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ŚB 1.1.8

Devanagari

वेत्थ त्वं सौम्य तत्सर्वं तत्त्वतस्तदनुग्रहात् ।
ब्रूयु: स्‍निग्धस्य शिष्यस्य गुरवो गुह्यमप्युत ॥ ८ ॥

Text

vettha tvaṁ saumya tat sarvaṁ
tattvatas tad-anugrahāt
brūyuḥ snigdhasya śiṣyasya
guravo guhyam apy uta

Synonyms

vettha — you are well conversant; tvam — Your Honor; saumya — one who is pure and simple; tat — those; sarvam — all; tattvataḥ — in fact; tat — their; anugrahāt — by the favor of; brūyuḥ — will tell; snigdhasya — of the one who is submissive; śiṣyasya — of the disciple; guravaḥ — the spiritual masters; guhyam — secret; api uta — endowed with.

Translation

And because you are submissive, your spiritual masters have endowed you with all the favors bestowed upon a gentle disciple. Therefore you can tell us all that you have scientifically learned from them.

Purport

The secret of success in spiritual life is in satisfying the spiritual master and thereby getting his sincere blessings. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has sung in his famous eight stanzas on the spiritual master as follows: “I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master. Only by his satisfaction can one please the Personality of Godhead, and when he is dissatisfied there is only havoc on the path of spiritual realization.” It is essential, therefore, that a disciple be very much obedient and submissive to the bona fide spiritual master. Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī fulfilled all these qualifications as a disciple, and therefore he was endowed with all favors by his learned and self-realized spiritual masters such as Śrīla Vyāsadeva and others. The sages of Naimiṣāraṇya were confident that Śrīla Sūta Gosvāmī was bona fide. Therefore they were anxious to hear from him.