Devanagari
कालेन मीलितधियामवमृश्य नृणां
स्तोकायुषां स्वनिगमो बत दूरपार: ।
आविर्हितस्त्वनुयुगं स हि सत्यवत्यां
वेदद्रुमं विटपशो विभजिष्यति स्म ॥ ३६ ॥
Verse text
kālena mīlita-dhiyām avamṛśya nṝṇāṁ
stokāyuṣāṁ sva-nigamo bata dūra-pāraḥ
āvirhitas tv anuyugaṁ sa hi satyavatyāṁ
veda-drumaṁ viṭa-paśo vibhajiṣyati sma
Synonyms
kālena
—
in course of time
;
mīlita
—
dhiyām — of the less intelligent persons
;
avamṛśya
—
considering the difficulties
;
nṝṇām
—
of humanity at large
;
stoka
—
āyuṣām — of the short-living persons
;
sva
—
nigamaḥ — the Vedic literatures compiled by Him
;
bata
—
exactly
;
dūra
—
pāraḥ — greatly difficult
;
āvirhitaḥ
—
having appeared as
;
tu
—
but
;
anuyugam
—
in terms of the age
;
saḥ
—
He (the Lord)
;
hi
—
certainly
;
satyavatyām
—
in the womb of Satyavatī
;
veda
—
drumam — the desire tree of the Vedas
;
viṭa
—
paśaḥ — by division of branches
;
vibhajiṣyati
—
will divide
;
sma
—
as it were .
Translation
The Lord Himself in His incarnation as the son of Satyavatī [Vyāsadeva] will consider his compilation of the Vedic literature to be very difficult for the less intelligent persons with short life, and thus He will divide the tree of Vedic knowledge into different branches, according to the circumstances of the particular age.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Lord, seeing that the ocean of the Vedas composed by himself will be difficult to cross by people whose lives are short and whose intelligence has been limited by time, will appear in every kalpa as the son of Satyavatī and divide the tree of the Vedas into branches.
Purport
Herein Brahmā mentions the future compilation of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
for the short-lived persons of the Kali age. As explained in the First Canto, the less intelligent persons of the Age of Kali would be not only short-lived, but also perplexed with so many problems of life due to the awkward situation of the godless human society. Advancement of material comforts of the body is activity in the mode of ignorance according to the laws of material nature. Real advancement of knowledge means progress of knowledge in self-realization. But in the Age of Kali the less intelligent men mistakenly consider the short lifetime of one hundred years (now factually reduced to about forty or sixty years) to be all in all. They are less intelligent because they have no information of the eternity of life; they identify with the temporary material body existing for forty years and consider it the only basic principle of life. Such persons are described as equal to the asses and bulls. But the Lord, as the compassionate father of all living beings, imparts unto them the vast Vedic knowledge in short treatises like the
Bhagavad-gītā
and, for the graduates, the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The
Purāṇas
and the
Mahābhārata
are also similarly made by Vyāsadeva for the different types of men in the modes of material nature. But none of them are independent of the Vedic principles.
Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
This verse describes Vyāsadeva. Considering that the ocean of the Vedas written by himself was difficult to cross (dūra-pāraḥ) for the men with short lives and whose intelligence has been reduced by time, Vyāsa appears in every kalpa to Satyavatī and divides the Vedas into branches. Anuyugam means every kalpa or day of Brahmā. [Note: This implies that he actually appears only once in a day of Brahmā. The other forms mentioned in Viṣṇu Purāṇa and Mahābharata are therefore aṁśa forms only. ]