238 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 5
PURPORT

People in general have a taste for literatures by instinct. They want to
hear and read from the authorities something about the unknown, but
their taste is exploited by unfortunate literatures which are full of subject
matter for satisfaction of the material senses. Such literatures contain
different kinds of mundane poems and philosophical speculations, more
or less under the influence of maya, ending in sense gratification. These
literatures, although worthless in the true sense of the term, are variously
decorated to attract the attention of the less intelligent men. Thus the
attracted living entities are more and more entangled in material bondage
without hope of liberation for thousands and thousands of generations.
Sri Narada Rsi, being the best amongst the Vaisnavas, is compassionate
on such unfortunate victims of worthless literatures, and thus he advises
Sri Vyasadeva to compose transcendental literature which is not only
attractive but can also actually bring liberation from all kinds of bondage.
Srila Vyasadeva or his representatives are qualified because they are
rightly trained to see things in true perspective. Srila Vyasadeva and
his representatives are pure in thought due to their spiritual enlight-
enment, fixed in their vows due to their devotional service and de-
termined to deliver the fallen souls rotting in the material activities.
The fallen souls are very eager to receive novel informations every day,
and the transcendentalists like Vyasadeva or Narada can supply such eager
people in general with unlimited news from the spiritual world. In the
Bhagavad-gita it is said that the material world is only a part of the whole
creation and that this earth is only a fragment of the whole material world.

There are thousands and thousands of literary men all over the world,
and they have created many, many thousands of literary works for the
information of the people in general for thousands and thousands of
years. Unfortunately none of them have brought peace and tranquility on
the earth. This is due to a spiritual vacuum in those literatures; therefore
the Vedic literatures, especially the Bhagavad-gitaé and the Srimad-
Bhagavatam, are specifically recommended to the suffering humanity to
bring about the desired effect of liberation from the pangs of material
civilization, which is eating the vital part of the human energy. The
Bhagavad-gita is the spoken message of the Lord Himself recorded by
Vyasadeva, and the Srimad-Bhagavatam is the transcendental narration of
the activities of the same Lord Krsna which alone can satisfy the hanker-
ing desires of the living being for eternal peace and liberation from miseries.
Srimad-Bhagavatam is, therefore, meant for all the living beings all over
the universe for total liberation from all kinds of material bondage. Such
