Melpathur Bhattathiri of Kerala in 1586.
- Edwin Bryant published an English translation of Book X in 2003, through Penguin Books.
- Swami Tapasyananda has written an English translation in four volumes, available from the Ramakrishna Math.
- Swami Prabhavananda produced an English version that's part translation, part summary and paraphrase, titled The Wisdom of God: Srimat Bhagavatam.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bhagavata Purana'.
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