Text 3] Rahigana Converses with Jada Bharata 403
adhyatma-yoga-grathitam tavoktam
akhyahi kautithala-cetaso me

tasmat—therefore: bhavantam—to you: mama—of me: samsaya-
artham—the subject matter that is not clear to me; praksyami—l shall
submit; pascat—afterwards: adhund—now; su-bodham—so that it can
be clearly understood: adhyadtma-yoga—of mystic instruction for self-
realization; grathitam—as composed; tava—your: uktam—speech:
akhyahi—please explain again: kauttihala-cetasah—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 in-
structions 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: tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh
Sreya uttamam. An intelligent man must be very inquisitive to know the
transcendental science deeply. Therefore one must approach a guru, a
spiritual master. Although Jada Bharata explained everything to
Maharaja Rahigana, it appears that his intelligence was not perfect
enough to understand clearly. He therefore requested a further explana-
tion. As stated in Bhagavad-gita (4.34): tad viddhi pranipatena
pariprasnena sevaya. The student must approach a spiritual master and
surrender unto him fully (pranipdtena). He must also question him in
order to understand his instructions (pariprasnena). One should not only
surrender to the spiritual master but also render loving service unto him
(sevaya) 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 in-
terested in learning the Vedic instructions in depth.
