Vidvān. Vid means vetti veda vido jñāne. Vid means jñāna, knowledge. So one who has knowledge. . . Knowledge means ultimately to understand the original source of everything. Janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1). This is knowledge, to. . . Everyone is. . . The scientists, the philosophers, everyone is searching out what is the original cause. Just like modern scientists, they are searching out what is the original cause of life. That is good enquiry. But because they are surrounded by anarthas, they cannot know it. That is called māyā.
So long one is illusioned by the māyā he cannot have perfect knowledge. This subject matter has been discussed in the previous verse. It is said, yayā sammohito jīvaḥ. Before that, the one verse is that Vyāsadeva, the vidvān. . . Vyāsadeva is addressed here as vidvān, full knowledge. So he was unhappy even after compiling Vedānta-sūtra. He was not very happy. So under the instruction of his guru, Nārada Muni, he wanted to compile the last contribution to the human society, a commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra. That is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhāṣyāyāṁ brahma-sūtrāṇāṁ vedārtha-paribṛṁhitam. This, in every chapter, at the end, it is said, brahma-sūtra-bhāṣye: "The Bhagavad-gītā (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam) is the commentary on the Brahma-sūtra, or Vedānta-sūtra." Vedānta means the ultimate knowledge. Veda means knowledge; anta means the last contribution. So under the instruction of Nārada Muni, Vyāsadeva first of all made his life perfect. Yes.
How he made his life perfect? Because if you write books without any perfection, that will not be effective. One has to become perfect before he writes some books. Just like nowadays, especially in the Western countries, they write any rascal ideas under the name of philosophy or science, "perhaps," "it may be." That is not the system in the Vedic civilization. Vedic civilization, people, those who are advanced in Vedic knowledge, they'll write. Vedic knowledge is called śruti, and if you write following the principles of śruti, then it is smṛti.
- śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-
- pañcarātra-vidhiṁ vinā
- aikāntikī harer bhaktir
- utpātāyaiva kalpate
- (Brs. 1.2.101)
That is the advice, instruction, given by Rūpa Gosvāmī. "Without reference to the śruti, without reference to the smṛti, Purāṇa and pāñcarātriki-vidhi, if you pose yourself as a great devotee of Kṛṣṇa, that is simply disturbance." This is the instruction of Rūpa Gosvāmī, the, I mean to say, what is called, development, developer of this Vṛndāvana development, under whose instruction.