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Bhgavata Vyha- The structure of theS'rmad

Bhgavatamor the science of realizing oneself God as the Fortunate One

The S'rmad Bhgavatam is the spotless purna in which,

most dear to the vaishnavas, by the topmost devotees only,the spiritual knowledge perfectly pure and supreme is celebrated;

in there is, together with the knowledge, the detachment and the devotion,the freedom from all fruitive labor revealed which will deliver a person who,

with devotion hearing and properly reading and reciting, is of serious consideration. (S.B. 12.13:18)

Reading S'rmad Bhgavatam one may wonder how Vysadeva has arrived at the order of thisbook. The Sanskrit text itself offers us no titles for the cantos, but the tradition does. So how has oneconcluded to these titles? The book itself gives us some clues to this. First of all Vysa in 1.2: 11describes how the unity of undivided knowledge is known by a threefold discipline, or trisdhana,specified as the science of God concerning the aspects of the Absolute, the brahman, the GreaterSoul, the paramtm, and the person of all bhga, viz. excellence, fortune and majesty, or

Bhagavn. Another way to describe these three different disciplines in one breath is to say that infreedom from illusion with the Spirit of the Absolute, one, as a soul relating to the Supersoul inanalysis connecting with the regulative principles, has to arrive at the Fortunate One to be there

with Him of service as a person of God. So the basic logic followed in this text of step by stepattaining to love of Godhead is known as the art and science of arriving at the personal of Goddeparting from the impersonal of the Absolute Truth. Even though the Absolute truth is of anondual nature and, in relation to the Supreme Soul, a matter of local culture shipping with duality,

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the conflict of the dual versus the nondual of realization is solved in the personal of considering theobject of worship religiously and the explanations of the teaching in the politics of spreading themessage.

So, despite of the nondual nature of the Absolute, it is the mission to face the duality of the materialworld with the help of the person of God who is there as the teacher and the friend. This duality is

traditionally in India defended with the different darshanas, or the different perspectives of indianphilosophy. The threefold of the discipline combined with the duality that has to be faced, results inthese darshanas. Thus the discipline with the Absolute Truth is known by method, nyya, and non-illusion, vais'eshika, by setting up the argument concerning the time and the person properly incantos one and two and then facing the facts of the manifestation of the form and norm of God incantos three and four. Next one is confronted with the duality of matter and soul when faces thereality of the material diversity at the one hand and the need to stay connected in rising above it intranscendence on the other. Thus we see the smkhya and the yoga appear in the line of theargument of this purna, of these classical stories that help us to realize the Vedic wisdom. Eventhough Lord Kapila, the avatra of the analytical approach, was introduced already in the thirdcanto as part of the science of arriving at non-illusion about the Absolute, we get to see the full scopeof it's effect in the fifth and sixth canto. Therein is presented the diversity of the person and theuniverse in relation to the Supersoul. Connecting in yoga therewith one faces the form and thenorm of it in the cantos seven and eight where we learn about avatraNrisimha and the culture ofbhaktitogether with the founding fathers of the traditions defending that culture of the enlightenedsouls the way they take responsibility in the different eras of creation. For the realization of thepersonal we finally enter the discipline of considering the object of worship, called mmms, thegreat example known as the Time or kla on the one hand and the substance of the person or the

purushaon the other hand. This is seen in the ninth and the tenth canto presenting us the personsfound of the dynasties of the Vedic culture in relation to the sun and the moon on the one hand andthe person as the object of worship in the form of Lord Rma and Lord Krishna on the other hand.

With Krishna we find the culmination of the discipline of oneness in diversity in one person, thePerson of All Qualities and Fortune. In the last part, the vedanta, or the final commentary ispresented. In canto eleven this is done in the form of the teachings to be remembered after Krishnaleft this world and the norm of celibacy in facing the Age of Quarrel is set by sage Mrkandeya incanto twelve, in which the people have difficulty keeping track with classical wisdom in arguingendlessly about their personal weaknesses in politics and in a societal confusion of identity. So we

have at this second level, when we accept the duality with the threefold respected nondual reality ofthe Absolute Truth, the sixfold division of the darshanas that cover all the different aspects ofindian philosophy.

The next realization at an even deeper level of order is most confounding: there seem to differenttypes of logic woven into the story. This logic presents us with an almost chaotic array of storiesrelating to the time of the material universe, the person who is of or against God, the manifestationof the Lord in different forms and the reality of the religion that by tradition is needed to rememberGod. A doubter failing in the method may be confused about the purpose of the vedic disciplinepresented by Vysadeva. Is it all about becoming religious? Or is it to figure out who the FortunateOne actually is? Is it to sober up with the difficulties of my, the bewildering potency of thematerial universe with its operating modes or gunas to the eternal of Time, or is it all aboutdefeating demons, the asuras and rkshasas, to be a pious person? To what purpose is the

bhgavata purnathere? Vysa is not so explicit in this at a meta-level. He simply presents us theconsequence of his logic. He reasons about avatra, purusha, klaas well as about dharma in apleasant intuitive mix surprising us at every page. The general outline of his logic seems to be thatdeparting from a certain historical respect of time, the person manifest in the universe as also theperson of God in the form of the universe must be realized, after which the need for the hero of God,the manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, comes in view, for He is the One to leadthe bewildered living beings back to His purpose: the dharma which then is delivered as theconclusion of the mission for all the three disciplines. So, in one breath said, the time realized as aperson places us for the need of the hero, of the incarnation of the Great Example, to be certain onthe path of our religiosity of finding liberation with our enlightenment in spiritual self-realization.

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So we with this line of argument have a fourfold cause to reason from which is something we in theWest more or less already knew from Aristotele; this causal network is the kranata, the causality ofthe Bhgavatam. From this kranatawe see the sixfold of the different visions further divided intwelve; we see the argument further diversified to the basic logic about self-realization. Thistwelvefold effect of the logic followed thus is laid down in the twelve books, or the divisions of thethree hundred thirty-five chapters in this bible or collection of stories, or samhit, about the

wisdom of God. Thus we get the contents, the anukramaof this book arranged chapter by chapter.

The final result of realizing this structure, this vyha of the bhgavata, is in the table belowpresented as a permutation on the concepts of thepratyaya or the proof thus delivered. Time as thedoer results in the proof of history. The substance of the universe and the logic followed is proven to

be the person. The hero of the Lord incarnate in a certain form is the manifestation of that proof ofthe person of God and the religiousness of the norm set by Him is the proven duty we have toconclude to. Thus reasoning from the causal modes of history, person, manifestation and the duty

we arrive at the result, the bhvita, of the structural awareness of the Bhgavatam as laid down inthe before last row of the table below.

The final step in this in depth analysis of the structure of this book is the translation of this result,this bhvita, into the actual titles the paramparcame up with. In this respect another element isadded to the story: the element of the different subjects discussed in the book. In 2.10: 1-2S'ukadeva Gosvm as the first philosopher-king after Krishna, the first mahrja-cryaexplainsthat: 'In this [book, the S'rmad Bhgavatam] are discussed the following [ten] subjects: primarycreation [sarga], how the interactions of life and the lifeless came about [visarga], the planetaryorder [sthna], the maintenance of belief [poshana], the impetus for action [taya], theadministrative eras [manvantaras], stories about the Lord His appearances [s'a-anukath],returning to God [nirodha], liberation in devotional service [mukti] and the summum bonum [thelife of Krishna, s'raya]. The great sages reduce the purpose of [the first nine] characteristics ofthis [Bhgavatam] to the clarification of the summum bonum. This they deduced from either thewords themselves used in the text or from their purport.' In 12.7: 9-11 he further dilates on thissaying: 'The creation [of this universe, sarga], the subsequent creation [of different worlds andbeings,visarga], the maintenance [the sustenance, thevrittior sthna] and protection [the rakshor poshana of the living beings], the reigns [of the various Manus], the dynasties [vams'as], thenarrations about them [vams'a-anucaritam], the annihilation [of different kinds, pralaya orsamsth], the motivation [of individuality or hetu] and the supreme shelter [of the Fortunate One

or aps'raya], o brahmin, are the ten characteristic topics of a purna as understood by theauthorities on the matter; some state that relative to the greater ones, the lesser purnas deal with

five'. These verses inspired the parampar, the disciplic succession in the person of SwamiPrabhupda to present the book with the titles given in the last row of the table below. In fact in hisargument that what is laid out above is more or less intuitively combined with these ten topics. Thetitles mustn't be seen as direct translations of these ten topics though, since they are diffuselydiscussed throughout the work. S'rla Jva Gosvm explicitly reminds us of the fact that 'one shouldnot try to assign each of the ten topics to a particular canto. Nor should the S'rmad-Bhgavatambe artificially interpreted to show that it deals with the topics successively. ' The titles assigned bytheparamparjust remind one of the ten subjects as far as a certain emphasis is made by a certaincanto or knda. The actual in depth structure is realized by the full scope of the table belowsummarizing this discussion.

For the love of God, Anand Aadhar Prabhu, Enschede 22 Febr. 2006

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