The Chatushloki Bhagavatham

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.


The Spirit Of Spirituality

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Hari Om.




In the wide galaxy of Indian books/epics, the Bhagavatham takes the highest

position as a source of information about the Lord which evokes Bhakti in every

shloka. The Bhagavatham was written by the great sage Ved Vyasa and has 12

cantos giving in detail the various incarnations of the Lord as also stories of

the various devotees of the Lord. The punya phala or benefit of listening to the

Bhagavatham is supposed to be moksha or liberation from the cycle of birth and

deaths.



Within the Bhagavatham, there are 4 shlokas pithily called Chatushloki

Bhagavatham which capture the essence of the brilliant spirituality of the great

Indian sages. The context of these 4 shlokas is as follows. The great Sage

Narada asked his father, the Universal Creator Brahma, "Revered father, you were

responsible for creating this entire universe, but have never got attached to

anything. How was this possible?". To this, the venerable Brahmaji replies, " Oh

Son, I had asked the same question to the Supreme Vishnu when HE asked me to

create this universe and the Lord's reply in 4 shlokas has helped me create the

world without getting involved."



These 4 shlokas which are referred to as the Chatushloki Bhagavatham are the

ultimate words of wisdom from Vishnu to Brahma.





In the first shloka, the Lord, Vishnu informs that there was nothing existent

before him and there is nothing existent after him. In effect HE declares that

there is nothing existent, but HIM. This is very similar to the first Mahavakya

in the Vedas, which declares Prajnanam Brahma, which means that there is nothing

but consciousness or the Supreme Spirit.





If so, a logical question that arises is, if Vishnu is the only reality, what is

this entire creation then? To this the Lord tells in the second shloka that

whatever is seen as creation is nothing but illusion caused by his Maya or

power. Just as the rope looks like a snake in the dark or there is an image of

water in the desert, there is an apparent feeling of diversity when in reality

there is nothing but the Lord. An easier example to understand would be our

dreams. We create several characters in our dream including ourselves and to

that person who is me in the dream, everything seems real, when in reality every

living and non-living character in my dream is nothing but me sleeping in the

bed. Due to my power, I am creating vast characters in the dream and each

character appears real to one another in the dream. Similarly it is the power of

Vishnu which is called Maya which creates this illusion of a vast diverse world.



The next shloka is rather cryptic. In that Lord Vishnu says, I am in all of this

world, yet I am not there. It seems so contradictory as to how someone can be in

something and still not in it. To understand this better, let us take the

example of a rope which appears like a snake in the dark. Now, the rope provides

the basis or sub-stratum for the apparent snake. So in that sense, the rope is

in the snake. But in reality, since there is no snake at all, there is no

question of the rope being in the snake. Hence even though the rope is in the

snake, it is not in the snake. This is the Lord's message. I am in the world,

yet not in it. Taking the same dream example, I as the creator of the dream, am

in all the characters of the dream, because I provide the substratum without

which none of the dream characters would be there. At the same time, the dream

itself is an illusion. So how can I be in it?



The final shloka deals with how to realize the Truth. This is a 2 step process.

In the first step, the need is to remove ignorance. That can be done only by

negating what is an illusion. In understanding the reality of a rope, the first

step is to determine that it is not a snake. Since God by definition itself is

something beyond comprehension, the only way to point to God first is the

negation way. There is no way that I as a dream character as a beggar would know

that in reality, I am the person sleeping in the bed. So from that perspective,

it is impossible to know God. I first have to negate and say what is not. Hence

I have to look to the world and say this is not real or the Truth.We have to

look at the mirage and say that it is not water first. The next stage after

having negated what is not Truth is to say what is the truth. Once I know that I

am not the dream character, I have woken up and I know who I am. Once I know

that the mirage is not water, I can know it is the sand playing the illusion.

Once I know, it is not a snake, I can say, it is a rope.



The Lord Vishnu says to Brahma that if he thinks of these 4 shlokas as he

creates the world, there is no way he will get attached to it and he can do his

duty as a "karma yogi" .



Hari Om



Shree Gurubhyo Namaha