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...

The message of tolerance given by Suta Goswami after Maharaj Pariksit leaves his body

Identification with the body leads to despair

SB 12.6.32: Those who desire to give up all that is not essentially real move systematically, by negative discrimination of the extraneous, to the supreme position of Lord Viṣṇu. Giving up petty materialism, they offer their love exclusively to the Absolute Truth within their hearts and embrace that highest truth in fixed meditation.

SB 12.6.33: Such devotees come to understand the supreme transcendental situation of the Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, because they are no longer polluted by the concepts of "I" and "my," which are based on body and home.

SB 12.6.34: One should tolerate all insults and never fail to show proper respect to any person. Avoiding identification with the material body, one should not create enmity with anyone.

We just read about tolerance in the previous post Tolerate where Lord Krishna concludes the pastime of the Avanti Brahmana and mentions that one must just toleate the externals and remained fixed and safe in their spiritual position.

In the verses above we see a similar message being said by Suta Goswami. He says this after he narrates the pastime of Maharaj Pariksit leaving his body.Thus those who understand transcendental knowledge and the impermanence of the material retrain their minds very systematically and carefully giving up petty materialism and reposing their love in Lord Sri Krsna.

Once they are successful in giving up the concepts of "I" and "Mine" they can clearly understand the Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna. They are not attracted to matter any more because of their careful cultivation. Also they do not entangle themselves in matter and thus tolerate all types of insults because they do not identify with the material body. They are not affected by the insults at all.

Since they are situated in the spiritual conception and act on the platform of the soul they offer respect to everyone around them as they see everyone as a part of parcel of their most lovable Lord.

Practical application:

I am not this body made of flesh, pus, stool, and urine.

• I am the soul - I am not this body
• I heard Jaya Jagannath Prabhu say in Chicago that our vision of the world and of people is autobiographical - we follow the principle " atmavan Manyate jagat".
• Thus if we consider ourselves as matter we will view others also as matter , but when we understand ourselves as a soul , as a part and parcel of Krishna then we will be able to see others also as parts and parcels of Krishna.

 Thus by careful cultivation we must try to situate ourselves in our eternal identity as a spirit soul and stop identifying with our body. Srila Prabhupada in most of his lectures emphasizes this very fact the application of which is fundamental to our Krishna Consciousness.

Tolerate

As an aspiring devotee when I am faced with a provoking situation or a material disturbance - I usually react as if it were an assault to my very existence and being. I take it very personally and react accordingly to stand up for myself or if its a material situation I try my best to bring things back on track.

However as I read Srimad Bhagavatam the message of tolerance is repeatedly stressed upon as the response to a difficult situation or a difficult person by one who is a devotee of the Lord acting on the platform of the soul.The Avadhuta Brahmana and the Avanti Brahmana also teach the same thing by their example.The message of tolerance is also given by Suta Goswami after Maharaj Pariksit leaves his body.You can read the post here.
The essence is that we must tolerate all types of difficult people and situations and not use in our energy in brooding or retaliating as that will keep us in the material conception of life.Instead we must use our intelligence to remain fixed on the Lotus Feet of the Lord fixed in Service to Him and his devotees.


Lord Krishna says in the 11th Canto:

SB 11.22.54-55: The soul's material life, his experience of sense gratification, is actually false, O descendant of Daśārha, just like trees' appearance of quivering when the trees are reflected in agitated water, or like the earth's appearance of spinning due to one's spinning his eyes around, or like the world of a fantasy or dream.

SB 11.22.56: For one who is meditating on sense gratification, material life, although lacking factual existence, does not go away, just as the unpleasant experiences of a dream do not.

SB 11.22.57: Therefore, O Uddhava, do not try to enjoy sense gratification with the material senses. See how illusion based on material dualities prevents one from realizing the self.

He says that illusion based on material dualities prevents us from realizing the self. The life that we think is ours is based on illusion, its based on a false reality - everything that we aspire for in the material world is temporary. If everything is temporary then why cry over something that we did not receive, over some respect that someone did not give us, over some pain someone inflicted upon us. If we identify with the body and the mind all these will seem very hurtful. Then our mind gets engrossed in the pain and in plans about retaliting to those who have caused us pain - thus taking time away from Krishna.

However if we realize that everything that is happening to me is my own karma coming back and everything that is happening to me is destroying the plans of enjoyment of my body and senses - if I waste time brooding over it- it is time away from Krishna.If I do not understand this and stay in the material conception I will further entangle myself in the material conception of life and go deeper in the material pool. Instead let me just tolerate these dualities like how I tolerate the summer and winter months without getting disturbed and let me keep my mind focussed on serving Lord Sri Krishna who is my eternal master and serving His servants just as Lord Sri Krishna instructs Uddhava in the following verse:

SB 11.22.58-59: Even though neglected, insulted, ridiculed or envied by bad men, or even though repeatedly agitated by being beaten, tied up or deprived of one's occupation, spat upon or polluted with urine by ignorant people, one who desires the highest goal in life should in spite of all these difficulties use his intelligence to keep himself safe on the spiritual platform.

Maya can only dominate the decietful

SB 12.6.29: This is indeed the Supreme Lord Viṣṇu's illusory energy, which is unstoppable and difficult to perceive. Although the individual spirit souls are part and parcel of the Lord, through the influence of this illusory energy they are bewildered by their identification with various material bodies.

SB 12.6.30-31: But there exists a supreme reality, in which the illusory energy cannot fearlessly dominate, thinking, "I can control this person because he is deceitful." In that highest reality there are no illusory argumentative philosophies. Rather, there the true students of spiritual science constantly engage in authorized spiritual investigation. In that supreme reality there is no manifestation of the material mind, which functions in terms of alternating decision and doubt. Created material products, their subtle causes and the goals of enjoyment attained by their utilization do not exist there. Furthermore, in that supreme reality there is no conditioned spirit, covered by false ego and the three modes of nature. That reality excludes everything limited or limiting. One who is wise should therefore stop the waves of material life and enjoy within that Supreme Truth.

Transcendental taste for the narrations of Hari

SB 12.4.40: For a person who is suffering in the fire of countless miseries and who desires to cross the insurmountable ocean of material existence, there is no suitable boat except that of cultivating devotion to the transcendental taste for the narrations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead's pastimes.

Death of the false ego - the Ultimate Annihilation

While reading Srila Prabhupada's translations of Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita we learn about the temporary nature of the material world. There are detailed descriptions of the creation of the material world, the gross and subtle bodies of the jivas and creation of related paraphernalia. Also there are detailed descriptions of how the creation is annihilated at the end of Brahma's day and at the end of Brahma's life.
In the 12th canto we see that just before Maharaj Pariksit is about to leave his body Sukadeva Goswami explains the 4 categories of Annihilation - An entire chapter is devoted to this topic just before Maharaj Pariksit leaves his body. 

While reading this chapter I was wondering that if Sukadeva Goswami considers this topic pertinent just before Maharaj Pariksit is leaving his body- it must be very important for us in the preparation for our final test.

Sukadeva Goswami describes in detail the annihilation at the end of Brahma's day , during which all the threee planetary systems are subject to destruction. He also describes the annihilation at the end of Brahma's life during which the seven basic elements of creation are annihilated during which the energies belonging to the Supreme Person and His unmanifest material nature, merge together totally becoming pradana. He also describes continuous transformation that living entities undergoes as another type of annihilation.
These descriptions help us understand the temporary nature of the world we are in.

Following such descriptions Sukadeva Goswami says the following verse to Maharaj Pariksit:




SB 12.4.34: My dear Parīkṣit, when the illusory false ego that binds the soul has been cut off with the sword of discriminating knowledge and one has developed realization of Lord Acyuta, the Supreme Soul, this is called the ātyantika, or ultimate, annihilation of material existence.


In this verse Sukadeva Goswami describes that the death of the false ego as the ultimate annhilation of material existence.

• Since the creation is temporary and our bodies our temporary- all the things and desires we attach ourselves too are also temporary - they have no basis and contribution in our eternal relationship with the Lord.
• All the emotions we feel on the mental plane of happiness , sadness, anger, distress, melancholy owing to our attachment to matter have no meaning because the same matter will be wrapped up into pradhan at annihilation.
• All the disagreements,fear, feelings, strong emotions like envy and hatred are a total time waster because they are based on matter and matter will be merged together totall into pradana and will have no qualities.
• All the things that make me happy like gadgets, clothes, furniture my house and my body will eventually be wrapped up in the annihilation.

If this is so, then it is foolish on my part to identify myself with the false ego that attaches itself to temporary matter.Instead I need to situate myself in my real ego- my real identity of being a servant of Krishna. Thus every action of mine must be governed by this real identity -everything must be done while staying in the relationship with Krishna.I need to give up the past, give up the feelings that are on the mental plane, give up the so called feelings of pain and so called feelings of hurt.They have no basis in my relationship with Krishna. As a true servant- I must just tolerate things that happen to me thinking that it is Krishna's will - I must tolerate things that are happening to me thinking that thpose are the doings of material nature- I should not identify with what is affecting my body or  my false ego because I am not the body and I am not my mind.

It is important for me to practice this now so that I do not have to deal with the pangs of my false ego at death.Its thus important for me to understand this and apply this in my life starting today.

Therefore these instructions of Sukadeva Goswami to Maharaj Pariksit just before his passing are an important instance for us to meditate upon.We need to throw out this weight of the false ego from our existence. Only then we can go deeper in ou relationship with Krishna.