Less fortunate persons are not at all interested in hearing this Srimad-Bhagavatam. The process is simple, but the application is difficult.
Unfortunate people find enough time to hear idle, social, political conversations, but when invited to attend a meeting of devotees to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam they suddenly become reluctant. Sometimes professional readers of the Bhagavatam immediately plunge into the confidential topics of the pastime of the Supreme Lord, which they seemingly interpret as sex literature.
Srimad-Bhagavatam is meant to be heard from the begining. Those who are fit to assimilate this work are mentioned in this sloka: "One becomes qualified to hear Srimad-Bhagavatam after many pious deeds."
The intelligent person by thoughtful discretion can be assured by the great sage Vyasadeva that he can realize the Supreme Personality directly by hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam. Without undergoing the different stages of realization set forth in the Vedas, one can be lifted immediately to the position of paramahamsa simply by agreeing to receive this message.
TEXT -3
निगमकल्पतरोग॔लितं फलं
शुकमुखादमृतद्रवसंयुतम् ।
पिबत भागवतं रसमालयं
मुहुरहो रसिका भुवि भावुकाः ॥ ३॥
nigama-kalpa-taror galitam phalam
suka-mukhad amrta-drava-samyutam
pibata bhagavatam rasam alayam
muhur aho rasika bhuvi bhavukah.
nigama-the Vedic literatures; kalpa-taroh: the desire tree: galitam- fully matured: phalam-fruit; suka-Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, the original speaker of Srimad-Bhagavatam; mukhat-from the lips of; amrta- nectar; drava-semi-solid and soft and therefore easily swallowable; samyutam-perfect in all respects; pibata-do relish it; bhagavatam-the book dealing in the science of the eternal relation with the Lord; rasam-juice (that which is relishable); alayam-until liberation, or even in a liberated condition; muhuh-always; aho-O; rasikah-those who are full in the knowledge of mellows; bhuvi- on the earth; bhavukah- expert and thoughtful.
TRANSLATION
Know, O thoughtful men, that Srimad-Bhagavatam is the mature fruit of the tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami. Therefore this nectarean fruit is all the more relishable by liberated souls.
PURPORT
In the two previous slokas it has been definitely proved that the Srimad-Bhagavatam is the sublime literature which surpasses all other Vedic scriptures due to its transcendental qualities. It is transcendental to all mundane activities and mundane knowledge.
In this sloka it is stated that Srimad-Bhagavatam is not only a superior literature, but that it is the ripened fruit of all Vedic literatures. In other words, it is the cream of all Vedic kowledge. Considering all this, patient and submissive hearing is definitely essential. With great respect and attention, one should receive the message and lessons imparted by the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
The Vedas are compared to the desire tree because they contain all things knowable by man. They deal with mundane necessities as well as spiritual realization. The Vedas contain regulated principles of knowledge covering social, political, religious, economic, military, medicinal, chemical, physical and metaphysical subject matter and all that may be necessary to keep the body and soul together.
Above and beyond all this are specific directions for spiritual realization. Regulated knowledge involves a gradual raising of the living entity to the spiritual platform, and the highest spiritual realization is to know that the Personality of Godhead is the reservoir of all spiritual tastes or rasas.
Every living entity, begining from Brahma, the first-born living being within the material world, down to the insignificant ant, desires to relish some sort of taste derived from sense perceptions. These sensual pleasures are technically called rasas. Such rasas are of different varieties.
In the revealed scriptures the following twelve varieties of rasas are enumerated:
1)raudra (anger)
2)adbhuta (wonder)
3) srngara (conjugal love)
4)hasya (comedy)
5)vira (chivalry)
6) daya (mercy)
7)dasya (servitorship)
8) sakhya (fraternity)
9) bhayanaka (horror)
10)vibhatsa (shock)
11) santa (neutrailty)
12) vatsalya (parenthood)
The sum total of all these rasas is called affection or love. Primarily, such signs of love are manifested in adoration, service, friendship, eternal affection, and conjugal love. And when these five are absent, love is present indirectly in anger, wonder, comedy, chivalry, fear, shock, and so on.
For example, when a man is in love with a woman, the rasa is called conjugal love. But when such love affairs are disturbed there may be wonder, anger, shock, or even horror. Sometimes love affairs between two persons culminates in ghastly murder scenes. Such rasas are displayed between man and man and between animal and animal or between a man and any other species of living beings within the material world.
The rasas are exchanged between members of the same species. But as far as the spirit souls are concerned, they are one qualitatively with the Supreme Lord.
Therefore, the rasaa were originally exchanged between the spiritual living being and the spiritual whole, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The spiritual exchange or rasa is fully exhibited in spiritual existence between living beings and the Supreme Lord.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is therefore described in the Sruti mantras, Vedic hymns, as "the fountainhead of all rasas." When one associates with the Supreme Lord and exchanges one's constitutional rasa with the Lord, then the living being is actually happy.
These Sruti mantras indicate that every living being has its constitutional position which is endowed with a particular type of rasa which is to be exchanged with the Personality of Godhead.
In the liberated condition only, this primary rasa is experienced in full. In the material existence, the rasa is experienced in the perverted form, which is temporary. And thus the rasas of the material world are exhibited in the material form of raudra (anger) and so on.
Therefore, one who attains full knowledge of these different rasas, which are the basic principles of activities, can understand the false representations of the original rasas which are reflected in the material world.
The learned scholar seeks to relish the real rasa in the spiritual form. In the beginning he desires to become one with the Supreme. Thus, intelligent transcendentalists cannot go beyond this conception of becoming one with the spirit whole, without knowing of the different rasas.
In this sloka, it is definitely stated that spiritual rasa, which is relished even in the liberated stage, can be experienced in the literature of the Srimad-Bhagavatam due to its being the ripened fruit of all Vedic knowledge.
By submissively hearing this transcendental literature, one can attain the full pleasure of his heart's desire. But, one must be very careful to hear the message from the right source.
Srimad-Bhagavatam is exactly received from the right source. It was brought by Narada Muni from the spiritual world and given to his disciple Sri Vyasadeva. The latter in turn delivered the message to his son Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, and Srila Sukadeva Gosvami delivered the message to Maharaja Pariksit just seven days before the King's death.
Srila Sukadeva Gosvami was a liberated soul from his very birth. He was liberated even in the womb of his mother, and he did not undergo any sort of spiritual training after his birth.
At birth no one is qualified, neither in the mundance nor the spiritual sense. But Sri Sukadeva Gosvami, due to his being a perfectly liberated soul, did not have to undergo an evolutionary process for spiritual realization. Yet despite his being a completely liberated person situated in the transcendental position above the three material modes, he was attracted to this transcendental rasa of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who is adored by liberated souls who sings Vedic hymns.
The Supreme Lord's pastimes are more attractive to liberated souls than to mundane people. He is of necessity not impersonal because it is only possible to carry on transcendental rasa with a person.
In the Srimad-Bhagavatam the transcendental pastimes of the Lord are narrated, and the narration is systematically depicted by Srila Sukadeva Gosvami. Thus the subject matter is appealing to all classes of persons, including those who seek liberation and those who seek to become one with the supreme whole.
In Sanskrit the parrot is also known as suka. When a ripened fruit is cut by the red beaks of such birds, its sweet flavor is enchanted. The Vedic fruit which is mature and ripe in knowledge is spoken through the lips of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, who is compared to the parrot not for his ability to recite the Bhagavatam exactl as he heard it from his learned father, but for his ability to present the work in a manner that would appeal to all classes of men.
The subject matter is so presented through the lips of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami that any sincere listener that hears submissively can at once relish transcendental tastes which are distinct from the perverted tastes of the material world.
The ripened fruit is not dropped all of a sudden from the highest planet of Krsnaloka. Rather, it has come down carefully through the chain of disciplic succession without change or disturbance.
Foolish people who are not in the transcendental disciplic succession commit great blunders by trying to understand the highest transcendental rasa known as the rasa dance without following in the footsteps of Sukadeva Gosvami, who presents this fruit very carefully by stages of transcendental realization.
One should be intelligent to know the position of
Srimad-Bhagavatam by considering personalities like Sukadeva Gosvami, who deals with the subject so carefully. This process of disciplic succession of the Bhagavata school suggests that in the future also Srimad-Bhagavatam
has to be understood from a person who is factually a representative of Srila Sukadeva Gosvami.
A professional man who makes a business out of
reciting the Bhagavatam illegally is certainly not a representative of Sukadeva Gosvaml. Such a man's business is only to earn his livelihood. Therefore one should refrain from hearing the lectures of such professional men.
Such men usually go to the most confidential part of the literature without undergoing the gradual process of understanding this grave subject. They usually plunge into the subject matter of the rasa dance, which is misunderstood by the foolish class of men. Some of them take this to be immoral, while others try to cover it up by their own stupid interpretations. They have no desire to follow in the footsteps of Srila Sukadeva
Gosvami.
One should conclude, therefore, that the serious student of the rasa should receive the message of Bhagavatam in the chain of disciplic succession from Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, who describes the Bhagavatam from its very beginning and not whimsically to satisfy the mundaner who has very little knowledge in transcendental science. Srimad-Bhagavatam is so carefully presented that a sincere and serious person can at once enjoy the ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge simply by drinking the nectarean juice through the mouth of Sukadeva Gosvami or his bonafide representative.