Question: Why is the title of the 1st Canto of SB identified as “Creation”? Compared to the 1st Canto, within Cantos 2 and 3 there is much more substantial information provided for these topics.
Answer by Romapada Swami:
These are not ‘Titles’, they are ‘Topics’.
Within SB 2.1 ‘Invocation’ purport Srila Prabhupada writes – “In the First Canto of Çrémad-Bhägavatam, the principles of creation are described, and thus the First Canto may be called ‘Creation.’ Similarly, in the Second Canto, the post-creation cosmic manifestation is described. The different planetary systems are described in the Second Canto as different parts of the universal body of the Lord. For this reason, the Second Canto may be called ‘The Cosmic Manifestation.’”
Srila Prabhupada gave topics to each Canto. Where BBT publications have printed the ISBN #, we also find the English ‘Topics’.
Sridhara Swami and VCT begin the titles of SB’s Cantos from Canto 3 (this in some ways is natural because the 10 topics are listed at the end of Canto 2) while Srila Prabhupada starts from Canto 1.
There is no problem with this in one sense because each Canto has all the 10 topics.
Summary: The topics within each Canto are not exclusive to any one particular Canto, as we know. Each topic within SB undergoes a philosophical development.
