Veda Vyasa and Bhagavata Purana
Krishna Dwaipayana writes the holiest scripture of Hinduism
Krishna Dwaipayana, popularly Veda Vyasa, was not satisfied after writing the Mahabharata. Narada inspired him to write the Srimad Bhagavata Purana.
Krishna Dwaipayana, the son of Sage Parashara and Satyavati, was born under unusual circumstances and was destined to greatness. He foresaw the advent of Kaliyuga and the erosion of moral values. To guide humanity during that period he compiled the Vedas and earned the name Veda Vyasa. Then realizing that not everyone could read the Vedas he wrote the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata he narrated the wisdom of the Vedas through tales of sages and kings so that the common man would understand them. Yet he was not joyous.
One day he was meditating in his ashram on the bank of the river Saraswati, trying to understand the reason for his despondency. The celestial sage Narada appeared before him and congratulated Vyasa. “In your lifetime you have completed the work that most men cannot do in ten lifetimes. You should be elated and thoroughly satisfied with your achievements. Yet I see sadness on your face. What is it that is troubling you?”
Vyasa humbly replied, “There is something troubling me but I am not able to perceive it. You are omniscient and surely know the reason for my sadness. Please guide me.”
Narada replied. “Great Sage, the reason for your sorrow is your lack of complete satisfaction with the Mahabharata, and rightly so. Because the Mahabharata has a very noticeable fault.”
Vyasa asked, “Pray tell me what that fault is, so that I may correct my error.”
Narada continued, “The Mahabharata is indeed a great work. In it you have defined the duty of man. How he should strive for peace, what he should do in war. You have written about God as well. You have delivered His message in the form of the Bhagavad Gita. You have shown the righteous that they have no reason to fear because He is at their side.
Your flaw is that you have failed to describe God’s magnificence. You know that the path of devotion is the easiest path to follow and that in the coming millennia it will be the only path available for salvation. For people to be able to follow this path they need to have a true vision of God’s greatness. That greatness does not come through in the Mahabharata because the Krishna of the Mahabharata is restricted to being one avatar. You have to describe all His avatars, the main ten ones and more. You have to go beyond the avatars. You have to describe His forgiving nature, His unbounded love for His devotees and how He heeds their call. You have touched upon these issues in the Mahabharata but these were not the focus of your work.
Leave the Mahabharata alone now. Go beyond it. Contemplate on the magnificence of God and produce a work in which every sentence is devoted to him. Your objective should be such that even the worst sinner when he reads the work would be compelled to take refuge in Him. And when the devoted read the work they should rise above fear and even overcome the fear of death.”
Saying these words, his message delivered, Narada took leave of Vyasa. Now that his heart was at ease Vyasa meditated peacefully on the various forms of the Almighty and produced the Srimad Bhagavata Purana. After completion he recited it to his son Sukhdev.
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