हिन्दी
Once Śvetaketu, the grandson of Aruṇa, went to the court of the Pañcālas. Pravāhaṇa, the son of Jīvala, asked him - ‘Young man, did your father teach you?’ Śvetaketu replied - ‘Yes, revered sir, he did’.
Pravāhaṇa asked - ‘Do you have any idea where, from this world, human beings go in heaven?’ ‘No, sir, I have no idea’ - replied Śvetaketu. ‘Do you know how they come back?’ ‘No, sir, I don’t.’ ‘Have you any idea where the two paths—the path of the gods and the path of the ancestors—part?’ ‘No, sir, I don’t know’.
Pravāhaṇa asked - ‘Do you know why the other world (the world of the moon) is not filled with people?’ Śvetaketu replied - ‘No, revered sir, I don’t know.’ ‘Do you know why after the fifth oblation water comes to be called “puruṣa” (man)?’ ‘No, sir, I don’t know’.
Pravāhaṇa said - ‘Why did you say then, “I have been taught”? How can one who does not know these things say, “I have been taught”?’ Śvetaketu was hurt. He went back to his father and said, ‘You have not really taught ṃe, yet you said, “I have taught you.”’.
Śvetaketu said - ‘That friend of the princes put five questions to me. I was not able to answer a single one of them.’ (He then told his father the five questions. After pondering over them for some time, his father) said - ‘Those questions you told me about on your return from the court—I am not able to answer even one of them. If I knew the answers, why should I have not told you?’.
Gautama then went to the king’s palace. On his arrival, the king welcomed him respectfully. The next morning, when the king was in his court, Gautama went there to meet him. The king said to him - ‘Revered Gautama, ask for a boon from me—anything a person might wish for.’ Gautama replied - ‘Let those things be with you. Please tell me whatever you said to my son.’ Hearing this, the king turned pale.
The king then issued orders that Gautama should stay with him for a long time (as a brahmacari. Gautama did that). One day the king said to him - ‘O Gautama, regarding the matter which you asked about, no brāhmin before you had access to this knowledge. This is why in the past, in all the worlds, it was only the kṣatriyas who had the right to impart this knowledge.’ Having said this, he proceeded to teach Gautama.
