Sauti continued In this poem there are eight thousand eight hundred verses, whose meaning I know, so does Shuka and perhaps Sanjaya also knows. O Muni, none is able to understand to this day the closely knit slokas for the mysteriousness of their meaning.
अष्टौ श्लोकसहस्राणि अष्टौ श्लोकशतानि च। अहं वेद्मि शुको वेत्ति संजयो वेत्ति वा न वा॥ तच्छ्लोककूटमद्यापि ग्रथितं सुदृढं मुने। भेत्तुं न शक्यतेऽर्थस्य गूढत्वात्प्रश्रितस्य च॥