Text 19]
Appearance of Śrī Nārada
209
TEXT 19
चातुर्होत्रं कर्म शुद्धं प्रजानां वीक्ष्य वैदिकम् । 
    व्यदधाद्यश्च सन्तत्यै वेदमेकं चतुर्विधम् ॥१९॥
cātur-hotram karma śuddham 
    prajānām vīkṣya vaidikam 
    vyadadhād yajña-santatyai 
    vedam ekam catur-vidham
cātuḥ—four; hotram—sacrificial fires; karma śuddham—purification of work; prajānām—of the people in general; vīkṣya—after seeing; vaidikam—according to Vedic rites; vyadadhāt—made into; yajña—sacrifice; santatyai—to expand; vedam ekam—only one Veda; catuḥ-vidham—in four divisions.
TRANSLATION
He saw that the sacrifices mentioned in the Vedas were means by which the people's occupations could be purified. And to simplify the process he divided the one Veda into four, in order to expand them among men.
PURPORT
Formerly there was only the  Veda  of the name  Yajus , and the four divisions of sacrifices were there specifically mentioned. But to make them more easily performable, the  Veda  was divided into four divisions of sacrifice, just to purify the occupational service of the four orders. Above the four  Vedas , namely  Rk ,  Yajus ,  Sāma , and  Atharva , there are the  Purāṇas , the  Mahābhārata ,  Saṁhitās , etc., which are known as the fifth  Veda . Śrī Vyāsadeva and his many disciples were all historical personalities, and they were very kind and sympathetic toward the fallen souls of this age of Kali. As such, the  Purāṇas  and  Mahābhārata  were made from related historical facts which explained the teaching of the four  Vedas . There is no point in doubting the authority of the  Purāṇas  and  Mahābhārata  as parts and parcels of the  Vedas . In the  Chāndogya Upaniṣad , the  Purāṇas  and  Mahābhārata , generally known as histories, are mentioned as the fifth  Veda . According to Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, that is the way of ascertaining the respective values of the revealed scriptures.