Text 3]
Rahūgaṇa Converses with Jaḍa Bharata
403
adhyātma-yoga-grathitam tavoktam ākhyāhi kautūhala-cetaso me
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.  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  (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.