(10/10) Power of Sambandha-Jnana

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Preaching programme in Hooghly District, evening
Translated into English from Bengali
21 February 2020, part 10

I wanted to tell you about King Chitraketu, his story is described in Srimad Bhagavatam. After that, I will finish the class.

King Chitraketu had many subjects and queens, he had much wealth, but he was not happy inside. Why was he not happy? Because he had no children. If he had a son, his son would become the next king and run the kingdom after Chitraketu. So, Chitraketu always thought about it, worrying that he had no son.

One day, a sage called Angira Rishi came to Chitraketu's palace. King Chitraketu welcomed him very cordially and showed much respect, offering him a place to sit and special worship.

'O King, how are you keeping? Is everything all right? Is your kingdom running well? Are your subjects happy?' Angira Rishi asked Chitraketu.

'Yes, everything is all right, but I always keep thinking about one thing... I have this one desire...' answered the king.

'What is it that you want?'

'I want a son,' replied Chitraketu.

Angira Rishi thought, 'If I try to give him some good advice, it will not enter his ears because he wants a son. No matter what I tell him, he will only want to have a son.' Then, the sage told Chitraketu, 'You will get a son, but that son will bring you both happiness and unhappiness.' The sage told the king that both happiness and unhappiness would come, but the king did not pay attention to unhappiness. He thought, 'I will have a son, what can there be to cause unhappiness?! I will have a son, and when he grows up, he will be the next king!' He did not think about the unhappiness that the sage had predicted; he simply forgot about his words.

After a while, King Chitraketu's first wife gave birth to a son. The king was very happy and was always busy with his son. However, the other wives became unhappy – the seed of jealousy entered their minds. They were upset, 'The king is always taking care of and fussing over his wife. He is always busy only with his first wife and the son! He does not even think about us anymore!' One day, they gathered together and came up with a plan to kill the child.

The boy had a nurse, so the king's wives waited for the nurse to go away to the bathroom, and once she went away, they came to the child and poisoned him. When the nurse came back, he started crying, 'What has happened?! Why is the child not moving?' Hearing her cries, the mother of the boy ran there, 'What has happened to my boy? He has died! He has died!!' She began to cry bitterly, and the other wives came and started to cry even louder. How clever they were. The first wife cried so much, but they pretended to be crying even more.

In the meantime, Angira Rishi was observing what was happening at the palace from far, using his mystic powers. When the boy died, Angira Rishi came to the palace and also sent Narad Muni, who used his mystic power to enter the body of the dead boy and speak through him. Suddenly, the boy woke up and spoke:

'Where am I? Where have I come?'

'You are my son!' cried the mother queen.

'Mother? Since when are you my mother? In which birth were you my mother?'

'No, no, you are our son! I am your father!' cried King Chitraketu.

'Father? But I do not know you all...'

Then, Narad Muni spoke Hari-katha through the boy, explaining the nature of the soul to the king. The king remembered that the sage had predicted that he would get unhappiness through his son. Then, having got this knowledge of the soul from Narad Muni, King Chitraketu became a saint. Leaving his family and kingdom, he mounted a travel chariot (puspa-ratha) and started preaching Hari-katha throughout the world.

One day, as the king was travelling and preaching, he arrived at Siva-loka, the abode of Lord Siva. He saw Sivji Maharaj speak Hari-katha to an assembly of other sages. Lord Siva was sitting naked, but not alone – Parvati Devi was sitting on his lap. Seeing this did not disturb King Chitraketu's faith in Lord Siva – he knew that Lord Siva could not do anything wrong. In fact, one time, Lord Siva even brought Kamadev, the Cupid, under his control, so Lord Siva could never be affected by lust. The assembled sages also did not think anything bad about the way Lord Siva was sitting. King Chitraketu thought, 'I should say something; otherwise, somebody else can think something bad.' Then, Chitraketu advised Lord Siva, 'It is not right that you are sitting here like this, with Parvati on you lap.' Sivji Maharaj did not mind him saying this, he agreed. But Parvati got angry. 'Hey, who do you think you are?! How dare you criticise my husband! I curse you to go to hell!' King Chitraketu did not mind it. 'If I am to live in hell, it is fine, I will go to hell.' He did not feel any grief or grudge about it. He offered his obeisance to Lord Siva and took his leave. He went to hell and was rescued after that. It is a long story.

Saints and devotees never think, 'I do not want to go to hell, I want to stay with the Lord.' They do not mind even going to hell because they still remember the Lord.

কীট জন্ম হউ যথা তুয়া দাস
বহির্ম্মুখ ব্রহ্মজন্মে নাহি আশ

kita janma hau yatha tuya dasa,
bahir-mukha brahma-janma nahi asa

'May I be born even as an insect, as long as I can be Your servant – I have no wish to be born as Brahma, averse to You.'

(Saranagati, Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

'I do not want to be a Brahma, averse to You. It is better if I go to hell instead – even if I become an insect or a bug, I do not mind it as long as I remain my Master's servant.'

Always think about this. Jay! Gaura premanande Hari bol!

— : • : —

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Detach Yourself from Illusion
2) Tenacious Tenants
3) Nurture Natural Devotion
4) Eternal Loving Worship
5) Essential Admonition
6) Where Is Substance?
7) How to Capture the Lord
8) Pillars of Spiritual Life
9) Undiluted Spiritual Life
10) Power of Sambandha-Jnana