SECTION FORTY-SEVEN   

            Thereafter, to clarify the nature of the prayojana tattva and to affirm that the pürëa puruña mentioned earlier (SB.1.7.4) is Lord Kåñëa, Süta Gosvämé speaks the next Bhägavatam verse (1.7.7), beginning with "yasyäm". In this verse, by describing the result of hearing the Çrémad Bhägavatam he explains another realization of Çréla Vyäsadeva. The word bhakti here means love of Godhead, because that is the aim of sädhanä bhakti performed by hearing the Bhägavatam. "Utapadyate" (lit. is generated) means appears. The inevitable effect of bhakti-yoga is that with the appearance of love, all grief, illusion, and fearfulness are completely destroyed. The sense is that even their subtle impressions are destroyed. This is confirmed by the words of Çré Åñabhadeva (SB. 5.5.6):

            Therefore, until one has love for Lord Väsudeva, who is none other than Myself, he is certainly not delivered from the bondage of a material body.

            Parampuruña in this verse, (SB. 1.7.7) has the same meaning as pürëapuruña used earlier (1.7.4). What is His form? To this Çré Süta Gosvämé replies Kåñëa. The meaning is that, the people whose hearts are imbued with the thousands of scriptural statements such as "Kåñëa is the Selfsame Personality of Godhead" (SB. 1.3.23) along with the thousands of people who are attracted to His glories and fame by hearing through an unbroken tradition, as soon as they hear His name, their minds are filled with His form. And when His name is used in the mantra, as soon as the first syllable is uttered, it attracts His attention towards the chanter. That form of Kåñëa is implied by the word "Kåñëa" used here in this verse. This is confirmed by the writer of Näma Kaumudi:

            The popular or traditional meaning of the word 'Kåñëa' is 'one who is black like the tamäla tree'; 'He who was breast fed by Çré Yaçoda'; 'the Supreme Brahman'.

 

ÇRÉ JÉVA TOÑAËÉ COMMENTARY

             The realization of Çréla Vyäsadeva about the prayojana tattva is the same as  Çréla Jéva Gosvämé already concluded in anuccheda 45. Süta Gosvämé further confirms this in verse 1.7.7. that just by listening to the Çrémad Bhägavatam one will attain love of Godhead. Bhakti here refers to love of Godhead and not to sädhanä-bhakti, because the hearing of the Çrémad Bhägavatam itself is the sädhanä, or practice. The verb utapadyate (generated) means that love of God becomes manifest in the heart, because love is an eternally existing phenomenon and thus is never created or generated.

            The concomitant effect of this love is that the devotee becomes free from lamentation, fear, and delusion. Love of Kåñëa is so powerful that it destroys even the seeds of these symptoms. The root cause of the jéva's misery is his forgetfulness of the Lord, but when he attains love of God there is no question of him forgetting the Lord. Süta Gosvämé declares in an earlier verse (SB. 1.2.21):

"Thus the knot in the heart is pierced and all doubts arecut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions (karma) is terminated when one sees the Lord within the heart." 

            When one attains love of Kåñëa he loses interest in all kinds of material pleasures, including the bliss of impersonal realization.  All his doubts are vanquished. All his desires are completely satisfied. Nothing can agitate him or deviate his mind from devotional service. In this regard Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé writes (B.R.S.1.2. 58):

"Even among the various types of unalloyed devotees of the Lord, the best are those whose heart has been captured by Lord Govinda, Kåñëa. Indeed they have no attraction or desire to get the mercy even of Lord Näräyaëa, the husband of the Goddess of Fortune".

 Thus it is said that even the seeds of lamentation, delusion, and fear are destroyed by devotional service. By quoting Lord Åñabhadeva, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé stresses that there is no other means to uproot bodily attachment but to be attached to Kåñëa. And this prayojana of attachment to Kåñëa is  easily attained by giving hearing Çrémad Bhägavatam. Vyäsadeva saw this in His trance.

            Kåñëa, also referred to as the parama puruña, or the Supreme Person, is identical with the pürëa puruña whom Vyäsa saw along with His potencies. Parama puruña is used as an adjective for Kåñëa in verse 1.7.7. In anuchedda 30, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé has already explained that this pürëa puruña is the original Personality of Godhead. Now that Person is being identified as Lord Çré Kåñëa.

            Çréla Jéva Gosvämé next identifies the person represented by the word "Kåñëa" in the Bhägavatam verse 1.7.7. There have been various Kåñëa's in history. Arjuna and Çréla Vyäsadeva were also called Kåñëa. In the Çrémad Bhägavatam (1.8.43) Kuntédevé addresses Lord Kåñëa as the "friend of Kåñëa" (kåñëa-sakhä), referring to Arjuna, her son, as Kåñëa. Still, to the Vaiñëavas coming in the line of disciplic succession, as soon as they hear the word "Kåñëa" the form that immediately comes to their mind is that of Lord Kåñëa and not that of Arjuna or Vyäsa or any other contemporary person by the same name. According to Çréla Baladeva Vidyäbhüñaëa this is experienced by people like Süta Gosvämé, Çaunaka Åñi, Jayadeva Gosvämé, and others. This means that the traditional meaning of the word Kåñëa is the two handed form of Lord Kåñëa and no other person.

            As was mentioned earlier, words have a primary meaning and may have many secondary meanings. The primary meaning is the image that first comes to the mind upon hearing the word, before any thought or analysis can modify its meaning. In the case of the word "Kåñëa", the primary meaning is Lord Çré Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is a transcendental cowherd boy.

            The author of Näma kaumudi, Çré Lakñmédhara Paëòita, in commenting on the meanings of the various names of the Lord, fixes the meaning of the word Kåñëa as "one who is black like the tamäla tree". The tamäla tree is commonly found in the Våndävana area and in literature Kåñëa's bodily hue is often compared to the color of this tree, but this may also refer to Kåñëa as the son of Devaké in Mathurä and Dvärakä. Hence Lakñmédhara further clarifies the meaning as "the one who was suckled by Çrémati Yaçodä". This fixes the meaning of Kåñëa specifically to the young cowherd boy of Våndävana, because the youthful Kåñëa of Mathurä had no chance of taking the breast milk of mother Yaçodä. If someone still doubts about this Kåñëa being the Supreme Lord--because there is always the possibility of someone else from Våndävan having a blackish complexion and the name Kåñëa, and a mother named Yaçodä--Lakñmédhara further defines the meaning of "Kåñëa" as the Supreme Brahmän, or the Personality of Godhead.

            In Saìskåt words have a derived meaning (yaugika) and a meaning due to popular usage (rüòhi). The rüòhi, or popular meaning is always the primary meaning. In cases where the primary meaning is different from the derived meaning, the rüdhi always subdues the derived meaning, yogäd rüòhi baléyasé. In this instance, the derived meaning of the name Kåñëa is also indicative of the Supreme Person as explained in the Mahäbhärata (Udyoga Parva 70.5):

"The syllable "kå" denotes existence and the syllable "ëa" denotes bliss. Viñëu is both these and thus He is always Kåñëa.

            The Saìskåt dictionary, Amarkoça (1.18), states, viñëur näräyaëa kåñëo vaikuëöha viñöaraçraväù, that these names are all synonyms. One may say that these are names of Viñëu, but just after giving 39 names of Kåñëa, the Amarkoça states, vasudevo'sya janakaù, "His father is Vasudeva". And to confirm this, immediately following, the author lists the names of Lord Balaräma, the elder brother of Kåñëa.

            In his commentary on Çré Viñëusahasranäma 20, Çréla Baladeva Vidyäbhüñaëa quotes the following verse while defining the word Kåñëa:

"The syllable "kå" means existence and the syllable "ëa" means bliss. The combination of these two together is called Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead". In this way the derived meaning as well as the popular meaning of the word "Kåñëa" rests only in the two-handed cowherd form of Lord Kåñëa, the son of Mother Yaçodä. And, as Vyäsadeva saw this Kåñëa in his trance, the ultimate goal must be to attain love of Kåñëa.

            The next point Çréla Jéva Gosvämé makes is that when the word Kåñëa is uttered in a mantra, as in the Hare Kåñëa mahämantra, the sound attracts the attention of Lord Kåñëa the moment the first syllable is vibrated. This is because the name Kåñëa is identical with the person Kåñëa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is verified by the experience of many realized souls who have attained perfection through chanting the Hare Kåñëa mantra.

            In the next section, Çréla Jéva Gosvämé explains that the bliss derived from love of Godhead is far superior to that derived from impersonal realization.