iti rājña upādiśya viprā jātaka-kovidāḥ labdhāpacitayaḥ sarve pratijagmuḥ svakān gṛhān
Synonyms
iti—thus; rājña—unto the king; upādiśya—having advised Vipra—persons who are well versed in the Vedas; viprā—those who had received sumptuously as remuneration, sarve—all of them; jātaka-kovidāḥ—went back; labdha-apacitayaḥ—their own; sarve—houses.
Translation
The persons who were expert in the knowledge of astrology and in the performance of birth ceremony thus instructed the King Yudhisthira about the future history of the child and being sumptuously remunerated all of them went back to their respective home.
Purport
The Vedas means the store house of knowledge both material and spiritual. But such knowledge aims at perfection of self realisation. In other words the Vedas are the guidance for the civilised man in every respect. The human life being the opportunity of getting free from all material miseries, it is properly guided by the knowledge of the Vedas both in the matter of material needs and spiritual salvation. The specific intelligent class of men who devoted particularly in the knowledge of Vedas were the Vipras or the graduates of the Vedic knowledge. There are different branches of knowledge in the Vedas of which astrology and pathology are two important branches of knowledge necessary for the common man. So the intelligent class of men in the society generally known as the Brahmins took up all the different branches of Vedic knowledge for guiding the society. Even the department of military education (Dhanurveda) was also taken up by such intelligent class of men and the Vipras were also teachers of this section of knowledge as was Dronacharya, Kripacharya ete.
The word Vipra mentioned herein is significant. There is a little difference between the Vipras and the Brahmins. The Vipras are those who are expert in the matter of Karmakanda or fruitive activities guiding the society towards fulfilling the material neccessities of life while the Brahmines are expert in spiritual knowledge of transcedence. This department of knowlenge is called Jnanakanda and above this there is the Upasanakanda. Culmination of upasanakanda is devotional service of the Lord Vishnu and when the Brahmins achieve perfection they are called Vaishnava. Vishnu worship is the highest of all other modes of worship—such elevated Brahmins are called the Vaishnavas engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and as such Srimad Bhagwatam which is the science of devotional service is very much dear to the Vaisnavas. And as explained in the begnning of the Srimad Bhagwatam, it is the mature fruit of Vadic knowledge and is superior snbject matter above the three kandas namely Karma, Jhan and Upashana etc.
Amongst the karmakanda experts the Jataka expert Vipras were good astrologers who could tell all the future history of a born child simply by astral calculation of the time (Lagna) and such expert Jataka Vipras were present during the birth of Maharaj Parikshit and his grand father Maharaj Yudisthir remunerated the Vipras sufficiently with gold, land, villages, grains, and other valluable necessaries of life which include the cow also. There is need of such Vipras in the social structure and it is the duty of the state to maintain them comfortably as designed in the Vedic procedure. Such expert Vipras being sufficiently paid in kinds by the state they could give free service to the people in general and thus this department of Vedic knowledge could be available for all.