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!
In the Pāṇḍava camp, Arjuna brings the bound Aśvatthāmā before the grieving Draupadī, who bows in compassion and pleads for the life of her sons’ slayer.
Welcome to Srimad Bhagavatam Wisdom, a devotional journey through the sacred histories and teachings of the Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa. In the seventh chapter of the First Canto the scripture turns from the story of how it came to be composed to the first great human drama it will recount. Here we learn why the sage Vyāsa gave this book to the world, and then we are led onto the sorrowful field of Kurukṣetra, where a night-crime, a blazing weapon, a mother’s grief and a woman’s mercy together become a lesson in righteousness. It is a chapter of both foundation and fire.
Chapter Information
Scripture: Śrīmad Bhāgavata Mahāpurāṇa
Canto: 1 (Book One)
Chapter: 7 (Discourse VII)
Chapter title: The Son of Droṇa Punished
Principal speaker: the blessed Sūta, Ugraśravā, the reciter of the ancient lore (with Śaunaka, Arjuna, Draupadī and Śrī Kṛṣṇa speaking within the narration)
Principal listeners: Śaunaka and the assembled sages
Main setting: the Śamyāprāsa hermitage on the western bank of the Sarasvatī, and the aftermath of the war at Kurukṣetra
Central subject: why Vyāsa composed the Bhāgavata; and the pursuit, capture and punishment of Aśvatthāmā, the slayer of Draupadī’s sleeping sons
Principal verse range: Canto 1, Chapter 7, verses 1–58
The chapter opens with a question. The divine sage Nārada has just departed, having counselled Vyāsa in the previous discourse. Now Śaunaka, seated among the sages, asks the reciter: when Nārada had gone, and Vyāsa had taken to heart all that the celestial sage had said, what did the all-powerful son of Satyavatī do next?
It is a small question with a great answer, for it opens the door to the very reason the Śrīmad Bhāgavata exists.
Vyāsa’s Meditation on the Sarasvatī
Sūta replies. On the western bank of the river Sarasvatī, at a hermitage called Śamyāprāsa — a place that fosters the sacrificial life of the sages — Vyāsa had his own abode, ringed by a grove of jujube trees. There the sage sat down, sipped a little water, and by his own effort gathered his mind into stillness.
At the Shamyaprasa hermitage on the Sarasvati, the sage Vyasa collects his mind in meditation and beholds the Supreme Person and His Maya (verses 3-4).
At the Śamyāprāsa hermitage on the Sarasvatī, the sage Vyāsa collects his mind in meditation and beholds the Supreme Person and His Māyā (verses 3–4).
In that flawless mind, made perfectly concentrated through the practice of devotion, Vyāsa beheld the Primal Person — and beside Him, Māyā, the deluding power that depends for her very existence upon the Lord. He saw how the individual soul, though in truth beyond the three modes of material nature, is bewildered by this Māyā into imagining itself made of those three modes, and so comes to suffer. And he saw the remedy: that loving devotion to the Lord, who lies beyond the reach of the senses, is itself the direct means of dispelling all this sorrow. Knowing that ordinary people did not know this saving truth, the learned sage composed the Sātvata-Saṁhitā — the Bhāgavata, the scripture of the devotees — for their sake.
अनर्थोपशमं साक्षाद्भक्तियोगमधोक्षजे ।
लोकस्याजानतो विद्वांश्चक्रे सात्वतसंहिताम् ॥ ६ ॥
Meaning: Knowing that loving devotion to the transcendent Lord is the direct remedy for all the soul’s miseries, the learned sage composed this Sātvata-Saṁhitā for the people who did not know it. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 6)
Why This Scripture Was Given
Then Sūta tells us the fruit of merely hearing this work. As a person listens to the Bhāgavata being recited, devotion to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, wells up within the heart — and that devotion carries away grief, delusion and fear.
yasyāṁ vai śrūyamāṇāyāṁ kṛṣṇe parama-pūruṣebhaktir utpadyate puṁsaḥ śoka-moha-bhayāpahā
Meaning: Simply by hearing this scripture, devotion to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, arises in the heart — devotion that drives away grief, delusion and fear. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 7)
Having composed and revised the Bhāgavata, Vyāsa taught it to his son, Śukadeva, a soul who loved to dwell in solitude.
The Question about Śukadeva
Here Śaunaka interrupts with a natural wonder. Śukadeva was already established in the Self, indifferent to everything of this world, delighting only in his own soul. Why, then, would such a fully satisfied sage take the trouble to master so vast a book?
Sūta answers with one of the most beloved verses of the whole Bhāgavata — the ātmārāma verse. Even those sages who rejoice in the Self alone, whose every knot of ignorance has already been cut, render loving, motiveless devotion to Lord Hari; for such are His wondrous qualities that they draw even the liberated.
ātmārāmāś ca munayo nirgranthā apy urukramekurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim ittham-bhūta-guṇo hariḥ
Meaning: Even self-satisfied sages, freed from every bondage, offer unmotivated devotion to the Lord of mighty deeds — for such are the qualities of Śrī Hari. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 10)
It was so with Śukadeva, son of Bādarāyaṇa and dear to the devotees of Viṣṇu: his mind captivated by the excellences of Śrī Hari, he studied this great chronicle every day.
The Prelude to Parīkṣit’s Story
Now Sūta turns to the history that the rest of this Canto will unfold. He promises to tell of the birth, the deeds and the deliverance of the royal sage Parīkṣit, and of the passing of the sons of Pāṇḍu — for these serve as the prelude to the story of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. To reach Parīkṣit, we must first return to the last, terrible hours of the great war.
The Night-Crime of Aśvatthāmā
When the warriors of both armies had fallen like heroes, and Duryodhana lay with his thigh shattered by Bhīma’s mace, Aśvatthāmā, the son of Droṇa, committed a deed of darkness. In the dead of night he crept into the camp and severed the heads of the five sleeping sons of Draupadī, carrying them to the dying Duryodhana as a gift he imagined would please his master. But the act was so odious that even Duryodhana was revolted, and the whole world would condemn it.
Draupadi, her eyes blinded with tears, weeps at the news that her sleeping sons have been slain; Arjuna vows to bring the head of their killer (verses 15-16).
Draupadī, her eyes blinded with tears, weeps at the news that her sleeping sons have been slain; Arjuna vows to bring the head of their killer (verses 15–16).
When the news of the slaughter reached Draupadī, she wept bitterly, her eyes blinded with tears. Arjuna, seeking to comfort her, made a solemn vow: only when he had cut off the head of that fallen brāhmaṇa with the arrows of his Gāṇḍīva bow, and laid it before her, would her tears be wiped away — then she might set her foot upon it and bathe after the cremation of her sons.
Arjuna’s Pursuit and the Brahmāstra
Consoling his wife, Arjuna put on his armour, took up his fierce bow, and — with Śrī Kṛṣṇa himself as his friend and charioteer, riding beneath the monkey-bannered chariot — set out in pursuit. Seeing Arjuna rushing upon him, Aśvatthāmā, already sick at heart, fled for his life as far as his chariot would carry him, as the sun-god once fled before the wrath of Rudra.
When his horses tired and no protector remained, the son of Droṇa turned in desperation to the brahmāstra, the missile presided over by Brahmā, as his only hope of escape. Though he did not know how to withdraw the weapon once released, he sipped water, fixed it to his bow, and loosed it. A fierce flame blazed forth and spread on every side.
Cornered and unable to flee, Ashwatthama releases the blazing brahmastra, whose fire spreads on every side as Arjuna turns to Krishna (verses 19-21).
Cornered and unable to flee, Aśvatthāmā releases the blazing brahmāstra, whose fire spreads on every side as Arjuna turns to Kṛṣṇa (verses 19–21).
Arjuna’s Prayer to the Lord
Seeing his life in peril, Arjuna turned to Kṛṣṇa and prayed.
कृष्ण कृष्ण महाबाहो भक्तानामभयङ्कर ।
त्वमेको दह्यमानानामपवर्गोऽसि संसृते: ॥ २२ ॥
Meaning: “Kṛṣṇa, O mighty-armed Kṛṣṇa, remover of Your devotees’ fear! You alone are the deliverer of those who burn in the fire of worldly existence.” (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 22)
He glorified the Lord as God Himself, the Primal Person beyond all matter, who by His own wisdom stands ever in His absolute being; who bestows righteousness and every blessing upon the soul bewildered by His Māyā; whose descent into the world lightens the earth’s burden and gives His devotees an object of constant meditation. Then, in all humility, he confessed that he did not know what this all-consuming flame was, nor from where it had come.
The Two Missiles Withdrawn
The Lord replied that this was the brahmāstra released by Aśvatthāmā in his extremity, and that the young man knew no way to call it back. No other weapon could overpower it; only a counter-brahmāstra could quench it, and Arjuna — expert in arms — must release one. Reverently Arjuna sipped water, circled the Lord, and fitted his own brahmāstra to meet the first. The two flames, wrapped in arrows, joined and swelled until they filled the heavens like the twin fires of universal dissolution, and the whole world feared the end had come. Then, seeing the people’s terror and the danger to all the worlds, and with Kṛṣṇa’s approval, Arjuna withdrew both missiles.
The Captive and the Test
Arjuna then seized the son of Kṛpī, his eyes red with rage, and bound him with rope like a sacrificial animal to lead him to the camp. But the lotus-eyed Lord spoke, as if in anger, testing him:
Meaning: “O Arjuna, you should not spare this fallen brāhmaṇa. Kill him — for he slew innocent boys as they slept in the night.” (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 35)
A righteous man, Kṛṣṇa said, would never slay one who is drunk, off guard, insane, asleep, a child, terrified, or fallen at his feet — nor a woman. Yet to put an end to a merciless wretch who lives by destroying others is truly to do him good, for otherwise he would only sink deeper by repeating his crimes. And Kṛṣṇa reminded Arjuna of the vow he had made to Draupadī within his own hearing.
Draupadī’s Compassion
Yet Arjuna, urged by the very Lord who was testing his righteousness, could not bring himself to kill the son of his own teacher, Droṇa. He brought the bound captive back to the camp and showed him to Draupadī, who had been grieving all the while for her murdered sons. And here the chapter reaches its tender heart.
Draupadi gazes at the bound son of her sons' killer and, tender by nature, bows to him and pleads that a brahmana be released (verses 42-43).
Draupadī gazes at the bound son of her sons’ killer and, tender by nature, bows to him and pleads that a brāhmaṇa be released (verses 42–43).
Looking upon Aśvatthāmā — brought in like a bound beast, his face cast down in shame — Draupadī, tender by nature, was moved to compassion for the very man who had wronged her, and she bowed to him.
Meaning: Seeing the teacher’s son brought bound like an animal, his face lowered by his loathsome deed, the gentle-natured Draupadī, moved by compassion, bowed to him. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 42)
She could not bear to see him in bonds. “Release him, release him,” she said, “for he is a brāhmaṇa, worthy of our reverence.” It was through the grace of his father Droṇa, she reminded them, that Arjuna had learned the whole science of archery; and it was Droṇa himself who now lived on in his son. Let the family of one’s own teacher never suffer at the hands of the pious. And she spoke a word of a mother’s fellow-feeling that no mother could resist:
mā rodīd asya jananī gautamī pati-devatāyathāhaṁ mṛta-vatsārtā rodimy aśru-mukhī muhuḥ
Meaning: “Let not his mother Gautamī, devoted to her husband, weep again and again as I now weep, tortured by the loss of my children.” (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 47)
The Wisdom of the Middle Path
Yudhiṣṭhira, the son of Dharma, welcomed the queen’s words, which were compassionate, guileless, impartial and noble. Nakula and Sahadeva, Sātyaki, Arjuna, Lord Kṛṣṇa himself, and all the men and women present endorsed what she said. Only Bhīma dissented, insisting that one who had slaughtered sleeping boys for no gain deserved nothing but death. Between the queen’s mercy and Bhīma’s justice, Kṛṣṇa looked into the face of his friend and, as if smiling, spoke the resolving word: a fallen brāhmaṇa is indeed not to be slain, yet an aggressor surely deserves to die — and both these teachings stand in the scriptures. Therefore, he told Arjuna, honour the promise made to Draupadī, satisfy Bhīma, and please Me — all at once.
Meaning: Instantly grasping the mind of Śrī Hari, Arjuna with his sword cut away the gem upon the brāhmaṇa’s head, together with his hair. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 55)
Shorn of the gem that was his glory, stripped of his splendour, Aśvatthāmā was loosed from his bonds and driven out of the camp. For, as the scripture explains, shaving the head, seizing the property, and banishment from one’s place — this is the form of capital punishment ordained for a fallen brāhmaṇa; there is no other bodily death prescribed for him. Justice was done, the vow was kept, and yet no brāhmaṇa’s blood was shed.
वपनं द्रविणादानं स्थानान्निर्यापणं तथा ।
एष हि ब्रह्मबन्धूनां वधो नान्योऽस्ति दैहिक: ॥ ५७ ॥
Meaning: Shaving the head, forfeiting the wealth, and banishment from one’s place — this alone is the bodily “death” prescribed for a fallen brāhmaṇa; there is no other. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 57)
Then the sons of Pāṇḍu, together with Draupadī — herself called Kṛṣṇā — all stricken with grief for their slain children, performed the cremation and the funeral rites for their departed kin.
putra-śokāturāḥ sarve pāṇḍavāḥ saha kṛṣṇayāsvānāṁ mṛtānāṁ yat kṛtyaṁ cakrur nirharaṇādikam
Meaning: The Pāṇḍavas, together with Draupadī, all afflicted with grief for their sons, performed the cremation and other funeral rites for their departed kin. (Canto 1, Chapter 7, verse 58)
Principal Teachings
1. Devotion is the direct cure for the soul’s suffering. Vyāsa composed the Bhāgavata after seeing, in meditation, that bhakti-yoga is the direct remedy for the miseries born of Māyā (verse 6). The whole chapter rests on this foundation: not ritual alone, not speculation, but loving devotion frees the heart.
2. Merely hearing awakens devotion. Verse 7 promises that simply hearing this scripture kindles a devotion that drives away grief, delusion and fear. This is why the Bhāgavata is meant to be heard, again and again.
3. Even the liberated serve the Lord. The ātmārāma verse (verse 10) reveals that the Lord’s qualities are so captivating that even fully self-satisfied sages render motiveless devotion. Bhakti is not a step below liberation but its very flower.
4. Turn to the Lord in every peril. When the brahmāstra threatened all, Arjuna did not rely on his own famous prowess but cried out to Kṛṣṇa (verse 22). The devotee’s first refuge is the Lord.
5. Righteousness holds mercy and justice together. Draupadī’s compassion and Bhīma’s demand for justice were both honoured through Kṛṣṇa’s wisdom. True dharma is not the triumph of one virtue over another but their reconciliation under divine guidance.
Devotional Reflection
The most astonishing figure in this chapter is Draupadī. She had every reason for rage: her five sons murdered in their sleep, their killer bound before her. And yet, gazing at the man who had shattered her heart, she bowed. Her grief did not harden into hatred; it softened into fellow-feeling for another mother who might soon weep as she wept. This is what devotion does to a soul — it widens the heart until even an enemy’s sorrow becomes one’s own. Beside her stands Arjuna, torn between his vow and his reverence for his teacher’s family, and above them both stands Kṛṣṇa, who resolves the tangle not by cancelling any duty but by fulfilling them all at once. We are shown that the spiritual life is rarely a choice between mercy and justice; more often it is the harder, humbler work of honouring both, and trusting the Lord to show us how.
Daily Devotional Practice
Today, recall one person who has wronged you, and — even if only for a moment — pray for the wellbeing of their family as Draupadī prayed for Gautamī. Then hear or read a passage of the Śrīmad Bhāgavata aloud, remembering the promise of verse 7: that such hearing itself kindles a devotion which carries away grief, delusion and fear.
Conclusion
The seventh chapter of the First Canto joins two great streams. First it reveals the sacred origin of the Bhāgavata itself: Vyāsa, seeing in meditation that devotion alone can free the suffering soul, composed this scripture and gave it to his son Śukadeva, so that all who hear it might receive a devotion that dispels grief, delusion and fear. Then it carries us to the darkest hour after the war, where the crime of Aśvatthāmā, Arjuna’s blazing pursuit, Draupadī’s astonishing mercy and Bhīma’s cry for justice are all gathered up and resolved by the wisdom of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The fallen brāhmaṇa is punished, yet no brāhmaṇa’s blood is shed; a promise is kept, mercy is honoured, and the grieving family lays its children to rest. In this weaving of tenderness and truth we glimpse the whole spirit of the Bhāgavata — that the Supreme Lord guides His devotees through every sorrow toward pure love.
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, Complete), Book One, Discourse VII (verses 1–58), pages 83–88.
Srimad Bhagavatam Wisdom · Biswa Sanatan Dharma Seva Trust.
Presented following the spiritual guidance and recommendation of Pandit Dr. Shri Kashinath Mishra.
