Even after he has composed the awesome Mahabharata, the Maharishi Vyasa finds no peace. Narada Muni says to him, 'Ordinary men will be delighted by your work, but what about the sages of heaven and earth? Can swans that swim upon the Manasa Sarovara be delighted by the lakes of Bharatavarsha? You have described the human life, its strife and its ends, but you have not yet described the Lord himself. You must turn your great gift to that task; only then will you find peace.'

Veda Vyasa composes the Bhagavata Purana, in eighteen thousand slokas and twelve kandas. He teaches it to his illumined son Suka, who narrates the 'Secret Purana' (which even the Devas do not possess, which Ananta Sesha recites from his thousand mouths) to Yudhishtira's heir, King Parikshit, on the banks of the Ganga.

No other Indian scripture claims that it can bestow Moksha merely by being heard; but the Bhagavata Purana is a living embodiment of the Lord Narayana.

Just before Krishna, the Avatara, leaves the world, Uddhava says to him, 'The kali yuga has begun and evil will rise up and seize the earth. Who will be our light in the gathering night? Leave us a tangible form, Lord, in which we can find you, touch you, and be near you.

Krishna enters the Bhagavata Purana with all of his being: to read this amrita Purana is to be with Krishna. It consumes the sins of a million lives, it bestows untold fortune, and it is said to be the rarest treasure on earth.

This book is a full literary rendering of the Bhagavata Purana, bringing all the wonder, wisdom and grace of the Book of God to the modern reader.

Ramesh Menon was born in 1951 in New Delhi. He has retold the Siva Purana and the Devi Bhagavati, written modern renderings of the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and juxtaposed the holy Bhagavad Gita and Krishna's life from the Bhagavata Purana in his book Krishna: Life and Song of the Blue God.