Srimadbhagavatam - mangala shloka 3

[elmec]

Hari Om
Om Namo BhagavatE vaasudevaaya

The third shloka as part of the invocation runs like this :

nigamakalpatarOrgalitam phalam
shukamukhaadmritadrava samyutam
pibata bhaagavatam rasamaalayam
muhurahO rasikaa bhuvi bhaavukaa.h

Gist of the shloka :
O Connoisseurs ! O devotees ! this Bhaagavatam is like necter flowing
out from the mouth of a parrot called shuka which has tasted the  ripe
fruit  fallen down from the  kalpavriksha called vedaas .  Come and
drink this necter Bhagavatam again and again.

Meaning of words :

AhO rasikaa bhuvi bhaavukaa.h = O connosieurs, devotees who live on
earth
pibata = drink
muhu.h = again  (and again )
rasam aalayam bhaagavatam = the Bhaagavata which is a store house of
juice ( necter )
galitam phalam = ripened fruit (fallen down)
nigama kalpatarO.h = from the kalpavriksha called vedas
amrita drava samyutam = full of necter in the form of liquid (juice)
shuka mukhaat = flowing out of the mouth of parrot (here sage shuka)

Explanation :

The greatness of Bhaagavatam is extolled here by the poet using
wonderful  similies. The vedaas are compared to the Kalpavriksha – the
wish yielding tree – which bestow upon us all the purushaarthaas –
Dharma, artha, kaama and moksha. Since Bhaagavatam is nothing but the
kernel or the gist of the vedaas, it is compared to a fruit which falls
down by itself from the tree after it is fully ripe. A person may wonder
that if the fruit falls down from such a height won’t it be destroyed ?
No, it has not fallen down directly, but has fallen down slowly from
branch to branch – from Naaraayana to Brahma, from Brahma to Naarada,
from Naarada to Vyaasa, from Vyaasa to Shuka and now from Shuka to
Parikshit ! Well, how do we know whether the fruit is sweet or sour ? It
is interesting to note here that parrots by nature do not eat a sour
fruit. Just by looking at a fruit the parrot can make out from its smell
itself whether it is worth eating ! So, if a parrot has already bitten
the fruit, you can be sure that it is sweet. Here the parrot Shuka (
there is one more interesting episode which tells us why the sage got
the name Shuka. I will tell you later on in the narration ) has tasted
the fruit and the ambrosial juice is now being given to king Parikshit.
Again one may ask which part of this fruit is to be discarded ? Usually,
in all the fruits, there is one thing or the other which we discard in a
fruit – either its peel, its seed or unwanted fibre  etc etc. But here
in this fruit there is no portion of it which is to be discarded. The
whole fruit is to be eaten, nay, drunk,  as it is full of the sweet
liquid of ambrosia or amrita. Any child or an aged person without the
teeth can also drink the juice easily ! Once Sage Shuka who was in a
deep samadhi in a forest was woken up by few shlokas of Bhaagavata sung
by the desciples of Vyaasa muni. He got so attracted by the devotion
filled shlokas that he came out of samadhi and asked the shishyaas to
sing some more. The shishyaas tell him that their teacher Vyaasa has
composed thousands of such shlokas and would be very happy to teach them
to Shuka. It is then that Shuka goes to Vyaasa and learns from him the
whole of Bhaagavatam. This Bhaagavatam is full of necter called Krishna
charitaamrita – the necter of life stories of Lord Sri Krishna. Only a
devotee who is thirsty to listen to Bhagavannaama can enjoy this necter
and the more he drinks it the more his thirst would be ! One never gets
satisfied listening to Krishna charitaa. A person who is thirsty can
only enjoy drinking water. A person who is not thirsty,  if he is
offered water, he would ask unnecessary questions like whether the water
is from the fridge or pot, whether it is from the tap or a well, whether
it is boiled and cooled or unboiled and such other questions. He can not
value the glass of water. If the same water is offered to a thirsty
fellow  who is wandering in a hot desert, he would grab the glass of
water and drink it without asking silly questions. One who is longing to
hear the stories of Lord, a connossieur who is well informed of the
greatness of Lord , a devotee,  can appreciate the Bhaagavatam very much
and he would love to listen to it again and again and still would be
left longing to hear more !

Hari Om
Om NamO BhagavatE vaasudevaaya

Regards,
Latha Vidyaranya

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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