Chapter 16 - Citraketu’ s Realization of Lord Ananta

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Śrī Śuka said:

1. Then, Oh King, the divine sage Nārada (by his yogic powers) showed the spirit of the departed prince to the relatives who were mourning and spoke to the spirit.

Nārada said:

2. Oh Jīva, God bless you. Have a look at your mother, father, friends and relatives who are deeply afflicted with grief for you.

3. Please enter this body of yours. Surrounded by your friends enjoy pleasures throughout the remaining period of your life—pleasures provided to you by your father and ascend the royal throne.

Jīva said:

4. In what life were these my father and mother, while I was revolving in the cycle of births in the species of gods, subhuman beings and human beings by my karmas.

5. For, all persons are by turns related to others as relatives, cousins, enemies, mediators, friends, indifferent men and bitter adversaries.

6. Just as commodities like gold and other articles change hand from one customer to another and one place to another, similarly a Jīva wanders from one species of existence to another.

7. Even during the life-time of a person, the relation even of men with animals is temporary. The attachment of mineness lasts so long as the particular relation exists.

8. In the same way, the relation of a Jīva who has entered the womb of a particular species is transient. For, by himself, Jīva is eternal and as such unrelated to his body and is therefore without attachment (as a son etc.). The sense of belongingness lasts so long as and only with him, with whom he is associated due to his karma (and not after death. Therefore grief for me is unnecessary).

9. This Atman is eternal. He is not subject to decay or change. He is subtle and free from birth. He is the basic support (as the material cause of the universe) of all. He is self-illuminating. Being all-powerful he manifests himself as the universe by the guṇas of his Māyā.^[1]

10. To him no one is very dear, nor anyone hateful. He has no kith or kin or an alien. He is one, the witness of the working of the minds of friends and foes (who do good or evil).

11. The Atman does not accept (experience) the good or evil (i.e. pleasure or pain) nor is he the recipient of the fruit of karmas (namely kingship). He is a dispassionate witness of cause and effect and not their enjoyer. He is thus unconditioned by body and is independent.

Śrī Śuka said:

12. After explaining thus the spirit departed. The relatives of that Jīva then became wonder-struck. They cut asunder their bonds of affection to him and gave up sorrow.

13.The relatives took away the dead body and performed the suitable obsequies. They set aside their affection which is so difficult to be rid of, and which causes grief, delusion, fear and distress.

14.The queens who killed the child and whose charms waned due to the infanticide, became ashamed. They performed the expiation for infanticide as enunciated to them by the Brāhmaṇas on the bank of the Yamunā, remembering what the Brāhmaṇas have explained to them, Oh Mahārāja.

15.Citraketu who was thus spiritually awakened by the words (of advice) by the Brāhmaṇa sages, came out of the dark deceptive well in the form of domestic life, just as an elephant extricates himself out of the mire in the lake.

16.Having taken ablution in the Yamunā according to the sacred precepts, and having poured out oblations of water (to the Pitṛs), he, with his senses properly controlled, bowed to the two sons of god Brahmā (viz. Nārada and Aṅgiras) insilence.

17.The venerable sage Nārada gladly taught this great lore to the king who was their devotee and who resorted to them for protection and had fully controlled his mind.

18. “OM! Salutation unto you, Oh glorious Lord Vāsudeva. We contemplate (mentally pay obeisance to) you. We bow to Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Saṅkarṣaṇa (all the vyūhas of the Lord).

19.Obeisance to You who are pure, absolute knowledge, the very embodiment of supreme bliss, delighted with yourself, serene and above the notion of duality.

20.Hail to you who, through realization of your blissful character, kept yourself above the waves; the feelings of love, hate etc.) caused by Māyā. Salutation to the great Hṛṣīkeśa (the Supreme Master of Senses) whose body is the universe.

21.May he protect us—he who shines alone by himself and is beyond the reach of speech and other senses and the mind; who is pure consciousness and has no name or form and who is the cause of the law of causation (and hence above it).

22. Bow to you Supreme Brahman on whom the universe (the product of cause and effect) is based, from whom it evolves and in whom it dissolves and thus pervades everything in the universe, just as products of earth do with reference to the earth.

23. I salute the Brahman which pervades everything from within and without like the sky but to whom the Prāṇas (organs of activity) do not touch (by their conative force) nor do the mind, intellect and cognitive senses comprehend him (by their power of cognition).

24. It is only when these—body, senses, vital airs, mind and intellect—are charged by his part or presence (aṃśa) that these carry out their functions and not otherwise, just as an unheated piece of iron (does not emit heat or light.) What is called the ‘spectator’ is another designation of yours in the state of wakefulness (of the Jīva. He has no independent existence apart from you).

25. Salutations to you the Supreme Person, designated by the sacred symbol OM, the possessor of Supreme Might, whose lotus-like feet are adored in great love with the lotusbud-like joined palms by all the great Sātvatas (votaries of the Lord). I reverentially bow to you, the most excellent controller of all.”

Śrī Śuka said:

26. Having taught this prayer-lore to his devotee who sought his protection, Nārada along with Aṅgiras, went to the region of god Brahmā, Oh King.

27. Citraketu observed the course of that lore (of meditation and prayer) with perfect concentration as per instructions of Nārada. For one week he subsisted on water only.

28. Then at the end of the seventh night, the king attained to permanent overlordship of Vidyādharas through the practice of that lore.

29. Then after some days, his mental power became illumined through the practice and repetition of the same lore, and he went near the feet of Śeṣa, the God of gods.

30. He saw the Lord Śeṣa white like a lotus fibre, clad in blue garments and adorned with brilliant crown, armlets, girdle and wristlets, and with gracious countenance and reddish eyes, attended upon by multitudes of great Siddhas.

31. All his sins having been destroyed at the sight of the Lord, the sage Citraketu whose heart became cleansed of all impurities, approached the Most Ancient Person in silence. Due to surging devotion, his eyes were flowing with tears of love and his hair were standing on ends due to ecstasy, he prostrated himself before him.

32. Repeatedly moistening with his tears of love the altar under the lotus-like feet of the glorious Lord, and his power of expression was being choked up by his overpowering love and devotion, he was not for a long time able to praise him properly.

33. Then, composing his mind by the force of reason and having restrained the senses from going out to external objects, he addressed the following words to the father of the world, the embodiment of the Sātvata Śāstra, i.e. Pañcarātra (or whose body stood described in the Pañcarātra scriptures).

Citraketu said:

34. Oh unconquered Lord! (Despite your unconquerableness) you have been vanquished by self-controlled righteous persons of impartial and unruffled minds. They, in their turn, are conquered by You. You are so very gracious that you bestow your own self upon your devotees whose minds are completely free from desires.

35. Oh glorious Lord! The creation, preservation and destruction of the universe is your prowess—a sport. The (so- called) creators of the universe are merely the portion of your portions. They, however, regard themselves severally as creators and vainly vie with one another.

36. You are at the creation, destruction as well as during the intervening period of the subtlest atom as well as (of the universe) of the largest dimensions. But you are (yourself) devoid of this triad of limitation. You are that unchanging constant who exist at the beginning and end as well as in the interim of all created things.

37. The egg of the universe is enveloped by seven sheaths of the earth and other elements etc., each outer envelop being ten times the extent of the enclosure inner to it. This egg-like universe together with millions and millions of other universes appears just like an atom on your head. Hence, you are called Ananta, the infinite.

38. Oh Controller of the universe! Those persons are really beasts who, in their thirst for objects of pleasure propitiate the deities concerned (like Indra, who are but your parts only) and not you—for, the blessings (so conferred upon them) come to an end with the extinction of the deities, just as the good fortunes of the followers of a king perish with the fall of that royal house.

39. Oh Supreme Lord! Even if worldly desires are entreated of you who are pure knowledge and consciousness and not a product of guṇas, they do not grow like the fried seeds (which cannot sprout forth). For all the pairs of opposites (e.g. love—hate, leading to rebirth) are the result of guṇas (and you are above them).

40. Oh unconquerable one! When you propounded the pure Bhāgavata Dharma (the righteous path leading to the realization of the glorious Lord), you have conquered all (made all your own). For sinless sages (like Sanatkumāra) who are possessionless and free of desires and find delight in the Supreme Soul, resort to that Dharma (or to you) for Liberation.

41. Here in the Bhāgavata Dharma men do not cherish crooked, differential notions such as ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘mine’ and ‘yours’, (as is in other cults, as that of sacrifice). Whatever (act) is performed with the notion of such differences is impure, perishable and full of sin, (like hiṃsā).

42. What good to one’s own self or to another can accrue from a dharma (path of religion) or what benefit can be gained through a dharma which is harmful to oneself and to others. It is irreligion, for pain is caused to oneself through self-mortification and sin is committed by offending others.

43. Your vision by which you expounded the Bhāgavata-dharma never goes astray from reality. Hence, the noble Souls who do not regard the multitudes of the mobile and immobile being as different from you follow that dharma, Oh Lord.

44. It is no miracle that all the sins committed by men are annihilated at your sight, for even an outcaste like a Cāṇḍāla becomes liberated from the cycle of birth and death, by hearing your name once only, Oh glorious Lord.

45. Oh Lord, we have got our heart cleansed of all the impurities by your very sight. How could that which the divine sage, your own devotee, has said, turn out to be untrue?

46. Oh Infinite Lord! As you are the Soul of the world, you know everything that is done in this world by people. You are the Creator and Preceptor of the world. There is nothing new to be specially made known to you, as there is nothing to be revealed to the Sun by the fire-flies.

47. Salutations to you, Oh glorious Lord, who are the master and controller of the creation, sustenance and destruction of all the worlds. You are the purest of the pure (Paramahaṃsa). Your real nature is incomprehensible to bad yogins who entertain the notion of difference.

48. The creators of the world (e.g. god Brahmā and other gods who preside over the conative organs) (are activated) when you breathe (become active). When you (wish to) see, the gods (like the Sun who preside over the cognitive organs,) are able to get perception. The globe of this earth is (insignificant) like a mustard seed on your head. My Salutations to you, Oh glorious Lord of a thousand heads.

Śrī Śuka said:

49. Lord Ananta who was thus eulogised, was pleased with him. He spoke out to Citraketu the king of Vidyādharas, Oh scion of the Kuru family (Parīkṣit).

The glorious Lord said:

50. Oh King, it is by the precept (of the means of propitiating me) taught to you by Nārada and Aṅgiras and by the practice of that spiritual lore and by my sight that you have fully achieved your purpose.

51. I am verily all the created beings, their Soul and their support. I am the Veda the Supreme Brahma and both of these are my eternal form.

52. One should understand that his own Self is pervading the whole of the universe (as the subject of experience) and that the universe is resting on the Ātman (i.e. is superimposed on the Soul) and that both (one’s own Self and the universe) are pervaded by me (as the prime cause).

53. Just as in a state of profound slumber, one sees the universe (i.e. the various objects in it) in his own Self, and waking up from the dream, he finds himself alone and in a particular place (of sleeping such as a bed-room).

54. Similarly wakefulness etc. are the conditions of Jīva and are the products of Māyā with reference to Ātman. Therefore, one should remember that Paramātman is only a witness.

55. Recognize me to be that Atman or Brahman through whom the Jīva in a sleeping condition, regards himself as in deep sleep. I am absolute bliss beyond the range of guṇas or the senses.

56. That knowledge is the Supreme Brahma—knowledge which is found in a person who remembers his experiences during sleep and wakefulness—a connecting link as well as the differentia between the two states of experience.

57. When the Jīva forgets my real nature, he regards himself as different from me and this is the cause of his Saṃsāra, in which he goes from birth after birth and suffers death after death.

58. Having attained birth in the human species here, where the knowledge of the Self (as detailed in scriptures) and the wisdom, i.e. direct knowledge and perception of the Self, can be developed, he who does not realize me, can never find peace and happiness.

59. Remembering that in the Pravṛtti-mārga (i.e. the path of karma) there are great afflictions and contrary results (of the expected fruit), and there is fearlessness, i.e. Liberation (Mokṣa) in the Nivṛtti-mārga (the path of cessation of activities), a wise man should desist from the path of karma.

60. A pair of husband and wife perform (ritualistic) acts for getting pleasure and avoidance of misery. But there is no escape from misery nor the attainment of happiness, as a result of ritualistic performance.

61-62. Having thus realized that the consequences go contrary to expectation of persons who in their pride regard themselves to be clever, and having realized the subtle nature of the Ātman which transcends the three states (viz. state of awakeness, dream and deep sleep), and being completely free (from the desire) for the pleasures of this world and the next, through one’s power of discrimination and finding satisfaction and pleasure in one’s knowledge and wisdom, a person should devote himself to me (completely).

63. Realization of the unity of the individual spirit and the Supreme Soul is the real objective to be attained through all possible means by yogins whose intellect and power have acquired acuteness through yogic meditation.

64. If you bear in mind my advice and bring that into practice carefully, you will soon be blessed with knowledge and wisdom and attain Liberation, Oh King.

Śrī Śuka said:

65. Having comforted Citraketu in this way, the glorious Lord Hari, the father and the preceptor of the world, and the Soul of the universe, immediately disappeared there while Citraketu was looking on.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Padaratnāvalī explains: The Jīva is eternally related with Hari who by the guṇas of his Māyā creates his universe. Hari is eternally connected with all. He is eternal, not conditioned by change or decay, subtle but absolutely one. He perceives everything as he is the Lord of all. Thus the relation of a Jīva with any person is temporary.