20200902 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 12.13.13 on Bhadra Pūrṇimā Day

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on September 2nd, 2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 12.13.13 and was given on Bhādra Pūrṇimā day. 

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!
Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya!

We are going to read that verse translation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 12.13.13:

prauṣṭhapadyāṁ paurṇamāsyāṁ
hema-siṁha-samanvitam
dadāti yo bhāgavataṁ
sa yāti paramāṁ gatim

Translation: If on the full moon day of the month of Bhādra one places Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam on a golden throne and gives it as a gift, he will attain the supreme transcendental destination.

Particularly it says, one will attain ‘parama-gati’. So, for some the parama-gati may be Vaikuṇṭha, but for us parama-gati is Goloka Vṛndāvana. So, today, is a very special day, for many reasons. We know that Bhadra Pūrṇimā is a very, very auspicious day to gift Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to someone in charity. Also, today is the anniversary of Śrīla Prabhupāda taking sannyāsa. Also, today is the middle of the cātur-māsya. Also, today is the appearance of Raṅgadevī and Sudevī. The two are the twins who appeared today. So, twins are even there in the spiritual world! We are very fortunate that we have Paṅkajāṅghri Prabhu and Jananivāsa Prabhu, twin devotees!

So, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is such a special book. Vyāsadeva had written all the four Vedas, the Upaniṣads. He had written 17 Purāṇas, Mahābhārata and Vedānta-sūtra. But he was not feeling satisfied. So he as his gurudeva, Nārada Muni, why he was not happy? And Nārada Muni explained to him that he had sometimes explained about the Supreme Lord but mixed with other things. Primarily devotional and the Supreme Personality of Godhead needs to be written about. So then he wrote the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīla Prabhupāda said how every verse in the Bhāgavatam is meant for the upliftment of the fallen souls. Throughout the twelve cantos, from the first to the last, devotional service is glorified. By giving different histories of the different devotees and the Lord’s incarnations. Actually, Bhagavān is a very big mystery. Many people, they don’t understand who is the Supreme?

I went to one Hindu’s house. He had like 25 pictures of different devas. Amongst them were Kṛṣṇa, Rāma and different avatāras. So I asked him, “Who is the Supreme?” He said, “I don’t know! I have the pictures and one of them is bound to be the Supreme! But I don’t know who?” But when he read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā As It Is, then he was convinced that viṣṇu-tattva holds the supreme position. And amongst the viṣṇu-tattvas, Kṛṣṇa is the Original. So this is one of things that is missing in the other Vedas. Everything in the Vedas is true, but to understand from all the Vedas the Supreme Lord, is very difficult. But Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is very clear. And that is why Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the best book for the people in Kali-yuga to read. And since the Bhāgavatam is the literary, sound incarnation of the Lord, so it purifies the reader. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam tells us how to chant the holy name. In the tenth canto, it tells the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. But we should read the other nine cantos, then we can understand the actual, transcendental nature of Kṛṣṇa.

So we read from this verse that we should put the Bhāgavatam on a golden āsana and then give it out. I told this to the authorities that they should put the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatams on a golden āsana. They said that they have a golden āsana. So, I had asked them that all the Bhāgavatam should be distributed after placing them on the golden āsana. Why? Because the Bhāgavatam is especially worshipable. Just as we worship Kṛṣṇa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also worshipable. Previously the system was to handwrite the Bhāgavatam, 18,000 ślokas! And with great respect in a golden āsana give this hand copied Bhāgavatam to some brāhmaṇa was a great thing, because then the brāhmaṇa could study the Bhāgavatam. This Bhāgavatam was spoken by Vyāsadeva to his son, Śukadeva Gosvāmī. And then, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, spoke the Bhāgavatam, day and night, for seven days and seven nights, to Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was so enthusiastic, he wanted to know more and more about Kṛṣṇa. If we thought of fasting for a few days, we would be astonished! But Parīkṣit Mahārāja, the more he heard, the more he was enthusiastic. He would ask him, what else did my wonderful Lord do? What else my Lord did? He was so eager to hear. He was the emperor of the whole world. He was young, he was a very good leader. He could have crossed over this curse. But, he accepted it and gave up his life, hearing the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So this Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is very, very important. I am very happy with the devotees who study the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. I am very inspired that His Holiness Bhakti Puruṣottama Swami he is going to distribute the Bhāgavatam amongst the tribal. And how Jananivāsa Prabhu, he said that the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa predicted that someone would come and wearing gerua cloth, would preach Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the language of the mlecchas. Śrīla Prabhupāda had mentioned that if the leaders of the world would study the Bhāgavatam, the whole world could be changed. And the whole world would be auspicious.

So, in the Brahmā Vaivarta Purāṇa, Kṛṣṇa predicted that there would be a Golden Age. And that would be for ten thousand years and people will all be eka varṇa, Hari-bhakta. So by this distribution and study of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, this could be achieved. So all the devotees should also study the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Not only giving the Bhāgavatam away, but also read the Bhāgavatam! Western people are now reading the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but they should also read in India! Because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not being taught to the paṇḍitas of Indonesia, they want to ban ISKCON.

Anyway, so, today also Śrīla Prabhupāda took his sannyāsa, and he got the saffron cloth. And he went to the West and distributed Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in different mleccha languages, like English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, German! So many languages. So I cannot mention all the languages, but BBT publishes it. But surely many of those languages are qualified for being mleccha languages. If the qualification of mleccha is eating cow meat, then there would be many. A caṇḍāla is a dog eater and a mleccha is a cow eater. But by reading the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, changing our habits, we can achieve the supreme destination, the supreme consciousness.

We pray to the gopīs, Sudevī and Raṅgadevī for their blessings, that we can have pure bhakti for the divine couple. Śrīla Prabhupāda was so merciful, he brought the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and it is now published by the BBT in a simple format. I saw in Māyāpur, he was getting up at midnight every night, and translating for several hours, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He wrote the 9th canto when he was in Bhubaneswar. And he wrote the 10th canto when he was in Vṛndāvana. But he wrote the summary study of the 10th canto as the Kṛṣṇa Book, early in his mission.

So anyway, on this auspicious day, we offer our obeisances to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we offer our daṇḍavats to the preachers. Hare Kṛṣṇa!