srimadhbhagavatham-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.