धर्मार्थकाममोक्षांश्च सहोपायान्यथा मुने ।
नानाख्यानेतिहासेषु वर्णयामास तत्त्ववित् ॥२८॥

dharmÄrtha-kÄma-moká¹£ÄmÅ› ca
sahopÄyÄn yathÄ mune
nÄnÄkhyÄnetihÄseá¹£u
varṇayÄm Äsa tattvavit

 dharma - occupational duties; artha - economic development; kÄma - fulfillment of desires; moká¹£Än - ultimate salvation; ca - and; saha - along with; upÄyÄn - means; yathÄ - as it is; mune - O sage; nÄnÄ - various; ÄkhyÄna - by recitation of historical narrations; itihÄseá¹£u - in the histories; varṇayÄm Äsa - described; tattva-vit - one who knows the truth.


Text

Then he described the occupational duties of different orders and statuses of life, citing instances from history, for he was himself well acquainted with the truth.

Purport

Incidents mentioned in the Vedic literatures such as the PurÄṇas, MahÄbhÄrata and RÄmÄyaṇa are factual historical narrations that took place sometime in the past, although not in any chronological order. Such historical facts, being instructive for ordinary men, were assorted without chronological reference. Besides that, they happen on different planets, nay, in different universes, and thus the description of the narrations is sometimes measured by three dimensions. We are simply concerned with the instructive lessons of such incidents, even though they are not in order by our limited range of understanding. BhÄ«á¹£madeva described such narrations before MahÄrÄja Yudhiṣṭhira in reply to his different questions.