SB 5.12.3
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
TEXT 3
tasmād bhavantaṁ mama saṁśayārthaṁ
prakṣyāmi paścād adhunā subodham
adhyātma-yoga-grathitaṁ tavoktam
ākhyāhi kautūhala-cetaso me
SYNONYMS
tasmāt—therefore; bhavantam—to you; mama—of me; saṁśaya-artham—the subject matter that is not clear to me; prakṣyāmi—I shall submit; paścāt—afterwards; adhunā—now; su-bodham—so that it can be clearly understood; adhyātma-yoga—of mystic instruction for self-realization; grathitam—as composed; tava—your; uktam—speech; ākhyāhi—please explain again; kautūhala-cetasaḥ—whose mind is very inquisitive to understand the mystery of such statements; me—to me.
TRANSLATION
Whatever doubts I have about a particular subject matter I shall ask you about later. For the time being, these mysterious yoga instructions you have given me for self-realization appear very difficult to understand. Please repeat them in a simple way so that I can understand them. My mind is very inquisitive, and I want to understand this clearly.
PURPORT
The Vedic literature instructs: tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam (SB 11.3.21). An intelligent man must be very inquisitive to know the transcendental science deeply. Therefore one must approach a guru, a spiritual master. Although Jaḍa Bharata explained everything to Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa, it appears that his intelligence was not perfect enough to understand clearly. He therefore requested a further explanation. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (BG 4.34): tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā. The student must approach a spiritual master and surrender unto him fully (praṇipātena). He must also question him in order to understand his instructions (paripraśnena). One should not only surrender to the spiritual master but also render loving service unto him (sevayā) so that the spiritual master will be pleased with the student and explain the transcendental subject matter more clearly. A challenging spirit before the spiritual master should be avoided if one is at all interested in learning the Vedic instructions in depth.