Chapter Four
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full of anarthas and not fully understanding the ABC’s of spiritual life, we will imagine ourselves to be gopîs and adopt the path of smara√a. This is opposed to the injunctions of the çåstras. The guru will only bestow these elevated topics upon the disciple when he sees that the disciple has become fully qualified for them, when he detects greed for them within a disciple, and after he has thoroughly deliberated on it. Nårada obtained his eternal form, but we must consider this—when did he obtain it? Only after performing sufficient sådhana-bhajana. So performing sådhana is not as easy as we understand it to be. We should consider all of this and follow the example of Nårada. Then it will happen for us. All of these things should be pursued under the guidance of the guru. These days gurus try to give the highest perfection to disciples who are still full of anarthas and who possess no greed or anything. But what did Vyåsadeva do? Within him was the bhakti of Vaiku√†ha. By the mercy of Nårada the pastimes of K®ß√a appeared before him within his heart. Since Nårada is an uttama-bhagavat devotee, he bestowed mercy on Vyåsa in the ways which I described before. By merely glancing at Vyåsa, by his instructions and by giving his merciful touch, he invested inspiration within him. These are the three types of mercy. By doing this, he gave Vyåsa everything internally and made so many things appear within Vyåsa. Then, by the practice of bhaktiyoga, Vyåsa could easily compose the Bhågavatam as he sat in his åçrama on the banks of the Sarasvatî. Then the çuddha-sattva potency appeared in his heart and by the independent will of that çakti, within himself he began witnessing the flow of Bhagavån’s pastimes as if they were on a cinema reel. One by one these pastimes appeared to him. He saw K®ß√a’s pastimes in Dvårakå and even pastimes from the apraka†a-lîlå which were not manifest in this world. He realised all of this on the basis of the brief catu˙-çlokî found in the Bhågavatam, and from that he manifested the entire Bhågavatam. Then, within the Bhågavatam he narrated those pastimes which he had not described in other Purå√as or scriptures.