||Srimad Bhagavatha Mahapuran||

|| Om Namo Bhagavathe Vasudevaya||

Chapter – 1 - The birth of Sage Shuka Bhramam

Srimad Bhagavatha Mahapuranam is one of the supreme scriptures known as the essence of Veda and Upanishad was written by Maharishi Veda Vyasa.   It comprises the various pastimes of Lord Krishna and stories of devotees.  The Veda and Upanishads are not easy to understand for common people, therefore Maharishi Veda Vyasa thought of scripture which could be easily approachable, and kindle the spirit of devotion, and convey the greatest knowledge of Paramathma and Jeevathma.  Thus the Bhagavatha Purana came into the origin, which narrates the pastimes of Goddess Radha and Lord Krishna.  Once,  Rishi Vamadeva, the preceptor of Goddess Parvathi asked her “ Devi, your husband Lord Shiva is wearing the skulls of beautiful women as garland, Have you ever asked him about it ?” it invoked curiosity in Goddess Parvathi, she approached Lord Shiva and said “ My dear husband, whose skull is laying close to your heart?” but Lord Shiva was not willing to comment about it, he kept quiet for three days, it agitated Goddess Parvathi.  Lord Shiva said “ Devi, why does it concern you so much?” Goddess Parvathi said, “ You are my husband, it does concern me as you are wearing the skulls of beautiful women close to your chest.” Lord Mahadeva said, “ Listen to me carefully, each time when you give up your body, I preserve your skull and wear it like a garland around my neck, I am so attached to you.”  Goddess Parvathi asked “ Lord, every time I give up body, why you are not giving up?”  Lord Shiva said, “I am immortal, I have become immortal by the virtue of the immortal stories, and therefore I need not give up my body.”  Goddess Parvathi requested “Lord, kindly give me the knowledge about those immortal stories.”  Lord Shiva agreed and said, “Devi, these are highly confidential and it should remain so, the people who listen to these glorious myths will become immortal, hence I shall narrate the stories in Mount Kailash when there is no one surrounded by us.”  Lord Shiva cleared all the living entities in Kailash and he personally conducted supervision and satisfied, but there was an egg-laying in the nest that was left unnoticed.  Lord Shiva began “while describing the nectar-like these immortal stories, I may go into the transcendental state; therefore I need to get assurance form you that you are listening to it.  Hence, respond to it with a sound of  ‘Humkara’  as affirmation so that I can continue explaining them.” In this way, Lord Shiva kept describing the immortal stories and Goddess Parvathi was giving affirmations with the sound of Humkara.  At that moment, the egg in the nest was hatched, and the baby parrot started listening to the stories of Lord Shiva who has explained the stories up to the tenth canto, slowly Goddess Parvathi drifted to a state of ecstasy and eventually fallen asleep.  The baby parrot that was listening to the story was completely wrapped up with it and started producing Humkara.  Lord Shiva continued narrating the story, before winding up Goddess Parvathi got out of short sleep and intervened; she revealed her helplessness to understand the previous cantos which she was missed due to her sleep.  Lord Shiva was stunned to notice that somebody has produced the sound of ‘Humkara’ in the absence of Goddess Parvathi so that it makes the person immortal.  He went in search of the sound of Humkara, there he found the baby parrot that flew out of the nest abruptly.  Lord Shiva got annoyed and started chasing the baby parrot, he followed the baby parrot it entered in the hermitage of Maharishi Veda Vyasa, and took refuge inside the womb of Maharishi Vedavyasa’s wife and settled comfortably.  Lord Shiva arrived in the hermitage of Vedavyasa and looked for the baby parrot.  Maharishi Veda Vyasa asked, “Lord, why are you so annoyed?” Lord Shiva said “ Rishi, did you see a baby parrot, it received the nectar-like immortal stories without my permission, while I was delivering it to Goddess Parvathi.  This little parrot has become immortal I want to kill it.  Maharishi Veda Vyasa said “If the bird has heard the stories of immortal and has become immortal, how could you kill it ?.”  Thus Lord Shiva was pacified.  This is how the birth of illustrious Sage Shuka took place, later he revealed the nectar-like Srimad Bhagavatham to the entire world.