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.  These bhagavata include
[5]

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, Vyasa wrote 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].
Bhagavata mahapurana in Hindi