Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran, if read with full faith, transforms the reader very quickly, and the reader receives its maximum benefit — which is developing pure love for the Supreme Lord Madhava. This is the conclusion of most of our revered scriptures.
The Brahma Purāṇa consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purāṇa of fifty-five thousand, Śrī Viṣṇu Purāṇa of twenty-three thousand, the Śiva Purāṇa of twenty-four thousand and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam of eighteen thousand. The Nārada Purāṇa has twenty-five thousand verses, the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa nine thousand, the Agni Purāṇa fifteen thousand four hundred, the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa fourteen thousand five hundred, the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa eighteen thousand and the Liṅga Purāṇa eleven thousand. The Varāha Purāṇa contains twenty-four thousand verses, the Skanda Purāṇa eighty-one thousand one hundred, the Vāmana Purāṇa ten thousand, the Kūrma Purāṇa seventeen thousand, the Matsya Purāṇa fourteen thousand, the Garuḍa Purāṇa nineteen thousand and the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa twelve thousand. Thus the total number of verses in all the Purāṇas is four hundred thousand. Eighteen thousand of these, once again, belong to the beautiful Bhāgavatam.
When a child is sick, sometimes parents need to give bitter syrup so that the child can be cured of the disease. But the child will often refuse the syrup because of its bitterness. The mother, who knows the heart of the child, will take that bitter syrup and nicely turn it into a sweet juice or smoothie. The child who earlier refused the syrup will now happily drink it, because it has become a drink of his own choice. The bitter medicine, actually so beneficial to the child, now enters the body easily as the sweet juice he desires. Similarly, the series of stories in Srimad Bhagavatam are like that sweet juice — very attractive and entertaining to the ear and mind of the reader — while the medicine-like instructions containing the Vedic principles are intertwined in the narrative of the story. As they enter the heart of the listener through the ear, they cleanse and purify the heart of the listener.
We sincerely wish that all of us read the Bhagavatam with the same great faith, love and dedication that our beloved Pandit Dr. Shri Kashinath Mishra has repeatedly asked of us, and let these stories cleanse our hearts and increase our love for our dear Lord.
Just by reading Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran, a special place for the Lord is created in the reader's heart, because the Lord — in the form of Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran — enters the heart and sweeps it clean of all contamination. We all know that the very same Lord, who is rarely understood even by great sages, who is the Lord of all movable and immovable entities, comes to sit in the heart of the sincere reader or listener of Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran! All the sages and saintly people listen to it in rapt attention. Lord Shiva speaks Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran to his wife Parvati. Sheshnag sings Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran with his unlimited hoods. The four Kumaras — Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana and Sanat Kumara — also speak Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran to glorify Lord Krishna, because every other spiritual and religious process fades before it.
The Lord Himself leaves His spiritual abode and comes down to the place where Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran is being read (spoken), and sits down to carefully listen. As He Himself stated to Narada Muni:
nāhaṁ vasāmi vaikuṇṭhe yogināṁ hṛdaye na ca mad-bhaktā yatra gāyanti tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada
"O Narada, I do not live in My spiritual abode, nor do I live in the hearts of great meditating yogis — but I live at the place where My devotees speak about My divine līlās."
The Vedas are compared to the desire tree, because they contain all things knowable by man — dealing with mundane necessities as well as spiritual realization. In Sanskrit, the parrot is also known as śuka. When a ripened fruit is cut by the beak of a parrot, its sweet flavour is enhanced. The Vedic fruit — already mature and ripe in knowledge — becomes even more relishable when spoken through the lips of Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, who is compared to that very parrot.
There are unlimited benefits to reading Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran katha. The prime result is that if a person reads attentively and applies the wisdom in their own life, they can attain pure love for Mahaprabhu. Because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is completely free of contamination by the modes of nature, it is endowed with extraordinary spiritual beauty and is therefore dear to the pure devotees of the Lord. The word pāramahaṁsyam indicates that even completely liberated souls are eager to hear and narrate Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Those who are trying to be liberated should faithfully serve this literature by hearing and reciting it with faith and devotion.
Chaitanya Mahāprabhu describes Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as the spotless Purāṇa, because it contains transcendental narrations of the pastimes of the Supreme Lord. The history of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is also very glorious. Brahmā spoke it to the sage Nārada, who narrated it to Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa. Śrīla Vyāsa revealed this Bhāgavatam to the greatest of sages, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, and Śukadeva mercifully spoke it to Mahārāja Parīkṣit.
It was compiled by Vyāsadeva, who drew from his mature experience under the instruction of his spiritual master, Śrī Nārada Muni. Vyāsadeva compiled all the Vedic literatures — the four Vedas, the Vedānta-sūtra (Brahma-sūtras), the Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata — yet he was not satisfied until he wrote Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. His dissatisfaction was observed by his spiritual master, and Nārada advised him to write on the transcendental activities of the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Kṛṣṇa's activities are specifically described in the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Canto considered to contain the substance of the whole work.
Just as the eternal nature of fire is to provide heat and light, the eternal dharma of a jīva (soul) is sevā to the Supreme Lord — and serving Srimad Bhagavatam, which is the literary incarnation of the Supreme Lord, by studying it attentively, is one such very important sevā.
This is why the Bhagavata Mahatmya depicts Bhakti Devi asking Nārada Muni for the welfare of her sons, Gyāna and Vairāgya, and Nārada Muni ultimately concludes that reciting the Bhāgavatam is the best remedy — for, as stated, only the Bhāgavatam can bring jñāna and vairāgya to the level necessary for the practice of pure bhakti.
Therefore, at the very heart of the Bhagavata Mahatmya's exaltation is Krishna's quintessential assertion: "Whatever appears to be of any value — up to and including jñāna and vairāgya — if it has no relation to Me, has no reality."
Mahārāja Parīkṣit was given seven days — he was cursed by a brāhmaṇa boy that he would die within seven days, bitten by a snake. Immediately, being emperor, he understood, "I shall have to die." So he prepared himself. For seven days he tried to understand his relationship with Kṛṣṇa, with God. That is imitated today as Bhāgavata-saptāha. But actually, the Bhāgavatam is not meant to be studied only by imitating Mahārāja Parīkṣit for seven days — no. In seven days we cannot understand even one verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what to speak of its eighteen thousand verses. That is not possible. The Bhāgavatam says, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. The Panchasakha say, "Param shastra Bhagavata... abhyāsa karuthibu nitya…" — it is not for seven days; it is for all of life.
That is why Pandit Dr. Shri Kashinath Mishra has mercifully advised all of us to read at least one chapter from Srimad Bhagwat Mahapuran every day — and more so, to transcend the coming turbulent times, it is all the more important!
Srimad Bhagavatam Canto 1 Chapter 14: fearful omens warn Yudhishthira that Lord Krishna is about to leave the earth, and Arjuna returns grieving from Dwaraka.
As Arjuna lingers in Dwaraka, King Yudhishthira watches the sky darken with dreadful portents and senses that the Lord’s presence is about to leave the earth.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Welcome to Srimad Bhagavatam Wisdom, a devotional journey through the sacred histories and teachings of the Srimad Bhagavat Mahapurana. In the fourteenth chapter of the First Canto, the peace that had settled over Hastinapura begins to tremble. Arjuna has gone to Dwaraka to see Sri Krishna and His kinsmen, and month after month passes without his return. In that silence, King Yudhishthira watches the world itself grow strange — the seasons turn unnatural, hearts turn cruel, and the heavens fill with fearful signs. With the heart of a devotee rather than a fearful man, he reads in these omens a single dread: that the Lord who is the soul of all their fortune is about to withdraw His presence from the earth. This chapter is a portrait of love that senses separation before it is spoken.
Chapter Information
Scripture: Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa
Canto: 1 (Book One)
Chapter: 14 (Discourse 14)
Chapter title: Evil Omens and the Coming Disappearance of Lord Krishna
Principal speakers: the blessed Sūta, Ugraśravā (narrator); King Yudhiṣṭhira
Principal listener: the sages of Naimisaranya, headed by Śaunaka
Main setting: the city of Hastināpura, some time after the Mahābhārata war
Central subject: the fearful portents seen by Yudhiṣṭhira as the age of Kali approaches, his apprehension that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is about to leave the world, and the sorrowful return of Arjuna from Dwārakā
Principal verse range: Canto 1, Chapter 14, verses 1–44
In the thirteenth discourse, Vidura returned from his long pilgrimage and was joyfully received at Hastinapura. He counselled his blind elder brother Dhṛtarāṣṭra to give up his lingering attachments and turn to a life of renunciation. Heeding him, the old king slipped away in the dead of night toward the Himalayas, accompanied by his devoted wife Gāndhārī. When Yudhiṣṭhira grew anxious at their disappearance, the celestial sage Nārada came and revealed that Dhṛtarāṣṭra was performing austerities upon the Saptasrota stream of the Gaṅgā and would soon give up his body through yoga; that Gāndhārī would follow him into the fire; and that Vidura, witnessing this, would once again set out on pilgrimage. Comforted by Nārada’s words, Yudhiṣṭhira ceased his grieving. It is here, with Arjuna still away in Dwaraka, that the fourteenth discourse opens.
The Dreadful Turn of Time
The blessed Sūta continued. Arjuna, he said, had set out for Dwaraka in order to see his relations — Śrī Kṛṣṇa and the others — and to learn how the Lord of sacred renown was faring. Yet many months went by, and still he did not return.
As months pass without Arjuna's return, the seasons themselves fall out of order and society sinks into discord at the approach of the age of Kali (verse 2).
As months pass without Arjuna’s return, the seasons themselves fall out of order and society sinks into discord at the approach of the age of Kali (verse 2).
vyatītāḥ katicin māsāstadā nāyāt tato ’rjunaḥdadarśa ghora-rūpāṇinimittāni kurūdvahaḥ
Meaning: Several months passed, yet Arjuna did not return; and meanwhile Yudhiṣṭhira, the foremost of the Kurus, beheld omens of a fearful kind. (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 2)
Time itself had taken a dreadful turn. The characteristics of the seasons were wholly changed, and people had taken to sinful ways of living, their hearts possessed by anger, greed, and falsehood. Dealings between people had grown crooked; even friendship was marred by deceit; and quarrels broke out between parents and children, between kinsmen, between brothers, and even between husbands and wives. As the age of Kali drew near, the nature of human beings was corrupted by greed and its kindred evils, while omens boding the worst of calamities appeared throughout the cosmos. Witnessing all this, King Yudhiṣṭhira turned and spoke to his younger brother Bhīma.
The King Reads the Omens
Yudhiṣṭhira reminded Bhīma that Arjuna had been sent to Dwaraka to see their relations and to find out what Śrī Kṛṣṇa was doing. Seven months had now elapsed, and still their brother had not returned. Then the king gave voice to the fear beneath his unease.
A she-jackal howls at the rising sun, horses shed tears, and birds of ill omen cry through the night — the fearful signs Yudhishthira describes to Bhima.
A she-jackal howls at the rising sun, horses shed tears, and birds of ill omen cry through the night — the fearful signs Yudhishthira describes to Bhima.
अपि देवर्षिणादिष्ट: स कालोऽयमुपस्थित: ।
यदात्मनोऽङ्गमाक्रीडं भगवानुत्सिसृक्षति ॥ ८ ॥
api devarṣiṇādiṣṭaḥsa kālo ’yam upasthitaḥyadātmano ’ṅgam ākrīḍaṁbhagavān utsisṛkṣati
Meaning: Can it be that the time foretold by the celestial sage Nārada has now arrived — the time when the Lord will lay aside the beloved form He assumed for His pastimes? (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 8)
It was to the Lord’s grace, Yudhiṣṭhira said, that they owed everything — their fortune and their kingdom, their spouses and their very lives, the continuance of their race, their progeny, their victory over enemies, and their claim to the higher worlds. Now he begged Bhīma to observe the portents in the heavens, on the earth, and in their own bodies, all of them boding some calamity near at hand that would distract the mind.
His own left thigh, left eye, and left arm, he confessed, were throbbing again and again, and his heart quaked without cause.
Meaning: My left thigh, eye, and arm throb again and again, dear brother, and my heart trembles within me; surely these signs will soon bring unwelcome news. (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 11)
He pointed to the omens all around. A she-jackal, vomiting fire, howled at the rising sun; a dog barked fearlessly at the king himself. Auspicious animals passed by on his left while inauspicious ones turned to his right, and his very horses seemed to weep. The dove — that harbinger of death — together with the owl and its enemy the crow, kept awake through the night and shook his heart with their horrible cries, as if to turn the whole world into a desert.
Signs in Heaven and Earth
The portents were not confined to birds and beasts. The quarters of the sky looked smoky; the orbs of the sun and moon appeared ringed with a misty halo; the earth with its mountains quaked, and thunderclaps burst with violent lightning. The wind blew hard, spreading darkness with dust, while the clouds seemed to rain blood, creating a ghastly scene everywhere.
The sky grows smoky and the clouds seem to rain blood, while the images of the gods appear to weep — grave signs that the earth has lost the touch of the Lord's feet (verse 21).
The sky grows smoky and the clouds seem to rain blood, while the images of the gods appear to weep — grave signs that the earth has lost the touch of the Lord’s feet (verse 21).
The sun lost its brilliance and the planets seemed to contend against one another in the heavens; the sky and the earth alike appeared to be set on fire by multitudes of ghosts and spirits. Streams and rivers, lakes and the minds of people were all agitated; fire would not blaze even when fed with clarified butter. Calves refused to suck, and cows would not be milked; the cattle wept, tears trickling down their faces, and the bulls took no joy in the herd. The very images of the gods seemed to weep and perspire and to move from their seats, while the outlying districts, villages, cities, gardens, mines, and hermitages all looked cheerless and robbed of their splendour. From all of this Yudhiṣṭhira drew a single, sorrowful conclusion.
मन्य एतैर्महोत्पातैर्नूनं भगवत: पदै: ।
अनन्यपुरुषश्रीभिर्हीना भूर्हतसौभगा ॥ २१ ॥
Meaning: From these great portents I am certain that the earth, deprived of the touch of the Lord’s feet — whose auspicious grace belongs to no other person — has lost her good fortune and her beauty. (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 21)
Arjuna Returns from Dwaraka
Even as the king was speaking his anxious thoughts, his heart weighed down by the omens he had seen, the one he had been waiting for at last appeared.
Arjuna returns from Dwaraka, crestfallen and pale, and falls at the feet of his elder brother, tears trickling from his lotus-like eyes (verse 22).
Arjuna returns from Dwaraka, crestfallen and pale, and falls at the feet of his elder brother, tears trickling from his lotus-like eyes (verse 22).
Meaning: As the king was brooding thus, his heart troubled by the omens he had seen, O Brāhmaṇa, Arjuna — whose banner bore the emblem of Hanumān — returned from the city of the Yadus. (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 22)
But the sight of him deepened rather than relieved the king’s fear. Arjuna fell at his brother’s feet with a strange look about him, his face lacklustre and cast down, tears trickling from his lotus-like eyes. Recalling the words of Nārada, Yudhiṣṭhira felt his heart grow anxious, and in the midst of his other kinsmen he began to question his brother.
Are the Yadus and the Lord Well?
The questions poured out of him in a rush of love and dread. Were their relations — the Madhus, the Bhojas, the Dāśārhas, the Ārhas, the Sātvatas, the Andhakas, and the Vṛṣṇis — happy in Dwaraka? Was their revered grandfather Śūrasena well, and were their maternal uncles Vasudeva and his brothers in good health? Were the seven wives of Vasudeva — Devakī and her sisters — hale, together with their sons and daughters-in-law? Did King Ugrasena and his brother Devaka still live? Were Kṛtavarmā, Akrūra, Jayanta, Gada, Sāraṇa, and Sātrujit faring well, and was the divine Balarāma, Lord of the Sātvatas, happy? Were Pradyumna, the greatest of the Vṛṣṇi warriors, and the mighty Aniruddha prospering? Were Sāmba and the other sons of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and Uddhava and the other devoted attendants, all doing well, protected by the arms of Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa — and did they still remember the Pāṇḍavas with affection? Then came the question at the centre of his heart.
Yudhishthira asks whether Lord Govinda, friend of the Brahmanas and beloved of His devotees, dwells happily among His kinsmen in the great Sudharma hall (verse 34).
Yudhishthira asks whether Lord Govinda, friend of the Brahmanas and beloved of His devotees, dwells happily among His kinsmen in the great Sudharma hall (verse 34).
bhagavān api govindobrahmaṇyo bhakta-vatsalaḥkaccit pure sudharmāyāṁsukham āste suhṛd-vṛtaḥ
Meaning: And is Lord Govinda — friend of the Brāhmaṇas and lovingly devoted to His devotees — dwelling happily amid His kinsmen in the Sudharmā hall of His city? (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 34)
He spoke on of the glory of the Lord and His people: how the Supreme Person dwelt among the Yadus for the protection and welfare of all the worlds, with Balarāma ever at His side; how the Yadus revelled in their city like the attendants of Lord Viṣṇu, guarded by His mighty arms; and how the great Yādava warriors fearlessly frequented the celebrated Sudharmā council-hall.
Yudhishthira’s Tender Questions
At last the king turned from the welfare of others to Arjuna himself, and his questions softened into tender concern.
The king gently questions the grief-stricken Arjuna, until his last, deepest fear is spoken: that his brother has been parted from Sri Krishna Himself (verse 44).
The king gently questions the grief-stricken Arjuna, until his last, deepest fear is spoken: that his brother has been parted from Sri Krishna Himself (verse 44).
Was Arjuna in good health? He seemed to have lost the brightness of his face. Had he failed to receive proper welcome, or been treated with disrespect during his long stay? Had anyone wounded him with unkind words? Had he ever turned away a suppliant, or failed to keep a promise freely given? Had he refused shelter to any Brāhmaṇa, child, cow, aged or ailing person, woman, or helpless creature that came to him for protection? Yudhiṣṭhira ran through every possible cause of his brother’s sorrow — and then, unable to find it, spoke the fear he had held back the longest.
kaccit preṣṭhatamenāthahṛdayenātma-bandhunāśūnyo ’smi rahito nityaṁmanyase te ’nyathā na ruk
Meaning: Or is it that, parted from your dearest friend and very Self, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, you feel utterly empty and forlorn? For I can find no other cause for your grief. (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 44)
With this question the chapter closes — the answer, and the great sorrow it carries, held back for the discourse that follows.
Principal Teachings
1. The world’s beauty rests upon the Lord’s presence. Yudhiṣṭhira reads in the disordered seasons, the weeping cattle, and the blood-red clouds a single truth: that the earth has “lost her good fortune” because she is losing the touch of the Lord’s feet (verse 21). Where the Divine is honoured, life flourishes in harmony; where His presence withdraws, even nature falls into disarray. The outer world is a mirror of its inner grace.
2. A devotee fears separation, not misfortune. The king does not grieve for his throne, his safety, or his wealth. His one dread is that the Lord may be about to depart (verses 8–9). For the devotee, every good thing is valued only as a gift of the Lord, and the Lord Himself is the one treasure whose loss cannot be borne.
3. Providence speaks through signs, and love learns to read them. Yudhiṣṭhira interprets the omens not with superstition but with a heart attuned to the Lord’s will, recalling the very words Nārada had spoken (verses 22–24). Devotion makes the soul sensitive to the movements of divine providence.
4. The approach of Kali is a decline of dharma within the heart. The corruption the king observes is first of all moral — greed, falsehood, deceit, and the breaking of the closest bonds (verses 3–5). The age of Kali is described not merely as a span of time but as a hardening of the human heart, a warning to guard truthfulness and affection in our own lives.
5. The Lord is the very Self of His devotee. Yudhiṣṭhira’s final question names Kṛṣṇa as Arjuna’s “dearest friend and very Self” (verse 44). To be separated from the Lord is to feel emptied of one’s own being. This is the measure of true devotion: that the Beloved becomes dearer to us than our own life.
A Devotional Reflection
There is a tenderness in this chapter that is easy to miss beneath the frightening omens. Yudhiṣṭhira is a great emperor, victorious in war, secure upon his throne — and yet the throbbing of his own arm frightens him, because it whispers that Kṛṣṇa may be leaving the world. We often measure our lives by what we can hold: our security, our people, our accomplishments. The Bhāgavata gently turns that measure around. All of these, it reminds us, are borrowed light; their true source is the Lord, and when He withdraws, the borrowed light grows dim. To love God in this way is to feel His nearness as our very life-breath, and His absence as a kind of death. It is a demanding love, but also a liberating one, for it teaches the heart to rest not in fragile possessions but in the one Presence that never truly departs from those who call upon Him.
A Daily Devotional Practice
Take a quiet moment today to name, one by one, the good things in your life — those you love, the shelter you enjoy, the strength of your body, the peace of your mind — and offer each of them back to the Lord as His gift, saying gently in your heart, “This too is Yours.” As you do, remember Yudhiṣṭhira, who saw in every blessing the grace of Kṛṣṇa. Let the practice end with a single loving remembrance of the Lord’s name, so that, come what may in the changing seasons of life, the heart learns to hold fast to Him who never leaves.
Important Verses
Beyond the verses shown above, one verse marks the turning point of the whole chapter, as the king first gives voice to his foreboding.
nimittāny atyariṣṭānikāle tv anugate nṛṇāmlobhādy-adharma-prakṛtiṁdṛṣṭvovācānujaṁ nṛpaḥ
Meaning: Seeing the most inauspicious omens, and how, as the age of Kali drew near, the nature of the people had become unrighteous through greed and the like, the king spoke to his younger brother. (Canto 1, Chapter 14, verse 5)
Conclusion
The fourteenth chapter of the First Canto is a study in the sensitivity of a loving heart. While Arjuna lingers in Dwaraka, King Yudhiṣṭhira watches the seasons turn strange, society sink into discord, and the very heavens fill with dread. Where another might have seen only calamity, he sees the shadow of a single loss: that Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the source of every blessing his family has known, may be about to withdraw His presence from the earth. When Arjuna at last returns — pale, crestfallen, and silent — the king’s fear only deepens, and he pours out a flood of anxious, tender questions about the Yadus and about the Lord, until at last he names the one grief he most dreads: that his brother has been parted from Kṛṣṇa Himself. The chapter leaves us on this threshold of sorrow, teaching us that to love the Lord truly is to feel His nearness as our life and to hold nothing dearer than Him.
May the divine wisdom of Srimad Bhagavatam awaken pure devotion within our hearts.
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.
Jay Shree Madhav.
References and Attribution
Primary edition: Gita Press, Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa (English), Book One (Skandha 1), Discourse 14, book pages 55–58.
Srimad Bhagavatam Wisdom · Biswa Sanatan Dharma Seva Trust.Presented following the spiritual guidance and recommendation of Pandit Dr. Shri Kashinath Mishra.
This article is an original, faithful devotional retelling (Copyright MODE B). No publisher translation or purport is reproduced; the verse “Meaning” lines are original faithful paraphrase. This article does not imply that any publisher, library, or organization sponsors or endorses it.
