The Vedic Scriptures

The following important Vedic scriptures will be presented here in brief:

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam

After Śrīla Vyāsadeva had composed the Vedānta-Sūtra, Mahābhārata and other Vedic scriptures, he still felt dissatisfied. One day his spiritual teacher Nārada Muni visited him and Vedavyāsa asked him what was the reason for his dissatisfaction. Nārada explained to him that he had failed to describe in detail and unambiguously in his scriptures the glories of Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and devotional service to the Lord. Vyāsadeva then composed the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam - also called Bhagavat-Purāṇa - in 12 cantos with a total of 18,000 verses.

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam beginnt mit den Worten:

"O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth."

The next verse describes the glory of the Bhāgavatam and the effect that attentive and devoted study of the Bhāgavatam produces.

„Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.“

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is called the ripe fruit on the tree of Vedic knowledge and the spotless Purāṇa. It is the essence of Vedic wisdom. If one compares the Vedas to an ocean of milk, the Bhāgavatam is the cream that Vedavyāsa churned out. Vyāsadeva taught his son Śukadeva the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Śukadeva Gosvami spoke the Bhāgavatam to King Pariksit Mahārāja in the assembly of many great sages.

Mahārāja Pariksit was the successor of the world emperor Mahārāja Yudhistira. He was a devotee of Kṛṣṇa and a rajarsi, a royal sage. One day he was cursed by a Brahmana boy to die after seven days from the bite of the snake Takshaka. Hearing this, the king withdrew to the bank of the Ganges, ate and drank no more, and set his mind on Kṛṣṇa. Many great sages and saints and personalities who had heard of his cursing came to him. Even demigods and sages from the heavenly planets went to the bank of the Ganges to Mahārāja Pariksit. The king asked the sages what a person should best speak, hear, think and do in the face of death. Since anyone can die at any time and no one knows when death will befall them, the question is what one should speak, hear, think and do in the first place. Mahārāja Pariksit knew that he had seven days to live; we do not know how long we have to live. Before the sages could answer, the self-realised Śukadeva Goswami appeared on the scene. The king and all the assembled personalities paid their respects and offered him a seat of honour, knowing or seeing from his physical features that he was a special personality. Then Śukadeva Goswami spoke the Bhāgavatam in seven days and answered Pariksit Mahārāja's questions for the benefit of all people.

Later, Suta Goswami, who was one of those present at the event, recited the Bhāgavatam to the sages of Naimisaranya, a holy place.

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is loved and revered by devotees as the book incarnation of the Supreme Lord, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Supreme Lord Himself, who appeared in India about 500 years ago and established yuga-dharma for the kali-yuga, loved to hear and discuss verses from the Bhāgavatam in the company of his devotees.