SB 1.7.12
pariksito ’tha rajarser
janma-karma-vilapanam
samstham ca pandu-putranam
vaksye krsna-kathodayam
Translation by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Suta Gosvami thus addressed the rsis headed by Saunaka: Now I shall begin the transcendental narration of the Lord Sri Krsna and topics of the birth, activities and deliverance of King Pariksit, the sage amongst kings, as well as topics of the renunciation of the worldly order by the sons of Pandu.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada:
Lord Krsna is so kind to the fallen souls that He personally incarnates Himself amongst the different kinds of living entities and takes part with them in daily activities. Any historical fact old or new which has a connection with the activities of the Lord is to be understood as a transcendental narration of the Lord. Without Krsna, all the supplementary literatures like the Puranas and Mahabharata are simply stories or historical facts. But with Krsna they become transcendental, and when we hear of them we at once become transcendentally related with the Lord. Srimad-Bhagavatam is also a Purana, but the special significance of this Purana is that the activities of the Lord are central and not just supplementary historical facts. Srimad-Bhagavatam is thus recommended by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as the spotless Purana. There is a class of less intelligent devotees of the Bhagavata Purana who desire to relish at once the activities of the Lord narrated in the Tenth Canto without first understanding the primary cantos. They are under the false impression that the other cantos are not concerned with Krsna, and thus more foolishly than intelligently they take to the reading of the Tenth Canto. These readers are specifically told herein that the other cantos of the Bhagavatam are as important as the Tenth Canto. No one should try to go into the matters of the Tenth Canto without having thoroughly understood the purport of the other nine cantos. Krsna and His pure devotees like the Pandavas are on the same plane. Krsna is not without His devotees of all the rasas, and the pure devotees like the Pandavas are not without Krsna. The devotees and the Lord are interlinked, and they cannot be separated. Therefore talks about them are all krsna-katha, or topics of the Lord.