Unfortunately, in our country it has become a policy, or system, to earn some money by reciting Bhāgavata. Therefore in spite of Bhāgavata being our property, we do not know what is real Bhāgavata. The professional men, they earn some money simply reciting the rāsa-līlā. And people misunderstand, and therefore sometimes I meet with some question: "Why Kṛṣṇa was behaving with the gopīs?" "Why Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand wives?"
They are thinking Kṛṣṇa . . . because they are not hearing from authorized persons, they take Kṛṣṇa as ordinary man. They do not consider that if Kṛṣṇa is the original bhokta, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasām (BG 5.29), then He is the proprietor of all women. Otherwise, how He can be bhokta? Rather one woman, which I claim as my wife, that is also Kṛṣṇa's. But it requires understanding. If Kṛṣṇa is the bhokta, then why He should be limited? But these questions and answers are very great. Unless one becomes expert in understanding Kṛṣṇa:
- manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu
- kaścid yatati siddhaye
- yatatām api siddhānāṁ
- kaścin vetti māṁ tattvataḥ
- (BG 7.3)
One has to understand Kṛṣṇa as He is. And that can be learned by the process:
- tad viddhi praṇipātena
- paripraśnena sevayā
- upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ
- jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ
- (BG 4.34)
We have to learn from the tattva-darśi, not from the professional reciters who make business with Bhāgavata. Therefore there is misunderstanding of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So India, this should be stopped. Really one should learn Bhāgavatam scientifically, as we learn in the schools and colleges from A-B-C-D up to M.A. Not that we jump over all of a sudden to the M.A class. The behavior of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, that is postgraduate study of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is not to be understood by a student who is studying A-B-C-D.
Therefore bhāgavata-dharma has been misused. Why Vyāsadeva made ten cantos in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? He could have immediately described Kṛṣṇa from the very beginning. No. That he has not done. In the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam he describes what is Kṛṣṇa:
- satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi
- oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya
- (SB 1.1.1)
Śrīdhara Svāmī says, kṛṣṇaya cin makalandaya. This vāsudevāya, oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya, immediately Śrīdhara Svāmī points out vāsudevāya means kṛṣṇaya. And in the very beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is a description of the Vedānta-sūtra. He wrote first of all Vedānta-sūtra. And he was not satisfied, even after compiling.
He first of all collected all the Vedic aphorisms, then he selected the Upaniṣads, and then he wrote the concised . . . summarized the whole Vedic knowledge in the Vedānta-sūtra. And this Vedānta-sūtra was not explained, simply the sūtras, the codes were there—it requires explanation. So Narāda Muni, his spiritual master, asked him that "This is not sufficient. You should describe it nicely." So then he wrote Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore the actual commentary of Vedānta-sūtra is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.