Chapter2 - The message of Bhakthi
The soothapouranaika, named Ugrasravas, the son of Romaharshana saluted his guru Vyasa and the Lord before commencing to speak. He said,
yam pravrajantham anupEtham apEtha krthyam
dhvaipAyanO virahakAthara AjuhAva
puthrEthi thanmayathayA tharavOabhinEdhuh
tham sarvabhootha hrdhayam munim Anatho asmi
"Salutations to Shuka, who started alone, renouncing the world, not being interested in karmamarga and whom Vyasa called 'my son' due to the grief of separation, when all the trees answered him, and not shuka, because he was a brahmajnAni and has become one with the entire universe."
Shuka who was born as a brahmajnani left his father being indifferent to karmamarga, renouncing the world.Vyasa was smitten with grief due to his attachment towards his son and called him 'puthra' in order to stop him but shuka never answered and went away. Instead, the trees and other beings in the forest answered him because his son was shukabrahmam, and has become one with the entire universe.
Then sootha praised shuka with another verse.
yassvAnubhAvam akhilasruthisAramEkam
aDHyAthmadheepam athithitheershathAM thamo anDHam
samsAriNAm karuNayA Aha purANaguhyam
tham vyAsasoonum upayAmi gurum muneenAm
"I surrender to the son of VyAsa, the preceptor of the sages, who, out of mercy for the souls in samsara who wish to cross over the dense darkness of ignorance, told this Bhagavathpurana which is the secret that provides the experience of the Self, the essence of the vedas,of supreme merit and is like the lamp for self knowledge."
Then sootha starts to narrate the purana after the customery invocation verse,
nArAyaNam namaskrthya naram chaiva narOtthamam
dheveem sarasvatheem vyAsam thathO jayam udheerayETh
The purana known as Jaya should be told after salutations to Narayana and
Usually Mahabharatha is only known as Jaya but here Bhagavatha purana is also referred to as Jaya in the sense, 'jayathi anEna samsAram ithi jayah,' one conquers samsara with this.
The word 'jaya' denotes the number 18 according to katapayAdhi sankhya and Mahabharatha was called jaya as it is connected with the number 18. It contains 18 parvas and the mahabharatha war went on for 18 days and the Bhagavatgita, the crest jewel of Mahabharatha contains 18 chapters.Bhagavtha also contains 18000 slokas and 18 is the number of Krishnamanthra.
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