Chapter 16: King Citraketu Meets the Supreme Lord

(1) The son of Vyâsa said: 'The devarishi oh King, then brought the deceased son of the king [who was called Harshas'oka, or 'jubilation and lamentation'] before the mind's eye of the lamenting relatives and addressed him. (2) S'rî Nârada said: 'Oh living soul, all good fortune to you, behold your mother, father, friends and relatives who, lamenting over you, are greatly distressed. (3) To complete your life you may reenter your body and in the midst of your kin enjoy all pleasures of life in accepting the award of your father's royal throne.'

(4) The individual soul said: 'In which of all those births wherein I because of my karma have been wandering among the gods, the animals and the human beings, were these people here my father and mother? (5) In the course of time eventually all people become each other's friends, family members, enemies, neutrals, well-wishers, indifferent or envious ones [compare B.G. 3: 27]. (6) Just as means of exchange like gold pass from one person to the other, the same way the individual soul passes through different species of life by different fathers [see also B.G. 2: 22]. (7) One always sees that the ties one has in human society with matters [like money or the other sex] are temporary; as long as one relates to it one claims ownership. (8) So too the eternal, individual soul identifies himself in a certain birth with his body for as long as he is situated in it, even though he actually has no specific material identity. (9) This living entity is [factually] eternal, imperishable and most subtle, it constitutes the self-effulgence of all the different embodiments, the master who manifests himself as this material world by means of the gunas [see also 4.29: 29]. (10) It is not of like and dislike or of mine and thine. It is the one witness to the different sorts of intelligence and performers of good and bad deeds [see also B.G. 9: 29]. (11) The [original] soul is not of the happiness and harm resulting from fruitive actions; perfectly neutral residing in the heart he is the Lord overseeing cause and effect [B.G. 2: 47].'

(12) The son of Vyâsa continued: 'Thus having spoken the living soul went away. His relatives, astonished [about what he had said], then cut the bond of their affection for him and gave up their lamentation. (13) The difficult to forsake affection that leads to lamentation, illusion, fear and distress, was by the family of the son given up when they with the performance of the proper rites removed the body. (14) Oh King Parîkchit, those who had killed the child were, bereft of their bodily luster, very ashamed of having murdered the boy. Remembering what the brahmin [Angirâ] had stated, they performed according to the directions of the priests at the river the Yamunâ the atonement for having killed the baby. (15) Citraketu, spiritually awakened by the words of the two brahmin souls, thus emerged liberated from the dark well of his familial attachment the way an elephant emerges from a mud pool. (16) After taking a bath in the Yamunâ as was prescribed and piously performing oblations of water while controlling his mind and senses with gravity, he offered the two sons of Brahmâ his obeisances.

(17) Bhagavân Nârada who was very pleased with him being such a surrendered devotee in control of himself, next, as he had promised, disclosed the following knowledge [of the Lord in the form of a prayer]. (18-19) 'Oh my Lord, my obeisances unto You, the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva. Let me meditate upon Pradyumna [the Lord of intelligence], Aniruddha [the Lord of the mind] and Sankarshana [the Lord of the ego, see also 4.24: 35-37]. All my respects for the full manifestation of wisdom, the embodiment of supreme bliss who is the Self of delight and peace whose vision is turned away from the dual world. (20) The waves of the material ocean calm down by the realization of Your personal bliss. My reverences unto the Supreme Controller of the Senses; my respects for You whose expansions are unlimited. (21) May He, the One without a second who, being completely spiritual, cannot be expressed in words, be caught in a form or be comprehended by the mind, may He who is transcendental to cause and effect, protect us. (22) The way all pottery is created from earth, consisting of earth and returning to earth, everything is born from Him, existing by Him and vanishing in Him. Him, the Supreme Brahman [the Absolute Truth] I offer my obeisances. (23) I bow before Him who, having expanded outside and inside as vast as the sky, by the mind, the intelligence, the senses and the life airs cannot be touched or known. (24) The body, the senses, the life air, the mind and intelligence are all parts that are penetrated [by the supporting, connecting and ruling principle of Brahman]; they, just like iron that [cannot be forged if it] is not heated, without that support cannot engage in activities and acquire the status of a[n independent] seer. (25) My obeisances unto You my Lord, oh Supreme Personality, most perfect Supersoul and master of all mystic powers whose feet are embraced and caressed by the multitude of lotus bud hands of the topmost devotees. All my respects for You who are situated in the highest position.'

(26) S'rî S'uka said: 'After Nârada had imparted the knowledge to this fully surrendered devotee, he together with Angirâ left for the abode of Brahmâ oh King. (27) Citraketu then chanted with great concentration and only drinking water, for one week the prayer that was communicated by Nârada. (28) Strictly keeping to the instructions he, by carefully practicing these prayers, after these seven days and nights achieved the mastery of the Vidyâdharas ['the ones founded in knowledge'] oh ruler of man. (29) By dint of that spiritual exercise for his mind he, having found the enlightened course, thus in a few days only reached the shelter of the lotus feet of the God of all gods, Lord S'esha [Anantadeva or Sankarshana, see 5.25]. (30) He saw Him, his Master and Controller, with His smiling lotus face, reddish eyes and skin as fair as a white lotus. Clad in blue silk and with a glittering helmet, armlets, a belt and bangles, He was situated in the midst of His most perfect devotees. (31) The sight of Him destroyed all his sins so that he, contented and pure at heart, could approach Him like a full-blown bhakta. Moved from within by love he with tears in his eyes and his hairs standing on end, offered the Original Personality of God his obeisances. (32) He at the lotus feet of the Lord of the Verses, wetted that resting place with his tear drops over and over and was, because his voice was choked by his love, for a long time unable to utter a single letter of the alphabet and offer prayers. (33) By intelligently controlling his mind and the senses that are lead by the external world, this king recovered his speech and then addressed the personification of devotional service and the scriptures, the teacher of all.

(34) Citraketu said: 'Oh Unconquerable One, You are conquered by those who are of self-control. You give Yourself in utter compassion to those devotees, who as surrendered souls were conquered by You and always sing Your glories with minds free from desire. (35) Supposing their separate existence the creators of this universe who are [only] a part of a part of You, in vain compete with each other for Your dominion that consists of the creation, maintenance and dissolution of this cosmic manifestation, oh Supreme Lord. (36) Without Yourself having a beginning, an in between or an end, You from the smallest material unit to the complete of the universal manifestation have Your existence in the beginning, in the end and in between; that which is constant in the beginning and in the end is there also in the middle of the existence of all. (37) This egg shaped universe consisting of the seven layers of the earth element and the rest, each of which measures the tenfold of the preceding one [see 3.26: 52], is but insignificant compared to the millions of such universes that exist in the cosmos. Therefore You are [called] unlimited. (38) Eager to enjoy like animals, man worships only parts of You [the demigods] but not the Supreme of You, oh Controller. The benedictions they bring are finished when their end is reached, just as it is with politicians [B.G. 7: 20-23, S.B. 2.3: 10]. (39) A mind ruled by lust [the lesser god] does, just like fried seed, not lead to growth and healing in You oh Supreme One. But in the full knowledge of Your Supreme Self a person is not affected by the network of the modes and the duality of their material qualities [compare B.G. 4: 9]. (40) They who on the path of liberation are of worship were conquered by You, oh Unconquerable One, when You [as their teacher] spoke about the process of devotional service. They are the faultless ones who do not crave for material happiness, they are the great sages satisfied from within [see also 1.2: 6]. (41) Engaged a different way [in demigod worship] one lacks in consciousness and arrives in human society thus at the 'I' and 'mine' and the 'me' and 'you' [of the false ego]. In approaches other than Yours one is as a result of the deviating vision impure in one's conduct, time bound and full of adharma [compare B.G. 18: 66]. (42) In what sense is it beneficial for oneself, for others, or for whatever purpose to be turned against oneself [one's own body] or against others in one's religiosity? Such a practice of human self-betrayal raises Your anger, torments one's fellow man and contravenes the dharma [see B.G. 16: 17, 17: 19 and S.B. 1.2: 8]. (43) Your view defining the process of devotional service is free from inconsistencies. They who following that course are equal towards all living beings whether they move or not move, is certainly a civilized person [an Âryan]. (44) This absence of internal conflict in You oh my Lord, puts an end to the sins of anyone who sees You [Your devotees and Your book] before his eyes. Only but once hearing Your name forthwith delivers even the lowest among man from the misery of material existence. (45) Seeing You now here before us oh Supreme Lord, has removed the contaminations from our mind. Why would it be different from what the great rishi of enlightenment [Nârada], Your devotee has said? (46) O Unlimited one, You as the Supersoul of all the world, know everything that each living entity does out here. What we know compares to the light of fireflies relative to the sun of You as our teacher of transcendence. (47) All obeisances unto You oh Lordship of the persistence, the ending and creation of the universe. The position of You as the transcendental swan, the ascetic of the highest order, is beyond the ken of those who unify in a false notion, a material notion of independence. (48) The senses gathering knowledge perceive in pursuance of Your perception and they who endeavor to rule the universe do so to the example of Your endeavoring. Let there be my obeisances unto You, the Supreme Lord with the thousands of hoods, by whom the gigantic universe You carry on a single hood, appears [as insignificant as] a mustard seed.'

(49) S'rî S'ukadeva said: 'Oh best of the Kurus, the Supreme Lord Ananta Deva very pleased about thus being worshiped by Citraketu the king of the Vidyâdharas, then replied. (50) The Supreme Lord said: 'From directly seeing Me and from the worship with the prayer that Nârada and Angirâ have disclosed to you, you now have attained perfection oh King. (51) I as the Supersoul of all, as the cause of the manifestation, have expanded in different forms and exist in both the eternal forms of the spiritual sound vibrations and the Supreme Brahman [compare  B.G. 7: 4-5]. (52) The living entity expanded into the world and the world expanded within the living entity. These two [the world and the living entity] are pervaded by Me as also made by Me [compare B.G. 9: 4]. (53-54) A person sleeping sees in his dream the entire world within himself, but upon awaking he finds himself lying down somewhere. Likewise one must consider the different states of consciousness and conditions of life of the living entities as manifestations of the illusory potency of the Self, knowing which one should always remember their Supreme Creator and Witness [see bhajan Radha Krishna Bol]. (55) Know Me as that [all-pervading] Soul, as the Supreme Spirit free from the modes of matter by whom the sleeping [bewildered] person at that time is able to recognize what belongs to the dream and what to his happiness. (56) When the person remembers [himself, his spirit soul, his jîva, as the one] joining both the states of consciousness of being asleep and being awake, he may reach beyond that spiritual knowledge and arrive at the Supreme Brahman [the knowing principle] that is transcendental. (57) The living entity having forgotten about this spiritual nature of My position, leads because of that a materially conditioned life in separation from the Supersoul, because of which it wanders from one body to the next, from one death to another. (58) Achieving in this world a human birth offers one the chance to arrive at self-realization with the [support of this] spiritual knowledge and wisdom, but they who fail to pick up that knowledge will never find peace and happiness. (59) Thinking of the trouble of toiling in this world and then achieving the opposite of what was intended - and then remembering how one is freed from fear by ridding oneself of one's desire for material things, one should, thus knowing better, desist from that [karmic] desire. (60) Husband and wife [being materially motivated] perform activities for the sake of their happiness and to be free from misery, but these actions have no effect because they do not put an end to the [material] happiness and distress [that follow one another, see also B.G. 2: 14, 4: 20, 9: 31]. (61-62) Those who consider themselves very smart but realize this way the opposite of what they wanted, find it extremely difficult to understand [too 'subtle' or hard to grasp] what it means to be of progress with the soul and [as a soul] to exist apart from the three states [of unconsciousness, sleep and waking]. Someone who personally experienced it or has understood it from listening to others, should, now he by dint of his own power of judgment in spiritual knowledge and wisdom has freed himself from materialism, with the resulting full satisfaction, become My devotee [*]. (63) The realization of the insight of this qualitative notion of the oneness of the [individual] soul and the transcendence [of the Lord], constitutes - all things considered - the ultimate goal of life for capable and intelligent human beings who unite in [bhakti-]yoga. (64) If you with faith, not concluding differently, accept these words of Mine oh King, you will soon find your perfection in the full [awareness] of spiritual knowledge and its wisdom [its practical application].'

(65) S'rî S'uka said: 'After the Supreme Lord, the Teacher of the Universe, thus had assured Citraketu, He, Lord Hari, the Soul of All, disappeared from sight.'