न वै नूनं भगवन्तस्त एतदवेदिषुर्यद्ध्येतदवेदिष्यन्कथं मे नावक्ष्यन्निति भगवांस्त्वेव मे तद्ब्रवीत्विति तथा सोम्येति होवाच ॥ ६.१.७ ॥
॥ इति प्रथमः खण्डः ॥na vai nūnaṃ bhagavantasta etadavediṣuryaddhyetadavediṣyankathaṃ me nāvakṣyanniti bhagavāṃstveva me tadbravītviti tathā somyeti hovāca || 6.1.7 ||
|| iti prathamaḥ khaṇḍaḥ ||7. [Śvetaketu said:] ‘Surely my revered teachers did not know this truth. If they knew it, why should they not have told me? So please explain it to me, sir.’ His father said, ‘Let it be so, my son’.
Word-for-word explanation:
Bhagavantaḥ te, those revered teachers; na vai nūnam avediṣuḥ, surely did not know; etat, this [fact that if you know one you know all]; yat, if; hi, for sure; etat avediṣyan, they knew this; me, to me [their favourite disciple]; katham, why; na avakṣyan iti, did they not impart it; bhagavān, sir; tu eva me tat bravītu iti, so please explain it to me; tathā, let it be so; somya, young man; iti ha uvāca, he [the father] said. Iti prathamaḥ khaṇḍaḥ, here ends the first section.