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The Bhāgavatam is heard through voices inside voices. Step from the outer assembly at Naimiṣāraṇya, layer by layer, to the innermost speaker.
How the Bhāgavatam is told
Sūta Gosvāmī speaks to the sages at Naimiṣāraṇya. Inside his words, Śukadeva speaks to King Parīkṣit. Inside Śukadeva's words, Maitreya speaks to Vidura, Nārada to Yudhiṣṭhira, Kṛṣṇa to Uddhava, and sometimes there are layers deeper still. Knowing who is speaking, and to whom, tells you why a teaching is given and what question it answers.
Canto 10 · The prayers of the personified Vedas
A question travels through multiple teachers before reaching the Vedas’ own prayers.
4 more layers inside…
Study note: Sūta retells the Bhāgavatam to the sages in Naimiṣāraṇya.
Sūta summarizes the scripture. The scripture’s themes return to Naimiṣāraṇya, where hearing and remembrance are glorified.
Where this voice begins
“Sūta Gosvāmī said: Offering my obeisances to the supreme religious principle, devotional service; to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the supreme creator; and to all the brāhmaṇas, I shall now describe the eternal principles of religion.”
The frames come from where the translation itself says who is speaking (“Śukadeva Gosvāmī said …”). Their exact start and end verses, the episode labels and the setting bands are study aids, not words of the scripture; Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on each verse is always the final word.