return to Narayana in the end.  I have thus explained to thee, O son of Kuru’s race, what the religion of Sattwa is.  If thou beest competent for it, O Bharata, do thou practise that religion duly.  Even thus did the highly-blessed Narada explain to my preceptor,—­the Island-born Krishna—­the eternal and immutable course, called Ekanta, (ending in One) followed by the Whites[1910] as also by the yellow-robed Yatis.  Vyasa gratified with Dharma’s son Yudhishthira, imparted this religion to king Yudhishthira the just who was possessed of great intelligence.  Derived from my preceptor I have also communicated it to thee!  O best of kings, this religion is for these reasons, exceedingly difficult of practice.  Others, hearing it, become as much confounded as thou hast suffered thyself to be.  It is Krishna who is the protector of the universe and its beguiler.  It is He who is the destroyer and the cause, O monarch.”

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Janamejaya said, “The Sankhya system, the Pancharatra scriptures, and the Aranyaka-Vedas,—­these different systems of knowledge or religion,—­O regenerate Rishi, are current in the world.  Do all these systems preach the same course of duties, or are the courses of duties preached by them, O ascetic, different from one another?  Questioned by me, do thou discourse to me on Pravritti in due order!”

Vaisampayana said, “I bow unto that great Rishi who is the dispeller of darkness, and whom Satyavati bore to Parasara in the midst of an island, who is possessed of great knowledge and who is endued with great liberality of soul.  The learned say that he is the origin of the Grandsire Brahma; that he is the sixth form of Narayana; that he is the foremost of Rishis; that he is endued with the puissance of Yoga; that as the only son of his parents he is an incarnate portion of Narayana; and that, born under extraordinary circumstances on an Island, he is the inexhaustible receptacle of the Vedas.  In the Krita age, Narayana of great puissance and mighty energy, created him as his son.  Verily, the high-souled Vyasa is unborn and ancient and is the inexhaustible receptacle of the Vedas!”

Janamejaya said, “O best of regenerate persons, it was thou that saidst before this that the Rishi Vasishtha had a son of the name of Saktri and that Saktri had a son of the name of Parasara, and that Parasara begot a son named the Island-born Krishna endued with great ascetic merit.  Thou tellest me again that Vyasa is the son of Narayana.  I ask, was it in some former birth that Vyasa of immeasurable energy had sprung from Narayana?  O thou of great intelligence, do tell me of that birth of Vyasa which was due to Narayana!”