“The literal meaning expressed in this verse of the Bhagavatam (3.28.27) must be set aside, and seen as imaginative poetry”— Sri Jiva Goswami

Sometimes, the statements seen in Srimad Bhagavatam need to be taken as “imaginative poetry,” and not regarded as literal facts.

Srimad Bhagavatam (3.28.27):

“One should meditate on the Lord’s four powerful arms, upon which the guardians of the worlds depend. Vishnu’s radiant armlets appear to have been polished to even greater brilliance by the revolving of Mount Mandara, when Sri Vishnu’s extraordinary heroic strength was revealed during the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons. From those mighty arms, His devoted servants receive the authority and strength to protect the worlds. One should also behold His Sudarshana discus, with its thousand spokes and unbearable radiance, as well as His beautiful conch resting in His lotus hand like a regal swan upon a lotus.”

Sri Jiva Prabhu explains the poetic character of part of this description:

mandara-girer iti | sautirya-matre tatparyam, na tu nirnejane, nirniktatvasya nitya-siddhatvat | tasmad atyanta-tiraskrta-vacya evayam dhvanir utpreksaya gamyate | parivartanam catra susthu sthapanartham jneyam ||27||

“In regard to the mention of Mount Mandara, the sole intention is to indicate the Lord’s heroic strength: sautirya-matre tatparyam. The passage is not intended to describe the actual polishing of Vishnu’s armlets: na tu nirnejane. Their condition of being already polished and radiant is nitya-siddha – eternally established, eternally perfect, and not something newly produced by contact with another object: nirniktatvasya nitya-siddhatvat.

“Therefore, the directly expressed literal meaning is to be completely set aside: tasmad atyanta-tiraskrta-vacya evayam. The intended suggested meaning, dhvani, is understood through utpreksa, poetic imagining or imaginative supposition: dhvanir utpreksaya gamyate.

“Thus, the image of Mount Mandara polishing the Lord’s armlets is not intended as a literal description of the armlets acquiring a brilliance they did not previously possess. Their brilliance is nitya-siddha, eternally established. The poetic image instead conveys the extraordinary heroic power of the Lord’s arms.

“Jiva Prabhu nevertheless does not set aside the revolving of Mount Mandara itself. He adds: parivartanam catra susthu sthapanartham jneyam – ‘The revolving here should be understood as being for the purpose of properly establishing or positioning [Mount Mandara].’ Thus, it is specifically the literal notion that the Lord’s eternally perfect armlets were actually polished by the mountain that is rejected as the intended meaning.”

In relation to this idea that conclusions stated in Srimad Bhagavatam should not be taken literally, in every case, Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur wrote:

“There exists a class of persons who insist upon taking scriptural texts only in their literal worldly sense. Much ingenuity has been expended in extracting meanings satisfactory to empiric judgment by means of this literal method. Their argument is not entirely unintelligible. Since the revealed scriptures are to be regarded as conveying knowledge of the Absolute, they conclude that the language itself must be inseparable from the meaning of the text. But from this they leap to the mistaken inference that the conditioned soul can ascertain the true meaning of scripture merely by adhering to the dictionary meanings of the words. This latter conclusion is wholly inapplicable to transcendental subject matter.

“The words of scripture possess a double significance. Their ordinary dictionary meanings refer to objects of this world and are therefore inadequate in transcendental matters. The esoteric meaning cannot be accessed by the gross senses and mind of the conditioned soul. This is the great and insurmountable difficulty. Literal interpreters commit grave error by overlooking this all-important consideration. The transcendental meaning of scriptural words cannot be conveyed to the senses of the conditioned soul unless he agrees to hear submissively the transcendental sound appearing upon the lips of the pure devotee. There exists a definite disciplic succession of bona fide teachers of Truth. The genuine spiritual teacher eventually becomes available to the sincere seeker of Absolute Reality.”

 — from the English-language article “Putana” first published
in 1932 in The Harmonist newspaper of Sri Gaudiya Math.