Radha Krishna - Chapter 15: The Sages Nârada and Angirâ Instruct King Citraketu

(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'They [the sages Nârada and Angirâ] in order to give instruction in spiritual terms, spoke to the king who like a dead man fallen at the side of the corpse was so very much aggrieved. (2) 'Oh best of kings, the person you are lamenting about, who is that actually oh lord, who has he been in his previous birth, who is he now and who will he be hereafter? (3) Just like grains of sand wash ashore and drift apart by the force of the waves, the embodied souls are united and separated by time [compare B.G. 2: 13]. (4) Just as from seeds sometimes grains grow and sometimes not grow, the living entities, impelled by the material potency of the Supreme Lord, sometimes produce other living beings and sometimes not. (5) We, you and also the other creatures moving and not moving about here at the moment oh King, were not together before this birth, nor will we be together after we died, despite of our sharing the same present. (6) The Ruler of All, as indifferent as a [playing] boy, creates, maintains and destroys living beings through other living beings; they who were created by Him do not exist independent of Him [compare B.G. 3: 27]. (7) By the body of the embodied soul a body is created from another body, just as indeed from one seed another seed is generated. The [this way temporally] embodied [individual soul] is eternal, just as the constituent elements of matter are

[see B.G. 8: 17-22]. (8) To consider this body separate from its indweller is, just like separating the individual from the group, the product of an age-long form of ignorance, such a separation is just like the separation of souls - of the essence - an imaginary one.'

(9) S'rî S'uka said: 'King Citraketu, consoled by what the twice-born ones thus told him, wiped his shriveled face with his hand and spoke. (10) The honorable king said: 'The two of you who arrived here in the dress of renunciates, are accomplished in spiritual knowledge and the greatest of the greatest. (11) You as brahmins dear to the Lord [as Vaishnavas] dressed up like madmen wander the surface of the earth as you like in order to enlighten those who, like me, are of a worldly intelligence. (12-15) Sanat-kumâra, Nârada, Ribhu, Angirâ, Devala, Asita, Apântaratamâ [an early name of Vyâsadeva], Mârkandeya and Gautama; Vasishthha, Bhagavân Paras'urâma, Kapila, S'ukadeva, Durvâsâ, Yâjñavalkya and Jâtukarna as also Aruni, Romas'a, Cyavana, Dattâtreya, Âsuri, Patañjali, the sage Dhaumya head of the Vedas and the wise Pañcas'ikha, Hiranyanâbha, Kaus'alya, S'rutadeva and Ritadhvaja; all these and other masters of perfection are the wandering spiritual educators. (16) Therefore, let me be enlightened by your torchlight of spiritual knowledge oh masters, for I am but a foolish village dog bereft of vision in the darkness.' [*]

(17) S'rî Angirâ said: 'I am [the same] Angirâ who granted you the son you wanted oh King and this son of Brahmâ here is the great sage Nârada in person. (18-19) This because of your grief about your son being merged in a difficult to overcome darkness does not befit you. You are supposed to remember the Supreme Personality. The two of us have arrived here visibly before your eyes in order to support you oh King. You, as someone anchored in Brahman and devoted to the Lord, we have to tell that you don't deserve it to come down like this. (20) The first time I came to your home, I could have given you the spiritual knowledge of transcendence, but, since you were absorbed in other matters, I could only give you a son. (21-23) And now you undergo the tribulation of someone with children, a nice wife, a home, riches and various assets and luxuries. The objects of the senses of concern to you, like a kingdom, opulence, land and royalty, power and a treasury with servants, ministers and allies, all belong to the temporality. All of this oh Ruler of S'ûrasena, constitutes a lamentable illusion giving rise to fears and distress; these are figments concocted by the mind, preoccupations in the form of castles in the air. (24) That what you're so concerned about is without any substance, that what you meditate upon are fabrications born from profit-minded actions. All these sorts of karmic engagements originate from the mind. (25) This body of the living entity consists of material elements and senses of action and perception. These are declared to be the cause of the various sufferings and pains of the living entity [see also B.G 15: 7-11]. (26) Therefore be careful with the things of the mind and consider your real position, give up your belief in the duality as being something permanent; take to the peaceful condition.'

(27) S'rî Nârada said: 'Listen good and accept from me this mantra containing the secret of Vedic philosophy [see 8.16: 18-25] which, if you concentrate on it for seven nights, will give you the vision of the all-pervading Lord Sankarshana ['the One with the plough'; see 5.25]. (28) All others [all the other men of God], giving up on this illusion of duality and finding shelter at His lotus feet oh King, in the past immediately attained His unequaled and unsurpassed glories. Likewise you will soon obtain the Transcendence.'