In plain words
Not one, not two, but sixty-four arts Nārada had learned, and even he, because he could not know himself, fell into unrest, suffered unhappiness, and went on living his life in unrest in many ways.
One day he came to Sanatkumāra: ‘Sanatkumāra! Tell me what the cause of my unrest is, and root out the unrest,’ he prayed. ‘Nārada! Tell me what your qualifications are,’ asked Sanatkumāra. Nārada said, ‘I am one who knows the four Vedas, the Vedāṅgas, the six śāstras, …, Gokarṇa, Gajakarṇa and the rest, the sixty-four arts,’ he said. Sanatkumāra laughed to himself. Are these your qualifications, Nārada! Without knowing yourself, what fruit is there in learning however many arts?
Though you learn ever so many arts, what is the fruit? Who has the power to escape what is written on one's brow? If an evil time draws near, it all dries up, and the wits turn to pith.
Nārada is no ordinary person. When Viṣṇu, who had taken on the Vāmana Avatāra, came to uplift Emperor Bali, He asked Emperor Bali for three steps of ground as a gift. Bali gave the three steps as a gift. With one foot He took over the earth, with the second the sky. Viṣṇu did. Brahmā, who beheld the vastness, the divinity, the holiness, the cosmic Virāṭ form of this Viṣṇu, longed to wash His feet. To wash feet that stood in the sky, water was needed. Brahmā resolved in his mind … to bring that water. At that very moment a person came down. Because he came forth by Brahmā's will, he got the name Brahmā's mind-born son. What did he come for? He came forth to bring water. Because he brought water and gave it, he got the name Nārada. Na, water; dada, the one who gave. Nārada means the one who brought water.
That Nārada came down in the very time of Bali. That very Nārada, Brahmā's mind-born son, lost his peace of mind. What was the cause of his losing this Śānti? Unceasingly Nārada went on with the … of Hari's Name. No worldly desire at all showed in him. Brahmā, who had willed it for the good of the world, for true prosperity, and for teaching the good path, asked Nārada to marry. ‘What is this bondage for me, who swim in bliss in the unceasing singing of Hari's Name? Father! Whatever command you give, I will bear it on my head, but this worldly … I will not consent to bear,’ he said.