SB 1.6.5 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

नारद उवाच भिक्षुभिर्विप्रवसिते विज्ञानादेष्टृभिर्मम । वर्तमानो वयस्याद्ये तत एतदकारषम् ॥ ५ ॥

Verse text

nārada uvāca bhikṣubhir vipravasite vijṣānādeṣṭṛbhir mama vartamāno vayasy ādye tata etad akāraṣam

Synonyms

nāradaḥ uvāca — Śrī Nārada said ; bhikṣubhiḥ — by the great sages ; vipravasite — having departed for other places ; vijṣāna — scientific spiritual knowledge ; ādeṣṭṛbhiḥ — those who imparted unto me ; mama — mine ; vartamānaḥ — present ; vayasi ādye — before this life ; tataḥ — thereafter ; etat — this much ; akāraṣam — performed .

Translation

Śrī Nārada said: The great sages, who had imparted scientific knowledge of transcendence to me, departed for other places, and I had to pass my life in this way.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Nārada said : When the mendicant teachers who had given me knowledge left, even though I was of young age, I did as they instructed.

Purport

In his previous life, when Nāradajī was impregnated with spiritual knowledge by the grace of the great sages, there was a tangible change in his life, although he was only a boy of five years. That is an important symptom visible after initiation by the bona fide spiritual master. Actual association of devotees brings about a quick change in life for spiritual realization. How it so acted upon the previous life of Śrī Nārada Muni is described by and by in this chapter.

Commentary (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The verb form akāraṣam instead of akārṣam is for meter. It is said mūrdha-rephāri-kalpyante chando-bhaṅga-bhayād iha: for fear of disrupting the meter, cerebral consonants and “r” are separated.