Argument and Persuasion: A Brief Study of Kīrtana in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa

Abstract

Jonathan B. Edelmann explores how the Bhāgavata Purāṇa not only promotes kīrtana as a central devotional practice but also constructs persuasive theological arguments to establish its supremacy in the Kali Yuga. The article surveys key passages—particularly in Canto 1 and Canto 10—that present kīrtana as both an instrument of salvation and a mode of divine embodiment. Edelmann emphasizes that the Bhāgavata positions kīrtana not merely as a ritual act but as a philosophical claim: that the name (nāma) of God is ontologically inseparable from the divine itself. He analyzes the use of scriptural appeals, affective imagery, and rhetorical strategy to demonstrate how the text persuades readers to adopt kīrtana as the ideal practice for this fallen age. By situating kīrtana within a network of epistemic and soteriological claims, Edelmann shows that the Bhāgavata employs both philosophical reasoning and poetic beauty to enact its vision of bhakti as simultaneously accessible and exalted.