Display
Devanagari is shown only when this page stored it. Harvard-Kyoto and ASCII are generated from the IAST verse.
Vanisource / Original texts
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.9.28
Save this passage to keep a private note on this device. Notes are not sent to Vedawiki.
Cite
Source navigation
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 28
- dharmārtha-kāma-mokṣāṁś ca
- sahopāyān yathā mune
- nānākhyānetihāseṣu
- varṇayām āsa tattvavit
dharmaoccupational duties — occupational duties; arthaeconomic development — economic development; kāmafulfillment of desires — fulfillment of desires; mokṣānultimate salvation — ultimate salvation; caand — and; sahaalong with — along with; upāyānmeans — means; yathāas it is — as it is; muneO sage — O sage; nānāvarious — various; ākhyānaby recitation of historical narrations — by recitation of historical narrations; itihāseṣuin the histories — in the histories; varṇayāmdescribed āsadescribed — described; tattvaone who knows the truth-vitone who knows the truth — one who knows the truth.
Then he described the occupational duties of different orders and statuses of life, citing instances from history, for he was himself well acquainted with the truth.
Incidents mentioned in the Vedic literatures, such as the Purāṇas, Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa are factual historical narrations that took place sometime in the past, although not in any chronological order. Such historical facts, being instructive for ordinary men, were assorted without chronological reference. Besides that, they happen on different planets, nay, in different universes, and thus the description of the narrations is sometimes measured by three dimensions. We are simply concerned with the instructive lessons of such incidents, even though they are not in order by our limited range of understanding. Bhīṣmadeva described such narrations before Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira in reply to his different questions.