The Bhagavata: The Confluence of Science, Philosophy and Poetics

The Bhagavata is a sophisticated text. Here we have a highly complex microcosmic narrative woven together with the metaphor of the external world. The great ontological discourses of the (theistic) Samkhya are set within a ontogenic framework. And, further, in the midst of such a ontogenic milieu blended with metaphor, there is applied an intelligent dialectical strategy. Science (embryology, to be precise), metaphor, philosophy and dialectics thus come together in one irresistible combination.  To interpret the Bhagavata, therefore, is by no means an easy task. A non-intellectual, literal approach means that the entire plan goes haywire.