Text 10]
Vidura's Talks with Maitreya
171
TEXT 10
परावरेषां भगवन् व्रतानि 
  श्रुतानि मे व्यासमुत्वादभीत्यम् । 
  अतृप्नुम श्रुतसुत्वावहानां 
  तेषामृते कृष्णकथामृतौघात् ॥१०॥
parāvareṣām bhagavan vratāni 
  śrutāni me vyāsa-mukhād abhīkṣṇam 
  atrpnuma kṣulla-sukhāvahānām 
  teṣāmṛte kṛṣṇa-kathāmṛtaughāt
para—higher; avara—lower; eṣām—of all these; bhagavan—O my lord, O great one; vratāni—occupations; śrutāni—heard; me—by me; vyāsa—Vyāsa; mukhāt—from the mouth; abhīkṣṇam—repeatedly; atrpnuma—I am satisfied; kṣulla—little; sukha-āvahānām—that which causes happiness; teṣām—out of that; amṛta—reality; kṛṣṇa-kathā—talks about the Personality of Godhead, Lord Kṛṣṇa; amṛta-oghāt—from the nectar.
TRANSLATION
O my lord, I have repeatedly heard about these higher and lower statuses of human society from the mouth of Vyāsadeva, and I am quite satiated with all these lesser subject matters and their happiness. They have not satisfied me with the nectar of topics about Kṛṣṇa.
PURPORT
Because people are very much interested in hearing social and historical presentations, Śrīla Vyāsadeva has compiled many books such as the  Purāṇas  and  Mahābhārata . These books are reading matter for the mass of people, and they were compiled with a view to reviving their God consciousness, now forgotten in the conditional life of material existence. The real purpose of such literatures is not so much to present topics of historical references, but to revive the people's sense of God consciousness. For example,  Mahābhārata  is the history of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, and common people read it because it is full of topics regarding the social, political and economic problems of human society. But factually the most important part of  Mahābhārata  is  Bhagavad-gītā , which is automatically taught to readers along with the historical narrations of the Battle of Kurukṣetra.