munir vivakṣur bhagavad-guṇānāṁ
munir vivakṣur bhagavad-guṇānāṁ
sakhāpi te bhāratam āha kṛṣṇaḥ
yasmin nṛṇāṁ grāmya-sukhānuvādair
matir gṛhītā nu hareḥ kathāyām
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?
|| 3.5.13 ||
sā śraddadhānasya vivardhamānā
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