Text 41]
Kṛṣṇa Is the Source of All Incarnations
183
Lord. It carries with it all the transcendental blessings of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa that we can expect from His personal contact.
TEXT 41
तदिदं ग्राहयामास सुतमात्मवतां वरम् । सर्ववेदेतिहासानां सारं सारं समुद्धृतम् ॥४१॥
tad idam grāhayāmāsa sutam ātmavatām varam sarva-vedetihāsānām sāram sāram samuddhṛtam
tat —that;  idam —this;  grāhayāmāsa —made to accept;  sutam —unto his son;  ātmavatām —of the self-realized;  varam —most respectful;  sarva —all;  veda —Vedic literatures (books of knowledge);  itihāsānām —of all the histories;  sāram —cream;  sāram —cream;  samuddhṛtam —taken out.
TRANSLATION
Śrī Vyāsadeva delivered it to his son, who is the most respected among the self-realized, after extracting the cream of all Vedic literatures and histories of the universe.
PURPORT
Men with a poor fund of knowledge only accept the history of the world from the time of Buddha, or since 600 B.C., and prior to this period all histories mentioned in the scriptures are calculated by them to be only imaginary stories. That is not a fact. All the stories mentioned in the  Purāṇas  and  Mahābhārata , etc., are actual histories, not only of this planet but also of millions of other planets within the universe. Sometimes the history of planets beyond this world appear to such men to be unbelievable. But they do not know that different planets are not equal in all respects and that therefore some of the historical facts derived from other planets do not correspond with the experience of this planet. Considering the different situation of different planets and also time and circumstances, there is nothing wonderful in the stories of the  Purāṇas , nor are they imaginary. We should always remember the maxim that one man's food is another man's poison. We should not, therefore, reject the stories and