तस्मा इदं भागवतं पुराणं दशलक्षणम् प्रोक्तं भगवता प्राह प्रीतः पुत्राय भूतकृत्
tasmā idaṁ bhāgavataṁ purāṇaṁ daśa-lakṣaṇam proktaṁ bhagavatā prāha prītaḥ putrāya bhūta-kṛt
Synonyms
tasmai—thereupon; idam—this; bhāgavatam—the glories of the Lord or the science of the Lord; purāṇam—Vedic supplementary; daśa-lakṣaṇam—ten characteristics; proktam—described; bhagavatā—by the Personality of Godhead; prāha—said; prītaḥ—in satisfaction; putrāya—unto the son; bhūta-kṛt—the creator of the universe..
Translation
Thereupon the supplementary Vedic literature, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which was described by the Personality of Godhead and contains ten characteristics, was told by the father [Brahmā] to his son Nārada with satisfaction.
Purport
Although the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was spoken in four verses, it had ten characteristics which will be explained in the next chapter. In the four verses it is first said that the Lord existed before the creation, and thus the beginning of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam includes the Vedānta aphorism, janmādyasya. Janmādyasya is the beginning, yet the four verses in which it is said that the Lord is the root of everything that be, beginning from the creation up to the supreme abode of the Lord, naturally explain the ten characteristics. One should not misunderstand by wrong interpretations that the Lord spoke only four verses, and therefore all the rest of the 17,994 verses are all useless. The ten characteristics, as will be explained in the next chapter, require so many verses just to explain them properly. Brahmājī also advised Nārada previously that he should expand the idea that he had heard from Brahmājī. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu instructed this to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in a nutshell, but the disciple Rūpa Gosvāmī expanded this very elaborately, and the same subject was further expanded by Jīva Gosvāmī and even further by Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākur. We are just trying to follow in the footsteps of all these authorities. So Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not like ordinary fiction or mundane literature. It is unlimited in strength, and however one may expand it to one's own capacity, Bhāgavatam still cannot be finished by such expansion. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, being the sound representation of the Lord, is simultaneously explained in four verses, as well as in four billions of verses all the same, inasmuch as the Lord is smaller than the atom and bigger than the unlimited sky. Such is the potency of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.