Q. Is the Srimad Bhagavatam included in the one lakh verses of Mahabharata? Also, are the 700 slokas of Bhagavad Gita also included in the Mahabharata?
Answer by Romapada Swami: No, the Srimad Bhagavatam is not part of the Mahabharata. It is a separate text, one of the 18 major puranas, comprising 18,000 slokas, and was compiled by Vyasadeva in his full spiritual maturity.
Although having compiled the four Vedas, the Vedanta sutra, the puranas as well as the Mahabharata, Srila Vyasadeva was still feeling incomplete and despondent, when his spiritual master Narada Muni pointed out the defect of his work thus far and instructed him to write a literature that is exclusively dedicated to glorification of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Following his advice, Vyasadeva sat down in meditation, and the fruit of his realization in trance is the Srimad Bhagavatam. This history is described in SB Canto 1 Chapters 4 and 5.
The text of Bhagavad-gita is included in the Mahabharata – it appears as an episode in the Bhishma Parva, setting the scene for the onset of the Battle of Kurukshetra.
