Shloka 113
Nāga-āyatana-darśana-pratīkṣā — The Brāhmaṇa’s Request and Waiting on the Gomatī
आमन्थ्य मतिमन्थेन ज्ञानोदधिमनुत्तमम् । एक लाख श्लोकोंसे युक्त विस्तृत महाभारत इतिहाससे निकालकर जो आपने यह सारभूत कथा सुनायी है, यह बुद्धिरूपी मथानीके द्वारा ज्ञानके उत्तम समुद्रको मथकर निकाले गये अमृतके समान है
āmanthya matimanthena jñānābdhim anuttamam | eka-lākha-ślokaiḥ yuktaṃ vistṛtaṃ mahābhārata-itihāsāt nikālya yo bhavatā eṣā sāra-bhūtā kathā śrāvitā, sā buddhi-rūpa-mathanīyā jñānasya uttama-samudraṃ manthayitvā nirgata-amṛta-samā bhavati |
Janamejaya said: “By churning the unsurpassed ocean of knowledge with the churning-rod of discernment, you have drawn out and recited this essential narrative from the vast Mahābhārata history, a work comprising a hundred thousand verses. This distilled account is like nectar obtained by churning the supreme sea of wisdom with the ladle of intellect.”
जनमेजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
True understanding comes from discerning extraction: one should churn vast learning with buddhi (intellect) to obtain sāra (essence). The verse praises condensed, ethically meaningful instruction as ‘amṛta’—life-giving wisdom rather than mere quantity of information.
King Janamejaya addresses the narrator/teacher, commending him for drawing an essential story from the enormous Mahābhārata of one hundred thousand verses. He uses the metaphor of churning the ocean to say that the teacher has produced nectar-like wisdom by intellectual discernment.