Rough draft of the "Special Introduction" for the Bhagavata Purana

I am currently preparing the Bhagavata Purana for publication using CreateSpace. My edition will include a new introduction by myself. This is my first draft of that introduction. I'm not entirely happy with it, but that's what first drafts are for:

Special Introduction – Bhakta Jim's Bhagavatam Class

A little over thirty years ago I was a devotee in the Hare Krishna movement. They called me Bhakta Jim because I was still in the probationary period prior to initiation as a disciple of a spiritual master. I left the movement before that could happen. I have few regrets about leaving, but there is one in particular.

I am a computer programmer by profession. I also have a talent for public speaking, which I am rarely able to use. Speaking in public is not an ordinary part of a computer programmer's duties. About the only time I get to do it is when I have a service anniversary at my company, which happens every five years. On my twenty-fifth year anniversary I gave a speech that went on for forty minutes and was so well received that people who were not present to hear it came up to congratulate me afterwards. My boss made me promise to never do anything like that again.

Now if I had stayed in the movement there is no doubt I would have been allowed to use my talent for public speaking to give Bhagavatam classes. I feel very strongly that I would have been a great Bhagavatam-class-giver. This introduction will give you a taste of the sort of class I could have given.

When reading this introduction you must imagine yourself to be in the temple room of the Evanston, Illinois temple, which was a remodeled gymnasium from a former YMCA. It is about six in the morning and the devotees have already been up for three hours. The men and women sit separately. The women are in the back of the room. Some of them are sewing Deity clothing, others are stringing garlands. The men sit closer to the altar and aren't doing anything but trying to stay awake. I am sitting on a very thin cushion, which is more than anyone else in the room has. I am doing my best to sit cross-legged but my knees still hurt. As always, the class begins by chanting a verse, or in this case a whole passage, first in Sanskrit and then in English. The passage is this one, from the Fifth Canto:

“Priyavrata reigned for 400,000,000 years. The Sun-god Aditya moves round the Sumeru Mount and sends his rays up to the Loka-loka range, illumining half the regions while the other half remains dark. King Priyavrata in the exuberance of spiritual power determined to illuminate the dark regions and to make it all day and no night. He followed the Sun-god seven times with a chariot as swift and bright as that of the Sun-god himself even as though he were a second Aditya. Brahma appeared saying 'Desist, O Son, this is not thy assigned duty in the universe.' The ruts caused by the wheel of Priyavrata's chariot are the seven oceans, which gave rise to the seven Dvipas: Jambu, Plaksha, Salmali, Kusa, Krauncha, Paka and Pushkara.”

I then read what Srila Prabhupada has to say about this passage, which isn't much, and then the class proper begins:

“For some time now we have been reading the Fifth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, which gives a description of the material universe, also called the Three Worlds. These Three Worlds are of course the higher heavenly planets, the lower hellish planets, and the earthly realm. We know from this book that the authors of the Bhagavatam believed in a universe very different from what we know it to be. They believed in a flat Earth with an enormous mountain called Meru in the center of it and another enormous mountain surrounding the rim of it called Sumeru. They believed that the Earth experiences night because the Sun goes behind mount Meru. They believed that the long nights in the winter are caused by the Sun god driving his chariot faster at that time of year. They believed in seven concentric rings of the Earth with different kinds of oceans between them. These oceans contain not just salt water but also clarified butter, liquor, sugarcane juice, milk, etc. As this passage states, these ring-shaped oceans are created by the ruts of the wheels of King Privavrata, who wished to become a second Sun god and make the Earth have daylight everywhere all the time.

“What are we to make of this passage, or indeed of all the similar passages we have been reading in this Canto? Clearly they describe a universe very different from the one we live in. We all know that Srila Prabhupada believed the moon landings to be a hoax on the basis of the Fifth Canto. The Fifth Canto concludes that the Moon is a heavenly world that is much farther away from the Earth than the Sun is. The Moon takes a whole month to cross the sky, whereas the Sun does so every twenty-four hours. Therefore the Moon must be much farther away. That's what the authors of the Bhagavatam believed.

“The Bhagavatam also tells us that the stars all circumambulate around the pole star because the sage Dhruva lives there. The Earth itself is stationary. We also learn that the Moon appears to wane not because of the shadow of the Earth but because it is being devoured by the head of a demon named Rahu. The demon Rahu is just a disembodied head, so of course the Moon comes out of where his neck would be every month.

“Now the story of Genesis in the Bible is no more believable. It speaks of a flat Earth with waters above and below, a greater light in the day and a lesser light (the Moon) at night. It tells a story where all the plants and animals were created first and finally man and woman were created at the same time and given dominion over all of them. Then it immediately contradicts itself by telling a second creation story where Man is created first, from the dust of the Earth, and then all the plants and animals are created afterwords. Man looks at all the beasts and gives them names, but finds none of them suitable to be a helper for him. Only then does God create woman from one of man's ribs.

“This contradictory story is believed by many Christians and if you wish to run for office as a Republican you are pretty much required to believe it. Even Democrats have to believe it is an allegory of something, though perhaps not literally true. But we must not confuse the Republican belief in the literal truth of Genesis with our belief in the truth of the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavatam. For a Republican believing in Genesis is just a way of telling someone 'I am one of your tribe. I, too, feel uncomfortable around blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, and gay people. I, too feel that women should not be allowed to do whatever they want. I, too, am as dumb as a bag of hammers. You can trust me with your vote.'

“Now this sort of belief will not do for us. We are seekers of the Absolute Truth. We know that we are not our bodies. We know that we are eternal and blissful by nature, and that our goal is to develop the love of Krishna and render loving service to Him.

“At the same time we spend a great deal of time at airports and on airplanes and we know for a fact that there is no mount Meru, no mount Sumeru, no seven concentric islands. We know that the Earth is an oblate Spheroid and that there is no such thing as “higher” or “lower” in the universe. But we also know that many stories of the Bhagavatam only make sense if the universe is the one described in the Fifth Canto. The churning of the ocean. The boar incarnation of Vishnu. The fish incarnation. Pretty much every story in every Purana takes place in what we can only conclude is an imaginary universe.

“As truth seekers we must consider the question of what the Bhagavatam is, and what purpose the authors had in writing it. An atheist might suggest that the Bhagavatam was written to separate fools from their money. Certainly there are books meant for that purpose. The writings of L. Ron Hubbard and Sung Myung Moon. All those books about the Rapture. Yet you can't put the Bhagavatam in that category. You can't build much of a business around the Bhagavatam.

“The cop-out some use for the Bible is to say it was written by humans but inspired by God. That doesn't really work for any scripture. If God inspired someone to write a book He would not allow that person to write a chapter full of lousy astronomy.

“So we have to conclude that the Bhagavatam is the work of humans, probably male, with no direct help from God. Yet it has the power to move us in ways that ordinary books do not. How many of us are here because we read Krishna Book, Srila Prabhupada's summary of the Tenth Canto of the Bhagavatam? Remember how you felt reading those stories for the first time? Some of you no doubt compared them to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. A few of you have told me as much. One friend I gave the books to called them 'Pure Sword and Sorcery!'

“Yet this book has a power that stories about Hobbits do not. The authors of this book looked at every big question there is and answered every one of them with every answer they could think of.

“Some of the big questions are:

“If God is powerful enough to create this world, why didn't He do a better job of it?

“What reason would God have to create an imperfect world?

“Is there a perfect world in addition to this one? Can we go there, and if so how?

“Why are some people born in wealthy families are others born in poverty? Is it because of pious or sinful activities in previous lives? If those born in wealthy families were pious in a previous life, why are so many of them so sinful in this life?

“Can you have a better existence in your next life if you deliberately suffer in this one? Could you become a god in your next life if you did that?

“How does the soul enter a newly born body? Does it come through a man's seed? Is it sinful for a man to ejaculate if it doesn't make a woman get pregnant? Do you really need a woman to make a baby? Suppose a man ejaculated on a leaf and the leaf got swallowed by a fish. Could a baby develop inside that fish body? Would anything good happen if I could go through a whole lifetime and not ejaculate at all?

“Is the soul of an animal the same as the soul of a man? How about the soul of a god? Do plants have souls? Is it better not to eat meat?

“Wouldn't it be great if there was a world where men and women could make love all the time and the woman only got pregnant in the last year of her life? Is that what the worlds of the gods are like? If so, is there a better world than that? If so, how is it better?

“Is the world gradually getting worse as time goes on? If so, what was it like to begin with? What will it be like at the end? What happens after that? Does it just get destroyed and re-created at that point?

“If there is a perfect world, why aren't we in it? What did we do to deserve being where we are? Can we be forgiven for doing it?

“If God is infinitely powerful, then is any part of Him also infinitely powerful? What about His form? His name? What does God look like? What are His names? If I make a statue that looks just like God is worshiping that just as good as worshiping God Himself? What about saying His name? If I say God's name over and over again will I be forgiven for my sins? Will I start loving God?

“If God was born on Earth what would that be like? What would it be like to be His father? His mother? His friend? His wife? His lover? Which of these would be closest to Him?

“If there is a perfect world where God lives how is it different from this world? How is it similar? Does God want us to love Him? Is loving God like loving a human being? If not, how is it different?

“It is the Tenth Canto of this book where Krishna's life is described that makes this book like no other. When we read it we are like John Wayne in the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told. Witnessing Christ on the cross, he says “Truly He was the son of God.” Reading Krishna Book, we think 'God must be like this.' We think, 'Here is a God we could love.'

“In the whole Tenth Canto the most profound chapters are those dealing with Krishna and the gopis, the cowherd girls of Brindaban. It is the love of the gopis that inspires this movement. I am not qualified to describe the activities of Krishna and the gopis when they are together. Perhaps nobody in this movement is that spiritually advanced. What I can do is talk about what happens when They are separated.

“The gopis give up everything to be with Krishna. They are married to others, so they can expect nothing in return. They are the greatest lovers of Krishna. Yet He abandons Them to live as a prince in Mathura and Dwaraka. In Dwaraka He marries 16,108 princesses and lives in a separate palace with each one. He expands Himself into 16,108 bodies so every princess feels that He is with her alone. He can expand His body without limit. If it was His desire He could expand His body to be with the gopis at the same time as He is with the princesses. If He does not do so it is because He wants to abandon the gopis, in spite of Their great love for Him. Yet the gopis continue to love Him.

“This class started out with a ridiculous story about a mythical King that wanted there to be daylight all the time. We then considered the motives of the authors of the Bhagavatam, and the great questions they wanted to answer. We finish by considering their answer to the most important question of them all: 'Does it make sense to abandon everything and love God?'

“This concludes this morning's class. Hare Krishna!”



Needless to say, nobody ever gave a morning class like this in any temple of the Hare Krishna movement.

This book, A Study of the Bhagavata Purana; or, Esoteric Hinduism, is the only public domain translation of the Bhagavatam I could find. It has been a popular download at archive.org (which has e-books made by scanning pages of printed books) and I felt that Project Gutenberg needed this book in their collection so it could be read by those with Kindles and Nooks. Once I had donated the etext to Project Gutenberg I wanted to create a bound and printed book to bring this book to a new audience.

I did a very poor job getting people to read spiritual literature when I was in the movement. Perhaps making this book available will in some way make up for that.

While I am a lapsed Vaishnava at best, I still feel that the story of Krishna needs to be better known around the world. May my humble efforts help make that happen.

Bhakta Jim