nigama - the Vedic literatures; kalpa-taroḥ - the desire tree; galitam - fully matured; phalam - fruit; Å›uka - ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, the original speaker of ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam; mukhÄt - from the lips of; amá¹›ta - nectar; drava - semisolid and soft and therefore easily swallowable; saá¹yutam - perfect in all respects; pibata - do relish it; bhÄgavatam - the book dealing in the science of the eternal relation with the Lord; rasam - juice (that which is relishable); Älayam - until liberation, or even in a liberated condition; muhuḥ - always; aho - O; rasikÄḥ - those who are full in the knowledge of mellows; bhuvi - on the earth; bhÄvukÄḥ - expert and thoughtful.
O expert and thoughtful men, relish ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literatures. It emanated from the lips of ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«. Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls.
In the two previous Å›lokas it has been definitely proved that the ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam is the sublime literature which surpasses all other Vedic scriptures due to its transcendental qualities. It is transcendental to all mundane activities and mundane knowledge. In this Å›loka it is stated that ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam is not only a superior literature but is the ripened fruit of all Vedic literatures. In other words, it is the cream of all Vedic knowledge. Considering all this, patient and submissive hearing is definitely essential. With great respect and attention, one should receive the message and lessons imparted by the ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam.
The Vedas are compared to the desire tree because they contain all things knowable by man. They deal with mundane necessities as well as spiritual realization. The Vedas contain regulative principles of knowledge covering social, political, religious, economic, military, medicinal, chemical, physical and metaphysical subject matter and all that may be necessary to keep the body and soul together. Above and beyond all this are specific directions for spiritual realization. Regulative knowledge involves a gradual raising of the living entity to the spiritual platform, and the highest spiritual realization is knowledge that the Personality of Godhead is the reservoir of all spiritual tastes, or rasas.
Every living entity, beginning from BrahmÄ, the first-born living being within the material world, down to the insignificant ant, desires to relish some sort of taste derived from sense perceptions. These sensual pleasures are technically called rasas. Such rasas are of different varieties. In the revealed scriptures the following twelve varieties of rasas are enumerated: (1) raudra (anger), (2) adbhuta (wonder), (3) śṛṅgÄra (conjugal love), (4) hÄsya (comedy), (5) vÄ«ra (chivalry), (6) dayÄ (mercy), (7) dÄsya (servitorship), (8) sakhya (fraternity), (9) bhayÄnaka (horror), (10) bÄ«bhatsa (shock), (11) Å›Änta (neutrality), (12) vÄtsalya (parenthood).
The sum total of all these rasas is called affection or love. Primarily, such signs of love are manifested in adoration, service, friendship, parental affection, and conjugal love. And when these five are absent, love is present indirectly in anger, wonder, comedy, chivalry, fear, shock and so on. For example, when a man is in love with a woman, the rasa is called conjugal love. But when such love affairs are disturbed there may be wonder, anger, shock, or even horror. Sometimes love affairs between two persons culminate in ghastly murder scenes. Such rasas are displayed between man and man and between animal and animal. There is no possibility of an exchange or rasa between a man and an animal or between a man and any other species of living beings within the material world. The rasas are exchanged between members of the same species. But as far as the spirit souls are concerned, they are one qualitatively with the Supreme Lord. Therefore, the rasas were originally exchanged between the spiritual living being and the spiritual whole, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The spiritual exchange or rasa is fully exhibited in spiritual existence between living beings and the Supreme Lord.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is therefore described in the śruti-mantras, Vedic hymns, as “the fountainhead of all rasas.†When one associates with the Supreme Lord and exchanges one’s constitutional rasa with the Lord, then the living being is actually happy.
These śruti-mantras indicate that every living being has its constitutional position, which is endowed with a particular type of rasa to be exchanged with the Personality of Godhead. In the liberated condition only, this primary rasa is experienced in full. In the material existence, the rasa is experienced in the perverted form, which is temporary. And thus the rasas of the material world are exhibited in the material form of raudra (anger) and so on.
Therefore, one who attains full knowledge of these different rasas, which are the basic principles of activities, can understand the false representations of the original rasas which are reflected in the material world. The learned scholar seeks to relish the real rasa in the spiritual form. In the beginning he desires to become one with the Supreme. Thus, less intelligent transcendentalists cannot go beyond this conception of becoming one with the spirit whole, without knowing of the different rasas.
In this Å›loka, it is definitely stated that spiritual rasa, which is relished even in the liberated stage, can be experienced in the literature of the ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam due to its being the ripened fruit of all Vedic knowledge. By submissively hearing this transcendental literature, one can attain the full pleasure of his heart’s desire. But one must be very careful to hear the message from the right source. ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam is exactly received from the right source. It was brought by NÄrada Muni from the spiritual world and given to his disciple ÅšrÄ« VyÄsadeva. The latter in turn delivered the message to his son ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, and ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« delivered the message to MahÄrÄja ParÄ«ká¹£it just seven days before the King’s death. ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« was a liberated soul from his very birth. He was liberated even in the womb of his mother, and he did not undergo any sort of spiritual training after his birth. At birth no one is qualified, neither in the mundane nor in the spiritual sense. But ÅšrÄ« Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, due to his being a perfectly liberated soul, did not have to undergo an evolutionary process for spiritual realization. Yet despite his being a completely liberated person situated in the transcendental position above the three material modes, he was attracted to this transcendental rasa of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is adored by liberated souls who sing Vedic hymns. The Supreme Lord’s pastimes are more attractive to liberated souls than to mundane people. He is of necessity not impersonal because it is only possible to carry on transcendental rasa with a person.
In the ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam the transcendental pastimes of the Lord are narrated, and the narration is systematically depicted by ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«. Thus the subject matter is appealing to all classes of persons, including those who seek liberation and those who seek to become one with the supreme whole.
In Sanskrit the parrot is also known as Å›uka. When a ripened fruit is cut by the red beaks of such birds, its sweet flavor is enhanced. The Vedic fruit which is mature and ripe in knowledge is spoken through the lips of ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, who is compared to the parrot not for his ability to recite the BhÄgavatam exactly as he heard it from his learned father, but for his ability to present the work in a manner that would appeal to all classes of men.
The subject matter is so presented through the lips of ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« that any sincere listener that hears submissively can at once relish transcendental tastes which are distinct from the perverted tastes of the material world. The ripened fruit is not dropped all of a sudden from the highest planet of Kṛṣṇaloka. Rather, it has come down carefully through the chain of disciplic succession without change or disturbance. Foolish people who are not in the transcendental disciplic succession commit great blunders by trying to understand the highest transcendental rasa known as the rÄsa dance without following in the footsteps of Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, who presents this fruit very carefully by stages of transcendental realization. One should be intelligent enough to know the position of ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam by considering personalities like Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, who deals with the subject so carefully. This process of disciplic succession of the BhÄgavata school suggests that in the future also ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam has to be understood from a person who is factually a representative of ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«. A professional man who makes a business out of reciting the BhÄgavatam illegally is certainly not a representative of Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«. Such a man’s business is only to earn his livelihood. Therefore one should refrain from hearing the lectures of such professional men. Such men usually go to the most confidential part of the literature without undergoing the gradual process of understanding this grave subject. They usually plunge into the subject matter of the rÄsa dance, which is misunderstood by the foolish class of men. Some of them take this to be immoral, while others try to cover it up by their own stupid interpretations. They have no desire to follow in the footsteps of ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«.
One should conclude, therefore, that the serious student of the rasa should receive the message of BhÄgavatam in the chain of disciplic succession from ÅšrÄ«la Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ«, who describes the BhÄgavatam from its very beginning and not whimsically to satisfy the mundaner who has very little knowledge in transcendental science. ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam is so carefully presented that a sincere and serious person can at once enjoy the ripened fruit of Vedic knowledge simply by drinking the nectarean juice through the mouth of Åšukadeva GosvÄmÄ« or his bona fide representative.
