After writing the Upanisads and the Vedanta Sutra, Srila Vyasadeva was instructed by his guru, Narada Muni, to compile another book that would directly speak about the glories of devotional service and the pastimes of Krsna, making the real meaning of the Vedanta Sutra easily available.
By the time He received this instruction, Vyasadeva had already compiled the original Bhagavata Purana, as part of the 18 original Puranas, but having received this instruction he had the inspiration to rewrite the book as the Srimad Bhagavatam we have access to today. In this process, he received the help of two other great sages: His son, Sukadeva Goswami, and the son of Romaharshana, Suta Goswami, who added their realizations to the book, making it even sweeter than originally. The Srimad Bhagavatam was originally taught by Srila Vyasadeva to Sukadeva Goswami, who added His own realization while describing it to Maharaja Pariksit. This narration was later expanded by Srila Suta Goswami, resulting in the final text. This, in turn, was commented on by different Vaishnava acaryas, culminating with Srila Prabhupada, who compiled all this knowledge accumulated over thousands of years in his purports, adding his own realization in the process. This Srimad Bhagavatam we have access to is thus the fruit of the combined effort of all these powerful personalities.
The Srimad Bhagavatam is the authorized commentary on the Vedanta Sutra and is thus the ultimate conclusion of the Vedas. The philosophy of the Srimad Bhagavatam was then explained by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who made the ultimate conclusion of the text even more clear.
Srila Prabhupada explains that the Bhagavad-Gita is the ABCD of spirtual life, the Srimad Bhagavatam is the graduation, and the Caitanya Caritamrta is the post-graduation. We often think that the Caitanya Caritamrta is a book of pastimes, but if we read attentively the whole text, including all the purports we can see that it is extremely deep and has many philosophical details that are hard to understand. This is so because Srila Prabhupada wrote it for post-graduate students. The idea is that after studying the Srimad Bhagavatam we can deepen our spiritual realization by then studying the Caitanya Caritamrta.
On SB 1.1.7 purport, for example, Srila Prabhupada mentions: “Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is a natural commentation on the Brahma-sūtra, or the Bādarāyaṇi Vedānta-sūtras. It is called natural because Vyāsadeva is author of both the Vedānta-sūtras and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, or the essence of all Vedic literatures.”
The connection between the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Vedanta Sutra becomes evident right in the first verse. The second aphorism of the Vedanta Sutra is “janmādy asya yataḥ”, and this is the beginning of the first verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
In this way, the second verse of the Vedanta Sutra is the beginning of the first verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam, and both explain the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The difference is that the Vedanta Sutra is vague, while the Srimad Bhagavatam directly explains the nature of the Absolute Truth in detail right at the start.
Vedanta Sutra (1.1.1 to 1.1.8):
“Now it’s time to enquire about Brahman. He is the one from Whom everything emanates and can be known through the sastras by the harmony of different statements. Brahman is not inexpressible in words. Even if described in words, He doesn’t become covered by the material modes, because Brahman is non-material and existed before the material modes were created. One who concentrates on Him attains liberation. This is proven by the absence of contrary statements in the sastras.”
Srimad Bhagavatam (1.1.1):
“O my Lord, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. I meditate upon Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes. He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him. It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmājī, the original living being. By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water. Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal. I therefore meditate upon Him, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world. I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.”
Vyasadeva starts the verse with the sentence “oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya”, making it clear that the verse speaks about the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and not about some impersonal energy or light. He uses the same sentence in the Bhagavad-Gita when Krsna speaks, and this also indicates that Sri Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Next, he explains that Krsna, is the cause of all causes. Everything that exists has a cause. The cause of my birth is my father, and the cause of his birth is my grandfather. The cause of a car is the company that produced it, and so on. However, if we trace the origin of each one of these causes, eventually we will come to Krsna, the original cause of everything else.
Because everything that exists comes from Krsna’s different energies, everything that exists is part of His transcendental body. In this way, Krsna is aware of everything that exists and everything that happens. As the Supersoul, he is inside the hearts of everyone, and even inside the atoms. However, at the same time, He is completely independent and is completely free to act in the way He desires. Krsna is also the origin of all knowledge. This transcendental knowledge is transmitted to Brahma at the start of the creation and from Him, this knowledge gradually spreads through the universe.
Vyasadeva also mentions that Krsna is the controller of the illusory energy. Originally we are all His eternal servants, but when we somehow reject this position and desire to become masters of this material world, we are put under the care of the illusory energy. The spiritual potency, including the spiritual planets, is real, while the material potency, that gives origin to the material universes is temporary and illusory, just like a dream or a mirage in the desert. A dream is not false, but it is illusory. One may dream that he is Napoleon and is marching through Europe, but in reality, he never left his bed. In another example, a mirage just appears to be water, real water is somewhere else. In the same way, the happiness we find in this material world is just illusory. Real happiness is outside of it.
Two important words in this verse are abhijñaḥ and svarāṭ. These two words describe the nature of the Supreme Lord. Abhijñaḥ means fully cognizant (who knows everything) and svarāṭ means fully independent. No other living entity is either abhijñaḥ or svarāṭ. No one is either fully cognizant or fully independent. Even Brahmā has to meditate on the Supreme Lord in order to be able to create the universe. This means the Lord is the source of his powers, as well as the powers of all other demigods and powerful living beings.
The word “dhīmahi” also connects the Srimad Bhagavatam with the Gayatri mantra, revealing not only the ultimate purpose of the Bhagavatam but of the Gayatri Mantra itself. The word dhīmahi (we meditate) indicates the practice of devotional service as the ultimate goal of life, fixing our attention on the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus reconnecting with our original nature as eternal servants of Krsna. Vāsudevāya indicates that he directly addresses Krsna, the son of Vasudeva as the Supreme Person. According to him, Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead, and all other forms and incarnations are His direct or indirect plenary portions or portions of the portion.
The Puranas are divided according to the modes of material nature. Some are directed to people in darkness, some to people in passion, and some to people in the mode of goodness. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, however, describes the Srimad Bhagavatam as the spotless Purāṇa because it contains the transcendental narration of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, without contamination of anything else. This becomes clear in the second verse:
“Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva [in his maturity], is sufficient in itself for God realization. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.”
Most people are just interested in material happiness. They see money, a big house, an expensive car, social status, and so on as sources of happiness and thus they desire these things. When these materialistic people turn to religion, they look for a system of worship that brings material results, that they can use to increase their material opulence and status, be it later in this life or the next. That’s why more than 90% of the verses in the Vedas are dedicated to describing fruitive activities and ceremonies for bringing material results, which is collectively classified as Karma-Kanda. This includes the worship of demigods and so on.
These materialistic systems of religion are based on four principles: religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation. By becoming religious one becomes pious, and gradually his economic situation improves. This in turn allows him to enjoy life, and after many lives, when he becomes frustrated with such material enjoyment, he may look for impersonal liberation as a means of becoming free of the inconveniences of material life.
The Srimad Bhagavatam, however, rejects all these materialistic systems of religion, including even the ones based on the Karma-Kanda sections of the Vedas.
Dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ’tra: All religiosity that is materially motivated is rejected herein. Instead, it speaks about the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart.
We may then question how we can understand the Srimad Bhagavatam if we are not completely pure yet. This is answered a little later, on SB 1.2.18, a verse that reveals an important blessing:
“By regular attendance in classes on the Bhāgavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact.”
By regularly studying the Srimad Bhagavatam and doing some service to advanced devotees, most of the contaminations in our hearts are destroyed. This by itself allows us to attain the level of purity that is necessary for successfully understanding the Srimad Bhagavatam and attain the fruit of such study, which is love of Godhead.
This leads us to the third verse:
“O expert and thoughtful men, relish Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips of Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls.”
With this, Srila Vyasadeva concludes his short preface to the Srimad Bhagavatam. Different from the rest of the text, which is composed of verses recited by Saunaki Rsi, Suta Goswami, Sukadeva Goswami, and other greater personalities, these first verses were directly spoken by Srila Vyasadeva Himself. In the next two verses (1.1.4 and 1.1.5) Vyasadeva quickly describes the scenario and then begins the description of the talks of the sages in the forest of Naimisharanya.