Bhakta Jim's Blog: Bhakta Jim's Bhagavatam Class, page 12

Love And Tea Biscuits

According to the official biography of Srila Prabhupada (the founder of the Hare Krisna movement) the movement really began with an incident involving the Bhagavata Purana and his wife.

(Prabhupada's father) was planning for Abhay to become a pure Vaiṣṇava, a devotee of Rādhārāṇī. He had taught Abhay to worship Kṛṣṇa and be pure in character and had arranged for his education. Now Gour Mohan thought of getting him married.

Gour Mohan had many friends in Calcutta with eligible young daughters, and for a long time he had been considering a suitable wife for Abhay. After careful consultation. he finally chose Radharani Datta, the daughter of a suvarṇa-vaṇik family associated with the Mulliks. Radharani was eleven years old. After the meeting between her father and Gour Mohan, both families agreed upon the marriage.

...

Although his marriage had only recently begun, Abhay was dissatisfied. Radharani Datta was an attractive young girl, but Abhay had never really liked her. He was thinking maybe a different wife would be better, a second wife besides this one. In India it was socially acceptable to marry a second wife, so Abhay decided to take the matter into his own hands; he made arrangements to approach the parents of another girl. But when his father heard about it, he called Abhay and said, "My dear boy, you are eager to take a second wife, but I would advise you not to. It is Kṛṣṇa's grace that your present wife is not to your liking. Take it as a great fortune. If you do not become too attached to your wife and family that will help you in your future advancement in spiritual life." Abhay accepted his father's advice; he wanted as obey his father, and he appreciated the saintly viewpoint. But he remained thoughtful, a bit awed by his father's forethought, and he wondered how one day in the future he would be advancing in spiritual life and be grateful that his father had done this. "Your future advancement in spiritual life"-Abhay liked the idea He reconciled himself to the wife he had been given.

-- Goswami, Satsvarupa Dasa (1997-09-01). Srila Prabhupada-Lilamrta: A Biography of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Kindle Locations 754-762). Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Kindle Edition.

Prabhupada's wife never shared his enthusiasm for spreading Krishna Consciousness. Many years later, when their children were grown up:

He visited his family, and the same, old scene occurred. Local friends came to visit, and Abhay began preaching, giving Bhagavad-gītā classes just as he had been doing in Jhansi. Meanwhile, his wife and the rest of the family would take tea in a separate room.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: I wanted as much as possible to get her to work with me in spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness, to get her help. But she was very determined. She wouldn't help me in spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So finally, after many years, I could understand-she would not be any assistance to me.

She was very attached to drinking tea. I was always telling her not to drink tea, because I wanted to have a nice Vaiṣṇava family. So although I was repeatedly telling her, this time I finally said, "You have to choose between me or tea. Either the tea goes or I go." In this way, I was even criticizing my own family. But because they were thinking I was the husband or father, they couldn't take my instruction seriously. So she replied, "Give up tea-drinking or give up my husband? Well, I will have to give up my husband, then." Of course, she thought I was joking.

One day, Radharani made a great mistake. There was a system of barter in which a customer would place on a scale an object a shopkeeper considered valuable and the shopkeeper would then balance it with an equal weight of merchandise. So while Abhay was out, his wife took his worshipable Bhāgavatam to the market and traded it for tea biscuits. When Abhay came home and looked for the book, she told him what had happened. She hadn't taken the matter as a very serious thing-she was out of tea biscuits-but Abhay was shocked. At first he felt depressed, but then a wave of absolute resolution passed over him: his family life was finished.

-- Goswami, Satsvarupa Dasa (1997-09-01). Srila Prabhupada-Lilamrta: A Biography of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Kindle Locations 3770-3783). Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Kindle Edition.

The "worshippable Bhagavatam" was of course the Bhagavata Purana.

Nârada Muni, The Famous Space Herman

After I left the Hare Krishna movement I met a fellow where I worked who had spent a summer as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. He did this to repay his parents, as he put it. Our experiences as celibate students gave us something in common and we became very good friends.

Now his English was pretty good, with occasional lapses. One day he brought in some photos he had taken in Thailand, and one of the photos was a statue of a Buddhist monk. I asked him who it was and he told me, "He is the famous Herman."

"The famous Herman?" I asked.

He thought for a moment and then said, "The famous Herman Hermit."

In a roundabout way this brings us to the subject of today's Bhagavatam class, about the most famous Herman of them all, Narada Muni.

You will recall from yesterday's class that Narada Muni was the one who told Veda Vyasa that he had screwed up writing The Mahabharata and suggested that he write a book all about Krishna to make up for it. The Bhagavatam contains a few paragraphs about the life of Narada Muni, and what an impressive life it is!

"In the previous Kalpa, in my former birth, I was born of a certain maid-servant of Vedic Rishis. Certain Yogis had collected at a place to pass the rainy season and I was engaged as a boy to serve them. Seeing me void of all fickleness as a boy and self-controlled, the Munis, who looked on all with equal eyes, were kind to me, especially as I gave up play, followed them, served them and talked little. With the permission of the regenerated I at one time partook of the remnants of their meal and the impurities of my mind were all removed. When thus my mind became pure, my inclination grew towards their Dharma. By their favor I heard them sing the beautiful stories of Krishna. Hearing those stories every day with faith, I gained holy love for Krishna. Through that love my mind became fixed in Him and I came to perceive my Sthûla and Sûkshma bodies as only false reflections of the real Self or Brahmâ. The Bhakti that grew up in me destroyed my Rajas and Tamas. Then when the kind Rishis were about to leave the place, they imparted to me the most occult knowledge which had been given to them by Bhagavân himself. Through that knowledge I have known the Mâyâ of Bhagavân. It is by that knowledge that one reaches the plane of Bhagavân. As I cultivated this occult knowledge, Bhagavân appeared Himself and gave me knowledge and powers direct."

What followed then, inquired Vyâsa? Nârada continued:

"Sometime after my teachers, the Bhikshus, had gone away, my mother died of snake-bite. I deemed that an act of God and went towards the North. After crossing several forests, rivers and mountains, I at last reached a solitary forest and there sat under a pipal tree. As directed by my teachers, I meditated on self in self through self. My mind had been completely conquered by Bhakti. As I was devotedly meditating on the lotus feet of Bhagavân with tear-drops in my eyes, Hari gradually appeared in my heart. O Muni, the hairs of my body stood on end through exuberance of holy love, I was completely lost in joy and knew not either self or any other. The indescribable Íshvara spoke thus in solemn words:

"O thou that dost not deserve to see me in this life, I am difficult to be seen by imperfect Yogis, whose likes and dislikes have not been completely burnt up. I have shown myself to thee that thy Kâma may all be centred in me. When I am the object of Kâma, the Sâdhu gives up all other desires. By prolonged service of Mahâtmâs, thy mind is firmly fixed in me. Therefore shalt thou give up this faulty body and acquire my companionship. The mind fixed in me is never destroyed in creation or in pralaya, nor does the memory fail.'"

"So saying Íshvara disappeared. In time, when I was drawn towards the pure body with which I was favored by Bhagavân, the body of my five Bhûtas fell down on the extinction of my Prârabdha Karma. When the Kalpa came to an end my new body was indrawn by the breath of Brahmâ who was going to sleep. After one thousand Yuga Cycles, when Brahmâ awoke and desired to create, I, Marichi, and other Rishis came out. Since then I have invariably observed Brahmâcharya and through the favor of Vishnu have been travelling all over Trilokî, both inside and outside, my passage being wholly unobstructed. The Devas gave me this Vinâ which is adorned with Svara-Brahmâ. By playing upon this Vinâ I send forth songs of Hari all round. These songs are the only means of crossing the ocean of recurring lives."

There are some points of interest in this story:

1). Nârada ate leftover food given to him by some monks. Eating this food just once cleared the impurities of his mind. Eating food that has been offered to God or better still to the guru is the Vaishnava Eucharist. When I first started going to the Hare Krishna temple they gave me food to take home and encouraged me to get my parents to eat some. Anyone eating that food, which had been offered on the altar, was guaranteed a human birth in his next life.

2). Hearing stories about Krishna is another means of making spiritual advancement. Anything to do with God: His name, His activities, His form, etc. has the full potency of God. God being infinite, any part of Him is also infinite.

3). Nârada has the ability to move anywhere within the three worlds (Triloki), that is, heaven, hell, and earth. Heaven in this case is NOT where Krishna lives. Instead it is where the demigods live. These planets are much more pleasant than earth, and people there live long and suffer little. Eventually they die and get reincarnated just like anyone else.

Since Nârada can move freely about the universe you would think that he would be an expert in how it is laid out, and certainly the devotees of the Hare Krishna movement believe that. In the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana we will learn what that universe is like in great detail. It is absolutely nothing like the universe we live in!

Veda Vyasa as a writer is a bit like my mother telling a joke. She takes awhile to get to the point of the story, and so does Vyasa.

The Mahabharata is a story about the Pandavas, how they were cheated out of a kingdom and fought to get it back. However you have to read quite a bit of The Mahabharata before the Pandavas are even mentioned. It is the same with the Bhagavata Purana. The Tenth Canto contains the story of Krishna. We have to slog through nine other cantos to get to it. However, these other cantos are not without interest.

So who wrote this?

"I have duly respected the Vedas, the teachers and the sacrificial fire, I have put the sense of all the Vedas into the Mahâbhârata and have made their sacred lore accessible to all classes of men. I have done all this, nay, much more. Still I think my work is not fully done." So thought Veda Vyâsa, the adept author of the Kali Yuga, while meditating on the sacred banks of the Sarasvati, and his heart became heavy with something, he knew not what. At this time Nârada appeared before him—Nârada, who knew all that transpired in the Trilokî and who could enter into the hearts of all beings. "Thou hast fully known," said Nârada, "all that is knowable, for thou hast written the excellent Mahâbhârata, which leaves nothing unsaid. How is it then thou feelest dispirited as if thy object were not gained?" What could Vyâsa say in reply; he only inquired from the seer Nârada the cause of his uneasiness.

The Bhagavata Purana, like all scriptures, is a work based on human imagination. Of course nobody will take a scripture seriously that some human just made up, so there needed to be some kind of cover story explaining the miraculous origin of the book.

The Bhagavata Purana is something of a sequel to the Indian epic The Mahabharata. That book is a story of the Pandavas, five brothers who fight a war to regain a kingdom. They have a friend Krishna, who ends up being the most interesting character in the book. It is quite possible that the authors of The Mahabharata did not intend for him to be. Sometimes when you write a story the characters take on a life of their own and get away from you, and I think that is what happened with Krishna.

The most famous chapter of The Mahabharata is of course the Bhagavad Gita, or the Song of God. In this chapter the big battle is about to begin and Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers, is having second thoughts. He will be required to kill his own relatives in this battle, and he can see no good coming from that.

Krishna has agreed to give aid to both sides in this battle, and Arjuna was given first choice of either thousands of soldiers or Krishna himself. Krishna will only serve as a non-combatant chariot driver to the side that gets him. Arjuna chooses Krishna over the soldiers.

As the battle is about to begin Krishna is driving Arjuna's chariot and hears Arjuna wanting to call everything off. He accuses Arjuna of cowardice and then gives him a lecture full of profound philosophy, in the middle of which Krishna reveals himself to be the supreme lord of all. He displays a form that looks like the album cover of Axis Bold As Love by Jimi Hendrix. Hearing this, Arjuna agrees to fight.

Krishna gives Arjuna advice on how to win the battle but does not do anything much in the way of miracles after that. Everyone seems to think of him as a human being after the Bhagavad Gita is over, even though everyone on the battlefield saw and heard it perfectly.

So what you have in The Mahabharata is a story where God Himself is a character and it doesn't change the story all that much. Sort of like Dei without the ex machina.

There must have been a demand for more stories about Krishna. What was His birth like, why did he come to earth, who were His friends, His lovers, His wives? The Bhagavata Purana answers these questions, and many more besides. The answers are quite interesting.

The authors of the Bhagavata Purana decided to give author credit to Veda Vyasa, the mythical author of The Mahabharata. To do that they had to somehow explain why he had not had more to say about Krishna in that book. The honest answer might have been "We didn't know that Krishna was going to turn out to be God when we started the book. It just kind of happened." That answer just wasn't going to work for their purposes, so they came up with another one.

Veda Vyasa finishes The Mahabharata but he is unhappy with it. He asks his friend Narada Muni for advice, and Narada Muni tells him:

"O thou great Muni, as thou hast treated of Dharma and of other things, so thou hast not recited the glory of Vâsudeva".

"This universe is also an aspect of Bhagavân, for its creation, preservation and end proceed from Him. Thou knowest all this thyself. But thou hast shown to others only a portion of this truth."

So that's the answer. Veda Vyasa wanted to write the ultimate book about Life, The Universe, And Everything and he almost succeeded. Unfortunately, he did not include much information about God in the book, even though God was an important character.

That was what Narada Muni said to Vyasa: you left out the most important part of the story!

It was too late to rewrite The Mahabharata, so Vyasa did the next best thing: he wrote the prequel.

Think of the Bhagavata Purana as Mahabharata Part II: The Beginning!

So who is Chaitanya anyway?

"Once a Pandita prided himself before Sri Chaitanya on his having put an interpretation upon a certain sloka of the Purâna different from that of Śridhara Svâmi. Now 'Svâmi'
is the designation of a learned Sanyassi, such as Śridhara Svâmi was and it also means a husband. Sri Chaitanya remarked 'one that does not follow the Svâmi is unchaste.' Such was the high opinion which the great Teacher held regarding Śridhara's commentary.

"I have purposely avoided making any reference to the commentaries made by the followers of Sri Chaitanya as I intend to study them separately along with the teachings of his school."

--from the Introduction of A Study Of The Bhavatata Purana Or Esoteric Hinduism

I have tried to track down books by Purnendu Narayana Sinha to see if he ever did write anything about Chaitanya. It looks like he never did. That is unfortunate. The modern Hare Krishna movement is based on the teachings of Shri Chaitanya, an Indian saint who lived 500 years ago and who is considered by his followers to be a combined incarnation of Krishna and His greatest devotee Radharani.

It is tempting to compare Chaitanya with Jesus. Jesus came to earth as a human being to suffer on the cross and die for the sins of humanity.

Chaitanya's purpose was both similar and different. He came to earth not to suffer but to experience the ecstasy that his own followers feel, which is greater than His own bliss. In the process of doing this He would teach mankind to reawaken its love of God (Krishna) and redeem it.

So while Jesus had to suffer, Chaitanya was in nearly constant ecstasy, and the end result for both was the deliverance of humanity.

Purnendu Narayana Sinha's book is almost what the Hare Krishna's consider to be an impersonalist interpretation of the Bhagavata Purana. The impersonalist idea is that the end result of devotion to God is to become freed from the illusion of personality and to merge into the blissful entity that is Krishna.

Chaitanya's followers believe something very different. They believe that our individual existence is not an illusion, that we are separate from God but made of the same stuff. Our union with God is akin to that of lover and beloved, or parent and child, or two friends, etc. In every case Krishna is the one being served and the devotee is the one giving service.

Chaitanya taught that the chanting of Krishna's names was the only means of deliverance that will work in the present age.

You can read about Chaitanya here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38016

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6817

http://archive.org/details/Chaitanyas...

Why Read The Bhagavata Purana?

This blog will be composed of posts about the Bhagavata Purana, one of the most important scriptures of India. The posts will not always be religious in nature. In fact, I expect very few of them will be. I will look at the BP from the viewpoint of science, of philosophy, of literature, and as I have a certain amount of experience living by its teachings (none recent) I'll talk about what that is like too.

If you were in the Hare Krishna movement like I was thirty some odd years ago your first exposure to the BP probably came from a book called Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead. This came in two or three volumes, was lavishly illustrated by devotee artists, and had a neat introduction by George Harrison, who paid for the first printing. This book is a summary of the Tenth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana, also known as Srimad Bhagavatam. It is full of stories of the god Krishna, and very entertaining stories they are too. Some devotees on first reading it thought it was like the Lord Of The Rings. A friend of mine described it as "Pure sword and sorcery!" That is not a bad way to think about it.

While the Tenth Canto is no doubt the heart of the book, the rest of it is not without interest. It describes the whole history of the Universe, millions of years worth. It describes how the Universe is laid out, and all the planets and who lives there. The fact that all of this description is obviously the product of human imagination does not diminish its value in any way.

For the text of my classes I will not be using Srila Prabhupada's translation. Instead, I will use a much older one, the only public domain English translation in existence. You can download a copy for free here:

http://archive.org/details/astudyofth...

This book was printed in India in 1901, five years after Srila Prabhupada was born. It is dedicated to a woman, Annie Besant, who the author calls "The Bhagavata of Bhagavatas". She is an interesting character and I may have more to say about her at some point. This translation and commentary is not too different from what Srila Prabhupada gave us. He always claimed that his movement did not invent anything new, and reading this book and others by the Theosophical Society tends to bear that out.

I'm currently working on a transcription of this book for Project Gutenberg. I'm going to make a CreateSpace book and e-books for the Nook and Kindle from this transcription. The book will have a new introduction by me. This blog will help me get my thoughts together for that introduction.