||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.
