Origin of Bhagavatam (1)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Bankura Anniversary Festival,
26 January 2021, part 7
Translated from Bengali

What I have been telling you are the words of Srimad Bhagavatam, and I have printed a small book about the history of Srimad Bhagavatam's appearance in this world. My Gurudev (Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj) spoke this lecture in Australia, and I translated it into Bengali. Sripad Sajjan Maharaj takes these small books and distributes one hundred copies a day. He does puja, offers bhoga, takes prasadam, and goes to Diamond Plaza and market every day to distribute books. Many take prasadam at noon and go to sleep, but he goes out and returns only in the evening. Every day one hundred books are distributed. He gives people a book and take some money—somebody gives one rupee, somebody gives ten rupees, somebody gives fifty rupees (people give as much as they want to). So, this book contains the history of how Srimad Bhagavatam was written.

Many people say, "Bhagavatam says this," but who wrote this book? When we print books we write the author's name, but there is no author of Bhagavatam. One day at Naimisaranya, sixty thousand rishis heard this Bhagavatam from Suta Goswami, and this is how Bhagavatam got to be written down. But where did this Bhagavatam come from? Who did Suta Goswami hear it from? He heard it from Sukadev Goswami when he spoke Bhagavatam to Pariksit Maharaj. Please listen carefully what I am going to tell you.

How did Srimad Bhagavatam appear? Who wrote Srimad Bhagavad-gita?

Devotee: It existed before, nobody wrote it. The Lord says in Gita, "This yoga existed before, I am telling it to you now."

Yes, it is so. Yet how did the book come about?

Devotee: Vyasadev wrote it down.

Yes, correct. Vyasadev wrote all Vedas, Agni Purana, Garuda Purana, Srimad Bhagavad-gita. The author of all principal scriptures is Vyasadev. We sing in one of the kirtans,

কৃষ্ণ হৈতে চতুর্ম্মুখ, হন কৃষ্ণসেবোন্মুখ,
ব্রহ্মা হৈতে নারদের মতি ।
নারদ হৈতে ব্যাস, মধ্ব কহে ব্যাস-দাস,
পূর্ণপ্রজ্ঞ পদ্মনাভ গতি ॥

krsna haite chatur-mukha, hana krsna-sevonmukha,
brahma haite naradera mati
narada haite vyasa, madhva kahe vyasa-dasa,
purnaprajna padmanabha gati

"Through Krishna, Brahma became devoted to Krishna's service. Brahma inspired Narad. Narad inspired Vyasadev. Madhva Acharya is a servant of Vyasa. Thus, the line continued through Purnaprajna (Madhavacharya) and Padmanabha."

Vyasadev's guru is Narad Goswami. Having written all the scriptures, Vyasadev felt disturbed in his mind—he felt no happiness. He had written so many scriptures, Vedas, Puranas, but he felt no happiness. Then, Narad Muni came to his ashram in Badarikasram. Vyasadev told him about his situation, and Narad Muni said, "How can you feel happiness? You have composed so many scriptures, but you have turned it into hotchpotch!" When you serve people rice, dal, subji, chutney, sweet rice, we always mash and take everything separately, we do not eat mixing everything together. If you mix everything and eat, you will get some taste, but you will not feel what each preparation tastes like. So, Narad Goswami continued, "You have composed so many things, you even wrote Bhagavad-gita, but when you wrote it all you mixed devotion with other things (karma-yoga, jnana-yoga, sankhya-yoga, etc.)! You have made a hotchpotch! Write a scripture where only devotion will be presented." Then, Vyasadev remembered about Sukadev Goswami...

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