(8) Devotees Are Devoted

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District
Translated into English from Bengali
21 February 2020, noon, part 8

One more pastime I want to tell you comes from the sixth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. You must remember it. The pastime is the story of Chitraketu. Please listen carefully.

There was one king called Chitraketu. It is also related to Lord Siva. Tomorrow is the fasting day in honour of Lord Siva, but common people are fasting today. Pure Vaishnavs follow pure ways, so for them, the fast is tomorrow. Anyhow, King Chitraketu was married and had not only one queen but several; he had a kingdom and many subjects. Although he had everything, he was not happy. Why was he not happy? Because he did not have a son. If he had no son, what would become of the kingdom in the future? Who will look after all the subjects and lands. This is what King Chitraketu always worried about. Although he had several queens, none of them could give him a son.

One day, a sage called Angira came to Chitraketu's palace. As soon as the king heard about the sage's arrival, he came to welcome him and took him inside. After that, he washed his feet and offered him sandalwood and other items of worship.

'Chitraketu, is your kingdom running properly? Is everything all right?' asked Angira Rishi.

'Prabhu, everything is all right, but I am greatly troubled in my mind,' answered Chitraketu.

'What troubles you?' asked the sage.

'I do not have a son...'

Angira Rishi thought to himself, 'If I try to give this man some good advice, it will not enter his ears.' Do you understand the meaning? It means that for as long as we have material desires inside us, good instruction or anything related to the Lord will not enter our ears. As long as we think about other things, the teachings of Sri Rupa-Raghunath will not enter our ears. So, Angira Rishi thought, 'He is only thinking when he will get a son.'

'All right, you will have a son,' said Angira Rishi finally. 'But this son will give you both happiness and unhappiness.'

Chitraketu became excited and could only think about happiness – he forgot all about the unhappiness that the son would bring. He thought, 'I will have a son! I will be happy! The boy will become the next king, what is there to be unhappy about? I have no lack of money? I have no lack of anything. I am a king!'

Soon after that, the king had a son. As the boy was growing up, the other wives of the king became jealous – poison entered their minds. They thought, 'King is our husband, but he is only busy with his first wife because she has got a son! He does not even notice us. Even since the boy was born, he has been busy only with his first wife and son!' Eventually, the queens decided to kill the king's son because he had taken all king's love.

There was a nurse who always looked after the boy, so the queens had to find time when they could give poison to the boy. One day, when the nurse went away to go to the bathroom or to have something to eat, the queens gave poison to the boy and killed him. When the nurse came back, she saw that the boy was not moving. Hearing the noise, the mother of the boy, the first queen, came there and asked the nurse, 'Were you not with the boy all this time? What has happened?' The nurse said that she went away for a few minutes only to go to the bathroom. The queen cried bitterly. Then, the king came there and began to cry too, seeing what had happened. And the other queens, seeing everyone cry, pretended to cry too. The queen was crying, but they pretended to cry even more.

At this time, Angira Rishi was seated in his siddhi meditation and could see everything. He had told the king that his son would bring him happiness and unhappiness: when the boy was born, the king became happy, but now that he is dead, the king is unhappy. The sage sent Narad Muni to the palace and went there himself also. Arriving at the palace, Angira Rishi asked the king, 'O King, how are you doing?'

'O Prabhu, I was so happy when I got a son, but now I am suffering so much,' answered the king.

'I told you,' said Angira Rishi, 'that you will get both happiness and unhappiness. Your son is gone now.'

Then, Narad Muni entered the dead body of the boy through his mystic power and spoke with his mouth, 'Oh, where am I? Where have I come? Whose house is this?'

The queen cried, 'I am your mother!'

'Since when are you my mother? In which birth were you my mother?' asked the boy.

'I am your father!' cried the king. 'You are my son!'

'In which birth were you my father?' wondered the boy.

Then, Narad Muni spoke about the nature of the soul, explaining that when we have a mother and a father in this birth, this is all temporary – we have got many mothers and fathers, but they are all fathers and mothers for a few days only. After a short while, our parents leave us and we also leave the world. As Narad Muni spoke about all this, Chitraketu could understand it. Before, when he was anxious to get a son and when he was later happy to have a son, these things did not enter his mind, but when he was unhappy, he started thinking what mistake he had made. Realising the true teachings, Chitraketu left the kingdom and went in his travel chariot (puspa-ratha) kingdom to kingdom all over India, preaching Hari-katha.

As Chitraketu was travelling and preaching about the Holy Name of the Lord, he came to Lord Siva one day. At this time, Lord Siva was sitting stark naked in meditation. There were other sages seated in front of him. But the problem was that, while Lord Siva was seated naked on the asan, there was also Parvati sitting on his lap! Seeing this, Chitraketu was not upset because he had faith in Sivji Maharaj (he knew that Sivji Maharaj subdued the Cupid one day, so he was beyond the influence of lust – he could not do wrong). But Chitraketu thought that some outside people could say something bad seeing that a sadhu was sitting with a lady on his lap. So, he decided, 'If I tell it to Sivji Maharaj, he will surely listen to it.' Then, he told Lord Siva, 'Sivji Maharaj, I know you will not mind me saying it, but I feel obliged to say one thing. If people see you sitting with Parvati on your lap, they will think bad...' Sivji Maharaj replied, 'Yes, what you are saying is right.' Sivji Maharaj took Chitraketu as his friend, so he did not mind him saying this (besides, he knew that Chitraketu had become a great devotee of the Lord), but there was one person who could not tolerate it. Who was it? Parvati. She explained, 'Who are you? How dare you criticise my husband! I am cursing you to go to hell!' But Chitraketu was not perturbed. If somebody tells you that you have to go and live in hell, you will be upset, but he was not because he was a devotee. For a devotee, it does not matter where to live – be it in prison, heaven, hell, in liberated state, in a jungle. Wherever devotees go, they always chant the Holy Name of the Lord. Whatever pain, struggle or difficulty they face, they know that everything happens by the wish of the Lord. So, smiling, Chitraketu paid his obeisance and took his leave.

After that, many things happened. Chitraketu went to hell and fought there. In the end, he reached a great destination. Although he went to hell, he did not have any problem there, and he soon returned from there. The Lord protected him. Anyhow, it is a long story and will take a long time to tell now. The main thing is that devotees always think about the Lord.

— : • : —

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CLICK TO LISTEN TO THE LECTURE

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Length: 80 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Examine Yourself
2) Be Honest and Sincere
3) Assimilate the Substance
4) Getting Older but None Wiser
5) Senses vs. Soul
6) Desires and Forgetfulness
7) Irresistible Service Drive
8) Devotees Are Devoted
9) Lord Is Always Merciful