laksana-vrtti / mukhya-vrtti

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> bhaktivinoda thakura writing on 5 th canto SB as hell being allegorical

>

> source: sadaputa's vedic cosmography p. 165-166

 

Could you tell us more about it, Prabhu? So that we can thoroughly

understand it.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

sadaputa gives 2 pages explanation

it is in the supplementary vedabase

 

Q: Some have said that the description of the universe in the Fifth Canto is

allegorical and that Bhagavatam commentators have declared this. For

example, Bhaktivinoda Thakura has said that the descriptions of hell are

allegorical. Why don’t you just accept the Fifth Canto as an allegory and

leave it at that?

A: It would indeed make things easier if we could simply accept the

description of the universe in the Fifth Canto as an allegory. But in good

conscience we cannot do so. Let us carefully consider the reasons for this.

First of all, consider the statements of Bhaktivinoda Thakura about

descriptions of hell in the Bhagavatam. In The Bhagavata he writes, “In some

of the chapters we meet with descriptions of these hells and heavens, and

accounts of curious tales, but we have been warned somewhere in the book not

to accept them as real facts, but as inventions to overawe the wicked and

improve the simple and ignorant. The Bhagavata certainly tells us of a state

of reward and punishment in the future according to deeds in our present

situation. All poetic inventions besides this spiritual fact have been

described as statements borrowed from other works.”

According to this passage, not only the hells but also the material heavens

are dismissed as poetic inventions. But if the heavens are inventions, what

can one say about their inhabitants, such as Indra? If Indra is also

imaginary, then how are we to understand the story of the lifting of

Govardhana Hill? This must also be imaginary, and we are led to an

allegorical interpretation of Krsna’s pastimes.

In The Bhagavata Bhaktivinoda Thakura is indeed introducing the Bhagavatam

in this way. We would suggest that he is doing this in accordance with time

and circumstances. He describes his readers in the following words: “When we

were in college, reading the philosophical works of the West,i we had a real

hatred towards the Bhagavata. That great work looked like a repository of

wicked and stupid ideas scarcely adapted to the nineteenth century, and we

hated to hear any arguments in its favor.” In order to sidestep the strong

prejudices of readers trained by the British in Western thinking,

Bhaktivinoda Thakura is presenting the Bhagavatam as allegorical, but we

would suggest that this is not his final conclusion.

Srila Prabhupada has explained that the Vedic literatures should be

understood in terms of mukhya-vrtti, or direct meaning, rather than

gauna-vrtti, or indirect meaning. He has also said, “Sometimes, however, as

a matter of necessity, Vedic literature is described in terms of the

laksana-vrtti or gauna-vrtti, but one should not accept such explanations as

permanent truths” (CC AL 7.110p). Bhaktivinoda Thakura was reviving

Vaisnavism at a time when it had almost completely disappeared because of

internal deviations and Western propaganda, and he may have concluded that

an allegorical presentation was necessary under those circumstances.

In establishing the foundations of Vaisnavism in the West, Srila Prabhupada

stressed the importance of the direct interpretation of sastra. He writes,

“Considering the different situation of different planets and also time and

circumstances, there is nothing wonderful in the stories of the Puranas, nor

are they imaginary.i We should not, therefore, reject the stories and

histories of the Puranas as imaginary. The great rsis like Vyasa had no

business putting some imaginary stories in their literatures” (SB 1.3.41p).

But could the description of the universe in the Fifth Canto be an allegory

like the story of King Puranjana? Srila Prabhupada makes many statements

indicating that this not so. For example, he says that “we can understand

that the sky and its various planets were studied long, long before

Srimad-Bhagavatam was compiled.i The location of the various planetary

systems was not unknown to the sages who flourished in the Vedic age” (SB

5.16.1p). He also says, “The measurements given herein, such as 10,000

yojanas or 100,000 yojanas, should be considered correct because they have

been given by Sukadeva Gosvami” (SB 5.16.10p).

In this book we have therefore tried to show that the Fifth Canto is giving

a reasonable picture of the universe consistent with (1) transcendental

Vedic philosophy, (2) the tradition of Vedic mathematical astronomy, and (3)

our imperfect sense data.