Canto 1: Creation
SB1.2

Canto 1 · Chapter 2 · 34 verses · 1 story

Divinity and Divine Service

Sūta explains how hearing about Kṛṣṇa and rendering devotional service purify the heart.

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Connected storiesHiraṇyakaśipuYaśodā binds Dāmodara
Who is speakingSūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaEvery voice in this chapter ›

What this chapter speaks about · the ten subjects

In this chapter

Who · The assembled sages and Sūta Gosvāmī

The story · After their morning duties, the sages offered Sūta Gosvāmī an honored seat and respectfully questioned him. Knowing that the Age of Kali had begun, they wished to hear at length about the Personality of Godhead and His incarnations. Sūta thanked them for their questions and explained the purifying power of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. He also described the Lord’s incarnations and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the literary incarnation of God, meant for everyone’s ultimate good.

What it teaches · One should constantly hear about, glorify, remember and worship Kṛṣṇa. Devotional service brings knowledge and detachment from the world.

Beyond this chapter

Connected stories across the Bhāgavatam

Stories told in other chapters that this chapter's verses or Śrīla Prabhupāda's purports bring in, the other Bhāgavatam verses the purports quote, and stories in other cantos with the same themes. Each link shows the sentence it comes from.

What it teaches · The soul does not die when the body dies. Material association brings meeting and separation, but the living entity is distinct from the changing body.

Hiraṇyakaśipu underwent a severe type of penance to become eternal in life, but his worshipful deity, Brahmā, could not satisfy him with such blessings.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 1.2.26 (Text 26)

Rāvaṇa and Hiraṇyakaśipu underwent a severe type of bodily torture to achieve the end of sense gratification.

Read the story in SB 7.2

What it teaches · Yaśodā received mercy unavailable even to great demigods. Wealth can bewilder the intelligence, while a devotee’s correction can lead one toward the Lord.

Viṣṇu-tattvas are represented by various names and forms, such as Nārāyaṇa, Dāmodara, Vāmana, Govinda and Adhokṣaja.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 1.2.26 (Text 26)
Read the story in SB 10.9–10

Same themes in another canto

Both chapters carry these themes strongly in the themes map, an editorial reading of each chapter's story.