Day 1. (1/1/11) S.B. 1:1:1 - 1:1:3

Dandavat Pranams!

gurave gauracandraya radhikayai tadalaye 

krsnaya krsna-bhaktaya tad-bhaktaya namo namah 

 I offer my obeisances time and again unto Sri Guru, Sri Gauracandra, Srimati Radhika, Her associates and Her abode Sri Vrndavana Dhama, and unto Sri Krsna and all of His devotees.

  

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya

janmady asya yato 'nvayad itaratas carthesv abhijnah svarat... 

1. O my Lord, Sri Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Personality of Godhead, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.  I meditate upon Lord Sri Krsna because He is the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes.  He is directly and indirectly conscious of all manifestations, and He is independent because there is no other cause beyond Him.  It is He only who first imparted the Vedic knowledge unto the heart of Brahmaji, the original living being.  By Him even the great sages and demigods are placed into illusion, as one is bewildered by the illusory representations of water seen in fire, or land seen on water.  Only because of Him do the material universes, temporarily manifested by the reactions of the three modes of nature, appear factual, although they are unreal.  I therefore meditate upon Him , Lore Sri Krsna, who is eternally existent in the transcendental abode, which is forever free from the illusory representations of the material world.  I meditate upon Him, for He is the Absolute Truth.

2. Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhagavatam Purana propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart.  The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.  Such truth uproots the threefold miseries.  This beautiful Bhagavatam , compiled by the great sage Vyasadeva (in his maturity), is sufficient in itself for God realization.  What is the need of any other scripture?As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhagavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.

3. O expert and thoughtful men, relish Srimad-Bhagavatam, the mature fruit of the desire tree of Vedic literature.  It emanated from the lips of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami.  Therefore this fruit has become even more tasteful, although its nectarean juice was already relishable for all, including liberated souls.

  Once Srila Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakura spoke on the first verse of Bhagavatam for a whole month.  It is full of so many meanings and contains the gayatri mantra.  The whole Bhagavatam is contained in this first verse just like a drop of ocean water contains all the elements of the ocean. This verse is the mangalacarana or invocation of Srila Vyasadeva.

The second verse tells us tha the Srimad  Bhagavatam will not cheat us because it contains the highest truth and it is the essence of all Vedic literatures.

The third verse refers to the incomparable sweetness of Bhagavatam and how that sweetness is increased when it is repeated by a pure devotee.
                                                                     
                                                             Happy New Year!