Welcome to this book about the person. This book consists of two books. One is written by Krishna Dvaipâyana Vyâsadeva, the greatest of all Indian philosophers and possibly of all philosophers who ever lived, and the other book is written by me, Swami Anand Aadhar a former clinical psychologist with sincere devotion for the philosophy of Badarâyana, another name of Vyâsa. The book of Vyâsa, who also wrote the Bhagavad Gîtâ spiritual instruction and the Mahâbhârata epic of the great Indian war, is a frame story about the fall of a Vedic emperor about 5000 years ago, who because of being cursed by a brahmin sage, sits down at the Ganges to fast until death. The seven days remaining for his life he then spends talking to S'ukadeva Gosvâmi?, a young man of 16 years old, a saint and sage, who is the son of Vyâsa. In the company of many sages of the time, S'uka tells him everything about the Vedic culture of holy and less divine kings that once ruled the entire earth but has collapsed since the disappearance of S'rî Krishna, a prince of that culture, who is a divine personality. The book of Vyâsadeva, the Bhâgavata Purâna, also called the S'rîmad Bhâgavatam, translated with 'The Story of the Fortunate One', consists of 12 parts, called Cantos, and the greatest part of this collection of stories centers around the person of Krishna. Vyâsa presents Krishna as the Supreme Personality, the Lord, we actually all should remember for enlightenment and liberation, peace and prosperity. This book contains the chapters of the first Canto wherein this story is introduced by a sage called Sûta Gosvâmi before an audience of sages gathered for a lengthy sacrifice in a forest. My book consists of an equal number of inspirations following each of the chapters of the first Canto. In these inspirations I, after due meditation, expound on my realizations concerning the philosophy about the person of Vyâsadeva.

To introduce you to this account, I would like to begin with a question. The question is: 'What question comes to your mind concerning the subject of self-realization in relation to the established culture of spiritual knowledge that you know?' Of course you as a reader cannot directly answer now. So, in the inspirations in this book I will try to answer this question myself repeatedly, in a way typical for my person. It is not a neat scholarly vedântic commentary as is already presented by several commentators of the Bhâgavatam. There is a rich tradition, called Vaishnavism, of respecting this book this way and in other ways. My way is also one such other way I finally arrived at after about 28 years ago in Amsterdam in the Netherlands having been introduced to the culture of bhakti, or devotion, around this book. Essential to this other way is my personal way of meditating on S'rî Krishna. My approach has two essential parts. The impersonal and personal part. The impersonal of Krishna is time. For that purpose I use a meditation clock set to the sun, a so-called tempometer - as also a calendar marked with a regular distribution of days in relation to the sun and the moon. Timing thus one is in line with the natural command of time. This facilitates one's meditation and natural physical and psychic integrity. For the personal part I engage in alone meditating on the so-called Mahâmantra as also in singing together that mantra including traditional bhajans, devotional songs that one sings by taking turns.

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