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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 7, Ch. 2]
others to be outsiders. Because of this misconception, he suffers. Indeed, the accumulation of such concocted material ideas is the cause of suffering and so-called happiness in the material world. The conditioned soul thus situated must take birth in different species and work in various types of consciousness, thus creating new bodies. This continued material life is called  saṁsāra . Birth, death, lamentation, foolishness and anxiety are due to such material considerations. Thus we sometimes come to a proper understanding and sometimes fall again to a wrong conception of life.
TEXT 27
अत्राप्युदाहरन्तीममितिहासं पुरातनम् । यमस्य प्रेतबन्धूनां संवादं तं निबोधत ॥२७॥
atrāpy udāharantīmam itihāsaṁ purātanam yamasya preta-bandhūnāṁ saṁvādaṁ taṁ nibodhata
atra —in this connection;  api —indeed;  udāharanti —they cite;  imam —this;  itihāsaṁ —history;  purātanam —very old;  yamasya —of Yamarāja, the superintendent of death, who gives judgment after death;  preta-bandhūnāṁ —of the friends of a dead man;  saṁvādaṁ —discussion;  tam —that;  nibodhata —try to understand.
TRANSLATION
In this regard, an example is given from an old history. This involves a discourse between Yamarāja and the friends of a dead person. Please hear it attentively.
PURPORT
The words  itihāsaṁ purātanam  mean “an old history.” The  Purāṇas  are not chronologically recorded, but the incidents mentioned in the  Purāṇas  are actual histories of bygone ages.  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam  is the  Mahā-purāṇa , the essence of all the  Purāṇas . The  Māyāvādī  scholars do