Bhagavata Purana, also known as Srimad Bhagavatham, is a great epic which was first written in Sanskrit, and now it is available in all other regional languages, and it initiates the Sri Krishna Bhakti among the devotees, and it is praised by scholars and sages for its simplicity, significance and for its popularity.
The Bhagavata Purana covers lot of areas including devotional stories, importance of Lord Vishnu, details about famous rishis and rishi pathnis, and also about the famous Bhagavatas like Dhruva and Prahlada. This Purana tells about the greatness of Lord Krishna, an avatar of Lord Vishnu, and according to this epic, Krishna is considered as the supreme controller of the whole universe. It is believed that by reading this Purana, devotees would be relieved from their various problems like diseases, unnecessary fear in their mind, enemy related problems and from their bad habits like lust, anger and greed etc.
The Bhagavata Purana is a big Purana and this was narrated by the great Shuka Brahma Rishi, son of Vyasa Bhagavan, to King Parikshit. After hearing this purana from the mouth of the holy sage Shuka, King Parikshit had attained salvation after his death, and merged with Lord Vishnu.
This Purana tells about the childhood plays of Lord Krishna during the Dwapara Yuga, about his killing of demons, and also about his interaction with his Yadava cowherd friends and with the Gopikas. He embraced his friends and Gopikas, and gave them a great sense of spiritual satisfaction, which they could not get anywhere else. Through his divine touch, his friends and the Gopikas had attained enlightenment, and in course of time, they had reached the lotus feet of Lord Krishna.
The main objective of this Purana is to promote Bhakti on Lord Krishna by telling about his importance and about his wonderful leelas. Though this Purana was written before 5000 years, still it is widely read by millions and millions of Hindu devotees, and even it is read by the Hindus in the foreign countries.
The ISKCON movement, preaches about the importance of Bhagavatham throughout the world, and through their good activity, lot of people become staunch devotees of Krishna, and they are involved themselves on Krishna’s thoughts.By reading this Purana, we can know about the ways of leading a sinless, peaceful and a successful life.
Even after finishing his work “Mahabharata”, Vedavyasa was not happy, since something disturbed his mind, and due to that, he was unable to do his routine works properly. After knowing about his situation, Rishi Narada had approached him, and asked him to write about the divinity of Lord Krishna and especially about his childhood wonders. Vedavyasa had happily agreed, and immediately he began to write the wonderful text, Srimad Bhagavatham, and completed it within a short span of time. Due to that, he got good peace of mind, and also got fulfillment with his divine works.
In ancient times, whenever people suffers from any kind of problems, they would start reading the Bhagavata Purana, which was available to them, in the form of palm leaf manuscripts, and after they completes it, they would get relieved from their problems, and would live their life happily and peacefully. Ancient mothers would regularly tell divine stories on Lord Krishna to their children during their bedtime, and due to that, their child would sleep peacefully, and during their sleep, they would have wonderful dreams on Lord Krishna.
Hence, let us start reading Bhagavata Purana on a daily basis, in order to get the entire grace of Lord Krishna.
“OM”
WRITTEN BY
R.HARISHANKAR