Question:
My understanding has been that the author of the Damodarastakam verses, Satyavrata Muni, is an unknown personality -BUT- is distinctly not the same King Satyavrata of the 8th Canto narration regarding Matsya avatar. Is this correct?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
I have also always understood the two Satyavratas to be different, but I have no evidence for that, just as I have no evidence that they are the same. It is worth noting that there are other Satyavratas in sastra, like Satyavrata-kama in Jabala-Upanisad. The connection has to be more than bearing the same name.
There is nothing within the Srimad Bhagavatam, the Sandarbas, nor in Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura and Jiva Goswami’s tikas which identify the two Satyavratas as the same person.
SB 8.24.38 is a key verse in the Lord’s teachings and Bhagavata Sandarbha seems to explicitly say that Satyavrata is a jnani and by the Lord’s mercy will attain bhakti and knowledge of him.
Moreover, SB 8.24.55 also implies that Satyavrata learned bhakti through a sankhya process and then heard all manner of Puranas.
Did Satyavrata hear Damodara-lila from Matsyadeva and glorify it? We don’t know. Here is what we do know.
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead thus explained to King Satyavrata the spiritual science known as säìkhya-yoga, the science by which one distinguishes between matter and spirit [in other words, bhakti-yoga], along with the instructions contained in the Puräëas [the old histories] and the saàhitäs. The Lord explained Himself in all these literatures.”( SB 8.24.55)
However, any connection between King Satyavrara and Damodarastakam is not specifically mentioned.
Interesting:
The following is from HH Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja: “This stotra named Sri Damodarastaka is found in the Padma-purana, being spoken by Sri Satyavrata Muni during a conversation with Sri Narada, Saunaka and other sages. Srila Sanatana Gosvamipada states in his commentary on this prayer that it is nitya-siddha (an eternally perfect prayer) that it was manifested through Sri Satyavrata Muni, and that it is actually capable of attracting Sri Damodara-Krsna. He has fully elaborated on this
prayer’s ability to attract Lord Damodara in his exhaustive purports, which are abounding with his own personal realizations.”
Padma Purana is so big! A researcher looked, and could not locate Damodarastaka in that text.
