Srimad Bhagavatam discussion--- part 1

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uddhava dushyant wrote:

 

> after arduous study of the bhagavatam, i still find it rather implausible

> that it was compiled 5000 years ago.

 

In your study arduous study -- perhaps you forgot the original verses were 4

and they were spoken to Lord Brahma. Since time immemorial the Srimad

Bhagavatam has been

spoken to Guru disciple parampara and it is only due to the influence of

Kali-yuga because the memory was short and intelligence not as powerful it

was in *written text*---Vyasadeva sought to explain the 4 verses in

18,000---for our Kali-yuga folks.

 

Srimad Bhagavatam 2.9.44 T

( Translation: His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)

 

tasma idam bhagavatam

puranam dasa-laksanam

proktam bhagavata praha

pritah putraya bhuta-krt

 

SYNONYMS

tasmai--thereupon; idam--this; bhagavatam--the glories of the Lord or the

science of the Lord; puranam--Vedic supplement; dasa-laksanam--ten

characteristics; proktam--described; bhagavata--by the Personality of

Godhead; praha--said; pritah--in satisfaction; putraya--unto the son;

bhuta-krt--the creator of the universe.

 

TRANSLATION

Thereupon the supplementary Vedic literature, Srimad-Bhagavatam, which

was described by the Personality of Godhead and which contains ten

characteristics, was told with satisfaction by the father [brahma] to his

son Narada.

 

PURPORT

Although the Srimad-Bhagavatam was spoken in four verses, it had ten

characteristics, which will be explained in the next chapter. In the four

verses it is first said that the Lord existed before the creation, and thus

the beginning of the Srimad-Bhagavatam includes the Vedanta aphorism janmady

asya. Janmady asya is the beginning, yet the four verses in which it is said

that the Lord is the root of everything that be, beginning from the creation

up to the supreme abode of the Lord, naturally explain the ten characteristi

cs. One should not misunderstand by wrong interpretations that the Lord

spoke only four verses and that therefore all the rest of the 17,994 verses

are useless. The ten characteristics, as will be explained in the next

chapter, require so many verses just to explain them properly. Brahmaji had

also advised Narada previously that he should expand the idea he had heard

from Brahmaji. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed this to Srila Rupa Gosvami

in a nutshell, but the disciple Rupa Gosvami expanded this very elaborately,

and the same subject was further expanded by Jiva Gosvami and even further

by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. We are just trying to follow in the

footsteps of all these authorities. So Srimad-Bhagavatam is not like

ordinary fiction or mundane literature. It is unlimited in strength, and

however one may expand it according to one's own ability, Bhagavatam still

cannot be finished by such expansion. Srimad-Bhagavatam, being the sound

representation of the Lord, is simultaneously explained in four verses and

in four billion verses all the same, inasmuch as the Lord is smaller than

the atom and bigger than the unlimited sky. Such is the potency of

Srimad-Bhagavatam.