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Srimad
Bhagavatam
Bhagavata Purana, The Story of the Fortunate One
Please
click on the Contos to read the chapters.
Introduction
This book relates
the story of the Lord and His Incarnations since the earliest records of the
vedic history. It is verily the Krishna-Bible of the Hindu-universe. The Bhâgavad
Gîtâ compares to it like the sermon on the mountain by Lord Jesus
to the full Bible. It has 18.000 verses and consists of 12 books also called
cantos. These books tell the complete history of the vedic culture with the
essence of all its classical stories called purânas and includes the cream
of the vedic knowledge compiled from all the literatures as well as the story
of the life of Lord Krishna in full (canto 10). It tells about His birth, His
youth, all His wonderful proofs of His divine nature and the superhuman feats
of defeating all kinds of demons up to the great Mahâbhârat war
at Kurukshetra. It is a brilliant story that has been brought to the West by
Swami Bhaktivedânta Prabhupâda, a Caitanya Vaishnava, a bhakti (devotional)
monk of Lord Vishnu [the name for the transcendental form of Lord Krishna] who
undertook the daring task of enlightening the materialist westerners as well
as the advanced philosophers and theologians, in order to help them to overcome
the perils and loneliness of impersonalism and the philosophy of emptiness.
For the translation
the author of this internet-version has used the translation of Swami Prabhupâda.
As an âcârya [guru teaching by example] from the age-old indian
vaishnava tradition he represents the reformation of the devotion for God the
way it was practiced in India since the 16th century. This reformation contends
that the false authority of the caste-system and single dry bookwisdom is to
be rejected. Lord Krishna-Caitanya, the avatâra [an incarnation of the
Lord] who heralded this reform, restored the original purpose of developing
devotion for God and endeavored especially for the sacred scripture expounding
on the devotion relating to Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This
scripture is this bhâgavata purâna from which all the vaishnava-âcâryas
derived their wisdom for the purpose of instruction and the shaping of their
devotion. The word for word translations as well as the full text and commentaries
of this book were studied within and without the Hare Krishna temples of learning
in as well India, Europe as in America. The purpose of the translation is first
of all to make this glorious text available for a wider audience over the Internet.
Since the Bible, the Koran and numerous other Holy texts are readily available,
the author meant that this book could not stay behind on the shelf of his own
bookcase as a token of material possessiveness. Knowledge not shared is knowledge
lost, and certainly this type of knowledge which stresses the yoga of non-possessiveness
and devotion as one of its main values could not be left out. The version of
Prabhupâda Swami is very extensive covering some 2400 pages of plain fine
printed text including his commentaries. And that was only the first ten cantos.
The remaining two cantos were posthumously published by his pupils in the full
of his spirit. Thus the author was faced with two daring challenges: one was
to make a readable running narrative of the book - that had been dissected to
the single word - and second to put it into a language that would befit the
21th century with all its modern and postmodern experience and digital progress
to the world order without losing anything of its original verses. Thus another
verse to verse translation came about in which Prabupâda's words were
paraphrased and set to the understanding and realization of the author himself.
This realization came directly from the disciplic line of succession of the
Vaishnava line of âcâryas (teachers) as well as from a realization
of the total field of indian philosophy of enlightenment and yoga discipline
as was brought to the West by also non-vaishnava guru's and maintained by their
pupils. Therefore the author has to express his gratitude to all these great
heroes who dared to face the adamantine of western philosophy with all its doubts,
concreticism and skepticism. Especially the pupils of Prabhupâda, members
of the renounced order (sannyâsîs) who instructed the author in
the independence and maturity of the philosophy of the bhakti-yogîs of
Lord Caitanya need to be mentioned. The author was already initiated in India
by a non-vaishnav guru and been given the name of Swami Anand Aadhar ("teacher
of the foundation of happiness"). That name the Krishna community converted
into Anand Aadhar Prabhu (master of the foundation of happiness) without further
ceremonies of vaishnav' initiation (apart from a basic training). Anand Aadhar
is a withdrawn devotee, a so-called vânaprashta, who does his devotional
service independently in the silence and modesty of his own local adaptations
of the philosophy.
The spelling of
Sanskrit names has here and there been adapted because of the absence of the
suitable Sanskrit signs on the keyboard so that e.g. where normally a flat stripe
was placed above the letters a ^accent is placed. It means that one has to choose
for two letters where one is written, or that one has to pause pronunciating
the word at that place. Also the name Krsna has been spelled this way as Krishna
and rsi (=wise) as rishi. Normally the word for word translations of Prabhupâda
have been taken as they were given in the translations of Prabhupâda,
be it that here and there some words, because of their multiple meanings have
lead to slightly different translations. E.g. the word loka means as well planet
as place as world. Between square brackets [ ] sometimes a little comment and
extra info is given to accommodate the reader when the original text is drawing
from a more experienced approach. The original running text of Prabhupâda
is linked up at each verse so that it is possible to retrace what the author
has done with the text. This is according the scientific tradition of the Vaishnava-community.
These texts, as also most of the images, are copyrighted material and the property
of the ISCKON-Krishna community and may only be used as a fragment and not be
published by non-members without permission (BBT). For the tenth Canto more
verse-to-verse loyal translations of a former pupil of Prabhupâda (S'rî
Hayesvar das) and Prabhupâda's godbrothers/pupils have been used [including
their word for word translation] next to the translation of Prabhupâda,
as for this volume [but not the eleventh canto] the word-for-word translations
had been omitted and replaced by a more elaborate description of the text. The
twelfth canto was drawn in reference to the work of only the ISKCON pupils of
Prabhupâda who completed his work. Further was throughout the concatenation
process of this version the so called Shastri-version of the Bhâgavatam
(from the Gîtâ Press, Gorakpur) as extant with the common Himdu
in India itself used as a reference and second opinion.
For copyright purposes concerning the used images and texts and further commentaries
and the word-for-word translations of Prabhupâda themselves one will have
to consult the Bhaktivedanta Booktrust and other Krishna sites and the printed
books of Prabhupâda themselves. For the copyrights on this translation
one will have to consult this writer. It is permitted to download and print
these texts for private and non-commercial use. For all other usage one will
have to contact the author.
With love and devotion,
Anand Aadhar Prabhu,
Enschede, The Netherlands, 05-28-2000.
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