Bhāgavatam Is the Answer to All Questions

Śukadeva outlines the Bhāgavatam’s subjects and describes creation through the Lord’s universal form.

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Themes of SB 2.10Jñāna5 Bhakti4 Dainya3 Kṛpā3 from its story phase

Connected storiesViduraAjāmilaNarakāsura and the captive princessesLord Varāha

Who is speakingSūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaŚukadeva Gosvāmī → King ParīkṣitEvery voice in this chapter ›

What this chapter speaks about · the ten subjects

In this chapter

Who · Śukadeva Gosvāmī, Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Mahā-Viṣṇu

The story · Śukadeva Gosvāmī described how the gigantic universal form of the Lord entered each separate universe, desiring to lie on the Garbhodaka water. Sense energy, mental force, bodily strength, and living force arose within His transcendental body. When the Supreme desired to speak, speech and the controlling deity Fire appeared from His mouth. His desire to perform different kinds of work brought forth the hands, their strength, Indra, and their related activities.

What it teaches · The account presents the Lord’s desires as the source of bodily powers and their controlling deities. Śukadeva explains that creation and annihilation follow a regulated process during Brahmā’s day.

SB 2.10.10 SB 2.10.24 SB 2.10.46 Read chapter 10 ›

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.

Vidura

SB 3.1 · Vidura’s journey SB 3.5–7 · Vidura learns from Maitreya SB 1.13 · Dhṛtarāṣṭra leaves home

What it teaches · Vidura’s travels show a life directed toward pleasing the Lord rather than preserving household comfort. Holy places and temples reminded him of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Śaunaka Ṛṣi, after hearing all about the creation, inquired from Sūta Gosvāmī about Vidura, for Sūta Gosvāmī had previously informed him how Vidura left home, leaving aside all his relatives, who were very difficult to leave.
In the verse · SB 2.10.48 (Text 48)

The ṛṣis headed by Śaunaka were more anxious to know about Vidura, who met Maitreya Ṛṣi while traveling to the pilgrimage sites of the world.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 2.10.48 (Text 48)

Read the story in SB 3.1

Ajāmila

SB 6.1–2 · Ajāmila’s deliverance SB 6.3 · Yamarāja instructs his messengers

What it teaches · Chanting the Lord’s holy name is true atonement. Service to the Lord’s lotus feet removes the material desires that other methods of atonement cannot uproot.

Similarly, there is the life of Ajāmila (Sixth Canto), who was the son of a brāhmaṇa and was educated and trained properly in the discharge of the duties of a brāhmaṇa, but who in spite of all this, because he contacted the bad association of a prostitute,…
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 2.10.41 (Text 41)

Read the story in SB 6.1–2

Narakāsura and the captive princesses

SB 10.59 · The captive princesses are freed

What it teaches · Kṛṣṇa removes the distress of those who seek refuge in Him. His mercy extends even to the frightened son of the enemy He has defeated.

Lifting a mountain at the age of seven years and marrying sixteen thousand wives in the prime of His youth are some of the examples of His infinite energy, but the mūḍhas, after seeing them or hearing about them, decry them as legendary and take the Lord as one of them.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 2.10.10 (Text 10)

Read the story in SB 10.59

Lord Varāha

SB 2.7 · The Lord lifts the earth SB 3.13 · Lord Varāha lifts the earth SB 3.17–19 · Lord Varāha defeats Hiraṇyākṣa

What it teaches · This pastime displays the Lord’s unlimited power. Brahmā explains that understanding the Lord depends on His favor, received through unalloyed surrender to His service.

The present duration of a kalpa of Brahmā is called the Varāha-kalpa or Śvetavarāha-kalpa because the incarnation of the Lord as Varāha took place during the creation of Brahmā, who was born on the lotus coming out of the abdomen of Viṣṇu.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 2.10.47 (Text 47)

Read the story in SB 2.7

Other Bhāgavatam verses Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes here

Same themes in another canto

SB 4.8–9Dhruva Mahārāja’s determinationJñānaBhakti

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

Next in Learn · 4 of 11 · 5 minStudy a verseOne verse with its Sanskrit, word meanings, translation and three study points from the purport.Back · LearnPreface & Introduction