204
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 4]
TRANSLATION
We know that you are expert in the meaning of all subjects, except some portions of the Vedas, and thus you can clearly explain the answers to all the questions we have just put to you.
PURPORT
The difference between the  Vedas  and the  Purāṇas  is like that between the  brāhmaṇas  and the  parivrājakas . The  brāhmaṇas  are meant to administer some fruitive sacrifices mentioned in the  Vedas , but the  parivrājakācāryas , or learned preachers, are meant to disseminate transcendental knowledge to one and all. As such, the  parivrājakācāryas  are not always expert in pronunciating the Vedic  mantras , which are practiced systematically by accent and meter by the  brāhmaṇas  who are meant for administering Vedic rites. Yet it should not be considered that the  brāhmaṇas  are more important than the itinerant preachers. They are one and different simultaneously because they are meant for the same end, in different ways.
There is no difference also between the Vedic  mantras  and what is explained in the  Purāṇas  and  Itihāsa . According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, it is mentioned in the  Mādhyandina-śruti  that all the  Vedas , namely the  Sāma ,  Atharva ,  Rk ,  Yajus ,  Purāṇas ,  Itihāsas ,  Upaniṣads , etc., are emanations from the breathing of the Supreme Being. The only difference is that the Vedic  mantras  are mostly begun with  praṇava omkāra , and it requires some training to practice the metric pronunciation of the Vedic  mantras . But that does not mean that  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  was of less importance than the Vedic  mantras . On the other hand, it is the ripened fruit of all the  Vedas , as stated before. Besides that, the most perfectly liberated soul, Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī, is absorbed in the studies of the  Bhāgavatam , although He is already self-realized. Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī is following his footsteps, and therefore his position is not the least less important because he was not expert in chanting Vedic  mantras  with metric pronunciation, which depends more on practice than actual realization. Realization is more important than parrot-like chanting.
TEXT 14
सूत उवाच
द्वापरे समनुप्राप्ते तृतीये युगपर्यये ।
जातः पराशराद्योगी वासव्यां कलया हरेः ॥१४॥