The Secret Of Perfection

Srila Vyasadeva's intention in promoting through the Vedas a regulated system of fruitive activities, speculative philosophy and worship of demigods had been to eliminate, somehow or other, all the undue competition between men and societies that results from sense gratification. Srila Vyasadeva wrote all those books just to make everyone happy, the result being that he could not make himself happy. But Narada Muni knew the secret of happiness, and therefore he instructed Vyasa to write Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Lord Krsna Himself stated that secret of perfection in one all-encompassing verse of Bhagavad-gita: "I [Krsna] am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts." (Bg. 10.8) Therefore Srimad-Bhagavatam deals with one subject and one subject only: love of God. And it is a great subject matter, fully requiring the Bhagavatam's twelve cantos, in which Vyasa establishes who God is, what the different relationships with Him are and how they can be established, all culminating in the perfection-love of God.

In Srimad-Bhagavatam, four consecutive verses summarize the book's entire subject matter. These verses, known as "the original Srimad-Bhagavatam in four verses," are a specific reply by Lord Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to four questions asked by Lord Brahma, who was the first to receive transcendental knowledge from Krsna in this world. Brahma asked first: "What are the forms of the Lord in both matter and transcendence?" The answer is the important "aham eva" verse;

"Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation, when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of this creation. That which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be I, the Personality of Godhead." (Bhag. 2.9.33)

Three times the Lord repeats aham ("It is I"), and not without intention. The Vedas use repetition to stress what is most important. For example, the Puranas state:

"Chant the name of Krsna, chant the name of Krsna, chant the name of Krsna. There is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way." Similarly, in the Gita's Ninth Chapter Krsna says mam, "Me," four times, just to stress that He is the object of thought, worship, service and liberation. This repetition is a sort of chastisement, as when a mother who wants her child to stop some mischief repeats: "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Krsna wants to chastise philosophers who by mental speculation insist that the Lord is not in fact a person.

Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, stands before Brahma and says, "It is I, it is I," just to emphasize Himself personally. And, interestingly, immediately after speaking these four verses to Brahma, Krsna disappears from Brahma's sight, again just to emphasize that when He says "Me," He refers to Himself personally. Nevertheless, right after Krsna says, "Me" in the Gita four times, one so-called scholar writes: "It is not to Krsna . . ." and then goes on to explain that Krsna actually was referring to the unborn and unmanifest within.

Lord Caitanya has forbidden those who want to understand the true meaning of Srimad-Bhagavatam to read the books of these misleading philosophers. Before answering Lord Brahma's four questions, Krsna instructs how the Absolute Truth is to be known. "Knowledge about Me as described in the scriptures is very confidential, and it has to be realized in conjunction with devotional service. The necessary paraphernalia for that process is being explained by Me. You may take it up carefully." (Bhag. 2.9.31)