From Maharaj Citraketu to Vrtrasura

Pariksit Maharaj on hearing the great transcendental qualities of Vrtrsasura asks Sukadeva Goswami as to how a demon could act as an unalloyed devotee of the Lord completely satisfied and happy in engaging in the Lord's service. To that sukadeva Goswami mentions that Vrtrsasura was Maharaj Citraketu in his previous birth who has a great devotee of the Lord. He then narrates the story of Maharaj Citraketu and his path to greatness.
In the following Post we will read about Maharaj Citraketu's evolution to become a great devotee of the Lord.

Overcome by Lamentation for not having a son:
He married 1000000 queens and performed so many sacrifices but he could not have a son. He was the king of the planet and had everything in his dominion - all his subjects were happy under his rule and the earth also being happy with his rule gave nice produce sufficient for everyone. He had everything that anyone could dream of - but still he was so overcome by lamentation for not having a son- he was completely morose as if he did not possess anything.
Thus identification with the body and teh sense of being the controller was so strong because of his rule he could not accept the fact that he could not have a son. He was not able to understand that he cannot change the Lord's plan and he must accept it cheerfully. The conception of himself being the spirit soul and not this body was absent.

Was totally lost in grief when he lost his son:
He was so attached to the son who was born that when his son left his body- Citraketu Maharaj was completely lost, with his mind and intelligence completely blanked out owin to the very strong attachment resulting in grief

Submits himself to Angira muni and Narada Muni 
Citraketu even if initially bewildered at the loss of his son, regained his composure by hearing submissively from Angira Muni and Narada Muni. He followed their instructions sincerely.
Their three instructions in short were:

1. Contemplate on who you are - the body , mind or the soul, where you have come from ?and What is your purpose?
2. They would give him a mantra - if he chants in the right consciousness then he will see the Supreme Lord face to face
3. He must be patient in his practice

Being pleased with Citraketu's sincerity Narada Muni gives him the mantra.Citraketu chants the mantra very sincerely in the right consciousness and eventually comes face to face with the Lord- he is not attracted to the position of the leader of the Vidyadhara planet bestowed upon him as a side benefit, but he continues his meditation and eventually meets the Lord. He offers wonderful prayers to the Lord as he regains his composure.
Some important lessons from this:

1. SP has also repeatedly stressed that "You are not this Body, You are the Soul"
2. He has given us the Hare Krishna Maha mantra and promised us that we can go BTG is we take up the process sincerely.
3. So even if we are right now bewildered by the material energy- we can submissively follow SP's instructions patiently and eventually attain service at the Lotus Feet of Lord Hari
4. Pleasing the spiritual masterS is important for our progress.Only when we are able to please them with our sincereity that the deeper truths of Bhakti will be shared with us.I say Spiritual Masters here because Shiksha Gurus are equal to Diksha gurus and their blessings are very important in our spiritual progress.

Maharaj Citraketu's wonderful Prayers to the Lord

1. In verses 36 and 37 he glorifies the unlimited nature of the Lord, how he is the cause of the cosmic manifestation and how the Lord remains in His original potency even when the entire cosmic manifestation is annihilated.
2. In texts 38 and 39 Maharaj Citraketu expresses surpirse that even after knowing that the Lord is the cause of everything, He is unlimited and that He is Permanent, why do materially minded people worship the Demigods who along with their benedictions are temporary.
3. He further says that even if one has material desires one must worship the Lord, as by doing so one will be delivered from the Cycle of birth and Death
4. In texts 40 and 41 Maharaj Citraketu glorifes the bhagavata dharma (as has been given to us by SP) and says that such a princple of religion is universal and does not promote envy unlike other religious paths.

The line from the purport to text 6.16.36 - "The permanent reality is Kṛṣṇa, not this cosmic manifestation" and we discussed what this means to us individually. The Matajis shared their realizations - that if Krishna is the permanent reality then we must invest our energy in developing a relationship with Him and not with the material energy. To do so we must chant very nicely and deeply and seek shelter of Srimad Bhagavatam and the devotees.
We also discussed from the chapter 4 from the 12th canto - The Four categories of annihilation. This is a description given by Sukadeva Goswami to Maharaj Pariksit just before he would leave his body - thus of importance for us.

He explains the 4 material annihilations of which the annhilation of the false ego is the ultimate. More about that can be read in this post Death of the false ego - the Ultimate Annihilation...