Verse 1
Saunaka asks after Suka and the king· Verses 1–13
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1When he had spoken so, Saunaka, the aged head of the line, learned in the Rg Veda, praised Suta before the sages of the long session and said: 2Suta, Suta, greatly favoured, best of those who speak, tell us the holy story of the Bhagavata, as the revered Suka told it. 3In what age did it begin, and in what place, and for what reason? At whose prompting did the sage Krsna make this collection? 4His son was a great yogin, even in sight, free of division, single in mind and wakeful, who went about hidden, seeming like a dullard. 5Seeing the sage come following after, clothed though he was, the divine women covered themselves for modesty, yet had not done so for his son, which was a strange thing. When the sage saw it and asked, they said: in you the division of woman and man remains, but not in your son, whose seeing is unmixed.
6How was he made out by the townsfolk when he reached the Kuru-jangala country, wandering about in the city named for the elephant like one mad, dumb and dull? 7And how, dear one, did the exchange come about between the royal sage of the Pandava line and that sage, in which this Satvata revelation was given? 8That greatly favoured one stays at the houses of householders only for as long as the milking of a cow, and by staying makes their dwelling a place of pilgrimage. 9Suta, they call the son of Abhimanyu the best of the Lord's own; recount to us his birth, which was a great wonder, and his deeds. 10For what reason did that emperor, who raised the honour of the Pandus, sit by the Ganges awaiting death, setting at nothing the fortune of a paramount king?
11Enemies bowed at the place of his feet and brought their riches there for their own good. How then, dear one, did that hero, and a young man, wish to let go of a fortune so hard to let go of, and his life with it? 12Those given over to him whose praise is highest live for the good of the world, for its flourishing and its increase, not for their own sake. Why then did he grow weary and release a body that was the shelter of others? 13Tell us all of it, whatever we have asked here; for I take you to have bathed in the whole reach of speech, all but what belongs to the Veda.