Setting the Stage in NaimisharanyaCanto 1 Chapter 4 Text 1-4

vyāsa uvācaiti bruvāṇaṁ saṁstūya

munīnāṁ dīrgha-satriṇām

vṛddhaḥ kula-patiḥ sūtaṁ

bahvṛcaḥ śaunako ’bravīt

Vyāsadeva said: On hearing Sūta Gosvāmī speak thus, Śaunaka Muni, who was the

elderly, learned leader of all the ṛṣis engaged

in that prolonged sacrificial ceremony, congratulated Sūta

Gosvāmī by addressing him as follows.

• The qualification of the a person who can congratulate another learned man in a meeting should be as follows:

• He must be the leader of the house and an elderly man and he must be vastly learned also.

• Śrī Śaunaka Ṛṣi had all these qualifications, and thus he stood up to congratulate Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī when he expressed his desire to present Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam exactly as he heard it from Śukadeva Gosvāmī and also realized it personally.

• Personal realization does not mean that one should, out of vanity, attempt to show one’s own learning by trying to surpass the previous ācārya.

• He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time he must realize the subject matter so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner.

• The original purpose of the text must be maintained.

• No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.

• No learned man should be willing to hear a person who does not represent the original ācārya.

• So the speaker and the audience were bona fide in this meeting where Bhāgavatam was being recited for the second time.

Suta Goswami reciting Bhagavatam in Naimisharanya

Sukhadeva Goswami reciting Bhagavatam to

King Praikshit

śaunaka uvācasūta sūta mahā-bhāgavada no vadatāṁ varakathāṁ bhāgavatīṁ

puṇyāṁyad āha bhagavāñ

chukaḥ

Śaunaka said: O Sūta Gosvāmī, you are the most fortunate and

respected of all those who can speak and

recite. Please relate the pious message of

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was spoken by

the great and powerful sage Śukadeva

Gosvāmī.

• The members of the assembly were eager to hear the text of Bhāgavatam uttered by Śukadeva Gosvāmī.

• They were not interested in hearing it from a bogus person who would interpret in his own way to suit his own purpose.

• Generally the so-called Bhāgavatam reciters are either professional readers or so-called learned impersonalists who cannot enter into the transcendental personal activities of the Supreme Person.

• Such impersonalists twist some meanings out of Bhāgavatam to suit and support impersonalist views, and the professional readers at once go to the Tenth Canto to misexplain the most confidential part of the Lord’s pastimes.

• Only one who is prepared to present Bhāgavatam in the light of Śukadeva Gosvāmī and only those who are prepared to hear Śukadeva Gosvāmī and his representative are bona fide participants in the transcendental discussion of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

kasmin yuge pravṛtteyaṁ

sthāne vā kena hetunākutaḥ sañcoditaḥ kṛṣṇaḥkṛtavān saṁhitāṁ muniḥ

---tasya putro mahā-yogīsama-dṛṅ nirvikalpakaḥekānta-matir unnidrogūḍho mūḍha iveyate

In what period and at what place was this first begun,

and why was this taken up? From where did Kṛṣṇa-

dvaipāyana Vyāsa, the great sage, get the inspiration to

compile this literature?---

His [Vyāsadeva’s] son was a great devotee, an

equibalanced monist, whose mind was always

concentrated in monism. He was transcendental to

mundane activities, but being unexposed, he appeared like

an ignorant person.

• Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī was a liberated soul, and thus he remained always alert not to be trapped by the illusory energy.

• In the Bhagavad-gītā this alertness is very lucidly explained. The liberated soul and the conditioned soul have different engagements.

• The liberated soul is always engaged in the progressive path of spiritual attainment, which is something like a dream for the conditioned soul.

• The conditioned soul cannot imagine the actual engagements of the liberated soul.

• While the conditioned soul thus dreams about spiritual engagements, the liberated soul is awake. Similarly, the engagement of a conditioned soul appears to be a dream for the liberated soul.

• A conditioned soul and a liberated soul may apparently be on the same platform, but factually they are differently engaged, and their attention is always alert, either in sense enjoyment or in self-realization.

• The conditioned soul is absorbed in matter, whereas the liberated soul is completely indifferent to matter.