Learning From One Guru May Not Be Sufficient

Having established the credentials of Suta that he is capable of even imparting knowledge to the Rishis.
The Rishis ask Suta six questions.
We will look at the first two questions in this episode.
You have to tell us what should be the most coveted goal, the most coveted good, the highest good.
Suta is not someone with a single-track mind.
It is not that he went to one Guru, learned from him, and goes around preaching what he learned.
Trying to establish that his system is the best, or what he is going to tell is the highest truth.
As mentioned in the earlier shloka, he has learned from many Gurus who adhere to different methods, and who practice different paths.
Having such exposure, Suta has the capability to assess which path is result yielding, which path is not result-yielding, which path is fast in yielding results, and which path is slow in yielding results.
Suta, having seen all the different paths, has to make his own recommendation that this should be the best path to yield the highest most coveted goal in the easiest and most efficient way.
प्रायेणाऽल्पायुषः सभ्य कलावस्मिन्युगे जनाः। मन्दाः सुमन्दमतयो मन्दभाग्या ह्युपद्रुताः॥ भूरीणि भूरिकर्माणि श्रोतव्यानि विभागशः। अतः साधोऽत्र य्यत्सारं समुद्गृह्य मनीषया। ब्रूहि भद्रं हि भूतानां येनाऽत्मा सुप्रसीदति॥
The method that Suta should prescribe should be suitable for kali yuga.
Kaliyuga has got three types of doshas.
Intrinsic, internal, and external.
Intrinsic is short life, alpayu.
Mostly everyone has short life span in Kali Yuga, but not the Rishis.
Because they are already conducting a thousand-year-long yaga.
Obviously, this query for the most apt method is not about just them.
It should be a method for the general people of Kali Yuga who have got short life span.
Then the people of Kali Yuga have got four internal defects - मन्दाः सुमन्दमतयो मन्दभाग्या ह्युपद्रुताः॥
They are lazy.
Their sensory organs and their intellect are weak.
Their limbs are weak.
They are not healthy, they keep on getting sick.
The external defect is distractions and diversion - they are so much engaged in external activities.
They are compelled to.
That there is no time for contemplation.
Not just worldly activities, even spiritual activities, there are so many of them so many options that it becomes difficult to decide upon one.
This is a defect of Kali Yuga.
The mind gets confused among all these.
What to do and what to avoid.
How to divide your time between all these.
The mind will not be able to make a decision.
Because the mind is run by emotions.
Only buddhi intelligence can do this.
The mind works on images and impressions.
We know how people get carried away by the personality of their mentors.
His eyes have got so much depth, his voice is so powerful, and his beard is so long.
His walking is so stylish, this is what the mind goes for - impressions, fascinations, infatuations.
See Suta had Bhagawan Veda Vyasa himself as his Guru.
But dharma, dharma is the result of intelligence.
Dharma is intelligent, wise behavior.
When dharma prescribed that you should not learn from a single Guru, Suta went to many.
This is intelligence, this is wisdom, this is following dharma.
Had his mind been working he would have said: my Guru is the greatest in the world, vedavidam shreshtha.
He can give me everything.
No, his buddhi worked.
He thought no I should come out of the defect of having learned from a single Guru.
See this is mind vis a vis intelligence.
Then he developed this kind of exposure.
Which made him qualified enough to preach even to Rishis.
This is called manisha.
To overcome the emotions and work with intelligence.
Rishis know that Suta is intelligent.
The method that Suta would give will be a product of his wisdom and intelligence.
He is not going to give something because he is loyal to his Guru and he thinks that his Guru is the best in the world.