Vedic Wisdom - The Essence of Bhagavatam- The Pinnacle of Puranas

Vedic Wisdom

The Essence of Bhagavatam- The Pinnacle of Puranas

Srimad Bhagavatam, which was first instructed to Brahma by Lord himself, which Brahma instructed to Sage Narada and Narada instructed it to Veda Vyasa in the form of Chatur Shloki – four verses- which consists the essence of the great Bhagavatam, at a time when Sage Vysya was very unhappy even after composing the Four Vedas, seventeen Puranas and the Mahabharata. Sage Narada advised Veda Vysya to write the Bhagavatam in entirety which he will envision thanks to this chatur shloki. Veda Vysya then composed the Bhagavatam consisting of about 40000 verses explaining the various stories of the Lord and the Devotees dealing on Karma, duty, rebirth, redemption, papa, punya etc.,

The fisrt shloki is about ‘Brahma Tatwam’; the second about ‘Jagat Tatwam’; third being about ‘Maya Tatwam’ and the last one is Atma Tatwam’- all of which forming part of ‘OM’ – the pranava mantra which are the essence of the cosmic order and vedic wisdom. The Brahma Tatwam is - God is the only power who was before creation and who will be after the delusion and he is the one residing in every being.

The Jagat tatwam is- the Lord who resides in and animates every being and is also outside all the beings – in other words it is the sea of consciousness outside and the same inside. The Maya tatwam- is the universe is not just as apprehended physically – there is much more; you have to discriminate and realize the underlying God in every matter; the false identification only with the form and not recognizing the substance is ‘maya’. The Atma tatwam is to inquire, know, understand and realize the Brahman who is within us. If a person can achieve this, his life will be only full of bliss. Bhagavatam talks about several stories how this was made possible.

Mind that matters

The other important point to be noted is that all these puranas repeatedly point out that the evils originate only in the mind and then envelopes the intellect and conscience making them silent spectators like what Dhritarashtra , Shakuni and Duryodhana did to Bhishma, Drona, Kripa and Vidura in Mahabarat. Also we can note Surapadma came in six disguises – the six dirts of mind namely-anger, lust, greed, pride, envy and illusion.

Similarly in Devi Mahatmyam the Madhu-Kaitabha represented the mental dust of the vanity; Mahishashura-the stupidity and Sumba Nishumbha-the false ego and again we can see all of them are mental illnesses. Similarly Ravana paid for lust; Duryodhana for Jealosy; Kamsa for anger; Sisupala for pride; Hiraanyakasibu for vanity; again each of these are mind related illnesses and that is why we repeatedly say that it is only the mind that matters and hence it is mind that should be nourished to be in the divine world of eternal bliss.

To sum up

The human body, which can avail all benefits in life, is obtained automatically by the laws of nature, although it is a very rare achievement. This human body can be compared to a perfectly constructed boat having the God as the captain and the Vedas as the favorable winds impelling it on its course. An intelligent man will use all these advantages – gifted by God-and cross the ocean of material existence and reach the world of eternal bliss.

If he fails he must be treated as an utterly foolish man having wasted the precious gift of the God. Puranas have again and again tried to drill deep this into our mind and it is most unfortunate we have not made the best use of them in shaping our younger generation.

This article is a snippet from the Book Vedic Wisdom, Authored by Pandit Sri Rama Sharma. Vedic Wisdom is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.