BHAGAVATA MAHAPURANA

Bhagavata Mahapurana

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa (Devanagari: भागवतपुराण; also Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam or Bhāgavata) is one of  eighteen great Puranas (Mahapuranas, great histories). Composed in Sanskrit and available in almost all Indian languages, it promotes bhakti (devotion) to Krishna as the incarnation of Vishnu.

The Bhagavata Purana, like other puranas, discusses a wide range of topics including cosmology, genealogy, geography, mythology, legend, music, dance, yoga and culture. As it begins, the forces of evil have won a war between the benevolent devas (deities) and evil asuras (demons) and now rule the universe. Truth re-emerges as Krishna, (called "Hari" and "Vasudeva" in the text) – first makes peace with the demons, understands them and then creatively defeats them, bringing back hope, justice, freedom and good – a cyclic theme that appears in many legends.

The Bhagavata Purana is a revered text in Vaishnavism, a Hindu tradition that reveres Vishnu. The text presents a form of religion (dharma) that competes with that of the Vedas, wherein bhakti ultimately leads to self-knowledge, liberation (moksha) and bliss. However the Bhagavata Purana asserts that the inner nature and outer form of Krishna is identical to the Vedas and that this is what rescues the world from the forces of evil. An oft-quoted verse is used by some Krishna sects to assert that the text itself is Krishna in literary form.

The date of composition is probably between the eighth and the tenth century CE, but may be as early as the 6th century CE. Manuscripts survive in numerous inconsistent versions revised through the 18th century creating various recensions both in the same languages and across different Indian languages. The text consists of twelve books (skandhas) totalling 332 chapters (adhyayas) and between 16,000 and 18,000 verses depending on the recension. The tenth book, with about 4,000 verses, has been the most popular and widely studied. It was the first Purana to be translated into a European language as a French translation of a Tamil version appeared in 1788 and introduced many Europeans to Hinduism and 18th-century Hindu culture during the colonial era.

Modern scholarship dates its composition to between 500 CE to 1000 CE, but most likely between 800 and 1000 CE. A version of the text existed no later than 1030 CE, when it is mentioned by al Biruni and quoted by Abhinavagupta. The Bhagavata Purana abounds in references to verses of the Vedas, the primary Upanishads, the Brahma Sutra of Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, and the Bhagavad Gita, suggesting that it was composed after these texts. The text contains more details of Krishna's biography that the 3rd- 4th-century Harivamsha and Vishnu Purana, and is therefore likely to have been composed after these texts, suggesting a chronological range of 500–1000 CE. Within this range, scholars such as R. C. Hazra date it to the first half of the 6th century CE, Bryant as well as Gupta and Valpey citing epigraphical and archaeological evidence suggest much of the text could be from the 4th to 7th century, while most others place it in the post-Alvar period around the 9th century. Parts of the text use an archaic Vedic flavour of Sanskrit, which may either suggest that its authors sought to preserve or express reverence for the Vedic tradition, or that some text has an earlier origin. There are two flavors of Krishna stories, one of warrior prince and another of romantic lover, the former composed in more archaic Sanskrit and the later in a different linguistic style, suggesting that the texts may not have been composed by one author or over a short period, but rather grew over time as a compilation of accretions from different hands.

The Bhagavata is primarily a bhakti text, with an emphasis on achieving moksha through cultivating a personal relationship with Vishnu in the form of Krishna. The philosophy and teachings of the Bhagavata include several traditions, and an absence of a "narrow, sectarian spirit". While Bhakti Yoga is the prominent teaching, various passages show a synthesis that also includes Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, and Advaita Vedanta.

The Bhagavata is among the most important texts on bhakti, presenting a fully developed teaching on bhakti that originated with the Bhagavad Gita. Bhakti is presented as a path of yoga, or "union with the divine". Many of the bhakti teachings in the Bhagavata are presented as yogic activities—meditating on the lila of Krishna; hearing and singing about Vishnu as Krishna; remembering, serving, and worshiping him; dedicating all of one's actions to him—all are among nine activities of Bhakti Yoga taught in the Bhagavata. While classical yoga attempts to shut down the mind and senses, the Bhakti Yoga in the Bhagavata teaches that the focus of the mind is transformed by filling the mind with thoughts of Krishna.

There are many didactic philosophical passages, but the lengthy narrative stories are also a teaching; the book describes one of the activities that lead to liberation (moksha) as listening to, reflecting on the stories of Krishna and sharing their feelings for Krishna with others. Bhakti is depicted in the Purana, states Matchett, as both an overpowering emotion as well as a way of life that is rational and deliberately cultivated.

The Purana presents seven teachers and their hagiographic stories, describing for example Kapila, the Samkhya philosopher, as someone who was born as a full grown adult, who teaches his mother that in order to reach liberation, she must have bhakti, jnana (wisdom), and vairagya (dispassion), with bhakti being the most important. Other teachers such as Narada and Suka described in the Purana, however, present Bhakti with less prominence, and emphasize Advaita philosophy and Jnana yoga instead but then add that adoring Hari (Krishna) has the same liberating benefits.

Surendranath Dasgupta describes the theistic Samkhya taught by Kapila in the Bhagavata as the dominant philosophy in the text. In the Bhagavata, Kapila is described as an avatar of Vishnu, born into the house of Kardama in order to share the knowledge of self-realization and liberation. Kapila's Samkhya is taught by him to his mother Devahuti in Book Three, and by Krishna to Uddhava in Book Eleven. Samkhya in the Bhagavata is presented somewhat differently from in other classical Samkhya texts. It describes Brahman, or Bhagavan, as creating all beings within his Self in latent form—then, on its own initiative, bringing itself into Maya and falling " under the influence of its own power". This is in contrast to classical Samkhya, where the impulse for creation is "inherent in primal nature", or prakriti.

The treatment of Samkhya in the Bhagavata is changed by the text's emphasis on devotion. In Chapter Eleven, Krishna describes the world as an illusion, and the individual as dreaming, even while in the waking state. He gives Samhkhya and Yoga as the way of overcoming the dream, with the goal of Samhkhya as Bhagavan himself in the aspect of Krishna.

The Bhagavata frequently discusses the merging of the individual soul with the Absolute Brahman, or "the return of Brahman into His own true nature", a distinctly advaitic or non-dualistic philosophy of Shankara. The concept of moksha is explained as Ekatva (Oneness) and Sayujya (Absorption, intimate union), wherein one is completely lost in Brahman (Self, Supreme Being, one's true nature). This, states Rukmini, is proclamation of "return of the individual soul to the Absolute and its merging into the Absolute", which is unmistakably advaitic in its trend. In the same passages, the Bhagavata includes a mention of Bhagavan as the object of concentration, thereby preserving its character of being a Bhakti book.

Scholars describe this philosophy as built on the foundation of non-dualism speculations in Upanishads, and term it as "Advaitic Theism". The term combines the seemingly contradictory beliefs of a personal God that can be worshiped with a God that is immanent in creation and in one's own self. God in this philosophy is within, is not different from the individual self, states Daniel Sheridan, and transcends the limitations of specificity and temporality. He describes Advaitic Theism as a "both/and" solution for the question of whether God is transcendent or immanent in relation to creation, where God is identical with Self and the Universe, and credits the Bhāgavata with a "truly creative religious moment" for introducing this philosophy. The text suggests that God Vishnu and the soul (Atman) in all beings is one.

The Purana includes an introduction in Book 1 that describes its own creation. The Bhagavata describes itself as a recounting of events by the storyteller Ugrasrava Sauti (Sūta) to Shaunaka and other sages assembled in the Naimisha Forest. Sūta asserts, in this preface that Veda Vyasa was feeling unsatisfied, even after he had distilled the knowledge of the Vedas into the Epic Mahabharata. The sage Narada advises Vyasa that his unease was because he had not yet described the highest goal of knowledge. Vyasa thereafter writes the twelve books for the text, and teaches it to his teenage son Shuka. The text describes Shuka to be a precocious Advaita Vedantin who, rather than becoming a Krishna devotee, entered sannyasa and renounced the world as a child.

Sūta recounts the first recital of Vyasa's work, given by Vyasa's son Shuka to King Parikshit, the grandson of Arjuna, who is dying. After hearing the recital, Parikshit dies. The first nine books are mostly associated with Vishnu and classical form of bhakti-yoga, wherein various ancient tales of bhagavata (devotees of Vishnu) are enumerated.^[5] These bhagavata include Prahlad, Gajendra, Dhruva, Bali, Uddhava, Vidura, Maitreya, Parikshit, Priyavrata, Akrura, Ajamila and others. It is the tenth book that unfolds the largest chapter and the masterpiece poetic work of the text, through and on Krishna. The Bhagavata in verse 1.1.3 describes itself as the "ripened fruit of the Vedic tree", as the "essence of all the Vedas and Epic" in verses 1.2.3 and 1.3.42.

Many of the legends are interconnected in the Bhagavata. The text asserts that gods (Deva), demons (Asuras) and human beings do things, and behave in good or evil ways, in part, because of their past experiences and their innate evolving natures (Guṇa). The evil behavior of demon king Hiranyakasipu in Book 7, for example, against his own son Prahlada for his Bhakti for Vishnu, is not simply because of demonic Tamasic Guṇa but also because Vishnu in his Varaha avatar had killed Hiranyakashipu's brother Hiranyaksha in Book 2. Hiranyakasipu turned vengeful against Vishnu ever since then, and had refused to consider whether Hiranyaksha deserved to die.

The Varaha story in Book 2 is in turn linked to the story of Jaya and Vijaya, who had inadvertently annoyed four child sages in another legend of Book 3. These stories are further linked to legends of Ravana, Kumbhakarna, Sisuphala and Dantavakra elsewhere. Evil has temporal reasons that feeds it, good has spiritual reasons that sustains it, and the cosmic tension between the two, with cycles of conflict, weaves through the chapters in twelve books of the Bhagavata Purana. The underlying metamessage of the text to the devotees of Vishnu, state Gupta and Valpey, is that "one must refuse to see others as enemies, instead understand others, resist the wrong by resorting to a life of spirituality and that reading the text has the power to transform".

Book 1

The first book introduces the Bhagavata, with a dialogue between sages Vyasa and Narada. They discuss the weaknesses in Bhagavad Gita, calling it the philosophical treatise of the Mahabharata, thereafter declare that the monism and oneness taught in Upanishads is too abstract. They assert that there is a need for a practical document that distills the means to a spiritual life. Sage Narada then states, "when he meditated on Self in Self through Self", he realized that he was doing Bhakti. Inspired by the statements of Narada, claims the text in Book 1 chapter 18, Vyasawrote Bhagavata Purana. He taught the entire Purana to Shuka, his young son. Shuka leaves to roam the world, and meets King Parikshit, who is dying on the bank of the river Ganges. Several sages gather around him, including teenage Shuka. Parikshit asks Shuka what he should do to prepare for death. Shuka's reply constitutes the Book 1 and 2 of the Bhāgavata. The Book 1 is notable for the following pivotal statement of Krishna sects' theology,

Book 2

In Book 2, Shuka tells Parikshit that when one is in terminal condition and expecting death, one should become free of the fear of death by letting go of all attachments to likes and dislikes, home and family. They should do Yoga, by controlling the breath and mind and concentrating on the sacred Aum. Shuka explains the theory of Yoga, of bhakti, different types of dharana, the nature of Bhagavan, and the liberation for a yogi. Book 2 also presents a theory of cosmology, a theory on human anatomy, how human body has all the Vedic gods in it (Sattvic), ten sensory organs and abilities (Rajasic), five material elements (Tamasic), as well as the universal Purusha. A definition of Dharma and pleasant fruits of a moral-ethical life are listed in Chapter 7 and 8 of Book 2. In response to Parikshit's questions, Shuka describes creation and the avatars of Vishnu, concluding with a description of the ten characteristics of a Purana. The relationship of Vishnu to the Atman (soul, self) in every living being is summarized as follows,

Book 3

Vidura's pilgrimage to various holy places provides the backdrop for the stories and spiritual teachings in Book 3. Near the Yamuna River Vidura meets Uddhava, who gives him the news of the Kurukshetra War and about Krishna's death in chapter 1 of Book 3 (this is described in greater detail in chapters 30 and 31 of Book 11 as well). Vidura then meets the sage Maitreya, and learns how the world came into being, the divisions of time, and other subjects of cosmology. The story of the birth of Hiranyakashipu and Hiranyaksha is told, including the latter's death at the hands of Varaha, the boar avatar of Vishnu. An important story is the tale of Devahuti and her son Kapila, thus folding in one version of the teachings of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. Kapila's Samkhya teachings help lead her to final liberation. The third book also includes Maitreya's theory on the qualities of Supreme Truth and of the individual self (atman, soul).

Book 4

The story of Daksha and his sacrifice is told, in which he mocks Shiva in front of Dakshayani—his own daughter and Shiva's consort—resulting in Dakshayani's self-immolation, which later came to be known by one of her names, Sati. The legend of Dhruva's penance and devotion to Vishnu is also recounted, along with the related story of king Prithu. The book ends with the recounting of the renunciation and liberation of the Pracetas brothers.

Book 5

This is the story of Manu's sons and their children leads eventually to Bharat and a description of the world, the sun and its course, the moon and the planets, the regions below the earth, and the twenty-eight hells (naraka).

Book 6

Book 6 includes the story of Ajāmila, who reached the supreme abode Vaikuntha as a reward for uttering the syllables "Na-ra-ya-na" on his deathbed, even though he was only intending to call his son. The story of the son of the Praceta brothers is also recounted, along with the victory of Indra over Viśvarūpa. Book 6 ends with the birth of the Maruts. 

Book 7

The main portion of the seventh book is dedicated to the well known story of Hiranyakaśipu, his son Prahlada, and the death of Hiranyakaśipu at the hands of Narasimha, an avatar of Vishnu. This version expands on the story of Prahlada as told in the Vishnu Purana, and is the form that is most commonly told in Hinduism. Prahlada is considered a great devotee of Vishnu, and describes the process of bhakti toward Bhagavan.

In Book 7, the text states that, "Bhagavan is one without a second". This view resonates the nondualism in other Books of the text, such as the Book 3 which declares Brahma to be "immutable Self" in all beings, all prevading and synonymous with the Supreme Deity (Vishnu). 

Book 8

The description of the six past Manvantaras (ages or time periods of Manu) and the seven future ages of Manu includes several stories, many involving the avatars of Vishnu. Nine chapters are dedicated to the oft told story of Vishnu's Vamana (dwarf) avatar and his defeat of Bali. The story of the churning of the ocean of milk is also recounted, which is done with the help of the Kurma avatar of Vishnu.

Book 9

The current age of Manu is described at length, including the traditional history of the Solar Dynasty founded by Ikshvaku and the Lunar Dynasty of Pururavas. A long history of dynasties is described—Panchala, Magadha, Kuru, Anu, Druhyus, Turvasu, and others—leading up to the Yadu dynasty and the birth of Krishna to his parents Vasudeva and Devaki.

Book 10

The tenth book, dedicated to Krishna, is responsible for the widespread popularity of the Bhagavata Purana. Book Ten includes the most enduring images and stories of Krishna: the mischievous child who steals butter; the God as a child who holds the entire universe within himself; the boy who can slay demons and move an entire mountain with one finger; the cowherd who is the love of all the gopis, making them leave all their duties to follow him.

The tenth book is by far the lengthiest, taking up almost one quarter of the entire Bhagavata. While the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita show Krishna in various roles as teacher and diplomat, book 10 shows Krishna simply engaging in lila, or divine and intimate play with his devotees. It presents this intimate relationship with God as the highest goal of human existence.

Book 11

The Book describes how after a long period of peace and prosperity, carelessness and excesses within the society make people forget self responsibility, and the need to follow or protect dharma. Infighting between good people begins, ultimately leading to the destruction of the Yadava dynasty. The end comes through a senseless but brutal internecine war, described as a drunken fight, which kills all the Yadavas along with Krishna's human form. The last chapter describes Krishna's ascent to Vaikuntha. Book eleven also includes the so-called Uddhava Gita, the last discourse of Krishna which he addresses to Uddhava. Canto or Book 11 section 7-9 discusses the pastimes and realizations of an Avadhuta.

Book 12

The last book of the text includes various prophesies, such as the future rulers of Magadha, along with the evils of Kali Yuga and how Kali Yuga cycle will end with the destruction of the world (pralaya) to give birth to new Yuga cycle. The main story ends with the death of King Parikshit. The book includes a summary of the entire Bhagavata, a standard description of the ten characteristics of a Purana that is found in every Puranic text, three chapters about the life of Markandeya, and the assurance that it is the greatest among puranas.

From the beginning to the end, with its [Bhagavata] stories of detachment, it delights the saintly and the virtuous with the nectar of its many Lila of Hari. The essence of all the Upanishads this is, the sign that the Brahman [God] is one's Atman [Soul within], it illuminates the One Reality without a second, it is the means of attaining Kaivalya [liberation].

Posted in: