Sri Suka Maharshi
Sri Suka Maharshi is the divine son of Sri Vyasadeva, who is one of the incarnations of the supreme personality of Godhead. Rishi means one who controls his senses, which are called “rishika” in Sanskrit. Then the word maharshi refers to that saintly person who has reached the pinnacle of sense control activity.
Sri Suka was a life-time celibate. He is the best example of victory over lust and thus became the first person in the world to get the opportunity to narrate Srimad Bhagavatam. Because of his complete control over senses, he is often addressed as Sri Sukadeva Goswami.
Goswami
The words Goswami and maharshi give same meaning. “Go” means senses and “Swami” means master.
One who becomes a master of senses, without becoming a servant to them is named a Goswami. Out of the nine types of devotional services (navavidha bhakti), hearing and chanting are the first two processes. King Parikshit was delivered by the first process of hearing, whereas Sri Sukadeva got liberated by the second process, namely chanting.
Both assembled because of Srimad Bhagavatam on the banks of the Ganges.
In Vedic scriptures it is mentioned,
“sri vishno sravane parikshidabhavad vaiyasaki kirtane”.
Another name for Sri Sukadeva is Vaiyasaki.
Birth details of Sri Sukadeva were given in detail in BrahmaVaivarta Purana. Sri Vyasadeva’s wife was the daughter of Jabali Rishi. Both Vyasadeva and his chaste wife performed severe austerities for many years and got a child. The soul that entered her womb was a great mystic. He is Sri Sukadeva. Because he knew that the external world was full of three modes of material nature and illusion, he decided to stay back in his mother’s womb for complete protection. Twelve years passed without the boy coming out of the womb.
Vyasadeva tried to convince the boy with lots of philosophical teachings, but the child did not concede it. Then Vyasadeva went to Dwaraka to inform the situation to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. The Lord came directly to the hermitage of Vyasadeva and gave assurance to the boy in the mother’s womb about His pastimes.
Though the external world is full of three modes of material nature that bind the living entity perpetually here, if one takes shelter in the pastimes of Lord Krishna, he will certainly be situated in a liberated stage. The boy in the mother’s womb got convinced about this wonderful truth, directly spoken by the Lord, and came out with all confidence. However, he did not remain at home but started off to travel all over the world as a liberated soul.
Sri Vyasadeva started following him hastily crying “O my son, O my son”.
Later Sri Vyasadeva gave him the Srimad Bhagavatam, which he compiled on the order of his spiritual master Sri Narada. Sri Sukadeva after studying the beautiful Bhagavatam and assimilating the whole essence became a pure devotee of Lord Krishna.
He narrated the entire Bhagavatam to King Parikshit on the banks of the Ganges, where the king was waiting for his death on account of a curse by a Brahmana boy. With the association of Sri Sukadeva and King Parikshit, the great and divine Srimad Bhagavatam appeared in this world.
Sri Sukadeva – True Symbol of Victory
We already understood that Sri Sukadeva is the true symbol of victory over lust. There is a nice incident to prove this statement. Sri Sukadeva always used to move naked without any body consciousness. Once he was moving in a forest in the mood of deep meditation and was passing by a lake, where some celestial ladies were bathing nakedly.
They did not feel ashamed even though they were naked. Sukadeva also did not notice them. However, in the next moment, Sri Vyasadeva came into the scene. All the ladies immediately came out of the lake and hastily wrapped clothes out of shy when they observed Vyasadeva’s arrival.
Vyasa was startled at the contradictory behaviour of the ladies, who did not feel ashamed in the presence of a naked young man but felt shy in the presence of an old man. Ladies intelligently replied that Sukadeva was beyond gender differentiation and a liberated soul. They all offered obeisances to Suka Maharshi within their hearts and departed from the place. This incident is the best example of Sukadeva’s victory over lust.
Srimad Bhagavatam – Maha Purana
Srimad Bhagavatam is designated as “Maha purana”, with 18,000 wonderful verses spreading over 12 cantos. Sri Sukadeva’s mention appears in the third verse itself as ‘suka-mukhad amrita-drava-samyutam”. Bhagavatam is considered the ripened fruit of the Vedic tree.
A fruit ripened on the tree itself tastes very sweet. But in the case of Srimad Bhagavatam, it got more sweetened due to the nectar of speech by Sri Sukadeva. Sometimes, Sukadeva’s portrait is done with a parrot head, but the narrations given in Vyasa Bhagavatam contradict that opinion.
Four verses are dedicated just to describe Sri Sukadeva on his arrival to banks of Ganges. Suka’s legs, hands, thighs, arms, shoulders, forehead, other parts of the body were described to be delicately formed. His eyes were beautifully wide, his nose and ears are highly raised. He had a very attractive face, and his neck was well formed and beautiful like conch shell.
Sri Suka Maharshi was so great that when he entered the area, where King Parikshit was waiting for his final departure from this world, all the people assembled there stood up in reverence to him. Narada, Vyasa, Suta, many kings, and many saintly persons simply got up from their seats and offered complete respect to the great devotee Sri Sukadeva. Unanimously all of them entrusted the responsibility of deliverance of King Parikshit to Sri Sukadeva.
Sri Sukadeva was so detached from this material world that he wouldn’t spend much time at any place. He used to spend time in any householder’s place that is just sufficient to milk a cow. He used to go to their home to collect some cow milk.
However, against his standard practice, he stayed continuously for 7 days and 7 nights on the banks of the Ganges to narrate the nectarian story of Srimad Bhagavatam. King Parikshit was a devotee of Lord Krishna from childhood. He knows very well about Krishna’s devotees.
He simply offered humble obeisances and prayed, “My dear master, you are the spiritual master to all devotees and mystics. So explain in detail the path of perfection for people in general, especially for those who are about to face death. Please also explain what to be heard, what to be chanted, what to be remembered, and also what not to be done.”
For this intelligent question by King Parikshit, Sukadeva explained the entire Srimad Bhagavatam in seven days and gave eternal liberation to him. In this case, both the listener and the speaker were pure devotees of Lord Krishna. Hence, the whole narration went very happily to the heart’s content.
With the hearing of Bhagavatam from the realized soul, King Parikshit left the fear of death and became purified. As demons cannot stand in the presence of Lord Vishnu, no sin can stand in the presence of Sri Sukadeva. After imparting the divine knowledge of Srimad Bhagavatam to Parikshit, Sri Suka Maharshi left the place to travel all over the world.
While Sri Sukadeva was narrating Bhagavatam, Suta Maharshi was present amongst the audience. He heard the whole narration with rapt attention and repeated the same thing to the sages at Naimisharanya. Srimad Bhagavatam is the essence of Vedas and Vedanta. This truth was revealed as “sarvavedanta- saram hi sri-bhagavatam ishyate” in Bhagavatam itself.
Originally Srimad Bhagavatam was imparted in the heart of Brahma by Lord Krishna; later Brahma narrated it to his son Narada Muni. Narada later instructed it to Vyasadeva, who compiled it in the form of literature and gave it for study to Sukadeva. Sukadeva narrated it to King Parikshit and awarded him immortality. Suta Maharshi heard the narration from Sukadeva and conveyed it to Saunaka and other sages at Naimisharanya.
In this way, Sri Vyasadeva’s final literary work namely Srimad Bhagavatam was spread in the world through his beloved, divine son Sri Sukadeva. It is considered as the essence of Vedanta and the natural commentary on Vedanta Sutra. Whereas, Sri Vyasadeva’s Mahabharata was spread in the world through his beloved disciple Vysampayana Rishi. It is celebrated as the fifth Veda in the world.
