Shloka 103
Atithi-satkāra and the Consolation of Wise Counsel (अतिथिसत्कारः प्रज्ञानवचनस्य च पराश्वासनम्)
पाज्चालेन क्रम: प्राप्तस्तस्माद् भूतात् सनातनात् | महात्मा पांचालने वामदेवके बताये हुए ध्यान-मार्गसे मेरी आराधना करके मुझ सनातन पुरुषके ही कृपाप्रसादसे वेदका क्रमविभाग प्राप्त किया था ।।
tām indra uvāca—gaccha, nahuṣas tvayā vācyaḥ; atha pūrveṇa mām ṛṣi-yuktena yānena tvam adhirūḍhaḥ. pāñcālena kramaḥ prāptaḥ tasmād bhūtāt sanātanāt. mahātmā pāñcālena vāmadevena kathitena dhyāna-mārgeṇa mama ārādhanāṃ kṛtvā mayā sanātanena puruṣeṇaiva kṛpā-prasādena vedasya krama-vibhāgaṃ prāptaḥ. bābhravya-gotraḥ sa babhūva prathamaṃ krama-pāragaḥ. bābhravya-gotre utpannāḥ te maharṣi-gālavaḥ bhagavatā nārāyaṇena varaṃ ca paramottamaṃ yogaṃ ca prāpya vedasya krama-vibhāgaṃ śikṣāṃ ca praṇīya sarveṣāṃ prathamaḥ krama-vibhāge pāragaḥ vidvān babhūva.
Indra said: “Go, and tell Nahuṣa this. You have mounted the ancient conveyance yoked with sages, as was done before.” He continued: “From that eternal, primeval Being, the discipline of Vedic recitation in due sequence (krama) was obtained. The great-souled Pañcāla, worshipping me by the path of meditation taught by Vāmadeva, received—by the grace of me, the eternal Person—the ordered division of the Veda. In the Bābhravya lineage he became the first master who had fully crossed to the far shore of ‘krama’. And the sage Gālava, born in the Bābhravya gotra, having obtained a boon and the highest yoga from Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, composed the system of Vedic krama-division and the science of phonetics (Śikṣā), and thus became the earliest foremost scholar accomplished in that ordered recitation.”
तामिन्द्र उवाच गच्छ नहुषस्त्वया वाच्योथ<पूर्वेण मामृषियुक्तेन यानेन त्वमधिरूढ
Educational Q&A
Sacred knowledge and disciplined practice (like Vedic krama-recitation and Śikṣā) are portrayed as fruits of devotion, meditation, and divine grace—not mere pride or power. The passage implicitly contrasts rightful spiritual attainment with the arrogance exemplified elsewhere in the Nahuṣa episode.
Indra instructs that Nahuṣa be addressed and refers to the earlier precedent of a sage-yoked conveyance. The text then shifts to a tradition-history: Pañcāla, through meditation taught by Vāmadeva and by the grace of the eternal Person, attains the ordered Vedic krama-division; and Gālava of the Bābhravya lineage, blessed by Nārāyaṇa, systematizes krama-division and Śikṣā, becoming an early master of these disciplines.