(8/8) Internal Poison

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme
Translated into English from Bengali
17 February 2020, part 8

It is said in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita:

কৃষ্ণ কহে,—আমা ভজে, মাগে বিষয়-সুখ ।
অমৃত ছাড়ি’ বিষ মাগে,—এই বড় মূর্খ ॥
আমি-বিজ্ঞ, এই মূর্খে ‘বিষয়’ কেনে দিব ?
স্ব-চরণামৃত দিয়া ‘বিষয়’ ভুলাইব ॥

krsna kahe,—"ama bhaje, mage visaya-sukha
amrta chhadi' visa mage,—ei bada murkha
ami—vijna, ei murkhe 'visaya' kene diba?
sva-charanamrta diya 'visaya' bhulaiba"

"Krishna says, 'They worship Me desiring material happiness — leaving aside nectar, they ask for poison. They are big fools, but I am intelligent: Why will I give these fools material things? Instead, I will give them the nectar of My lotus feet and make them forget the material world.'"

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.38-39)

At the same time, it is also said:

কৃষ্ণ যদি ছুটে ভক্তে ভুক্তি মুক্তি দিয়া ।
কভু ভক্তি না দেন রাখেন লুকাইয়া ॥

krsna yadi chhute bhakte bhukti mukti diya
kabhu prema-bhakti na dena rakhena lukaiya

"If devotees aspire for enjoyment or liberation, Krishna hides the knowledge about pure devotion from them and lets them go, giving them enjoyment or liberation."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.18)

If, instead of devotion, you ask the Lord for money, wealth, cars, houses and so on, you will get it. Just as when children cry that they want to go with their mother or father when they are leaving for work, what do the parent do? They talk to the child, give him a lollypop and leave. We are just like such children in front of the Lord. We cry, "O Lord, I want to eat soil!" and the Lord says, "All right, go ahead and eat it." We cry, "I want a house!", "I want money!", "I want to be rich!", "I want a car!" and the Lord says, "All right, here, take it." The Lord gives you a lollypop and goes away, taking devotion away from you, and you will sit with your money and enjoy, but one day you will also have to suffer, like it happened to Chitraketu. You can find the description of this pastime in the sixth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.

King Chitraketu had a kingdom and many queens, but he always asked the Lord for a son. He always thought, "I have no son! If I got one son, then my kingdom and subjects would be taken care of in the future." He always worried about who would take care of his kingdom and what would become of his throne and subjects after him.

One day, Angira Rishi came to the king. Chitraketu welcomed him respectfully—he paid his obeisance to the rishi and took him to his house. Angira Rishi asked him, "O King, how are you keeping? Is your kingdom running properly? Is everything all right?" Chitraketu replied, "Everything is running nicely, but I still do not have a son. I need a son..." Angira Rishi thought, "If I try to reason with this man now, it will not enter his head—he only thinks about getting a son. Until and unless this foolishness goes away, it is no use telling him anything—even if I tell him anything, it will not enter his ears because he has material desires. He thinks that if he gets a son, his son will make him happy and look after the kingdom. Let us see." Angira Rishi blessed him with a warning, "When you have a son, your son will give you both happiness and unhappiness." Because the king was so excited that he would get a son he did not even think about unhappiness: "I will have a son! What unhappiness can there be? I have everything in my kingdom, there is no lack, so what unhappiness can come?" After that, his first queen begot a child.

The child was born. After a while, the other wives of the king started whispering, "King Chandraketu only cares about his first wife! He does not even look at us. Because she has given him a son, he only worries about her and dances with her, but he does not even look at us anymore." The seed of poison was sown within their minds. Then, all the wives plotted together and poisoned the boy. The nurse who was taking care of the boy noticed that he did not move and got alarmed. Everyone came to the room where the boy's body was and saw that the boy was dead. The eldest queen began to cry, "What has happened? Why is my son not moving?!" Seeing her cry, the other queens also pretended to be crying—the first queen cried much, and they started crying even more. They killed the boy, but they were crying the most: "Oh no! Alas! Alas! How could this have happened?"

Angira Rishi was watching what was happening from afar. He had told the king that both happiness and unhappiness would come, so he knew it would happen. Seeing that the boy had died and the whole palace was overcome with grief, he sent Narad Goswami to the palace. But first, Angira Rishi came there himself. He asked the king, "O King, how are you?" The king wept, "My son has died!" Then he remembered that the rishi has told him that unhappiness would come (that his son would give him unhappiness)...

At this time, Narad Goswami, using his transcendental power, entered the dead boy.

"Where was I?" he said with the boy's mouth. "Where am I?"

"Why, you are my son!" King Chitraketu cried.

"No, I do not recognise you," replied the boy.

"You are my son!" cried the queen, the mother of the boy.

"I do not recognise you either. When was I your son?" said the boy (Narad Goswami).

Then, Angira Rishi said, "The body of this boy does not belong to you, just as your body does not belong to you. You and this body are not the same. We all keep changing your bodies." He explained to the king the knowledge of the soul, and having understood what Angira Rishi was saying, Chitraketu became a great devotee. He mounted his puspa-ratha (travel chariot) and began to circumambulate the entire land of India.

One day, travelling in his chariot, Chitraketu arrived at Siva-loka, the planet of Lord Siva. He met with Lord Siva, and they spoke about the Lord for some time. There were other rishis also present there.

You all know how Lord Siva lives—he does not wear any clothes. Chitraketu noticed that Lord Siva, sitting stark naked, had Parvati Devi sitting on his lap. Chitraketu did not think anything—he did not have any doubt in his mind about Lord Siva's character: Devotees respect Lord Siva and believe that he cannot do anything wrong. Lord Siva also knew that Chitraketu was a great devotee, and he knew that he would not think anything bad. But then Chitraketu thought, "Lord Siva is like a friend to me, so I should tell him about it. I do not mind it, neither do the rishis, but if anybody else comes, they can think something bad if they see him sitting like this, naked, with his wife on his lap."

So, Chitraketu told Sivji Maharaj, "Prabhu, it is not right that you are sitting like this with Parvati Devi..." Sivji Maharaj did not mind him saying it; he agreed with Chitraketu. But who objected? Who became angry? Parvati. She said, "What?! Who on earth are you? How can you speak like this to my husband? You must become a resident of hell! I curse you to go to hell!"

Chitraketu did not say anything; he only smiled in reply. He did not feel any pain or unhappiness because this is the nature of all devotees. Devotees never feel pain or unhappiness. Whether they live in a bad place, in hell, in heaven, in the liberated state, on the street or in a jungle—wherever devotees stay, in whichever situation the Lord keeps them, they feel that this is the will of the Lord. After Parvati's curse, Chitraketu offered his obeisance to Lord Siva and took his leave.

After Chitraketu left, Parvati asked Sivji Maharaj, "Who was that? I cursed him, but he did not even become upset or disturbed!" Sivji Maharaj explained, "You do not know who he is. He is a great Vaishnav, a great devotee of Krishna, and devotees do not feel any pain, suffering or unhappiness."

Jay Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay!
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol!

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Length: 38 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Bhajana-Siddhi
2) Ignorance Is No Excuse
3) Where There Is No Will There Is No Way
4) Mind Over Matter
5) Choice Is Yours
6) Load of Luggage
7) Caught!
8) Internal Poison