Devanagari
मुनिर्विवक्षुर्भगवद्गुणानां
सखापि ते भारतमाह कृष्ण: ।
यस्मिन्नृणां ग्राम्यसुखानुवादै-
र्मतिर्गृहीता नु हरे: कथायाम् ॥ १२ ॥
Verse text
munir vivakṣur bhagavad-guṇānāṁ
sakhāpi te bhāratam āha kṛṣṇaḥ
yasmin nṛṇāṁ grāmya-sukhānuvādair
matir gṛhītā nu hareḥ kathāyām
Synonyms
muniḥ
—
the sage
;
vivakṣuḥ
—
described
;
bhagavat
—
of the Personality of Godhead
;
guṇānām
—
transcendental qualities
;
sakhā
—
friend
;
api
—
also
;
te
—
your
;
bhāratam
—
the Mahābhārata
;
āha
—
has described
;
kṛṣṇaḥ
—
Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa
;
yasmin
—
in which
;
nṛṇām
—
of the people
;
grāmya
—
worldly
;
sukha
—
anuvādaiḥ — pleasure derived from mundane topics
;
matiḥ
—
attention
;
gṛhītā nu
—
just to draw towards
;
hareḥ
—
of the Lord
;
kathāyām
—
speeches of ( Bhagavad-gītā ) .
Translation
Your friend the great sage Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa has already described the transcendental qualities of the Lord in his great work the Mahābhārata. But the whole idea is to draw the attention of the mass of people to kṛṣṇa-kathā [Bhagavad-gītā] through their strong affinity for hearing mundane topics.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
O sage! Your friend Vedavyāsa, desiring to describe the qualities of the Lord, wrote Mahābhārata. In that work he attracted men’s attention to topics of the Lord through topics about material happiness.
The essence of the Mahābhārata is also the topics of Kṛṣṇa. Muniḥ kṛsṇaḥ is Vedavyāsa. Guṇānām in genitive stands for the accusative. Or it can indicate the abundance of the Lord’s qualities. The minds of men absorbed in material pleasure became controlled by Vyāsa through stories about artha and kāma in order that their minds enter into sections such as Bhagavad-gītā and Nārāyaṇīya. They then became attracted to those topics. Otherwise, not listening to spiritual topics, they would never come near them. Itihāsa-samucchaya says:
kāmino varṇayan kāmān lobhaṁ lubdhasya varṇayan
naraḥ kiṁ phalam āpnoti kupe ’ndham iva pātayan
loka-cittāvatārārthaṁ varṇayitvātra tena tau
itihāsaiḥ pavitrārthaiḥ punar atraiva ninditau
anyathā ghora-saṁsāra-bandha-hetu-janasya tau
varnayet sa kathaṁ vidvān mahā-kāruṇiko muniḥ
What result can be attained by describing the lust of lusty men and the greed of greedy men, except to send them into the darkness of a well? In the Mahābhārata, lust and greed are described to purify people’s hearts, and are moreover condemned by stories with pure meaning. Otherwise, why would the most merciful and learned Vyāsa describe lust and greed, the cause of bondage to terrible material existence?
Purport
The great sage Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa is the author of all Vedic literature, of which his works
Vedānta-sūtra, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
and
Mahābhārata
are very popular readings. As stated in
Bhāgavatam
(1.4.25)
, Śrīla Vyāsadeva compiled the
Mahābhārata
for the less intelligent class of men, who take more interest in mundane topics than in the philosophy of life. The
Vedānta-sūtra
was compiled for persons already above the mundane topics, who might already have tasted the bitterness of the so-called happiness of mundane affairs. The first aphorism of
Vedānta-sūtra
is
athāto brahma-jijṣāsā,
i.e., only when one has finished the business of mundane inquiries in the marketplace of sense gratification can one make relevant inquiries regarding Brahman, the Transcendence. Those persons who are busy with the mundane inquiries which fill the newspapers and other such literatures are classified as
strī-śūdra-dvija-bandhus,
or women, the laborer class and unworthy sons of the higher classes (
brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya
and
vaiśya
). Such less intelligent men cannot understand the purpose of
Vedānta-sūtra,
although they may make a show of studying the
sūtras
in a perverted way. The real purpose of
Vedānta-sūtra
is explained by the author himself in the
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
and anyone trying to understand
Vedānta-sūtra
without reference to
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
is certainly misguided. Such misguided persons, who are interested in the mundane affairs of philanthropic and altruistic work under the misconception of the body as the self, could better take advantage of the
Mahābhārata,
which was specifically compiled by Śrīla Vyāsadeva for their benefit. The great author has compiled the
Mahābhārata
in such a way that the less intelligent class of men, who are more interested in mundane topics, may read the
Mahābhārata
with great relish and in the course of such mundane happiness can also take advantage of
Bhagavad-gītā,
the preliminary study of
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
or the
Vedānta-sūtra.
Śrīla Vyāsadeva had no interest in writing a history of mundane activities other than to give less intelligent persons a chance for transcendental realization through
Bhagavad-gītā.
Vidura’s reference to the
Mahābhārata
indicates that he had heard of the
Mahābhārata
from Vyāsadeva, his real father, while he was away from home and was touring the places of pilgrimage.