evaṠpraśnam ṛṣīn pūrvam
apá¹›cchaá¹ pitur antike
nÄbruvan brahmaṇaḥ putrÄs
tatra kÄraṇam ucyatÄm
evam - similar; praÅ›nam - a question; ṛṣīn - to the sages; pÅ«rvam - previously; apá¹›ccham - I asked; pituḥ - of my father (Iká¹£vÄku MahÄrÄja); antike - in front; na abruvan - they did not speak; brahmaṇaḥ - of Lord BrahmÄ; putrÄḥ - the sons; tatra - of that; kÄraṇam - the reason; ucyatÄm - please say.
Once in the past, in the presence of my father, MahÄrÄja Iká¹£vÄku, I placed a similar question before four great sages who were sons of Lord BrahmÄ. But they did not answer my question. Please explain the reason for this.
According to ÅšrÄ«la ÅšrÄ«dhara SvÄmÄ« the words brahmaṇaḥ putrÄḥ, “the sons of BrahmÄ,†refer to the four KumÄras headed by Sanaka Ṛṣi. ÅšrÄ«la MadhvÄcÄrya has quoted a verse from the Tantra-bhÄgavata stating that the reason the four sons of Lord BrahmÄ, although mahÄjanas and experts in the science of devotional service, declined to answer King Nimi was that they wanted to demonstrate clearly that even those who are expert in the cultivation of speculative knowledge cannot understand the actual science of pure devotional service. ÅšrÄ«la JÄ«va GosvÄmÄ« has further commented that the sages avoided answering the question from the King because at that time King Nimi was a young boy and therefore not mature enough to understand the answer fully.
