Bhagavatam Question

[Guest guest]

Dear Isvara Prabhu,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Thank you for your interesting posting to the conference.

 

You said:

 

>Sukadeva Goswami did not start speaking Bhagavatam before the second canto.

>Which means the first 19 chapters, which are the first canto of SB, are the

>composition of Srila Vyasadeva. Also it doesn't mean that what was recorded

>in the Bhagavatam was what was spoken verbatim by Srila Sukadeva Goswami.

>It was stated in Tattva Sandarbha that Srimad Bhagavatam has much more

>verses in the higher planets. And in the planet of Lord Brahma, it was said

>to be 4 billion verses. Basically whatever was spoken by Sukadeva Goswami

>for seven days to Pariksit Maharaja, were all summarised by Srila

>Vyasadeva. Srimad Bhagavatam was composed by Srila Vyasadeva, at his

>devotional maturity, that is after he had fully realised whatever

>discussion he had with Srila Narada Muni.

 

My understanding all along, based on what I read and/or heard from

Gopiparanadhana Prabhu and Satyanarayana Prabhu on Tattva-sandarbha, was

that Srimad Bhagavatam had been indeed compiled by Srila Vyasadeva two times

-- first in its abbreviated form, and then in its entirety -- but both times

***BEFORE*** he taught it to Srila Sukadeva Goswami.

 

Gopiparanadhana Prabhu mentioned in his course on SB that Srila Vyasadeva as

trikalajna could see in his transe the exact contents of SB, ***INCLUDING***

the verses spoken later by Sukadeva Goswami. In other words, he taught

Sukadeva the Bhagavatam as we know it now, from SB 1.1.1 to SB 12.13.23,

including his own words, thus giving him as if a script to be replayed later

on, on Suka's encounter with Pariksit Maharaja.

 

The same is stated in the Tattva-sandarbha tranlsated by Satya-narayana

Prabhu (page 91):

 

"Anuccheda 20.5 has the term suka-proktam, "recited by Sri Suka". from this

we should not infer that versas Sukadeva Goswami did not speak, such as the

First Canto, are not part of Srimad-Bhagavatam. The Bhagavatam Vyasa

revealed was complete, including future events and future statements by Suta

and Saunaka. Since Srimad-Bhagavatam has been identified as having 18.000

verses and opening with a verse based on the Gayatri mantra, it must be that

its first verse beginns janmady asya yatah and its last verse ends with tam

namami harim param.

 

I assume that the above is Srila Jiva Goswami's own view on the history of

SB.

 

>There was no time mentioned on

>how long between the time Sukadeva Goswami spoke the Bhagavatam to Pariksit

>Maharaja to the actual time when it was actually composed and written by

>Srila Vyasadeva.

 

Therefore it appears that Srila Vyasadeva never had to write the Bhagavatam

again after he heard it from Sukadeva. He just relished it along with Narada

Muni -- the same slokas spoken by him previosly, but now filled with deeper

meaning merely by Sukadeva's narration.

 

>The purport of SB 1.7.5, shed much more light on this,

>that is how Srimad Bhagavatam was actually compiled.

 

Unfortunately, I could not see where the purport to SB 1.7.5 sheds any light

on the topic under question, although I scutinized it a couple of times to

see what exactly you had been referring to. Could you please elucidate?

 

Begging to remain

 

your servant,

Madana-mohana das