Verse 4

⁴At Naimisa, the field of the unblinking one, the sages headed by Saunaka were seated at a sacrificial session lasting a thousand years, for the sake of the heavenly world. ⁵One morning, when those sages had made their offerings into the kindled fire, they honoured Suta, who was seated there, and respectfully asked him this. ⁶Sinless one, you have both recited and studied the Puranas together with the histories, and the treatises on dharma as well. ⁷Suta, you know what the revered Badarayana knows, the best of those who know the Veda, and what the other sages know, who understand the higher and the lower alike. ⁸Gentle one, you know all of that as it truly is, by their favour; for teachers will tell even what is secret to a disciple who is dear to them.

⁹Long-lived one, whatever you have settled, plainly and in each of those, as the one absolute good for human beings, that you should declare to us.