srimadbhagavatham-chapter-2

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Chapter2 - The message of Bhakthi

 

 

 

The soothapouranaika, named Ugrasravas, the son of Romaharshana saluted

his guru Vyasa and the Lord before commencing to speak. He said,

 

yam pravrajantham anupEtham apEtha krthyam

 

dhvaipAyanO virahakAthara AjuhAva

 

puthrEthi thanmayathayA tharavOabhinEdhuh

 

tham sarvabhootha hrdhayam munim Anatho asmi

 

 

 

"Salutations to Shuka, who started alone, renouncing the world, not

being interested in karmamarga and whom Vyasa called 'my son' due to the

grief of separation, when all the trees answered him, and not shuka,

because he was a brahmajnAni and has become one with the entire

universe."

 

 

 

Shuka who was born as a brahmajnani left his father being indifferent to

karmamarga, renouncing the world.Vyasa was smitten with grief due to his

attachment towards his son and called him 'puthra' in order to stop him

but shuka never answered and went away. Instead, the trees and other

beings in the forest answered him because his son was shukabrahmam, and

has become one with the entire universe.

 

 

 

Then sootha praised shuka with another verse.

 

 

 

yassvAnubhAvam akhilasruthisAramEkam

 

aDHyAthmadheepam athithitheershathAM thamo anDHam

 

samsAriNAm karuNayA Aha purANaguhyam

 

tham vyAsasoonum upayAmi gurum muneenAm

 

 

 

"I surrender to the son of VyAsa, the preceptor of the sages, who, out

of mercy for the souls in samsara who wish to cross over the dense

darkness of ignorance, told this Bhagavathpurana which is the secret

that provides the experience of the Self, the essence of the vedas,of

supreme merit and is like the lamp for self knowledge."

 

 

 

Then sootha starts to narrate the purana after the customery invocation

verse,

 

nArAyaNam namaskrthya naram chaiva narOtthamam

 

dheveem sarasvatheem vyAsam thathO jayam udheerayETh

 

 

 

The purana known as Jaya should be told after salutations to Narayana

and Nara, the supreme purusha an sage Vyasa and goddess Sarasvathi.

 

 

 

Usually Mahabharatha is only known as Jaya but here Bhagavatha purana is

also referred to as Jaya in the sense, 'jayathi anEna samsAram ithi

jayah,' one conquers samsara with this.

 

 

 

The word 'jaya' denotes the number 18 according to katapayAdhi sankhya

and Mahabharatha was called jaya as it is connected with the number 18.

It contains 18 parvas and the mahabharatha war went on for 18 days and

the Bhagavatgita, the crest jewel of Mahabharatha contains 18

chapters.Bhagavtha also contains 18000 slokas and 18 is the number of

Krishnamanthra.