20230722 Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.8.28-29

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on July 22nd, 2023 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India. The class begins with a reading from the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 2.8.29.

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

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Jayapatākā Swami: Someone said I have a slight fever. But anyway, I will try to speak. Today there are two verses. And both verses have very small purports. Parīkṣit Mahārāja very nicely put forward beautiful questions. Śukadeva Gosvāmī is giving all the answers. He was very expert, and he gave those answers the way he wanted to. People would ask Śrīla Prabhupāda questions, but Śrīla Prabhupāda would give the answers in his own way. At the end, everyone was fully satisfied. This way, it was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire that the questions were put forward properly. Śrīla Prabhupāda was a true representative of Śukadeva Gosvāmī. The questions that Parīkṣit Mahārāja asked Śukadeva Gosvāmī were asked to Lord Kṛṣṇa by Lord Brahmā. That is called descending knowledge. The knowledge that came from Kṛṣṇa, was handed down by the guru-paramparā.

In our West Wing of the TOVP Exhibition, modern science they see things by the ascending process. They know so much now and on the basis of that they think they know more. But the transcendental knowledge is seen by the Personality of Godhead and His eyewitnesses, they hand it down. And we cannot actually find out how things were manifested. So Mahā-Viṣṇu He creates the ananta-koṭi-brahmāṇḍa, the unlimited universes, from His pores. But that through the ascending process they cannot know. So this way, what happens and what does not happen, that one should understand through the descending process. So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he knows because he has heard from Lord Kṛṣṇa how everything has been created. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a very special literature. Because how the Lord creates, that subject matter is very nicely explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And generally, people don’t understand how everything takes place. Because Kṛṣṇa has explained or described this, therefore we can understand. Just like in the Ṛg Veda it says, He is transcendental and so they explain Kṛṣṇa in a very few words. And these verses contain the subject matter and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the elaborate explanation of this. Actually, if we hear from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then we have perfect knowledge. Bhakti-vaibhava is the first six cantos of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhakti-vedānta is the second six cantos of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. If we study all the twelve cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam then we will have a very good idea how the material world is created. So, that is why we hope that all the devotees will study the twelve cantos of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. After the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, then one can study the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Like this, different devotees go into the subject matter of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in different ways.

Parīkṣit Mahārāja had asked various questions. And Śukadeva Gosvāmī answered them. But the way Parīkṣit Mahārāja had asked the questions, the answers were not in the same order. We see that Śukadeva Gosvāmī was a realized teacher. But he gave the answers in a systematic way. Like that Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometimes, devotees would ask him questions. But he would not answer the questions in a systematic way. Sometimes the questions did not make sense the way they were asked. You may have noticed that sometimes questions are given in a particular way. But the answers are given in a different way. You see, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he was a very proper member of the Kuru dynasty. But his questions were sanguine, very good. But he may have seen those questions in a different order. So he would give all the answers, but in the same way they were handed down by the disciplic succession. So, Parīkṣit Mahārāja, he asked various questions, and he got the answers. So the answers to different questions of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are given in this way.

So, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he answered all the questions. And each of the questions, how they should be answered, he would answer them in that way. So, these questions given in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, they are the essential questions of life. And we see how the different devotees would ask the questions, and how he would give the answers. So, there was no speculation or kind of inference. We find that, what is called science, they actually take the inference of the things. And that the inference is subject to the scientists’ interpretation. So as a result, different scientists come up with different theories. They don’t actually know and they are just inferring that this must be like this. So, the scientific research has changed every so often. Depending on how they interpret what they see, that is why Śrīla Prabhupāda said ours is the real science, that we are studying the universe from the descending knowledge. So we are having the descending knowledge from thousands of years and it doesn’t change. So, we are having the science which is unchanging, and they are having the science which is always changing. So if one knows the right questions to ask, then they can get very accurate answers. So we are seeing how different theories, how they differently explain what is happening. They have different theories like Darwin’s theory where he is propounding that everything comes from matter. He says that his grandfather was a monkey. So this way there is a joke that a son asked the mother that, “The father says we are coming from the monkeys!” The mother said, “I don’t know about your father’s side of the family!” Of course, they say that we evolved from monkeys. Anyway, if you have any questions to ask now?