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----- bhagaf007.html
with the genius of the Hindu religion, particularly with its love
aspect which is the peculium of all real devotees in every great
religion. But the modern professors of great religions, being lost in
their material surroundings, have entirely lost sight of that aspect.
The songs of Solomon will stand out in all ages as an expression of
enthusiastic and rapturous love of the human soul for the Divine
Lord, whether the Christians of the modern day understand them or not.
The Divvans and Sufis bore the highest love to their divine Lover,
whether or not the Mahammedans of the present day follow the out-
pourings of their heart.
Love in religion is a Science. It is the natural outcome
of the human soul, when it is freed from impurities and cured of
distractions.
All religions speak of the purity of the mind, and they speak also
of devotion to God or Isvara. But no religion other than Hinduism
treats of the gradual development of the mind as a Science, treats
of its purification and then of its natural attraction for Isvara and the
final assimilation of human life to Isvaric life as the law of the
Universe. And no book in Hinduism deals with the subject so
systematically specially with reference to the history of the Universe,
as the Bhagavata Purana does. I have tried to understand the book
myself as an earnest student, with the light afforded by the
book itself. I have been greatly helped in the understanding of
of the book by the commentary of Sridhara Svami which is by
common consent the most authoritative of all the commentaries on
the Bhagavata Purana. Once a Pandita prided himself before Sri
Chaitanya on his having put an interpretation upon a certain sloka of
the Purana different from that of Sridhara Svami. Now " Svami"
is the designation of a learned Sanyasi, such as Sridhara Svami
was and it also means a husband. Sri Chaitanya remarked "one that
does not follow the Svami is unchaste." Such was the high opinion
which the great Teacher held regarding Sridhara's commentary.
I have purposely avoided making any reference to the com-
mentaries made by the followers of Sri Chaitanya as I intend to study
them separately along with the teachings of his school.
The method of treatment followed in this study will speak for
tself. I have separated the text from my own observations except
in the introductory chapter and in the reference to Sukadeva in the
chapter on Virat Purusha, and one can follow the text itself, without
accepting any of my own views. I believe I have faithfully repro-
duced the text in its essential features, I have omitted unimpor-
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v?