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2024-03-29, 11:56 AM |
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Chapter 13: The Glories of S'rîmad
Bhâgavatam
(1)
Sûta said: "The Godhead who by
Brahmâ, Indra, Rudra and the children of heaven [the Maruts] is praised with transcendental prayers and
about whom the Sâma Veda chanters with arrangements of mantras
from the Vedas, their limbs [the angas] and the Upanishads are singing; the Godhead upon whom the yogis, seeing Him in
their minds, concentrate in the meditative position; He whose end is
not known to anyone among the enlightened or unenlightened - unto Him I
offer my obeisances. (2) By the
scratching edges of the stones of Mandara mountain that most heavily rotated upon His
back the Supreme Personality of Godhead in the form of a tortoise [Kûrma] became sleepy. May all of you be protected
by the winds that are the traces left behind by the flow of His
breathing and the ceaseless tides of the eb and flow of the water which
up to the present day follows that example of breathing in and out. (3) Please listen to a summation of the number
[of verses] of this [Purâna], the purpose of its subject matter,
how the book should be given away as a gift, what the glory is of that
gift-giving and what the blessing is of the reading, reciting and so on
of this text.
(4-9) The Brahmâ Purâna
has ten thousand verses, the Padma Purâna fifty-five thousand,
the S'rî Vishnu Purâna twenty-three thousand and the S'iva
Purâna twenty-four thousand. The S'rîmad Bhâgavatam
counts eighteen thousand, the Nârada Purâna twenty-five
thousand, the Mârkandeya Purâna nine thousand and the Agni
Purâna fifteen thousand four hundred verses. The Bhavishya
Purâna has fourteen thousand five hundred verses, the
Brahma-vaivarta Purâna eighteen thousand and the Linga
Purâna eleven thousand. The Varâha Purâna offers
twenty-four thousand of them, the Skanda Purâna eighty-one
thousand one hundred and the Vâmana Purâna is described in
ten thousand verses. The Kûrma Purâna is said to have
seventeen thousand verses, the Matsya Purâna has fourteen
thousand of them, the Garuda Purâna next has nineteen thousand
and the Brahmânda Purâna counts twelve thousand. In sum in
the Purânas are this way described some four hundred thousand of
them [*]. Eighteen thousand, as
said, is the number of verses in the Bhâgavatam [see further under Purâna].
(10) This [tale of wisdom] was by the Supreme
Personality of God [Narâyâna, see 3.8-10] out of mercy first in full revealed to
Brahmâ who fearful of a material existence sat upon the lotus
that grew from His navel [see also 1.1:
1]. (11-12) From the beginning to the end filled with
accounts on detachment it is delighting the saintly and godly with the
nectar of its many narrations about the Lord His pastimes. In accord
with the essence of all vedânta philosophy it has the One
Reality Without a Second, that is characterized as the Absolute Truth [brahma,
the
impersonal] that is non-different from the One Soul [âtma,
the personal], as its prime subject and the beatitude [of emancipation
in devotional service or kaivalya] as the one ultimate goal [**]. (13)
He who gives the Bhâgavatam as a gift in his full glory ['on a
golden throne'] on the day of the full moon in the month Bhâdra
[August/September] reaches the supreme destination. (14) Other classical collections of stories
[other bibles, other Purânas or holy scriptures] are prominent in
the assembly of the saintly only for as long as one does not listen to
the great ocean of nectar which is the Bhâgavatam. (15) The S'rîmad Bhâgavatam indeed is
said to be the essence of all Vedânta philosophy; someone
satisfied by its nectarean taste is never attracted to any other
influence. (16) Of all Purânas this one is just like
what the Ganges is in relation to all rivers flowing towards the sea,
what Acyuta is in relation to all deities and what S'ambhu [S'iva] is in relation to all devotees. (17) Just like Kâs'î [Benares] is
unsurpassed among all holy places, S'rîmad Bhâgavatam is
matchless among all the Purânas, o twice-born ones. (18) S'rîmad Bhâgavatam is the
spotless Purâna most dear to the Vaishnavas in which the
perfectly pure and supreme spiritual knowledge is celebrated of no one
less but the best of devotees; in it is revealed, together with the
knowledge, the detachment and the devotion, the freedom from all
fruitive labor which will deliver that person who serious in his
conviction with devotion listens, studies and does the mantras as
should.
(19) I meditate upon the incomparable torch light
of the Immortal Truth that is Free from Sorrow and long ago was
revealed to the deity ['Ka' or Brahmâ], by whom this
transcendental knowledge pure and uncontaminated was spoken to
Nârada the great sage who delivered it by means of his personal
form to Krishna Dvaipâyana Vyâsa who next expounded it to
the king of the yogis [S'ukadeva] who out of his mercy on his turn
revealed it to [Parîkchit] the grace of the Fortunate One. (20) Obeisances to Him, the Supreme Personality
of Godhead Lord Vâsudeva, the Supreme Witness who mercifully
explained this to the deity who desired liberation. (21) Obeisances to him, the king of the yogis,
S'ukadeva Gosvâmî, the personal manifestation of the
Absolute Truth who freed [Parîkchit] the grace of Vishnu who was
bitten by the snake of material existence. (22)
O Lord, You are our Master, the Lord of the Divinity, therefore please
make it so that we life after life at Your feet may find bhakti. (23) I offer my obeisances to Him, the Supreme
Lord, whose congregational chanting of the holy name destroys all sins
and to whom bowing down the misery is extinguished."
Thus the twelfth Canto of
the S'rîmad Bhâgavatam ends named: The Age of Deterioration.
With this last Canto ends
the Story of the Fortunate One, the
Bhâgavata
Purâna, also known as the S'rîmad
Bhâgavatam and the Paramahamsa Samhitâ. All glories to the
Brahmâ-Mâdhva-Gaudiyâ Sampradâya
paramparâ of the foregoing Vaishnav âcâryas headed by
Lord Gauranga, S'rî Krishna Caitanya Mahâprabhu, who
through their commentaries, translations, bhajans and lectures made
this presentation possible and brought the full of the Vaishnava
culture to the humble western servant of Krishna, Anand Aadhar Prabhu,
who in truth is never finished with his work.
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