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The Bhagavata Podcast
The Bhagavata Podcast invites listeners on an engaging journey through the Bhagavata Purana, more commonly known as the Srimad Bhagavatam. Each episode features conversations between scholars, many of whom are also practitioners, as they reflect on and analyze a chapter of this text together. The podcast offers a unique blend of academic rigor and personal insight, providing fresh perspectives that illuminate the beauty and uniqueness of the Bhagavatam.
In each episode, host Dr. Måns Broo, an esteemed scholar and Gaudiya Vaishnava practitioner, invites expert guests to reflect on a chapter of the Bhagavata Purana. Following a linear progression through the text, the discussions explore the philosophical, theological, and literary dimensions of the Bhagavatam, offering both traditional insights and modern academic interpretations. This thoughtful approach enables listeners to journey through the Bhagavata Purana chapter by chapter, uncovering the intricate teachings of this work.
The Bhagavata Podcast is an initiative supported by the Gaudiya Studies Research Programme of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, furthering the mission of connecting living traditions with academic exploration.
The Bhagavata Podcast
1.7 Can You Forgive the Unforgivable? | Bhagavata Podcast with Jayananda Das
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Ashvatthama has just committed the most heinous act in the Mahabharata, killing the sleeping sons of the Pandavas. Now Arjuna has him at sword-point. What happens next is one of the most morally complex scenes in Sanskrit literature.
In Canto 1, Chapter 7, the Bhagavatam refuses easy answers. Jayananda Das (Dr. Janne Kontala) and host Bhrigupada Dasa explore the tension between justice and mercy, the theological significance of Draupadi's unexpected plea for her enemy's life, and what it means when the text asks us to hold punishment and forgiveness at the same time. This is not a chapter about letting wrongdoing go unpunished. It is about something far more demanding than that.
The conversation also draws out what the Bhagavatam's treatment of this episode reveals about the nature of honour, grief, and the limits of retributive justice in a Vaishnava framework.
The Bhagavata Podcast is produced by the Gaudiya Studies Research Programme at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Each episode brings together scholar-practitioners, trained in both Indology and lived Vaishnava devotion, to read this text closely and seriously.