srimadbhagavatha-skanda 1-chapter 1

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The first four slokas of srimadbhagvatham are very important and they will be dealt with in detail.The first sloka of the purana is,

janmAdhyasya yathah anvayAdhithrathschArTHEshvabhijnah thEnE brahma hrdhA ya AdhikavayE muhyanthi yathsoorayah thEjO vAri mrdhAm yaTHA vinimayO yathra thrisargO mrshA DHAmnA svEna sadhA nirastha kuhakam sathyam param DHeemahi

Let us meditate on that Reality, the Brahman,who shines always pure with His own light who is cognised through the method of agreement and difference as the source from whom everything arises, who is the indweller of all beings and cogniser of all and self- illumined, who instructed the veda, incomprehensible even to the sages, to the creator, Brahma, who is the substratum of this world formed from the combination of the three gunas resulting in the gross elements , water,fire and earth and which is unreal in the sense that Brahman alone is the self of all and the sole reality.

 

'janmAdhyasaya yaTHah' is the second suthra of the Brahmasuthra, padha,I adhikarana,I.The first suthra 'aTHAtho brahmajinjnaaASa,' which means 'then therefore the enquiry into Brahman,' emphasises the necessity for acquiring the knowledge of Brahman and the second suthra' janmAdhyasya yathah,' explains the subject matter of the enquiry, that is, Brahman.It means, 'that from which the creation, sustenance and the dissolution proceeds.This has reference to the upanishadic statement 'yathO vA imAni bhootthAni jAyanthE, yEna jAthAni jeevanthi ,yasmin abhisamvisanthi , thadhvijijnAsasva thadhbrahma,'which means ,'know that to be Brahman from whom all beings emerge by whom they are sustained and into whom they merge back.This is implied by janmadhyasya yathah, the first two words with which the Bhagavatha purana starts. That which is the source of sentient and insentient beings is brahma, Brahman who is sathyam param the supreme truth or reality.and let us meditate on that, DHeemahi.

Brahman is cognised through the method of agreement, anvaya and that of difference,vyathireka. Brahman can be inferred to be the source of the world by texts that speak of identity between Brahman and the jiva which are examples of anvaya, such as 'sarvam khalu idham brahma,' all this is Brahman , ' ayam AthmA brahma,' this self is Brahman, 'EthadhAthmyam idham sarvam,' all this is ensouled by that(Brahman) and 'thatthvamasi,' that thou art etc.

The other texts that are specified by itharathah in the sloka are those that imply difference between the jiva and Brahman such as 'thadhAikshatha bahu syAm prajAyEya, that willed to become many,' denoting the creation and 'yah Athamani thishTan Athmanah antharah yam AthmA na vedha yasya AthmAsariram yah AthmAnamantharah yamayathi.' This text ,meaning 'He who stands inside the individual self, as its innerself, whom the individual self did not know, to whom the individual self is the sarira and who controls the individual self from within,' denotes that Brahman is the self of all.

Brahman is the abhijna, the knower in all things, arTHa. He gave the vedas to Brahma , the Adhikavi by HIs will,(thEnE hrdhA AdhikavayE) To undertand the true meaning of the vedas is difficult even for the wise and learned who get confused, muhyanthi yathsoorayah. Brahman always shines in His own light, sadhA svEna DhAmnA.

The creation consisting of three gunas that make the gross elements , water, fire and earth that constitute the gross world which is mrshA, unreal in the sense that Brahman is the self of all sentient and insentient beings which form His sarira or prakAra,mode, and therefore Brahman is the only reality.This is indicated by the word nirasthakuhakam in the sloka, meaning nishkalanka, without blemishes. Kuhaka means vanchakavasthu or things that deceive and He is nirastha devoid of that. His jnana is sathya and asankuchitha , real and uncontracted, all pervasive and therefore nirasthakuhakam.The words DHAma, sathyam and param denote jnAnam sathyam and anantham.

The Mangalasloka indicates the entire subject of the purana to be the parabrahman, synonymous with Vasudeva. JanmAdhyasya denotes the jagathkAranathva , the causality of Brahman and being the only reality, He is both the material cause, upAdhAna kAraNa and efficient cause, nimittha kAraNa.