A poetic study of the seasons and the soul

Light of the Bhāgavata

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda·1984

A meditation in fifty-two verses on the natural seasons of India and what they reveal about devotion — Prabhupāda’s translation and purport on Sanātana Gosvāmī’s Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta excerpts, paired with traditional Chinese landscape paintings.

Preface

We offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder-Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, who has delivered the light of the Bhāgavata to the whole world. We are pleased to present for his pleasure this publication of his sublime work Light of the Bhāgavata.

Of all His Divine Grace’s writings, this work is perhaps the most unique. It was written in Vṛndāvana in 1961 in response to an invitation to attend a world conference, the Congress for Cultivating the Human Spirit, held in Japan. As most of the participants to the Conference were from the Orient, Śrīla Prabhupāda considered deeply how he could best present the timeless teachings of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam suitable to the Oriental people. The original Bhāgavatam was written over five thousand years ago as an extremely large book composed of eighteen thousand verses. Participants to the conference would not have the time to hear it all. He therefore chose one chapter from the original version for presentation.

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