In this episode we will see about the mysterious birth of Veda Vyasa and also what was the purpose of his avatara.

Satyavati agreed to become the mother of the amashavatara of Sri Hari Paramatma.
She agreed when Sage Parashara requested her.
She conceived from him.
Immediately after the union of Parasara and Satyavati, Vyasa was born.
Vyasa instantly grew up also.
Before getting immersed in tapas, he told his mother: anytime you need me, just remember me.
Satyavati left the child behind in the island.
He was born in an island.
He was left behind in that island.
So he became known as Dvaipayana; connected to the term dvipa which means island in Sanskrit.

In gratitude, Parasara blessed Satyavati.
The stink of fish in her body was replaced with a fragrance.
This fragrance could be felt even from a distance of one yojana.
She later became known as Yojanagandha and Gandhavati, the fragrant woman.

Her adopter father the chief of fishermen was surprised to see the fragrance coming from body.
He asked: how did this happen?
Happened to meet Maharshi Parasara and he blessed me.

She didn't tell him the rest of it.
It was a mysterious divine act.
Who would understand the significance?
Anyway she was still a virgin.
So it is not going to matter.

Vyasa realized has he had big tasks ahead for him.
Klaiyuga is about to begin.
There will be just twenty five percent dharma, virtues left in the world.
Longevity and intelligence are also going to take a big hit.
Until then, the Veda existed as a single corpus.
The Veda was learned as a whole.
Hereafter, no one is going to have the capacity to learn the whole Veda.
Vyasa divided the Veda into four parts: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda.
Then he made system that a student should learn one of the parts fully,not the whole corpus.
This system continues even now.
Only a few with exceptional talent learn two Vedas and become Dvivedis, learn three Vedas become Trivedis or learn four Vedas and become Chaturvedis.
These are used as surnames these days.
It only means that some of their predecessors had learned two, three or all the four Vedas.
Vyasa also wrote Mahabharata which is called the fifth Veda.
Veda means knowledge and Mahabharata gives a whole lot of knowledge.
He also wrote the Puranas.
Did you know that Vyasa had written only one purana with eighteen sections?
It was Ugrashrava who subdivided this into the eighteen Puranas.

Mahabharata and the Puranas were written with the purpose of taking the knowledge of the Vedas to the common man.
The knowledge of the Vedas should not remain with a few intellectuals.
Unless the common man is made aware of the principles of the Vedas, virtues will not survive on the surface of the earth.
Principles are not for preaching, they are for practicing.
Not by a select few, by everyone.
For that the Vedic principles should reach the common man.
Learning the Vedas is very rigorous.
It starts with memorizing the entire text which everyone will not be capable of.
Then comes understanding the meaning.
It can take years to even just memorize the text.
Common man will not be able to do all that.
But the knowledge of the Vedas, the Vedic principles should be given to the common man in a simple format so that everyone can put it to daily use and grow.
This is why Vyasa wrote Mahabharata and the Puranas.
After having done all these, Vyasa taught the restructered Vedas and Mahabhrata to his disciples: sumantu, Jaimini, Paila, Vaisampayana and his own son Shukadeva.
They all made their own Mahabharata Samhitas.

We are at sixty third chapter of the Amsavatarana Parva within the Adi parva of Mahabharata.
The purpose of this Parva is to outline the main characters of Mahabharata.
It has started with Vyasa and his mother Satyavati.
We will see more in the next episode.