Text 32
tasyaivaṁ khilam ātmānaṁ
manyamānasya khidyataḥ
kṛṣṇasya nārado ’bhyāgād
āśramaṁ prāg udāhṛtam
tasya — his; evam — thus; khilam — inferior; ātmānam — soul; manyamānasya — thinking within the mind; khidyataḥ — regretting; kṛṣṇasya — of Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa; nāradaḥ abhyāgāt — Nārada came there; āśramam — the cottage; prāk — before; udāhṛtam — said.
As mentioned before, Nārada reached the cottage of Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana Vyāsa on the banks of the Sarasvatī just as Vyāsadeva was regretting his defects.
The vacuum felt by Vyāsadeva was not due to his lack of knowledge. Bhāgavata-dharma is purely devotional service of the Lord to which the monist has no access. The monist is not counted amongst the paramahaṁsas (the most perfect of the renounced order of life). Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is full of narrations of the transcendental activities of the Personality of Godhead. Although Vyāsadeva was an empowered divinity, he still felt dissatisfaction because in none of his works were the transcendental activities of the Lord properly explained. The inspiration was infused by Śrī Kṛṣṇa directly in the heart of Vyāsadeva, and thus he felt the vacuum as explained above. It is definitely expressed herewith that without the transcendental loving service of the Lord, everything is void; but in the transcendental service of the Lord, everything is tangible without any separate attempt at fruitive work or empiric philosophical speculation.