Thailand's Royal Bhagavatam Collection

Presented by Richard Shaw Brown

Below are a few slokas taken from the ending of Srimad Bhagavatam Maha-puranam. They glorify this purana; and the act of giving Srimad Bhagavatam as very meritorious. With a desire to serve my Spiritual Master, Swami Prabhupada, I collected all 18 volumns of his Bhagavatam tranlation published by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. I brought the 18 books in a box from India. In Thailand I had a teak wood throne built to hold the books. On top is a sold 21k gold name plate with a flawless Blue Sapphire (for vairagya) and a flawless Yellow Sapphire (for Jnana), and the title in solid gold, "AUM Maha-Purana Srimad Bhagavatam - (translation by) Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada." This weighs about 4 ozs of gold, and is fixed on top of the throne with solid gold screws.

Through the President of the Privy Council I arranged to present these books collection to His Majesty King Rama IX. I wasn't able to make the presentation on a date of MY convenience, but never the less it was accept by the King in 1996 and is since then part of the Royal Library in the King's Chitrlada Palace in Bangkok. Two Pictures are attached of the set and a close up of the gold name plate (before the presentation was made). I do believe that my Gurudev is pleased with this, no doubt!

Here is what Bhagavatam states about gifting the great Purana...

SB 12.13.3: Now please hear a summation of the verse length of each of the Puranas. Then hear of the prime subject and purpose of this Bhagavata Purana, the proper method of giving it as a gift, the glories of such gift-giving, and finally the glories of hearing and chanting this literature.

SB 12.13.4-9: The Brahma Purana consists of ten thousand verses, the Padma Purana of fifty-five thousand, Sri Vishnu Purana of twenty-three thousand, the Siva Pur?n?a of twenty-four thousand and Srimad-Bhagavatam of eighteen thousand. The Narada Purana has twenty-five thousand verses, the Markandeya Purana nine thousand, the Agni Purana fifteen thousand four hundred, the Bhavishya Purana fourteen thousand five hundred, the Brahma-vaivarta Purana eighteen thousand and the Linga Purana eleven thousand. The Varaha Purana contains twenty-four thousand verses, the Skanda Purana eighty-one thousand one hundred, the Vamana Purana ten thousand, the Kurma Purana seventeen thousand, the Matsya Purana fourteen thousand, the Garuda Purana nineteen thousand and the Brahmanda Purana twelve thousand. Thus the total number of verses in all the Puranas is four hundred thousand. Eighteen thousand of these, once again, belong to the beautiful Bhagavatam.

SB 12.13.10: It was to Lord Brahma that Bhagavan first revealed the Srimad-Bhagavatam in full. At the time, Brahma, frightened by material existence, was sitting on the lotus flower that had grown from the Lord's navel.

SB 12.13.11-12: From beginning to end, the Srimad-Bhagavatam is full of narrations that encourage renunciation of material life, as well as nectarean accounts of Lord Hari's transcendental pastimes, which give ecstasy to the saintly devotees and demigods. This Bhagavatam is the essence of all Vedanta philosophy because its subject matter is the Absolute Truth, which, while nondifferent from the spirit soul, is the ultimate reality, one without a second. The goal of this literature is exclusive devotional service unto that Supreme Truth.

SB 12.13.13: If on the full moon day of the month of Bhadra one places Srimad-Bhagavatam on a golden throne and gives it as a gift, he will attain the supreme transcendental destination.

SB 12.13.14: All other Puranic scriptures shine forth in the assembly of saintly devotees only as long as that great ocean of nectar, Srimad-Bhagavatam, is not heard..