SRI BRHAD BHAGAVATAMRTA *verse 1*

By the mercy of Sri Guru and Gauranga we now have the Second canto part 1 of Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta by Srila Sanatana Gosvami and translated by nitya-lila-pravista om visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja.  As the Srimad Bhagavatam is the essence of Vedic literature, Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta is the essence of Srimad Bhagavatam. So while reading Bhagavatam at top speed in http://oneyearbhagavatam.blogspot.com/ i thought it would be a powerful addition to read Sri Brihad Bhagavatamrta very slowly verse by verse.  

so...

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya caksu unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah.

First of all i offer my heartfelt dandavat pranams unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master, nitya-lila-pravista om visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja and the same heartfelt dandavat pranams i offer unto the lotus feet of my siksa guru, nitya-lila-pravista om visnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja. 

dandavat pranama unto all our Guru varga especially Srila Sanatana Gosvami to whom Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta manifested, and unto all the devotees in the past, present and future, dandavat pranams.  

please excuse my innumerable  faults.

 i am reading and writing only for my own purification.

if i say anything inspiring that is what i've heard from my gurus and vaisnavas, if i say anything rotten that is from my own heart and i am asking you my dear readers to kindly correct me...

Srila Sanatana Gosvami is the elder brother of Sri Rupa Gosvami.  This Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta is the first of all gosvami literatures.  All gosvami literature expands from this book.  This scripture is endowed with immense power to explain the different stages and places in the universal workings to bring one to Goloka Vrndavana Dhama. 

The first canto, Purva-khanda is called Sri Bhagavat-krpa-sara-nirdharana khanda, ( Ascertaining the Essence of the Mercy of the Supreme Lord). And the second canto is called Uttar-khanda, Sri Goloka-mahatmya-nirupana khanda, (Ascertainig the Glories of Sri Goloka).

The second canto part one has four chapters, (1)  Vairaya - Renunciation,  (2)  Jnana - Knowledge, (3) bhajana - Devotional Service and (4) Vaikuntha - The Spiritual World.  

The two cantos are separate histories. but as Srila Gurudeva writes, "Our worshipful author has not merely written two histories.  Rather, for facilitating the worship of the divine couple,  Sri Sri Radha-Krsna,he has thoroughly analyzed their Lordships' fundamental reality and nature."

Before beginning his commentary on his own book, Srila Sanatana Gosvami gives this mangalacarana,

srimac-caitanya-devaya tasmai bhagavate namah

yad-rupa-manim asritya citram nrtyatay ayam jadah

"I offer obeisances to the Supreme Lord, Sri Caitanya-deva.  By taking shelter of the jewel of His rupa (meaning both His beautiful form and Srila Rupa Gosvami), even a dull person like me can also dance astonishingly on the dais of the narration of this book."

Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta: Canto 2, verse 1:

Sri Goloka-mahatmyam

The glories of Sri Goloka

namah sri-drsnaya bhagavate sri-radhika-ramanaya

"Abandoning any mood of  'I and mine,' I offer obeisance before Sri Krsna, the all-attractive reservoir of pleasure and the reservoir of limitless opulence, who brings delight to Srimati Radhika." 

FIRST CHAPTER 

VAIRAGYAM:  Renunciation

1.

sri-janamejaya uvaca

satyam sac-chastra-vargartha-sarah sangrya durlabhah

gudhah sva-matre pitra me krsna-premna prakasitah

Sri Janamejaya said:  O Gurudeva, truly, my father Sri Pariksit, who was overwhelmed with love for Krsna, gathered the confidential and rare essence of Srimad-Bhagavatam and all other scriptures that propound devotional service to Bhagavan.  He narrated this to his mother, Sri Uttara-devi.

King Janamejaya is the son of the great devotee, Maharaja Pariksit. Here he is inquiring from his guru, Jaimini.  Maharaja Pariksit heard the Srimad Bhagavatam from Sukadeva Gosvami in seven days and seven nights. In the space of time after the recital of Srimad Bhagavatam and the arrival of Taksaka the snake bird, Uttara, the mother of Maharaja Parkiksit asked him to explain the essence of what he had just heard.. This conversation between mother and son is this Bhagavatamrta.

Srila Sanatana Gosvami says,  " In the verse, the term sat-sastra, or transcendental scriptures, indicates the collection of scriptures such as Srimad-Bhagavatam that teach loving devotion to the Lord.  Janamejaya says,  'These books describe devotion to Sri Bhagavan and His eternal associates, which is the process by which the ultimate goal is achieved.  That devotion and the essential means to achieve it - are extremely rare...He (Pariksit) narrated this essence of all the devotional scriptures to his mother, Sri Uttara devi.  Although these topics are highly confidential, it is true that nevertheless, my father revealed them.  The cause of this revelation of truth is the love that my father, Sri Pariksit and his mother Sri Uttara devi, cherished for Sri Krsna.'"

Maharaja Pariksit is "overwhelmed with love for Krsna" and he will transmit this love to his mother.  This conversation is called Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta, (the Essential Nectar of the Bhagavatam). Bhakti comes from bhakti.  As Maharaja Pariksit is overwhelmed with love for Radha and Krsna, he gives this pure love to his mother by means of this conversation. She recieved this message with pure love and our guru parampara is now allowing us a glimpse of this love laden literature called Sri Brhad Bhagavatamrta!

Stickle Burrs

they stick to you.
in Vrndavana,
L.A.,
Badger,
they stick to you.
it is there nature.
to stick.
i am praying to Srila Gurudeva and all acaryas that i can have that nature too and stick to this bhakti path and to stick closely to our great generals of Bhakti
at this time and all times
and that something
anything
of Their Divine Love,
may stick in my heart!

ys, gopa

Piano Lessons

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I took piano lessons.  I was a very little girl with very little discipline and the lessons were a struggle for me.  My teacher, Miss Bruni, was very, very old, had never married, and playing the piano was her life and soul and her everything.

I don't know what unfortunate karma my Miss Bruni possessed to have me as a student, but every week she came to my house and i hacked away at the lessons.  In the beginning there were scales.  Hours of scales:  one handed, two handed, major scales, minor ones, front ways, backwards, upside downwards ( no, not that last one.).  It was all very tedious and I wondered what any of it had to do with music.  Sometimes, usually on rainy days, she would feel sorry for me and ask me to switch places with her on the bench. And she would play her heart out.  Expertly she would play the most beautiful masterpieces: Mozart, Beethoven, Bach.  Crashing crescendos and tiny, tiny harp flutters; I saw her lost, completely absorbed.  I was mesmerized by the music and also relieved to get a break from the infernal scales...and when the hour was done she would write another practice scale in my lesson book, to be mastered by the next week...

So when I try to crystallize the greatest gift my siksa guru, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja has given me, I am reminded of learning the piano. Scales are like sadhana or practice.  Sometimes all the rules and regulations on the bhakti path are so difficult to master.  So many anarthas and bad habits are in the way of bhakti.  Enthusiasm, patience, tolerance, humility, all good habits have to replace the old.  Even there may be no taste yet, as in a more advanced stage, but if we want to reach our goal, great endeavor must be made.

But then, sometimes, maybe when we're a little discouraged, maybe when we see ourselves making very little progress, or maybe when we've messed up real bad,  (the rainy days of our lives), then out of compassion Sri Guru may show us a little glimpse of what pure bhakti really is. Then again we are inspired to take up the process with full energy.

Sri Guru knows exactly what lessons (scales) we are to learn and prescribes them in a customized way for each disciple's progress.


Then one day Miss Bruni put a real piece of sheet music in front of me.  It was a simple classical piece by Schubert of Beethoven, can't remember, but I was completely absorbed in learning it. It took about a month, it was way too hard for me, but it was so beautiful...my fingers were strong and quick because of all the scales but the notation was so intricate that i had to memorize it stanza by stanza.

So when we finally get the sheet music, this is like following in the footsteps of the acaryas.   We aren't yet making music on our own but following very carefully those who are master musicians.  Sometimes my teacher would play a duet with me.  She would play the difficult part and I would get the easy one.  This is like when the spiritual master gives us some little service.  He's doing everything, even offering it to Krsna but we get to participate by following his instruction.

Finally, musically, (this I only know in theory as I never reached this stage), one can play music of one's own composition, spontaneously, as if flowing from the heart. And as far as my silly analogy can take us, this perfection compares to pure devotional service.

So as I try to fathom the enormity of the impact that our Srila Gurudeva has made in my life somehow i am reminded of piano lessons.  Sri Guru is the greatest of teachers because his instructions and even chastisements are given with implicit love...

So on this day so soon after his departure I am praying to him and all my gurus, that I may serve them lifetime after lifetime, that i may become a qualified, that I may practice sadhana and bhajana with full enthusiasm, (not like I did with piano) and that he will always show me the way, the bhakti way. ys, gopa