[Advaita-l] Re: bhAgavata purANa (Jaldhar H. Vyas)

[Antharyami]

Hari Om,

Shri Jaldhar Vyas ji,

PraNAms ! I differ on your statement, for placing BAgavatha mahA purAna late
to the age of kali yuga. It is mentioned that after vyAsa composed
mahAbAratha, he was not fully satisfied about the manner in which it dealt
with bagavath swarUpA's and was thus worried. Then came nArada who advised
vyAsa to compose the purAna that which would speak about the greatness of
lord and his divya lIla. vyAsa recorded the suka – prakshit samvAdham
thereafter. As prof. shri krishamurti ji rightly pointed out & also with
above information, it is quite evident and tenable to proclaim that Shrimad
BAgavatham belongs to the period of mahAbArata and not kali Yuga.

            Moreover, there is no particular reference to Srimad BAgavatha
in Adi SankarA's Visnu sahasranAma bAshyA. Neither, rAmAnuja quotes any such
reference to this purANa. This is simply because the purANa is reputed
(intentionally) only to explain the saguna attributes to the lord and not
meant for Brahma tatva or Atma tatva vicAra and not since it is against
advaita principles. So long it deals with krishNa lIla, advaita regards it
as the qualities of saguNa brahmam. It was interesting to know about the
advaitin commentary on bAgavatha mahA purANa – which would greatly serve the
students of contemporary advaita.s
            There is yet another misconception; to ascribe vyAsa authoring
all the 18 purANa's which is completely absurd. vyAsa composed only
MahAbArata and shrimad BAgavatha. It is He who compiled and categorized the
18 purANa's  vide., satva, rajas and tamas.
-- 
Antharyami
[J.Devanathan]