Canto 3 -
Araṇya-kāṇḍa
Chapter 72: Kabandha Tells Rāma About Sugrīva
Text 3.72.7
सोऽन्तरिक्षगतो रामं कबन्धो वाक्यमब्रवीत्।
शृणु राघव तत्त्वेन यथा सीतामवाप्स्यसि॥
so ’ntarikṣa-gato rāmaṁ kabandho vākyam abravīt
śṛṇu rāghava tattvena yathā sītām avāpsyasi
saḥ antarikṣa-gataḥ = while in outer space; rāmam = to Śrī Rāma; kabandhaḥ = Kabandha; vākyam = [these] words; abravīt = spoke; śṛṇu = listen to; rāghava = O descendant of Raghu; tattvena = actually; yathā = how; sītām = Sītā; avāpsyasi = You can get.
While in outer space, Kabandha spoke [these] words to Śrī Rāma: O descendant of Raghu, listen to how You can actually get Sītā.
1 Therefore, it is not surprising that when the soul of Kabandha left that body and accepted a celestial body, he was able to know that which he wasn’t able to know when he was in a rākṣasa body.
NOTE. The bodies of the conditioned souls cover up their knowledge, to different degrees. The bodies of the subhuman species of life cover the knowledge of the souls inhabiting them to the greatest degree. It is lesser with souls inhabiting human bodies, and even lesser with souls inhabiting celestial bodies.
Lord Kṛṣṇa refers to this in Bhagavad-gītā 3.38 in this manner:
dhūmenāvriyate vahnir yathādarśo malena ca
yatholbenāvṛto garbhas tathā tenedam āvṛtam
“As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.”1