All of those who are eager to know the answer, consider yourself travelling in the same boat as King Janamejaya was. HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, on his introductory speech on the 9th day of Sapthaham in Jagithayala, enlightened the crowd about the lesser known facts about Bhagavatham.
When King Janamejaya was summoned by Maharshi Vaisampayana, the king asked his guru to talk about enlightening stories of Lord Narayana. When he said there are about 24000 slokas in Ramayana and 125000 slokas from Bhagavatham, over all 149000 when put together, the king started evading the meeting for the dearness of time it might take. Not withstanding the elusive behaviour of the king, the Guru convinced him that he would tell him entire Bhagavatham in less than 2 seconds, the king became curious. The guru promptly uttered,
ద్వౌ మూఢ పురుషౌ లోకేస్మిన్ (Who were the two vilest men in the history of mankind?)
The king instantly turned curious and asked him who they were. Answering him the guru replies, it is Duryodhana and Dhasakhanta and falls silent saying he has finished preaching him Bhagavatham. Impatient to know more the king goes about asking a web of questions and thus starts the saga of Bhagavatha and Ramayana Katha Sravanam. One can see the ingenious way the Guru brought about the attention of this elusive disciple. Swamiji attributed this virtue to Sri Nambi Venugopalaswamy, the eminent guru of the Saptaham being held in Jagithyala, Telangana.
EkaBhaktha and Dwibhaktha
And thus Maharshi Vaisampayana finishes preaching the entire Bhagavatha, Ramayanam to King Janamejaya who in turn listens to the entire saga, spell bound. After the preach, the guru with a pique of teacher who likes to find out what his disciple learned from the all the knowledge departure, asks Janamejaya what he was able to obtain of the Dharma, Artha, Kama , Moksha from the story, to which Janamejaya replies saying he didn’t listen for any of the above, but listened for the wholesomeness of it.
Janamejaya was so lost in entire narration that he thought of nothing. He replies to guru saying
పురుషార్థో–యం యేవైకః యత్కథా శ్రవణం హరేః ; Hey Guru, I listened to the story, not to get something out of it but to wholesomely listen to it. And listening to it is the very purpose of my life.
Swamiji highlights this very aspect of devotees. He said there are two kinds of devotees, Ekabhakth and Dwibhakth. Ekabhaktha are the ones who are interested only in Him like Janamejaya or Arjuna. While Dwibhakth are interested more in what He gives than Him.
Swami says that in order to gain Moksham, one need not always perform Mighty Yagnam , Dhanam or any other humongous tasks, but just listen to the story of Lord Hari.
యథ్ కథా శ్రవణం హరే: (Listen to story of Hari )శ్రవణం మోక్ష: (Listening itself is the path to liberation)
అకించన: అనన్యగథి: (One who feels he doesn’t have anything of his own)
If one needs to accomplish Him, one needs to leave his అహం (ego) to the nether land and pursue him with eternal faith. Only then will he able to accomplish faith in Him. Like how Andal says, Unnai Aruthithu Vandhom(we do not want anything from the Vratham, but You swami).
-From the teachings of Sri Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamy
