देवर्ष एतदिच्छामो वेदितुं तव सुव्रत ।
यदात्मजाय शुद्धाय पितादात् साधवे ह्यघम् ॥४४॥
Å›rÄ«-yudhiá¹£á¹hira uvÄca
devará¹£a etad icchÄmo
vedituá¹ tava suvrata
yad ÄtmajÄya Å›uddhÄya
pitÄdÄt sÄdhave hy agham
Å›rÄ«-yudhiá¹£á¹hiraḥ uvÄca - MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira inquired; deva-ṛṣe - O best saintly person among the demigods; etat - this; icchÄmaḥ - we wish; veditum - to know; tava - from you; su-vrata - having the determination for spiritual advancement; yat - because; Ätma-jÄya - unto his own son; Å›uddhÄya - who was pure and exalted; pitÄ - the father, HiraṇyakaÅ›ipu; adÄt - gave; sÄdhave - a great saint; hi - indeed; agham - trouble.
MahÄrÄja Yudhiá¹£á¹hira said: O best of the saints among the demigods, O best of spiritual leaders, how did HiraṇyakaÅ›ipu give so much trouble to PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja, the pure and exalted saint, although PrahlÄda was his own son? I wish to know about this subject from you.
To know about the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the characteristics of His pure devotee, one must inquire from authorities like Devará¹£i NÄrada. One cannot inquire about transcendental subject matters from a layman. As stated in ÅšrÄ«mad-BhÄgavatam (3.25.25), satÄá¹ prasaá¹…gÄn mama vÄ«rya-saá¹vido bhavanti há¹›t-karṇa-rasÄyanÄḥ kathÄḥ: only by association with devotees can one authoritatively understand the position of the Lord and His devotees. A devotee like NÄrada Muni is addressed as suvrata. Su means “good,†and vrata means “vow.†Thus the word suvrata refers to a person who has nothing to do with the material world, which is always bad. One cannot understand anything spiritual from a materialistic scholar puffed up with academic knowledge. As stated in Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (18.55), bhaktyÄ mÄm abhijÄnÄti: one must try to understand Kṛṣṇa by devotional service and from a devotee. Therefore Yudhiá¹£á¹hira MahÄrÄja was quite right in wanting to learn further about PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja from ÅšrÄ« NÄrada Muni.
