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Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #33 – Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and the Necessity of Rasa Geography

August 11th, 2025

In my daily studies of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta a question arose.

 

First, some background on the section I was reading:

 

Mahārāja Parīkṣit had just summarized the Bhāgavatam for Uttarā devī, his mother, which fulfilled the specific request she made of her son. He did it through an intriguing story in which Śrī Nārada searches for the topmost recipient of Krishna’s mercy. In order of their level of devotion, he visits the main exemplars of bhakti. His journey ends in Dvārakā where Śrī Krishna emphatically declares that the gopīs of Vrindavan are the topmost recipients of Śrī Krishna’s mercy. This journey, which is the crux of the first book of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta, parallels the Bhāgavatam in both its thematic development and conclusion. It thus expertly fulfills the mission Śrī Caitanya gave Śrī Sanātana for writing the book — to give the world the highest devotion exemplified by the residents of Vrindavan, as described in the Bhāgavatam.

 

I was surprised, therefore, that the book didn’t end there. Rather, Uttarā devī continued. She wanted to know about the place where the recipients of the highest devotion reside.

 

And that raised the question that intrigued me today.

 

If Śrī Caitanya’s mission has been so perfectly delineated through Śrī Nārada’s journey, what was the necessity of presenting a second part of the text with a completely new story in answer to Uttarā’s question, which is almost twice as long as part one?

 

This is what makes sense to me:

 

Sanātana Gosvāmī had a difficult mission which is described at the beginning of the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta as giving the parama-daśāntaṁ — “the last extreme of transcendental experience.”[1] And who was he to give it to? To all those who somehow have sincerely come to the path of bhakti and who need to develop the appropriate frame of reference so they can understand such an exalted subject. And that means almost every one of us!

 

Śrī Krishna’s dancing with the gopīs? The last extreme of transcendental experience? Who could honestly hear those subjects without projecting on them something mundane or fantastical?

 

Therefore, although Sanātana Gosvāmī had presented the parama-daśāntaṁ in such a comprehensive and intriguing way, he still wasn’t convinced that we could hear that truth without filtering it through our prejudicial material lens. In other words, due to the nature of the subject matter, he wanted to make sure we didn’t misunderstand it as something mundane. He thus presented the same subject again from a different angle to emphasize his point.

 

Instead of just pointing to the supremacy of vraja-bhakti via a journey through different levels of devotees leading to Braja, he points to the preeminence of vraja-bhakti by describing a journey through progressive levels of spiritual places leading to Braja.

 

But how is knowing the place providing the same inspiration as knowing the people residing there?

 

A room is designed to facilitate the relationship one wants to enjoy there. For example, a living room aids intimacy and family life, and an office engenders authority and respect. In other words, there is an intrinsic relationship between how a room is set up and the relationships it fosters there. Knowing the place thus helps one understand the mood of the people who use it. This is especially true in the spiritual realm where the Lord’s abodes perfectly reflect the moods He shares there with His devotees.

 

And this answers our initial inquiry: why was there a necessity of presenting the story of Gopa-kumāra in the second book if the first book of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta has so expertly fulfilled the objective of Sanātana Gosvāmī?

 

Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī wanted to ensure his reader properly understands the parama-daśāntaṁ — “the last extreme of transcendental experience.” He thus takes the reader on a second journey with Gopa-kumāra through a gradation of spiritual abodes just to further fortify a clear understanding of the primacy of Śrī Vrindavan and the spontaneous mood of devotion found there.

 

A question arose today. I tried my best to answer it. What do you think? [2]

 

 


[1] parama-daśāntaṁ — “the last extreme of transcendental experience” is the Sanskrit and its word for word translation of the term found in BBT’s Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta 1.1.1.

[2] There is another explanation of why the second book of Brhad Bhāgavatamrta is a perfect complement for the first book. The first book explains what the highest destination is (the siddhānta or philosophical conclusion), and the second book, through the journey of Gopa-kumāra and his chanting of the gopāla-manta, describes the method used to get there (the sadhana or spiritual practice).

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