ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King Parīkṣit, by his mystic power the great sage Nārada brought the dead son into the vision of all the lamenting relatives and then spoke as follows.(1) Śrī Nārada Muni said: O living entity, all good fortune unto you. Just see your father and mother. All your friends and relatives are over whelmed with grief because of your passing away.(2) Because you died untimely, the bal ance of your lifetime still remains. Therefore you may reenter your body and enjoy the re mainder of your life, surrounded by your friends and relatives. Accept the royal throne and all the opulences given by your father.(3)

By the mystic power of Nārada Muni, the living entity reentered his dead body for a short time and spoke in reply to Nārada Muni’s re quest. He said: According to the results of my fruitive activities, I, the living being, transmi grate from one body to another, sometimes go ing to the species of the demigods, sometimes to the species of lower animals, sometimes among the vegetables, and sometimes to the hu man species. Therefore, in which birth were these my mother and father? No one is actually my mother and father. How can I accept these two people as my parents?(4) In this material world, which advances like a river that carries away the living entity, all people become friends, relatives and enemies in due course of time. They also act neutrally, they mediate, they despise one another, and they act in many other relationships. Nonetheless, despite these various transactions, no one is permanently re lated.(5)

Just as gold and other commodities are continually transferred from one place to an other in due course of purchase and sale, so the living entity, as a result of his fruitive activities, wanders throughout the entire universe, being injected into various bodies in different species of life by one kind of father after another.(6) A few living entities are born in the human spe cies, and others are born as animals. Although both are living entities, their relationships are impermanent. An animal may remain in the custody of a human being for some time, and then the same animal may be transferred to the possession of other human beings. As soon as the animal goes away, the former proprietor no longer has a sense of ownership. As long as the animal is in his possession he certainly has an affinity for it, but as soon as the animal is sold, the affinity is lost.(7)

Even though one living entity becomes connected with another because of a relationship based on bodies that are per ishable, the living entity is eternal. Actually it is the body that is born or lost, not the living entity. One should not accept that the living en tity takes birth or dies. The living being actually has no relationship with so-called fathers and mothers. As long as he appears as the son of a certain father and mother as a result of his past fruitive activities, he has a connection with the body given by that father and mother. Thus he falsely accepts himself as their son and acts af fectionately. After he dies, however, the rela tionship is finished. Under these circumstances, one should not be falsely involved with jubila tion and lamentation.(8)

The living entity is eternal and imperishable because he actually has no beginning and no end. He never takes birth or dies. He is the basic principle of all types of bodies, yet he does not belong to the bodily category. The living being is so sublime that he is equal in quality to the Supreme Lord. Nonetheless, because he is extremely small, he is prone to be illusioned by the external energy, and thus he creates various bodies for himself according to his different desires.(9) For this living entity, no one is dear, nor is anyone un favorable. He makes no distinction between that which is his own and that which belongs to anyone else. He is one without a second; in other words, he is not affected by friends and enemies, well-wishers or mischief-mongers. He is only an observer, a witness, of the differ ent qualities of men.(10)

The Supreme Lord [ātmā], the creator of cause and effect, does not accept the happiness and distress that result from fruitive actions. He is completely inde pendent of having to accept a material body, and because He has no material body, He is al ways neutral. The living entities, being part and parcel of the Lord, possess His qualities in a minute quantity. Therefore one should not be affected by lamentation. (11) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: When the conditioned soul [jīva] in the form of Mahārāja Citraketu’s son had spoken in this way and then left, Citraketu and the other relatives of the dead son were all astonished. Thus they cut off the shackles of their affection, which was due to their relationship with him, and gave up their lamentation.(12) After the relatives had dis charged their duties by performing the proper funeral ceremonies and burning the dead child’s body, they gave up the affection that leads to illusion, lamentation, fear and pain. Such affection is undoubtedly difficult to give up, but they gave it up very easily.(13)

Queen Kṛtyadyuti’s co-wives, who had poisoned the child, were very much ashamed, and they lost all their bodily luster. While lamenting, O King, they remembered the instructions of Aṅgirā and gave up their ambition to bear chil dren. Following the directions of the brāhmaṇas, they went to the bank of the Ya munā, where they bathed and atoned for their sinful activities.(14) Thus enlightened by the instructions of the brāhmaṇas Aṅgirā and Nārada, King Citraketu became fully aware of spiritual knowledge. As an elephant becomes free from a muddy reservoir of water, King Citraketu came out of the dark well of family life.(15) The King bathed in the water of the Yamunā, and according to prescribed duties, he offered oblations of water to the forefathers and demigods. Very gravely controlling his senses and mind, he then offered his respects and obei sances to the sons of Lord Brahmā [Aṅgirā and Nārada].(16)

Thereafter, being very much pleased with Citraketu, who was a self-con trolled devotee and surrendered soul, Nārada, the most powerful sage, spoke to him the fol lowing transcendental instructions.(17) [Nārada gave Citraketu the following man tra.] O Lord, O Supreme Personality of God head, who are addressed by the oṁkāra [praṇava], I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. O Lord Vāsudeva, I meditate upon You. O Lord Pradyumna, Lord Aniruddha and Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, I offer You my respectful obeisances. O reservoir of spiritual potency, O supreme bliss, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You, who are self-sufficient and most peaceful. O ultimate truth, one without a sec ond, You are realized as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān and are therefore the reservoir of all knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. (18-19)

Perceiving Your personal bliss, You are always transcendental to the waves of material nature. Therefore, my Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You. You are the supreme controller of the senses, and Your expansions of form are unlimited. You are the greatest, and therefore I offer my re spectful obeisances unto You. (20) The words and mind of the conditioned soul cannot ap proach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, for material names and forms are not applicable to the Lord, who is entirely spiritual, beyond the conception of gross and subtle forms. The impersonal Brahman is another of His forms. May He, by His pleasure, protect us.(21) As pots made completely of earth are situated on earth after being created and are transformed into earth again when broken, this cosmic man ifestation is caused by the Supreme Brahman, situated in the Supreme Brahman, and annihi lated in the same Supreme Brahman. Therefore, since the Supreme Lord is the cause of Brah man, let us offer Him our respectful obei sances.(22)

The Supreme Brahman emanates from the Supreme Personality of Godhead and expands like the sky. Although untouched by anything material, it exists within and without. Nonetheless, the mind, intelligence, senses and living force can neither touch Him nor know Him. I offer unto Him my respectful obei sances.(23) As iron has the power to burn when made red-hot in the association of fire, so the body, senses, living force, mind and intelli gence, although merely lumps of matter, can function in their activities when infused with a particle of consciousness by the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead. As iron cannot burn un less heated by fire, the bodily senses cannot act unless favored by the Supreme Brahman.(24)

O transcendental Lord, who are situated in the topmost planet of the spiritual world, Your two lotus feet are always massaged by a multitude of the best devotees with their lotus-bud hands. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, complete in six opulences. You are the supreme person mentioned in the Puruṣa-sūkta prayers. You are the most perfect, self-realized master of all mystic power. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto You. (25) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Nārada, having become the spiritual master of Citraketu, instructed him fully in this prayer be cause Citraketu was fully surrendered. O King Parīkṣit, Nārada then left with the great sage Aṅgirā for the topmost planet, known as Brah maloka.(26) Fasting and drinking only water, Citraketu for one week continuously chanted with great care and attention the mantra given by Nārada Muni.(27)

O King Parīkṣit, after only one week of repeatedly practicing the mantra received from the spiritual master, Citraketu achieved the rule of the planet of the Vidyādharas as an intermediate product of his spiritual advancement in knowledge.(28) Thereafter, within a very few days, by the in fluence of the mantra that Citraketu had prac ticed, his mind became increasingly enlight ened in spiritual progress, and he attained shel ter at the lotus feet of Anantadeva.(29) Upon reaching the shelter of Lord Śeṣa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Citraketu saw that He was as white as the white fibers of a lotus flower. He was dressed in bluish garments and adorned with a brilliantly glittering helmet, armlets, belt and bangles. His face was smiling, and His eyes were reddish. He was surrounded by such exalted liberated persons as Sanat kumāra.(30)

As soon as Mahārāja Citraketu saw the Supreme Lord, he was cleansed of all material contamination and situated in his orig inal Kṛṣṇa consciousness, being completely pu rified. He became silent and grave, and because of love for the Lord, tears fell from his eyes, and his hairs stood on end. With great devotion and love, he offered his respectful obeisances unto the original Personality of Godhead.(31) With tears of love and affection, Citraketu re peatedly moistened the resting place of the Su preme Lord’s lotus feet. Because his voice was choked in ecstasy, for a considerable time he was unable to utter any of the letters of the al phabet to offer the Lord suitable prayers.(32)

Thereafter, by controlling his mind with his in telligence and thus restricting his senses from external engagements, he recovered suitable words with which to express his feelings. Thus he began offering prayers to the Lord, who is the personification of the holy scriptures [the sātvata-saṁhitās like the Brahma-saṁhitā and the Nārada-pañcarātra] and who is the spiritual master of all. He offered his prayers as fol lows.(33) Citraketu said: O unconquerable Lord, alt hough You cannot be conquered by anyone, You are certainly conquered by devotees who have control of the mind and senses. They can keep You under their control because You are causelessly merciful to devotees who desire no material profit from You. Indeed, You give Yourself to them, and because of this You also have full control over Your devotees.(34)

My dear Lord, this cosmic manifestation and its creation, maintenance and annihilation are all but Your opulences. Since Lord Brahmā and the other creators are nothing but small portions of a portion of You, their partial power to create does not make them God [īśvara]. Their con sciousness of themselves as separate Lords is therefore merely false prestige. It is not valid.(35) You exist in the beginning, middle and end of everything, from the most minute particle of the cosmic manifestationthe atomto the gigantic universes and total material en ergy. Nonetheless, You are eternal, having no beginning, end or middle. You are perceived to exist in these three phases, and thus You are permanent. When the cosmic manifestation does not exist, You exist as the original po tency.(36)

Every universe is covered by seven layersearth, water, fire, air, sky, the total energy and false egoeach ten times greater than the previous one. There are innumerable universes besides this one, and although they are unlimit edly large, they move about like atoms in You. Therefore You are called unlimited [ananta].(37) O Lord, O Supreme, unintelligent persons who thirst for sense enjoyment and who worship various demigods are no better than animals in the human form of life. Because of their animalistic propensities, they fail to worship Your Lordship, and instead they wor ship the insignificant demigods, who are but small sparks of Your glory. With the destruc tion of the entire universe, including the demi gods, the benedictions received from the demi gods also vanish, just like the nobility when a king is no longer in power.(38)

O Supreme Lord, if persons obsessed with material desires for sense gratification through material opu lence worship You, who are the source of all knowledge and are transcendental to material qualities, they are not subject to material re birth, just as sterilized or fried seeds do not pro duce plants. Living entities are subjected to the repetition of birth and death because they are conditioned by material nature, but since You are transcendental, one who is inclined to asso ciate with You in transcendence escapes the conditions of material nature.(39)

O uncon querable one, when You spoke about bhāgavata-dharma, which is the uncontami nated religious system for achieving the shelter of Your lotus feet, that was Your victory. Per sons who have no material desires, like the Kumāras, who are self-satisfied sages, worship You to be liberated from material contamina tion. In other words, they accept the process of bhāgavata-dharma to achieve shelter at Your lotus feet.(40) Being full of contradictions, all forms of religion but bhāgavata-dharma work under conceptions of fruitive results and dis tinctions of “you and I” and “yours and mine.” The followers of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam have no such consciousness. They are all Kṛṣṇa con scious, thinking that they are Kṛṣṇa’s and Kṛṣṇa is theirs. There are other, low-class religious systems, which are contemplated for the killing of enemies or the gain of mystic power, but such religious systems, being full of passion and envy, are impure and temporary. Because they are full of envy, they are full of irreli gion.(41)

How can a religious system that pro duces envy of one’s self and of others be bene ficial for oneself and for them? What is auspi cious about following such a system? What is actually to be gained? By causing pain to one’s own self due to self-envy and by causing pain to others, one arouses Your anger and practices irreligion.(42) My dear Lord, one’s occupa tional duty is instructed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Bhagavad-gītā according to Your point of view, which never deviates from the highest goal of life. Those who follow their occupa tional duties under Your supervision, being equal to all living entities, moving and non moving, and not considering high and low, are called Āryans. Such Āryans worship You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.(43)

My Lord, it is not impossible for one to be immedi ately freed from all material contamination by seeing You. Not to speak of seeing You person ally, merely by hearing the holy name of Your Lordship only once, even caṇḍālas, men of the lowest class, are freed from all material con tamination. Under the circumstances, who will not be freed from material contamination simply by seeing You?(44) Therefore, my dear Lord, simply seeing You has now wiped away all the contamination of sinful activities and their results of material attachment and lusty desires, which always filled my mind and the core of my heart. Whatever is predicted by the great sage Nārada Muni cannot be otherwise. In other words, I have obtained Your audience as a result of being trained by Nārada Muni.(45)

O unlimited Supreme Personality of Godhead, whatever a living entity does in this material world is well known to You because You are the Supersoul. In the presence of the sun there is nothing to be revealed by the light of a glow worm. Similarly, because You know every thing, in Your presence there is nothing for me to make known.(46) My dear Lord, You are the creator, maintainer and annihilator of this cos mic manifestation, but persons who are too ma terialistic and who always see separateness do not have eyes with which to see You. They can not understand Your real position, and there fore they conclude that the cosmic manifesta tion is independent of Your opulence. My Lord, You are the supreme pure, and You are full in all six opulences. Therefore I offer my respect ful obeisances unto You.(47)

My dear Lord, it is after You endeavor that Lord Brahmā, Indra and the other directors of the cosmic manifes tation become occupied with their activities. It is after You perceive the material energy, My Lord, that the senses begin to perceive. The Su preme Personality of Godhead holds all the uni verses on His heads like seeds of mustard. I of fer my respectful obeisances unto You, that Su preme Personality, who has thousands of hoods.(48) Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: The Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Anantadeva, being very much pleased with the pray ers offered by Citraketu, the King of the Vidyādharas, replied to him as follows, O best of the Kuru dynasty, Mahārāja Parīkṣit.(49)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Anantadeva, replied as follows: O King, as a result of your having accepted the instructions spoken about Me by the great sages Nārada and Aṅgirā, you have become completely aware of transcendental knowledge. Because you are now educated in the spiritual science, you have seen Me face to face. Therefore you are now completely perfect.(50) All living entities, moving and nonmoving, are My expansions and are separate from Me. I am the Supersoul of all living beings, who exist because I mani fest them. I am the form of the transcendental vibrations like oṁkāra and Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma, and I am the Supreme Absolute Truth. These two forms of Minenamely, the transcen dental sound and the eternally blissful spiritual form of the Deity, are My eternal forms; they are not material.(51)

In this world of matter, which the conditioned soul accepts as consist ing of enjoyable resources, the conditioned soul expands, thinking that he is the enjoyer of the material world. Similarly, the material world expands in the living entity as a source of en joyment. In this way they both expand, but be cause they are My energies, they are both per vaded by Me. As the Supreme Lord, I am the cause of these effects, and one should know that both of them rest in Me.(52) When a person is in deep sleep, he dreams and sees in himself many other objects, such as great mountains and rivers or perhaps even the entire universe, although they are far away. Sometimes when one awakens from a dream he sees that he is in a human form, lying in his bed in one place. Then he sees himself, in terms of various conditions, as belonging to a particular nationality, family and so on. All the conditions of deep sleep, dreaming and wakefulness are but energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should always remember the original cre ator of these conditions, the Supreme Lord, who is unaffected by them. (53-54)

Know Me to be the Supreme Brahman, the all-pervading Supersoul through whom the sleeping living entity can understand his dreaming condition and his happiness beyond the activities of the material senses. That is to say, I am the cause of the activities of the sleep ing living being.(55) If one’s dreams during sleep are merely subject matters witnessed by the Supersoul, how can the living entity, who is different from the Supersoul, remember the ac tivities of dreams? The experiences of one per son cannot be understood by another. Therefore the knower of the facts, the living entity who inquires into the incidents manifested in dreams and wakefulness, is different from the circumstantial activities. That knowing factor is Brahman. In other words, the quality of knowing belongs to the living entities and to the Supreme Soul. Thus the living entity can also experience the activities of dreams and wake fulness. In both stages the knower is un changed, but is qualitatively one with the Su preme Brahman.(56)

When a living entity, thinking himself different from Me, forgets his spiritual identity of qualitative oneness with Me in eternity, knowledge and bliss, his mate rial, conditional life begins. In other words, in stead of identifying his interest with Mine, he becomes interested in his bodily expansions like his wife, children and material possessions. In this way, by the influence of his actions, one body comes from another, and after one death, another death takes place.(57) A human being can attain perfection in life by self-realization through the Vedic literature and its practical ap plication. This is possible especially for a hu man being born in India, the land of piety. A man who obtains birth in such a convenient po sition but does not understand his self is unable to achieve the highest perfection, even if he is exalted to life in the higher planetary sys tems.(58)

Remembering the great trouble found in the field of activities performed for fruitive results, and remembering how one re ceives the reverse of the results one de sireswhether from material actions or from the fruitive activities recommended in the Vedic literaturesan intelligent man should cease from the desire for fruitive actions, for by such en deavors one cannot achieve the ultimate goal of life. On the other hand, if one acts without de sires for fruitive resultsin other words, if one engages in devotional activitieshe can achieve the highest goal of life with freedom from mis erable conditions. Considering this, one should cease from material desires.(59)

As husband and wife, a man and woman plan together to at tain happiness and decrease unhappiness, working jointly in many ways, but because their activities are full of desires, these activi ties are never a source of happiness, and they never diminish distress. On the contrary, they are a cause of great unhappiness.(60) One should understand that the activities of persons who are proud of their material experience bring only results contradictory to those such persons conceive while awake, sleeping and deeply sleeping. One should further understand that the spirit soul, although very difficult for the materialist to perceive, is above all these conditions, and by the strength of one’s dis crimination, one should give up the desire for fruitive results in the present life and in the next. Thus becoming experienced in transcen dental knowledge, one should become My dev otee.(61-62)

Persons who try to reach the ulti mate goal of life must expertly observe the Su preme Absolute Person and the living entity, who are one in quality in their relationship as part and whole. This is the ultimate understand ing of life. There is no better truth than this.(63) O King, if you accept this conclusion of Mine, being unattached to material enjoyment, adher ing to Me with great faith and thus becoming proficient and fully aware of knowledge and its practical application in life, you will achieve the highest perfection by attaining Me.(64) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: After thus instructing Citraketu and assuring him of per fection in this way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the supreme spiritual master, the supreme soul, Saṅkarṣaṇa, disappeared from that place as Citraketu looked on.(65)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: While King Citraketu, overcome by lamentation, lay like a dead body at the side of the dead body of his son, the two great sages Nārada and Aṅgirā in structed him about spiritual consciousness as follows.(1) O King, what relationship does the dead body for which you lament have with you, and what relationship do you have with him? You may say that you are now related as father and son, but do you think this relationship ex isted before? Does it truly exist now? Will it continue in the future?(2) O King, as small par ticles of sand sometimes come together and are sometimes separated due to the force of the waves, the living entities who have accepted material bodies sometimes come together and are sometimes separated by the force of time.(3)

When seeds are sown in the ground, they sometimes grow into plants and some times do not. Sometimes the ground is not fer tile, and the sowing of seeds is unproductive. Similarly, sometimes a prospective father, be ing impelled by the potency of the Supreme Lord, can beget a child, but sometimes concep tion does not take place. Therefore one should not lament over the artificial relationship of parenthood, which is ultimately controlled by the Supreme Lord.(4) O King, both you and weyour advisers, wives and ministersas well as everything moving and not moving throughout the entire cosmos at this time, are in a tempo rary situation. Before our birth this situation did not exist, and after our death it will exist no longer. Therefore our situation now is tempo rary, although it is not false.(5)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master and propri etor of everything, is certainly not interested in the temporary cosmic manifestation. Nonethe less, just as a boy at the beach creates some thing in which he is not interested, the Lord, keeping everything under His control, causes creation, maintenance and annihilation. He cre ates by engaging a father to beget a son, He maintains by engaging a government or king to see to the public’s welfare, and He annihilates through agents for killing, such as snakes. The agents for creation, maintenance and annihila tion have no independent potency, but because of the spell of the illusory energy, one thinks himself the creator, maintainer and annihila tor.(6) As from one seed another seed is gener ated, O King, so from one body [the body of the father], through another body [the body of the mother], a third body is generated [the body of a son]. As the elements of the material body are eternal, the living entity who appears through these material elements is also eternal.(7)

Divisions of generalization and specification, such as nationality and individuality, are the imagi nations of persons who are not advanced in knowledge.(8) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Thus en lightened by the instructions of Nārada and Aṅgirā, King Citraketu became hopeful with knowledge. Wiping his shriveled face with his hand, the King began to speak.(9) King Citraketu said: You have both come here dressed like avadhūtas, liberated persons, just to cover your identities, but I see that of all men, you are the most elevated in awareness. You know everything as it is. Therefore you are the greatest of all great personalities.(10) Brāhmaṇas who are exalted to the position of Vaiṣṇavas, the most dear servants of Kṛṣṇa, sometimes dress like madmen. Just to benefit materialists like us, who are always attached to sense gratification, and just to dissipate our ig norance, these Vaiṣṇavas wander on the surface of the globe according to their desire.(11)

O great souls, I have heard that among the great and perfect persons wandering the surface of the earth to instruct knowledge to people cov ered by ignorance are Sanat-kumāra, Nārada, Ṛbhu, Aṅgirā, Devala, Asita, Apāntaratamā [Vyāsadeva], Mārkaṇḍeya, Gautama, Vasiṣṭha, Bhagavān Paraśurāma, Kapila, Śukadeva, Durvāsā, Yājñavalkya, Jātukarṇa and Aruṇi. Others are Romaśa, Cyavana, Dattātreya, Āsuri, Patañjali, the great sage Dhaumya who is like the head of the Vedas, the sage Pañcaśikha, Hiraṇyanābha, Kauśalya, Śru tadeva and Ṛtadhvaja. You must certainly be among them.(12-15) Because you are great per sonalities, you can give me real knowledge. I am as foolish as a village animal like a pig or dog because I am merged in the darkness of ig norance. Therefore, please ignite the torch of knowledge to save me.(16)

Aṅgirā said: My dear King, when you de sired to have a son, I approached you. Indeed, I am the same AṅgirāṚṣi who gave you this son. As for this ṛṣi, he is the great sage Nārada, the direct son of Lord Brahmā.(17) My dear King, you are an advanced devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. To be absorbed in lamentation for the loss of something material is unsuitable for a person like you. Therefore we have both come to relieve you from this false lamentation, which is due to your being merged in the darkness of ignorance. For those who are advanced in spiritual knowledge to be affected by material loss and gain is not at all desirable.(18-19) When I first came to your home, I could have given you the supreme transcendental knowledge, but when I saw that your mind was absorbed in material things, I gave you only a son, who caused you jubilation and lamenta tion.(20)

My dear King, now you are actually experiencing the misery of a person who has sons and daughters. O King, owner of the state of Śūrasena, one’s wife, his house, the opulence of his kingdom, and his various other opulences and objects of sense perception are all the same in that they are temporary. One’s kingdom, mil itary power, treasury, servants, ministers, friends and relatives are all causes of fear, illu sion, lamentation and distress. They are like a gandharva-nagara, a nonexistent palace that one imagines to exist in the forest. Because they are impermanent, they are no better than illusions, dreams and mental concoctions.( 21 23) These visible objects like wife, children and property are like dreams and mental concoc tions. Actually what we see has no permanent existence. It is sometimes seen and sometimes not. Only because of our past actions do we cre ate such mental concoctions, and because of these concoctions, we perform further activi ties.(24)

The living entity in the bodily concep tion of life is absorbed in the body, which is a combination of the physical elements, the five senses for gathering knowledge, and the five senses of action, along with the mind. Through the mind the living entity suffers three kinds of tribulationsadhibhautika, adhidaivika and adhyātmika. Therefore this body is a source of all miseries.(25) Therefore, O King Citraketu, carefully consider the position of the ātmā. In other words, try to understand who you are whether body, mind or soul. Consider where you have come from, where you are going after giving up this body, and why you are under the control of material lamentation. Try to under stand your real position in this way, and then you will be able to give up your unnecessary attachment. You will also be able to give up the belief that this material world, or anything not directly in touch with service to Kṛṣṇa, is eter nal. Thus you will obtain peace.(26)

The great sage Nārada continued: My dear King, attentively receive from me a mantra, which is most auspicious. After accepting it from me, in seven nights you will be able to see the Lord face to face.(27) My dear King, in for mer days Lord Śiva and other demigods took shelter of the lotus feet of Saṅkarṣaṇa. Thus they immediately got free from the illusion of duality and achieved unequaled and unsur passed glories in spiritual life. You will very soon attain that very same position.(28)

King Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: O learned brāhmaṇa, demons are generally sinful, being obsessed with the modes of passion and ignorance. How, then, could Vṛtrāsura have attained such exalted love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa?(1) Demigods situated in the mode of goodness and great saints cleansed of the dirt of material enjoyment hardly ever render pure devotional service at the lotus feet of Mukunda. [Therefore how could Vṛtrāsura have become such a great devotee?](2) In this material world there are as many living entities as atoms. Among these living entities, a very few are hu man beings, and among them, few are inter ested in following religious principles.(3)

O best of the brāhmaṇas, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, out of many persons who follow religious princi ples, only a few desire liberation from the ma terial world. Among many thousands who de sire liberation, one may actually achieve liber ation, giving up material attachment to society, friendship, love, country, home, wife and chil dren. And among many thousands of such lib erated persons, one who can understand the true meaning of liberation is very rare.(4) O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.(5) Vṛtrāsura was situated in the blazing fire of battle and was an infamous, sinful de mon, always engaged in giving troubles and anxieties to others. How could such a demon become so greatly Kṛṣṇa conscious?(6)

My dear lord, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, although Vṛtrāsura was a sinful demon, he showed the prowess of a most exalted kṣatriya and satisfied Lord Indra in battle. How could such a demon be a great devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa? These con tradictions have caused me great doubt, and they have made me eager to hear of this from you.(7) Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī said: After hearing Mahārāja Parīkṣit’s very intelligent question, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, the most powerful sage, began answering his disciple with great affec tion.(8) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King, I shall speak to you the same history I have heard from the mouths of Vyāsadeva, Nārada and Devala. Please listen with attention.(9) O King Parīkṣit, in the province of Śūrasena there was a king named Citraketu, who ruled the entire earth. During his reign, the earth produced all the ne cessities for life.(10) This Citraketu had ten million wives, but although he was capable of producing children, he did not receive a child from any of them. By chance, all the wives were barren.(11)

Citraketu, the husband of these millions of wives, was endowed with a beautiful form, magnanimity and youth. He was born in a high family, he had a complete education, and he was wealthy and opulent. Nevertheless, in spite of being endowed with all these assets, he was full of anxiety because he did not have a son.(12) His queens all had beautiful faces and attractive eyes, yet neither his opulences, his hundreds and thousands of queens, nor the lands of which he was the su preme proprietor were sources of happiness for him.(13) Once upon a time, when the powerful sage named Aṅgirā was traveling all over the universe without engagement, by his sweet will he came to the palace of King Citraketu.(14) Citraketu immediately stood up from his throne and offered him worship. He offered drinking water and eatables and in this way performed his duty as a host to a great guest. When the ṛṣi was seated very comfortably, the King, re straining his mind and senses, sat on the ground at the side of the ṛṣi’s feet.(15)

O King Parīkṣit, when Citraketu, bent low in humility, was seated at the lotus feet of the great sage, the sage congratulated him for his humility and hospitality. The sage addressed him in the fol lowing words.(16) The great sage Aṅgirā said: My dear King, I hope that your body and mind and your royal associates and paraphernalia are well. When the seven properties of material nature [the total material energy, the ego and the five objects of sense gratification] are in proper order, the liv ing entity within the material elements is happy. Without these seven elements one can not exist. Similarly, a king is always protected by seven elementshis instructor (svāmī or guru), his ministers, his kingdom, his fort, his treasury, his royal order and his friends.(17) O King, O lord of humanity, when a king directly depends upon his associates and follows their instructions, he is happy. Similarly, when his associates offer their gifts and activities to the king and follow his orders, they are also happy.(18)

O King, are your wives, citizens, secretaries and servants and the merchants who sell spices and oil under your control? Are you also in full control of ministers, the inhabitants of your palace, your provincial governors, your sons and your other dependents?(19) If the king’s mind is fully controlled, all his family members and governmental officers are subor dinate to him. His provincial governors present taxes on time, without resistance, and what to speak of lesser servants?(20) O King Citraketu, I can observe that your mind is not pleased. You seem not to have achieved your desired goal. Is this because of you yourself, or has it been caused by others? Your pale face reflects your deep anxiety.(21) Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King Parīkṣit, although the great sage Aṅgirā knew every thing, he inquired from the King in this way. Thus King Citraketu, desiring a son, bent low in great humility and spoke to the great sage as follows.(22)

King Citraketu said: O great lord Aṅgirā, be cause of austerity, knowledge and transcenden tal samādhi, you are freed from all the reactions of sinful life. Therefore, as a perfect yogī, you can understand everything external and internal regarding embodied, conditioned souls like us.(23) O great soul, you are aware of every thing, yet you are asking me why I am full of anxiety. Therefore, in response to your order, let me disclose the cause.(24) As a person ag grieved by hunger and thirst is not pleased by the external gratification of flower garlands or sandalwood pulp, I am not pleased with my em pire, opulence or possessions, which are desir able even for great demigods, because I have no son.(25) Therefore, O great sage, please save me and my forefathers, who are descend ing to the darkness of hell because I have no progeny. Kindly do something so that I may have a son to deliver us from hellish condi tions.(26)

In response to the request of Mahārāja Citraketu, AṅgirāṚṣi, who was born of Lord Brahmā’s mind, was very merciful toward him. Because the sage was a greatly powerful per sonality, he performed a sacrifice by offering oblations of sweetrice to Tvaṣṭā.(27) O Parīkṣit Mahārāja, best of the Bhāratas, the remnants of the food offered in the yajña were given by the great sage Aṅgirā to the first and most perfect among Citraketu’s millions of queens, whose name was Kṛtadyuti.(28) Thereafter, the great sage told the King, “O great King, now you will have a son who will be the cause of both jubi lation and lamentation.” The sage then left, without waiting for Citraketu’s response.(29) As Kṛttikādevī, after receiving the semen of Lord Śiva from Agni, conceived a child named Skanda [Kārttikeya], Kṛtadyuti, having re ceived semen from Citraketu, became pregnant after eating remnants of food from the yajña performed by Aṅgirā.(30)

After receiving se men from Mahārāja Citraketu, the King of Śūrasena, Queen Kṛtadyuti gradually devel oped in her pregnancy, O King Parīkṣit, just as the moon develops during the bright fort night.(31) Thereafter, in due course of time, a son was born to the King. Hearing news of this, all the inhabitants of the state of Śūrasena were extremely pleased.(32) King Citraketu was es pecially pleased. After purifying himself by bathing and by decorating himself with orna ments, he engaged learned brāhmaṇas in offer ing benedictions to the child and performing the birth ceremony.(33) Unto the brāhmaṇas who took part in the ritualistic ceremony the King gave charity of gold, silver, garments, or naments, villages, horses and elephants, as well as sixty crores of cows [six hundred million cows].(34)

As a cloud indiscriminately pours water on the earth, the beneficent King Citraketu, to increase the reputation, opulence and longevity of his son, distributed like rain fall all desirable things to everyone.(35) When a poor man gets some money after great diffi culty, his affection for the money increases daily. Similarly, when King Citraketu, after great difficulty, received a son, his affection for the son increased day after day.(36) The mother’s attraction and attention to the son, like that of the child’s father, excessively increased. The other wives, seeing Kṛtadyuti’s son, were very much agitated, as if by high fevers, with a desire to have sons.(37) As King Citraketu fos tered his son very carefully, his affection for Queen Kṛtadyuti increased, but gradually he lost affection for the other wives, who had no sons.(38)

The other queens were extremely un happy due to their being sonless. Because of the King’s negligence toward them, they con demned themselves in envy and lamented.(39) A wife who has no sons is neglected at home by her husband and dishonored by her co-wives exactly like a maidservant. Certainly such a woman is condemned in every respect because of her sinful life.(40) Even maidservants who are constantly engaged in rendering service to the husband are honored by the husband, and thus they have nothing for which to lament. Our position, however, is that we are maidservants of the maidservant. Therefore we are most un fortunate.(41) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī contin ued: Being neglected by their husband and see ing Kṛtadyuti’s opulence in possessing a son, Kṛtadyuti’s co-wives always burned in envy, which became extremely strong.(42) As their envy increased, they lost their intelligence. Be ing extremely hardhearted and unable to toler ate the King’s neglect, they finally adminis tered poison to the son.(43)

Unaware of the poi son administered by her co-wives, Queen Kṛtadyuti walked within the house, thinking that her son was sleeping deeply. She did not understand that he was dead.(44) Thinking that her child had been sleeping for a long time, Queen Kṛtadyuti, who was certainly very intel ligent, ordered the nurse, “My dear friend, please bring my son here.” (45) When the mjaidservant approached the child, who was ly ing down, she saw that his eyes were turned up ward. There were no signs of life, all his senses having stopped, and she could understand that the child was dead. Seeing this, she immedi ately cried, “Now I am doomed,” and fell to the ground.(46) In great agitation, the maidservant struck her breast with both hands and cried loudly in re gretful words. Hearing her loud voice, the Queen immediately came, and when she ap proached her son, she saw that he was suddenly dead.(47)

In great lamentation, her hair and dress in disarray, the Queen fell to the ground unconscious.(48) O King Parīkṣit, hearing the loud crying, all the inhabitants of the palace came, both men and women. Being equally ag grieved, they also began to cry. The queens who had administered the poison also cried pre tentiously, knowing full well their offense.(49) When King Citraketu heard of his son’s death from unknown causes, he became almost blind. Because of his great affection for his son, his lamentation grew like a blazing fire, and as he went to see the dead child, he kept slipping and falling on the ground. Surrounded by his min isters and other officers and the learned brāhmaṇas present, the King approached and fell unconscious at the child’s feet, his hair and dress scattered. When the King, breathing heavily, regained consciousness, his eyes were tearful, and he could not speak.(50-51)

When the Queen saw her husband, King Citraketu, merged in great lamentation and saw the dead child, who was the only son in the family, she lamented in various ways. This increased the pain in the cores of the hearts of all the inhabit ants of the palace, the ministers and all the brāhmaṇas.(52) The garland of flowers deco rating the Queen’s head fell, and her hair scat tered. Falling tears melted the collyrium on her eyes and moistened her breasts, which were covered with kuṅkuma powder. As she la mented the loss of her son, her loud crying re sembled the sweet sound of a kurarī bird.(53) Alas, O Providence, O Creator, You are cer tainly inexperienced in creation, for during the lifetime of a father You have caused the death of his son, thus acting in opposition to Your creative laws. If You are determined to contra dict these laws, You are certainly the enemy of living entities and are never merciful.(54)

My Lord, You may say that there is no law that a father must die in the lifetime of his son and that a son must be born in the lifetime of his father, since everyone lives and dies according to his own fruitive activity. However, if fruitive activity is so strong that birth and death depend upon it, there is no need of a controller, or God. Again, if You say that a controller is needed be cause the material energy does not have the power to act, one may answer that if the bonds of affection You have created are disturbed by fruitive action, no one will raise children with affection; instead, everyone will cruelly neglect his children. Since You have cut the bonds of affection that compel a parent to raise his child, You appear inexperienced and unintelli gent.(55)

My dear son, I am helpless and very much aggrieved. You should not give up my company. Just look at your lamenting father. We are helpless because without a son we shall have to suffer the distress of going to the dark est hellish regions. You are the only hope by which we can get out of these dark regions. Therefore I request you not to go any further with the merciless Yama.(56) My dear son, you have slept a long time. Now please get up. Your playmates are calling you to play. Since you must be very hungry, please get up and suck my breast and dissipate our lamentation.(57)

My dear son, I am certainly most unfortu nate, for I can no longer see your mild smiling. You have closed your eyes forever. I therefore conclude that you have been taken from this planet to another, from which you will not re turn. My dear son, I can no longer hear your pleasing voice.(58) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Accom panied by his wife, who was thus lamenting for her dead son, King Citraketu began crying loudly with an open mouth, being greatly ag grieved.(59) As the King and Queen lamented, all their male and female followers joined them in crying. Because of the sudden accident, all the citizens of the kingdom were almost uncon scious.(60) When the great sage Aṅgirāunder stood that the King was almost dead in an ocean of lamentation, he went there with Nārada Ṛṣi.(61)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King Parīkṣit, who are so charitably disposed, when Vṛtrāsura was killed, all the presiding deities and every one else in the three planetary systems was im mediately pleased and free from troubleevery one, that is, except Indra.(1) Thereafter, the demigods, the great saintly persons, the inhab itants of Pitṛloka and Bhūtaloka, the demons, the followers of the demigods, and also Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva and the demigods subordi nate to Indra all returned to their respective homes. While departing, however, no one spoke to Indra.(2) Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: O great sage, what was the reason for Indra’s unhappiness? I wish to hear about this. When he killed Vṛtrāsura, all the demigods were extremely happy. Why, then, was Indra himself unhappy?(3) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī answered: When all the great sages and demigods were disturbed by the extraordinary power of Vṛtrāsura, they had assembled to ask Indra to kill him. Indra, how ever, being afraid of killing a brāhmaṇa, de clined their request.(4)

King Indra replied: When I killed Viśvarūpa, I received extensive sinful reac tions, but I was favored by the women, land, trees and water, and therefore I was able to di vide the sin among them. But now if I kill Vṛtrāsura, another brāhmaṇa, how shall I free myself from the sinful reactions?(5) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: Hearing this, the great sages replied to King Indra, “O King of heaven, all good fortune unto you. Do not fear. We shall perform an aśvamedha sacrifice to release you from any sin you may accrue by killing the brāhmaṇa.”(6) The ṛṣis continued: O King Indra, by performing an aśvamedha sacri fice and thereby pleasing the Supreme Person ality of Godhead, who is the Supersoul, Lord Nārāyaṇa, the supreme controller, one can be relieved even of the sinful reactions for killing the entire world, not to speak of killing a demon like Vṛtrāsura.(7)

One who has killed a brāhmaṇa, one who has killed a cow or one who has killed his father, mother or spiritual master can be immediately freed from all sinful reac tions simply by chanting the holy name of Lord Nārāyaṇa. Other sinful persons, such as dog eaters and caṇḍālas, who are less than śūdras, can also be freed in this way. But you are a dev otee, and we shall help you by performing the great horse sacrifice. If you please Lord Nārāyaṇa in that way, why should you be afraid? You will be freed even if you kill the entire universe, including the brāhmaṇas, not to speak of killing a disturbing demon like Vṛtrāsura.(8-9) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: Encouraged by the words of the sages, Indra killed Vṛtrāsura, and when he was killed the sinful reaction for killing a brāhmaṇa [brahma-hatyā] certainly took shelter of Indra.(10) Following the advice of the demigods, Indra killed Vṛtrāsura, and he suffered because of this sinful killing. Although the other demigods were happy, he could not derive happiness from the killing of Vṛtrāsura. Indra’s other good qualities, such as tolerance and opulence, could not help him in his grief.(11)

Indra saw personified sinful reaction chasing him, appearing like a caṇḍāla woman, a woman of the lowest class. She seemed very old, and all the limbs of her body trembled. Be cause she was afflicted with tuberculosis, her body and garments were covered with blood. Breathing an unbearable fishy odor that pol luted the entire street, she called to Indra, “Wait! Wait!”(12-13) O King, Indra first fled to the sky, but there also he saw the woman of personified sin chasing him. This witch fol lowed him wherever he went. At last he very quickly went to the northeast and entered the Mānasa-sarovara Lake.(14) Always thinking of how he could be relieved from the sinful reac tion for killing a brāhmaṇa, King Indra, invisi ble to everyone, lived in the lake for one thou sand years in the subtle fibers of the stem of a lotus. The fire-god used to bring him his share of all yajñas, but because the fire-god was afraid to enter the water, Indra was practically starving.(15)

As long as King Indra lived in the water, wrapped in the stem of the lotus, Nahuṣa was equipped with the ability to rule the heav enly kingdom, due to his knowledge, austerity and mystic power. Nahuṣa, however, blinded and maddened by power and opulence, made undesirable proposals to Indra’s wife with a de sire to enjoy her. Thus Nahuṣa was cursed by a brāhmaṇa and later became a snake.(16) In dra’s sins were diminished by the influence of Rudra, the demigod of all directions. Because Indra was protected by the goddess of fortune, Lord Viṣṇu’s wife, who resides in the lotus clusters of Mānasa-sarovara Lake, Indra’s sins could not affect him. Indra was ultimately re lieved of all the reactions of his sinful deeds by strictly worshiping Lord Viṣṇu. Then he was called back to the heavenly planets by the brāhmaṇas and reinstated in his position.(17) O King, when Lord Indra reached the heav enly planets, the saintly brāhmaṇas approached him and properly initiated him into a horse sac rifice [aśvamedha-yajña] meant to please the Supreme Lord.(18)

The horse sacrifice per formed by the saintly brāhmaṇas relieved Indra of the reactions to all his sins because he wor shiped the Supreme Personality of Godhead in that sacrifice. O King, although he had commit ted a gravely sinful act, it was nullified at once by that sacrifice, just as fog is vanquished by the brilliant sunrise.(19-20) King Indra was fa vored by Marīci and the other great sages. They performed the sacrifice just according to the rules and regulations, worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the Supersoul, the original person. Thus Indra regained his exalted position and was again honored by every one.(21)

In this very great narrative there is glorifica tion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, there are statements about the exalt edness of devotional service, there are descrip tions of devotees like Indra and Vṛtrāsura, and there are statements about King Indra’s release from sinful life and about his victory in fighting the demons. By understanding this incident, one is relieved of all sinful reactions. Therefore the learned are always advised to read this nar ration. If one does so, one will become expert in the activities of the senses, his opulence will increase, and his reputation will become wide spread. One will also be relieved of all sinful reactions, he will conquer all his enemies, and the duration of his life will increase. Because this narration is auspicious in all respects, learned scholars regularly hear and repeat it on every festival day.( 22-23)  

Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Desiring to give up his body, Vṛtrāsura considered death in the bat tle preferable to victory. O King Parīkṣit, he vigorously took up his trident and with great force attacked Lord Indra, the King of heaven, just as Kaiṭabha had forcefully attacked the Su preme Personality of Godhead when the uni verse was inundated.(1) Then Vṛtrāsura, the great hero of the demons, whirled his trident, which had points like the flames of the blazing fire at the end of the millennium. With great force and anger he threw it at Indra, roaring and exclaiming loudly, “O sinful one, thus shall I kill you!”(2) Flying in the sky, Vṛtrāsura’s tri dent resembled a brilliant meteor. Although the blazing weapon was difficult to look upon, King Indra, unafraid, cut it to pieces with his thunderbolt. Simultaneously, he cut off one of Vṛtrāsura’s arms, which was as thick as the body of Vāsuki, the King of the serpents.(3)

Although one of his arms was severed from his body, Vṛtrāsura angrily approached King Indra and struck him on the jaw with an iron mace. He also struck the elephant that carried Indra. Thus Indra dropped the thunderbolt from his hand.(4) The denizens of various planets, like the demigods, demons, Cāraṇas and Siddhas, praised Vṛtrāsura’s deed, but when they ob served that Indra was in great danger, they la mented, “Alas! Alas!”(5) Having dropped the thunderbolt from his hand in the presence of his enemy, Indra was practically defeated and was very much ashamed. He dared not pick up his weapon again. Vṛtrāsura, however, encouraged him, saying, “Take up your thunderbolt and kill your enemy. This is not the time to lament your fate.”(6)

Vṛtrāsura continued: O Indra, no one is guaranteed of being always victorious but the original enjoyer, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavān. He is the cause of crea tion, maintenance and annihilation, and He knows everything. Being dependent and being obliged to accept material bodies, belligerent subordinates are sometimes victorious and sometimes defeated.(7) All living beings in all the planets of this universe, including the pre siding deities of all the planets, are fully under the control of the Lord. They work like birds caught in a net, who cannot move inde pendently.(8) Our sensory prowess, mental power, bodily strength, living force, immortal ity and mortality are all subject to the superin tendence of the Supreme Personality of God head. Not knowing this, foolish people think the dull material body to be the cause of their activities.(9) O King Indra, as a wooden doll that looks like a woman or as an animal made of grass and leaves cannot move or dance inde pendently, but depends fully on the person who handles it, all of us dance according to the de sire of the supreme controller, the Personality of Godhead. No one is independent.(10)

The three puruṣasKāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇuthe material nature, the total material en ergy, the false ego, the five material elements, the material senses, the mind, the intelligence and consciousness cannot create the material manifestation without the direction of the Su preme Personality of Godhead.(11) A foolish, senseless person cannot understand the Su preme Personality of Godhead. Although al ways dependent, he falsely thinks himself the Supreme. If one thinks, “According to one’s previous fruitive actions, one’s material body is created by the father and mother, and the same body is annihilated by another agent, as another animal is devoured by a tiger,” this is not proper understanding. The Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself creates and devours the liv ing beings through other living beings.(12)

Just as a person not inclined to die must nonetheless give up his longevity, opulence, fame and eve rything else at the time of death, so, at the ap pointed time of victory, one can gain all these when the Supreme Lord awards them by His mercy.(13) Since everything is dependent on the supreme will of the Personality of Godhead, one should be equipoised in fame and defama tion, victory and defeat, life and death. In their effects, represented as happiness and distress, one should maintain oneself in equilibrium, without anxiety.(14) One who knows that the three qualitiesgoodness, passion and igno ranceare not qualities of the soul but qualities of material nature, and who knows that the pure soul is simply an observer of the actions and re actions of these qualities, should be understood to be a liberated person. He is not bound by these qualities.(15) O my enemy, just look at me. I have already been defeated, for my weapon and arm have been cut to pieces. You have already overwhelmed me, but nonethe less, with a desire to kill you, I am trying my best to fight. I am not at all morose, even under such adverse conditions. Therefore you should give up your moroseness and continue fighting.(16)

O my enemy, consider this battle a gambling match in which our lives are the stakes, the arrows are the dice, and the animals acting as carriers are the game board. No one can understand who will be defeated and who will be victorious. It all depends on provi dence.(17) Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Hearing the straightforward, instructive words of Vṛtrāsura, King Indra praised him and again took the thun derbolt in his hand. Without bewilderment or duplicity, he then smiled and spoke to Vṛtrāsura as follows.(18) Indra said: O great demon, I see by your dis crimination and endurance in devotional ser vice, despite your dangerous position, that you are a perfect devotee of the Supreme Personal ity of Godhead, the Supersoul and friend of everyone.(19) You have surmounted the illu sory energy of Lord Viṣṇu, and because of this liberation, you have given up the demoniac mentality and have attained the position of an exalted devotee.(20)

O Vṛtrāsura, demons are generally conducted by the mode of passion. Therefore, what a great wonder it is that alt hough you are a demon, you have adopted the mentality of a devotee and have fixed your mind on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva, who is always situated in pure good ness.(21) A person fixed in the devotional ser vice of the Supreme Lord, Hari, the Lord of the highest auspiciousness, swims in the ocean of nectar. For him what is the use of the water in small ditches?(22) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: Vṛtrāsura and King Indra spoke about devotional service even on the battlefield, and then as a matter of duty they again began fighting. My dear King, both of them were great fighters and were equally powerful.(23) O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, Vṛtrāsura, who was completely able to subdue his enemy, took his iron club, whirled it around, aimed it at Indra and then threw it at him with his left hand.(24) With his thunderbolt named Śatapar van, Indra simultaneously cut to pieces Vṛtrāsura’s club and his remaining hand.(25)

Vṛtrāsura, bleeding profusely, his two arms cut off at their roots, looked very beautiful, like a flying mountain whose wings have been cut to pieces by Indra.(26) Vṛtrāsura was very power ful in physical strength and influence. He placed his lower jaw on the ground and his up per jaw in the sky. His mouth became very deep, like the sky itself, and his tongue resem bled a large serpent. With his fearful, deathlike teeth, he seemed to be trying to devour the en tire universe. Thus assuming a gigantic body, the great demon Vṛtrāsura shook even the mountains and began crushing the surface of the earth with his legs, as if he were the Himālayas walking about. He came before In dra and swallowed him and Airāvata, his car rier, just as a big python might swallow an ele phant.( 27-29) When the demigods, along with Brahmā, other prajāpatis and other great saintly persons, saw that Indra had been swallowed by the demon, they became very morose. “Alas,” they lamented. “What a calamity! What a ca lamity!”(30)

The protective armor of Nārāyaṇa, which Indra possessed, was identical with Nārāyaṇa Himself, the Supreme Personal ity of Godhead. Protected by that armor and by his own mystic power, King Indra, although swallowed by Vṛtrāsura, did not die within the demon’s belly.(31) With his thunderbolt, King Indra, who was also extremely powerful, pierced through Vṛtrāsura’s abdomen and came out. Indra, the killer of the demon Bala, then immediately cut off Vṛtrāsura’s head, which was as high as the peak of a mountain.(32) Alt hough the thunderbolt revolved around Vṛtrāsura’s neck with great speed, separating his head from his body took one complete year360 days, the time in which the sun, moon and other luminaries complete a northern and southern journey. Then, at the suitable time for Vṛtrāsura to be killed, his head fell to the ground.(33) When Vṛtrāsura was killed, the Gandharvas and Siddhas in the heavenly plan ets beat kettledrums in jubilation. With Vedic hymns they celebrated the prowess of Indra, the killer of Vṛtrāsura, praising Indra and shower ing flowers upon him with great pleasure.(34) O King Parīkṣit, subduer of enemies, the living spark then came forth from Vṛtrāsura’s body and returned home, back to Godhead. While all the demigods looked on, he entered the tran scendental world to become an associate of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa.(35)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: O King, Vṛtrāsura, the commander in chief of the demons, advised his lieutenants in the principles of religion, but the cowardly demoniac com manders, intent upon fleeing the battlefield, were so disturbed by fear that they could not accept his words.(1) O King Parīkṣit, the dem igods, taking advantage of a favorable oppor tunity presented by time, attacked the army of the demons from the rear and began driving away the demoniac soldiers, scattering them here and there as if their army had no leader. Seeing the pitiable condition of his soldiers, Vṛtrāsura, the best of the asuras, who was called Indraśatru, the enemy of Indra, was very much aggrieved. Unable to tolerate such re verses, he stopped and forcefully rebuked the demigods, speaking the following words in an angry mood.(2-3)

O demigods, these demoniac soldiers have taken birth uselessly. Indeed, they have come from the bodies of their mothers ex actly like stool. What is the benefit of killing such enemies from behind while they are run ning in fear? One who considers himself a hero should not kill an enemy who is afraid of losing his life. Such killing is never glorious, nor can it promote one to the heavenly planets.(4) O in significant demigods, if you truly have faith in your heroism, if you have patience in the cores of your hearts and if you are not ambitious for sense gratification, please stand before me for a moment.(5) Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: Vṛtrāsura, the an gry and most powerful hero, terrified the dem igods with his stout and strongly built body. When he roared with a resounding voice, nearly all living entities fainted.(6)

When all the dem igods heard Vṛtrāsura’s tumultuous roar, which resembled that of a lion, they fainted and fell to the ground as if struck by thunderbolts.(7) As the demigods closed their eyes in fear, Vṛtrāsura, taking up his trident and making the earth tremble with his great strength, trampled the demigods beneath his feet on the battlefield the way a mad elephant tramples hollow bam boos in the forest.(8) Seeing Vṛtrāsura’s dispo sition, Indra, the King of heaven, became intol erant and threw at him one of his great clubs, which are extremely difficult to counteract. However, as the club flew toward him, Vṛtrāsura easily caught it with his left hand.(9) O King Parīkṣit, the powerful Vṛtrāsura, the en emy of King Indra, angrily struck the head of Indra’s elephant with that club, making a tu multuous sound on the battlefield. For this he roic deed, the soldiers on both sides glorified him.(10)

Struck with the club by Vṛtrāsura like a mountain struck by a thunderbolt, the ele phant Airāvata, feeling great pain and spitting blood from its broken mouth, was pushed back fourteen yards. In great distress, the elephant fell, with Indra on its back.(11) When he saw Indra’s carrier elephant thus fatigued and injured and when he saw Indra morose because his carrier had been harmed in that way, the great soul Vṛtrāsura, following re ligious principles, refrained from again striking Indra with the club. Taking this opportunity, In dra touched the elephant with his nectar-pro ducing hand, thus relieving the animal’s pain and curing its injuries. Then the elephant and Indra both stood silently.(12) O King, when the great hero Vṛtrāsura saw Indra, his enemy, the killer of his brother, standing before him with a thunderbolt in his hand, desiring to fight, Vṛtrāsura remembered how Indra had cruelly killed his brother. Thinking of Indra’s sinful ac tivities, he became mad with lamentation and forgetfulness. Laughing sarcastically, he spoke as follows.(13)

Śrī Vṛtrāsura said: He who has killed a brāhmaṇa, he who has killed his spiritual mas terindeed, he who has killed my brotheris now, by good fortune, standing before me face to face as my enemy. O most abominable one, when I pierce your stonelike heart with my tri dent, I shall be freed from my debt to my brother.(14) Only for the sake of living in the heavenly planets, you killed my elder brothera self-realized, sinless, qualified brāhmaṇa who had been appointed your chief priest. He was your spiritual master, but although you en trusted him with the performance of your sacri fice, you later mercilessly severed his heads from his body the way one butchers an ani mal.(15) Indra, you are bereft of all shame, mercy, glory and good fortune. Deprived of these good qualities by the reactions of your fruitive activities, you are to be condemned even by the man-eaters [Rākṣasas]. Now I shall pierce your body with my trident, and after you die with great pain, even fire will not touch you; only the vultures will eat your body.(16)

You are naturally cruel. If the other demigods, una ware of my prowess, follow you by attacking me with raised weapons, I shall sever their heads with this sharp trident. With those heads I shall perform a sacrifice to Bhairava and the other leaders of the ghosts, along with their hordes.(17) But if in this battle you cut off my head with your thunderbolt and kill my sol diers, O Indra, O great hero, I shall take great pleasure in offering my body to other living en tities [such as jackals and vultures]. I shall thus be relieved of my obligations to the reactions of my karma, and my fortune will be to receive the dust from the lotus feet of great devotees like Nārada Muni.(18)

O King of the demigods, since I, your enemy, am standing before you, why don’t you hurl your thunderbolt at me? Although your attack upon me with your club was certainly useless, like a request of money from a miser, the thunderbolt you carry will not be useless. You need have no doubts about this.(19) O Indra, King of heaven, the thunder bolt you carry to kill me has been empowered by the prowess of Lord Viṣṇu and the strength of Dadhīci’s austerities. Since you have come here to kill me in accordance with Lord Viṣṇu’s order, there is no doubt that I shall be killed by the release of your thunderbolt. Lord Viṣṇu has sided with you. Therefore your victory, opu lence and all good qualities are assured.(20) By the force of your thunderbolt, I shall be freed of material bondage and shall give up this body and this world of material desires. Fixing my mind upon the lotus feet of Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa, I shall attain the destination of such great sages as Nārada Muni, just as Lord Saṅkarṣaṇa has said.(21)

Persons who fully surrender at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and al ways think of His lotus feet are accepted and recognized by the Lord as His own personal as sistants or servants. The Lord never bestows upon such servants the brilliant opulences of the upper, lower and middle planetary systems of this material world. When one possesses ma terial opulence in any of these three divisions of the universe, his possessions naturally in crease his enmity, anxiety, mental agitation, pride and belligerence. Thus one goes through much endeavor to increase and maintain his possessions, and he suffers great unhappiness when he loses them.(22) Our Lord, the Su preme Personality of Godhead, forbids His devotees to endeavor uselessly for religion, economic development and sense gratification. O Indra, one can thus infer how kind the Lord is. Such mercy is obtainable only by unalloyed devotees, not by persons who aspire for mate rial gains.(23)

O my Lord, O Supreme Personality of God head, will I again be able to be a servant of Your eternal servants who find shelter only at Your lotus feet? O Lord of my life, may I again become their servant so that my mind may al ways think of Your transcendental attributes, my words always glorify those attributes, and my body always engage in the loving service of Your Lordship?(24) O my Lord, source of all opportunities, I do not desire to enjoy in Dhru valoka, the heavenly planets or the planet where Lord Brahmā resides, nor do I want to be the supreme ruler of all the earthly planets or the lower planetary systems. I do not desire to be master of the powers of mystic yoga, nor do I want liberation if I have to give up Your lotus feet.(25)

O lotus-eyed Lord, as baby birds that have not yet developed their wings always look for their mother to return and feed them, as small calves tied with ropes await anxiously the time of milking, when they will be allowed to drink the milk of their mothers, or as a morose wife whose husband is away from home always longs for him to return and satisfy her in all re spects, I always yearn for the opportunity to render direct service unto You.(26) O my Lord, my master, I am wandering throughout this ma terial world as a result of my fruitive activities. Therefore I simply seek friendship in the asso ciation of Your pious and enlightened devotees. My attachment to my body, wife, children and home is continuing by the spell of Your exter nal energy, but I wish to be attached to them no longer. Let my mind, my consciousness and everything I have be attached only to You.(27)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: After instruct ing Indra in this way, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, the cause of the cosmic man ifestation, then and there disappeared from the presence of the onlooking demigods.(1) O King Parīkṣit, following the Lord’s instructions, the demigods approached Dadhīci, the son of Atharvā. He was very liberal, and when they begged him to give them his body, he at once partially agreed. However, just to hear religious instructions from them, he smiled and jokingly spoke as follows.(2) O elevated demigods, at the time of death, severe, unbearable pain takes away the consciousness of all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Don’t you know about this pain?(3)

In this material world, every living entity is very much addicted to his material body. Struggling to keep his body for ever, everyone tries to protect it by all means, even at the sacrifice of all his possessions. Therefore, who would be prepared to deliver his body to anyone, even if it were demanded by Lord Viṣṇu?(4) The demigods replied: O exalted brāhmaṇa, pious persons like you, whose activities are praiseworthy, are very kind and affectionate to people in general. What can’t such pious souls give for the benefit of others? They can give everything, including their bodies.(5) Those who are too self-interested beg something from others, not knowing of others’ pain. But if the beggar knew the difficulty of the giver, he would not ask for anything. Similarly, he who is able to give charity does not know the beg gar’s difficulty, for otherwise he would not re fuse to give the beggar anything he might want as charity.(6)

The great sage Dadhīci said: Just to hear from you about religious principles, I refused to offer my body at your request. Now, although my body is extremely dear to me, I must give it up for your better purposes since I know that it will leave me today or tomorrow. O demigods, one who has no compassion for humanity in its suffering and does not sacrifice his impermanent body for the higher causes of religious principles or eternal glory is certainly pitied even by the immovable beings.(8) If one is unhappy to see the distress of other living be ings and happy to see their happiness, his reli gious principles are appreciated as imperisha ble by exalted persons who are considered pi ous and benevolent.(9) This body, which is eat able by jackals and dogs after death, does not actually do any good for me, the spirit soul. It is usable only for a short time and may perish at any moment. The body and its possessions, its riches and relatives, must all be engaged for the benefit of others, or else they will be sources of tribulation and misery.(10)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: Dadhīci Muni, the son of Atharvā, thus resolved to give his body to the service of the demigods. He placed himself, the spirit soul, at the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and in this way gave up his gross material body made of five elements.(11) Dadhīci Muni controlled his senses, life force, mind and intelligence and be came absorbed in trance. Thus he cut all his ma terial bonds. He could not perceive how his ma terial body became separated from his self.(12) Thereafter, King Indra very firmly took up the thunderbolt manufactured by Viśvakarmā from the bones of Dadhīci. Charged with the exalted power of Dadhīci Muni and enlightened by the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Indra rode on the back of his carrier, Airāvata, surrounded by all the demigods, while all the great sages offered him praise. Thus he shone very beautifully, pleasing the three worlds as he rode off to kill Vṛtrāsura.(13-14)

My dear King Parīkṣit, as Rudra, being very angry at Antaka [Yamarāja] had formerly run toward Antaka to kill him, Indra angrily and with great force at tacked Vṛtrāsura, who was surrounded by the leaders of the demoniac armies.(15) Thereafter, at the end of Satya-yuga and the beginning of Tretā-yuga, a fierce battle took place between the demigods and the demons on the bank of the Narmadā.(16) O King, when all the asuras came onto the battlefield, headed by Vṛtrāsura, they saw King Indra carrying the thunderbolt and surrounded by the Rudras, Vasus, Ādityas, Aśvinī-kumāras, Pitās, Vahnis, Maruts, Ṛbhus, Sādhyas and Viśvadevas. Surrounded by his company, Indra shone so brightly that his efful gence was intolerable to the demons.(17-18)

Many hundreds and thousands of demons, demi-demons, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas [man-eaters] and others, headed by Sumāli and Māli, resisted the armies of King Indra, which even death per sonified cannot easily overcome. Among the demons were Namuci, Śambara, Anarvā, Dvimūrdhā, Ṛṣabha, Asura, Hayagrīva, Śaṅkuśirā, Vipracitti, Ayomukha, Pulomā, Vṛṣaparvā, Praheti, Heti and Utkala. Roaring tumultuously and fearlessly like lions, these in vincible demons, all dressed in golden orna ments, gave pain to the demigods with weapons like clubs, bludgeons, arrows, barbed darts, mallets and lances.(19-22) Armed with lances, tridents, axes, swords and other weapons like śataghnīs and bhuśuṇḍis, the demons attacked from different directions and scattered all the chiefs of the demigod armies.(23)

As the stars in the sky cannot be seen when covered by dense clouds, the demigods, being completely covered by networks of arrows falling upon them one after another, could not be seen.(24) The showers of various weapons and arrows re leased to kill the soldiers of the demigods did not reach them because the demigods, acting quickly, cut the weapons into thousands of pieces in the sky.(25) As their weapons and mantras decreased, the demons began shower ing mountain peaks, trees and stones upon the demigod soldiers, but the demigods were so powerful and expert that they nullified all these weapons by breaking them to pieces in the sky as before.(26) When the soldiers of the demons, com manded by Vṛtrāsura, saw that the soldiers of King Indra were quite well, having not been in jured at all by their volleys of weapons, not even by the trees, stones and mountain peaks, the demons were very much afraid.(27)

When insignificant persons use rough words to cast false, angry accusations against saintly persons, their fruitless words do not disturb the great personalities. Similarly, all the efforts of the de mons against the demigods, who were favora bly situated under the protection of Kṛṣṇa, were futile.(28) The asuras, who are never devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, lost their pride in fighting when they found all their endeavors futile. Leaving aside their leader even in the very beginning of the fight, they decided to flee because all their prowess had been taken away by the en emy.(29) Seeing his army broken and all the asuras, even those known as great heroes, flee ing the battlefield out of intense fear, Vṛtrāsura, who was truly a great-minded hero, smiled and spoke the following words. (30)

According to his position and the time and circumstances, Vṛtrāsura, the hero among heroes, spoke words that were much to be appreciated by thoughtful men. He called to the heroes of the demons, “O Vipracitti! O Namuci! O Pulomā! O Maya, Anarvā and Śambara! Please hear me and do not flee.”(31) Vṛtrāsura said: All living entities who have taken birth in this material world must die. Surely, no one in this world has found any means to be saved from death. Even provi dence has not provided a means to escape it. Under the circumstances, death being inevita ble, if one can gain promotion to the higher planetary systems and be always celebrated here by dying a suitable death, what man will not accept such a glorious death?(32) There are two ways to meet a glorious death, and both are very rare. One is to die after performing mystic yoga, especially bhakti-yoga, by which one can control the mind and living force and die ab sorbed in thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The second is to die on the battle field, leading the army and never showing one’s back. These two kinds of death are rec ommended in the śāstra as glorious.(33)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Viśvarūpa, who was engaged as the priest of the demigods, had three heads. He used one to drink the beverage soma-rasa, another to drink wine and the third to eat food. O King Parīkṣit, thus I have heard from authorities.(1) O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the demigods were related to Viśvarūpa from his father’s side, and therefore he visibly offered clarified butter in the fire while chanting mantras such as indrāya idaṁ svāhā [“this is meant for King Indra”] and idam agnaye [“this is for the demigod of fire”]. He loudly chanted these mantras and offered each of the demigods his proper share.(2)

Although offering clarified butter in the sacrificial fire in the name of the demigods, without the knowledge of the demigods he also offered ob lations to the demons because they were his rel atives through his mother.(3) Once upon a time, however, the King of heaven, Indra, understood that Viśvarūpa was secretly cheating the demi gods by offering oblations on behalf of the de mons. He became extremely afraid of being de feated by the demons, and in great anger at Viśvarūpa he cut Viśvarūpa’s three heads from his shoulders.(4) Thereafter, the head meant for drinking soma-rasa was transformed into a ka piñjala [francolin partridge]. Similarly, the head meant for drinking wine was transformed into a kalaviṅka [sparrow], and the head meant for eating food became a tittiri [common par tridge].(5)

Although Indra was so powerful that he could neutralize the sinful reactions for kill ing a brāhmaṇa, he repentantly accepted the burden of these reactions with folded hands. He suffered for one year, and then to purify himself he distributed the reactions for this sinful kill ing among the earth, water, trees and women.(6) In return for King Indra’s benedic tion that ditches in the earth would be filled au tomatically, the land accepted one fourth of the sinful reactions for killing a brāhmaṇa. Because of those sinful reactions, we find many deserts on the surface of the earth.(7) In return for In dra’s benediction that their branches and twigs would grow back when trimmed, the trees ac cepted one fourth of the reactions for killing a brāhmaṇa. These reactions are visible in the flowing of sap from trees. [Therefore one is for bidden to drink this sap.](8)

In return for Lord Indra’s benediction that they would be able to enjoy lusty desires continuously, even during pregnancy for as long as sex is not injurious to the embryo, women accepted one fourth of the sinful reactions. As a result of those reactions, women manifest the signs of menstruation every month.(9) And in return for King Indra’s benediction that water would increase the vol ume of other substances with which it was mixed, water accepted one fourth of the sinful reactions. Therefore there are bubbles and foam in water. When one collects water, these should be avoided.(10) After Viśvarūpa was killed, his father, Tvaṣṭā, performed ritualistic ceremonies to kill Indra. He offered oblations in the sacrificial fire, saying, “O enemy of Indra, flourish to kill your enemy without delay.”(11) Thereafter, from the southern side of the sacrificial fire known as Anvāhārya came a fearful personality who looked like the destroyer of the entire cre ation at the end of the millennium.(12)

Like ar rows released in the four directions, the de mon’s body grew, day after day. Tall and black ish, he appeared like a burnt hill and was as lus trous as a bright array of clouds in the evening. The hair on the demon’s body and his beard and moustache were the color of melted copper, and his eyes were piercing like the midday sun. He appeared unconquerable, as if holding the three worlds on the points of his blazing trident. Dancing and shouting with a loud voice, he made the entire surface of the earth tremble as if from an earthquake. As he yawned again and again, he seemed to be trying to swallow the whole sky with his mouth, which was as deep as a cave. He seemed to be licking up all the stars in the sky with his tongue and eating the entire universe with his long, sharp teeth. See ing this gigantic demon, everyone, in great fear, ran here and there in all directions.(13-17) That very fearful demon, who was actually the son of Tvaṣṭā, covered all the planetary systems by dint of austerity. Therefore he was named Vṛtra, or one who covers everything.(18)

The demigods, headed by Indra, charged the demon with their soldiers, striking him with their own transcendental bows and arrows and other weapons but Vṛtrāsura swallowed all their weapons.(19) Struck with wonder and disap pointment upon seeing the strength of the de mon, the demigods lost their own strength. Therefore they all met together to try to please the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of God head, Nārāyaṇa, by worshiping Him.(20) The demigods said: The three worlds are created by the five elementsnamely ether, air, fire, water and earthwhich are controlled by various demigods, beginning from Lord Brahmā. Being very much afraid that the time factor will end our existence, we offer presen tations unto time by performing our work as time dictates. The time factor himself, how ever, is afraid of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore let us now worship that Supreme Lord, who alone can give us full pro tection.(21)

Free from all material conceptions of existence and never wonder-struck by any thing, the Lord is always jubilant and fully sat isfied by His own spiritual perfection. He has no material designations, and therefore He is steady and unattached. That Supreme Personal ity of Godhead is the only shelter of everyone. Anyone desiring to be protected by others is certainly a great fool who desires to cross the sea by holding the tail of a dog.(22) The Manu named King Satyavrata formerly saved himself by tying the small boat of the entire world to the horn of the Matsya avatāra, the fish incar nation. By the grace of the Matsya avatāra, Manu saved himself from the great danger of the flood. May that same fish incarnation save us from the great and fearful danger caused by the son of Tvaṣṭā.(23) In the beginning of crea tion, a tremendous wind caused fierce waves of inundating water. The great waves made such a horrible sound that Lord Brahmā almost fell from his seat on the lotus into the water of dev astation, but he was saved with the help of the Lord. Thus we also expect the Lord to protect us from this dangerous condition.(24)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who created us by His external potency and by whose mercy we expand the creation of the universe, is al ways situated before us as the Supersoul, but we cannot see His form. We are unable to see Him because all of us think that we are separate and independent gods.(25) By His inconceivable internal potency, the Supreme Personality of Godhead expands into various transcenden tal bodies as Vāmanadeva, the incarnation of strength among the demigods; Paraśurāma, the incarnation among saints; Nṛsiṁhadeva and Varāha, incarnations among animals; and Mat sya and Kūrma, incarnations among aquatics. He accepts various transcendental bodies among all types of living entities, and among human beings He especially appears as Lord Kṛṣṇa and Lord Rāma. By His causeless mercy, He protects the demigods, who are always har assed by the demons. He is the supreme wor shipable Deity of all living entities. He is the supreme cause, represented as the male and fe male creative energies. Although different from this universe, He exists in His universal form [virāṭ-rūpa]. In our fearful condition, let us take shelter of Him, for we are sure that the Supreme Lord, the Supreme Soul, will give us His protection.(26-27)

ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear King, when all the demigods offered Him their pray ers, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Hari, carrying His weapons, the conchshell, disc and club, appeared first within their hearts and then before them.(28) Surrounding and serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, were sixteen personal attendants, decorated with ornaments and appearing ex actly like Him but without the mark of Śrīvatsa and the Kaustubha jewel. O King, when all the demigods saw the Supreme Lord in that pos ture, smiling with eyes like the petals of lotuses grown in autumn, they were overwhelmed with happiness and immediately fell down like rods, offering daṇḍavats. Then they slowly rose and pleased the Lord by offering Him prayers.(29 30)

The demigods said: O Supreme Personality of Godhead, You are competent to give the results of sacrifice, and You are also the time factor that destroys all such results in due course. You are the one who releases the cakra to kill the demons. O Lord, who possess many varie ties of names, we offer our respectful obei sances unto You.(31) O supreme controller, You control the three destinations [promotion to the heavenly planets, birth as a human being, and condemnation in hell], yet Your supreme abode is Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma. Since we appeared after You created this cosmic manifestation, Your activities are impossible for us to under stand. We therefore have nothing to offer You but our humble obeisances.(32)

O Supreme Personality of Godhead, O Nārāyaṇa, O Vāsudeva, original person! O most exalted person, supreme experience, wel fare personified! O supreme benediction, supremely merciful and changeless! O support of the cosmic manifestation, sole proprietor of all planetary systems, master of everything and husband of the goddess of fortune! Your Lord ship is realized by the topmost sannyāsīs, who wander about the world to preach Kṛṣṇa con sciousness, fully absorbed in samādhi through bhakti-yoga. Because their minds are concen trated upon You, they can receive the concep tion of Your personality in their fully purified hearts. When the darkness in their hearts is completely eradicated and You are revealed to them, the transcendental bliss they enjoy is the transcendental form of Your Lordship. No one but such persons can realize You. Therefore we simply offer You our respectful obei sances.(33)

O Lord, You need no support, and although You have no material body, You do not need cooperation from us. Since You are the cause of the cosmic manifestation and You supply its material ingredients without being transformed, You create, maintain and annihi late this cosmic manifestation by Yourself. Nevertheless, although You appear engaged in material activity, You are transcendental to all material qualities. Consequently these tran scendental activities of Yours are extremely difficult to understand.(34) These are our in quiries. The ordinary conditioned soul is sub ject to the material laws, and he thus receives the fruits of his actions. Does Your Lordship, like an ordinary human being, exist within this material world in a body produced by the ma terial modes? Do You enjoy or suffer the good or bad results of actions under the influence of time, past work and so forth? Or, on the con trary, are You present here only as a neutral witness who is self-sufficient, free from all ma terial desires, and always full of spiritual po tency? We certainly cannot understand Your actual position.(35)

O Supreme Personality of Godhead, all contradictions can be reconciled in You. O Lord, since You are the Supreme Person, the reservoir of unlimited spiritual qualities, the supreme controller, Your unlim ited glories are inconceivable to the condi tioned souls. Many modern theologians argue about right and wrong without knowing what is actually right. Their arguments are always false and their judgments inconclusive because they have no authorized evidence with which to gain knowledge of You. Because their minds are ag itated by scriptures containing false conclu sions, they are unable to understand the truth concerning You. Furthermore, because of pol luted eagerness to arrive at the right conclusion, their theories are incapable of revealing You, who are transcendental to their material con ceptions. You are one without a second, and therefore in You contradictions like doing and not doing, happiness and distress, are not con tradictory. Your potency is so great that it can do and undo anything as You like. With the help of that potency, what is impossible for You? Since there is no duality in Your consti tutional position, You can do everything by the influence of Your energy.(36)

A rope causes fear for a bewildered person who considers it a snake, but not for a person with proper intelligence who knows it to be only a rope. Simi larly, You, as the Supersoul in everyone’s heart, inspire fear or fearlessness according to one’s intelligence, but in You there is no dual ity.(37) With deliberation, one will see that the Supreme Soul, although manifested in different ways, is actually the basic principle of every thing. The total material energy is the cause of the material manifestation, but the material en ergy is caused by Him. Therefore He is the cause of all causes, the manifester of intelli gence and the senses. He is perceived as the Su persoul of everything. Without Him, every thing would be dead. You, as that Supersoul, the supreme controller, are the only one re maining.(38)

Therefore, O killer of the Madhu demon, incessant transcendental bliss flows in the minds of those who have even once tasted but a drop of the nectar from the ocean of Your glories. Such exalted devotees forget the tiny reflection of so-called material happiness pro duced from the material senses of sight and sound. Free from all desires, such devotees are the real friends of all living entities. Offering their minds unto You and enjoying transcen dental bliss, they are expert in achieving the real goal of life. O Lord, You are the soul and dear friend of such devotees, who never need return to this material world. How could they give up engagement in Your devotional ser vice?(39)

O Lord, O personified three worlds, father of the three worlds! O strength of the three worlds, in the form of the Vāmana incar nation! O three-eyed form of Nṛsiṁhadeva! O most beautiful person within the three worlds! Everything and everyone, including human be ings and even the Daitya demons and the Dāna vas, is but an expansion of Your energy. O su premely powerful one, You have always ap peared in Your forms as the various incarna tions to punish the demons as soon as they be come very powerful. You appear as Lord Vāmanadeva, Lord Rāma and Lord Kṛṣṇa. You appear sometimes as an animal like Lord Boar, sometimes a mixed incarnation like Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva and Lord Hayagrīva, and some times an aquatic like Lord Fish and Lord Tor toise. Assuming such various forms, You have always punished the demons and Dānavas. We therefore pray that Your Lordship appear today as another incarnation, if You so desire, to kill the great demon Vṛtrāsura.(40)

O supreme pro tector, O grandfather, O supreme pure, O Lord! We are all surrendered souls at Your lotus feet. Indeed, our minds are bound to Your lotus feet in meditation by chains of love. Now please manifest Your incarnation. Accepting us as Your own eternal servants and devotees, be pleased with us and sympathetic toward us. By Your love-filled glance, with its cool and pleas ing smile of sympathy, and by the sweet, nec tarean words emanating from Your beautiful face, free us from the anxiety caused by this Vṛtrāsura, who always pains the cores of our hearts.(41)

O Lord, as the small sparks of a fire cannot possibly perform the actions of the whole fire, we sparks of Your Lordship cannot inform You of the necessities of our lives. You are the complete whole. Therefore, of what do we need to inform You? You know everything because You are the original cause of the cos mic manifestation, the maintainer and the anni hilator of the entire universal creation. You al ways engage in Your pastimes with Your spir itual and material energies, for You are the con troller of all these varied energies. You exist within all living entities, within the cosmic manifestation, and also beyond them. You exist internally as Parabrahman and externally as the ingredients of the material creation. Therefore, although manifested in various stages, at differ ent times and places, and in various bodies, You, the Personality of Godhead, are the origi nal cause of all causes. Indeed, You are the original element. You are the witness of all ac tivities, but because You are as great as the sky, You are never touched by any of them. You are the witness of everything as Parabrahman and Paramātmā. O Supreme Personality of God head, nothing is unknown to You.(42)

Dear Lord, You are omniscient, and therefore You know very well why we have taken shelter at Your lotus feet, which provide shade that gives relief from all material disturbances. Since You are the supreme spiritual master and You know everything, we have sought shelter of Your lo tus feet for instruction. Please give us relief by counteracting our present distress. Your lotus feet are the only shelter for a fully surrendered devotee and are the only means for subduing all the tribulations of this material world.(43) Therefore, O Lord, O supreme controller, O Lord Kṛṣṇa, please annihilate this dangerous demon Vṛtrāsura, Tvaṣṭā’s son, who has al ready swallowed all our weapons, our para phernalia for fighting, and our strength and in fluence.(44)

O Lord, O supreme pure, You live within the core of everyone’s heart and observe all the desires and activities of the conditioned souls. O Supreme Personality of Godhead known as Lord Kṛṣṇa, Your reputation is bright and illuminating. You have no beginning, for You are the beginning of everything. This is understood by pure devotees because You are easily accessible to the pure and truthful. When the conditioned souls are liberated and shel tered at Your lotus feet after roving throughout the material world for many millions of years, they attain the highest success of life. There fore, O Lord, O Supreme Personality of God head, we offer our respectful obeisances at Your lotus feet.(45) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī continued: O King Parīkṣit, when the demigods offered the Lord their sincere prayers in this way, the Lord lis tened by His causeless mercy. Being pleased, He then replied to the demigods.(46)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: O beloved demigods, you have offered your prayers to Me with great knowledge, and I am certainly most pleased with you. A person is liberated by such knowledge, and thus he re members My exalted position, which is above the conditions of material life. Such a devotee is fully purified by offering prayers in full knowledge. This is the source of devotional ser vice to Me.(47) O best of the intelligent demi gods, although it is true that nothing is difficult for one to obtain when I am pleased with him, a pure devotee, whose mind is exclusively fixed upon Me, does not ask Me for anything but the opportunity to engage in devotional ser vice.(48) Those who think material assets to be everything or to be the ultimate goal of life are called misers [kṛpaṇas]. They do not know the ultimate necessity of the soul. Moreover, if one awards that which is desired by such fools, he must also be considered foolish.(49)

A pure devotee who is fully accomplished in the sci ence of devotional service will never instruct a foolish person to engage in fruitive activities for material enjoyment, not to speak of helping him in such activities. Such a devotee is like an experienced physician, who never encourages a patient to eat food injurious to his health, even if the patient desires it.(50) O Maghavan [In dra], all good fortune unto you. I advise you to approach the exalted saint Dadhyañca [Dadhīci]. He has become very accomplished in knowledge, vows and austerities, and his body is very strong. Go ask him for his body without delay.(51)

That saintly Dadhyañca, who is also known as Dadhīci, personally as similated the spiritual science and then deliv ered it to the Aśvinī-kumāras. It is said that Dadhyañca gave them mantras through the head of a horse. Therefore the mantras are called Aśvaśira. After obtaining the mantras of spiritual science from Dadhīci, the Aśvinī kumāras became jīvan-mukta, liberated even in this life.(52) Dadhyañca’s invincible protective covering known as the Nārāyaṇa-kavaca was given to Tvaṣṭā, who delivered it to his son Viśvarūpa, from whom you have received it. Because of this Nārāyaṇa-kavaca, Dadhīci’s body is now very strong. You should therefore beg him for his body.(53)

When the Aśvinī kumāras beg for Dadhyañca’s body on your be half, he will surely give it because of affection. Do not doubt this, for Dadhyañca is very expe rienced in religious understanding. When Dadhyañca awards you his body, Viśvakarmā will prepare a thunderbolt from his bones. This thunderbolt will certainly kill Vṛtrāsura be cause it will be invested with My power.(54) When Vṛtrāsura is killed because of My spir itual strength, you will regain your strength, weapons and wealth. Thus there will be all good fortune for all of you. Although Vṛtrāsura can destroy all the three worlds, do not fear that he will harm you. He is also a devotee and will never be envious of you.(55)

King Parīkṣit inquired from Śukadeva Gosvāmī: My lord, kindly explain the Viṣṇu mantra armor that protected King Indra and en abled him to conquer his enemies, along with their carriers, and enjoy the opulence of the three worlds. Please explain to me that Nārāyaṇa armor, by which King Indra achieved success in battle, conquering the enemies who were endeavoring to kill him. (1-2) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: King Indra, the leader of the demigods, inquired about the ar mor known as Nārāyaṇa-kavaca from Viśvarūpa, who was engaged by the demigods as their priest. Please hear Viśvarūpa’s reply with great attention.(3)

Viśvarūpa said: If some form of fear arrives, one should first wash his hands and legs clean and then perform ācamana by chanting this mantra: om apavitraḥ pavitro vā sarvāvasthāṁ gato ’pi vā/ yaḥ smaret puṇḍarīkākṣaṁ sa bahyābhyantaraḥśuciḥ/ śrī-viṣṇu śrī-viṣṇu śrī viṣṇu. Then one should touch kuśa grass and sit gravely and silently, facing north. When com pletely purified, one should touch the mantra composed of eight syllables to the eight parts of his body and touch the mantra composed of twelve syllables to his hands. Thus, in the fol lowing manner, he should bind himself with the Nārāyaṇa coat of armor. First, while chanting the mantra composed of eight syllables [oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya], beginning with the praṇava, the syllable om, one should touch his hands to eight parts of his body, starting with the two feet and progressing systematically to the knees, thighs, abdomen, heart, chest, mouth and head. Then one should chant the mantra in reverse, beginning from the last syllable [ya], while touching the parts of his body in the re verse order. These two processes are known as utpatti-nyāsa and saṁhāra-nyāsa respec tively.(4-6)

Then one should chant the mantra composed of twelve syllables [oṁ namo bha gavate vāsudevāya]. Preceding each syllable by the oṁkāra, one should place the syllables of the mantra on the tips of his fingers, beginning with the index finger of the right hand and con cluding with the index finger of the left. The four remaining syllables should be placed on the joints of the thumbs.(7) One must then chant the mantra of six syllables [oṁ viṣṇave namaḥ]. One should place the syllable om on his heart, the syllable vi on the top of his head, the syllable sa between his eyebrows, the sylla ble na on his tuft of hair [śikhā], and the sylla ble ve between his eyes. The chanter of the mantra should then place the syllable na on all the joints of his body and meditate on the sylla ble ma as being a weapon. He should thus be come the perfect personification of the mantra. Thereafter, adding visarga to the final syllable ma he should chant the mantra maḥ astrāya phaṭ in all directions, beginning from the east. In this way, all directions will be bound by the protec tive armor of the mantra.(8-10)

After finishing this chanting, one should think himself qualita tively one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is full in six opulences and is worthy to be meditated upon. Then one should chant the following protective prayer to Lord Nārāyaṇa, the Nārāyaṇa-kavaca.(11) The Supreme Lord, who sits on the back of the bird Garuḍa, touching him with His lotus feet, holds eight weaponsthe conchshell, disc, shield, sword, club, arrows, bow and ropes. May that Supreme Personality of Godhead pro tect me at all times with His eight arms. He is all-powerful because He fully possesses the eight mystic powers [aṇimā, laghimā, etc.].(12) May the Lord, who assumes the body of a great fish, protect me in the water from the fierce an imals that are associates of the demigod Var uṇa. By expanding His illusory energy, the Lord assumed the form of the dwarf Vāmana. May Vāmana protect me on the land. Since the gigantic form of the Lord, Viśvarūpa, conquers the three worlds, may He protect me in the sky.(13)

May Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, who ap peared as the enemy of Hiraṇyakaśipu, protect me in all directions. His loud laughing vibrated in all directions and caused the pregnant wives of the asuras to have miscarriages. May that Lord be kind enough to protect me in difficult places like the forest and battlefront.(14) The Supreme indestructible Lord is ascertained through the performance of ritualistic sacrifices and is therefore known as Yajñeśvara. In His incarnation as Lord Boar, He raised the planet earth from the water at the bottom of the uni verse and kept it on His pointed tusks. May that Lord protect me from rogues on the street. May Paraśurāma protect me on the tops of moun tains, and may the elder brother of Bharata, Lord Rāmacandra, along with His brother Lakṣmaṇa, protect me in foreign countries.(15)

May Lord Nārāyaṇa protect me from unneces sarily following false religious systems and falling from my duties due to madness. May the Lord in His appearance as Nara protect me from unnecessary pride. May Lord Dattātreya, the master of all mystic power, protect me from falling while performing bhakti-yoga, and may Lord Kapila, the master of all good qualities, protect me from the material bondage of frui tive activities.(16) May Sanat-kumāra protect me from lusty desires. As I begin some auspi cious activity, may Lord Hayagrīva protect me from being an offender by neglecting to offer respectful obeisances to the Supreme Lord. May Devarṣi Nārada protect me from commit ting offenses in worshiping the Deity, and may Lord Kūrma, the tortoise, protect me from fall ing to the unlimited hellish planets.(17)

May the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His in carnation as Dhanvantari relieve me from un desirable eatables and protect me from physical illness. May Lord Ṛṣabhadeva, who conquered His inner and outer senses, protect me from fear produced by the duality of heat and cold. May Yajña protect me from defamation and harm from the populace, and may Lord Balarāma as Śeṣa protect me from envious serpents.(18) May the Personality of Godhead in His incar nation as Vyāsadeva protect me from all kinds of ignorance resulting from the absence of Ve dic knowledge. May Lord Buddhadeva protect me from activities opposed to Vedic principles and from laziness that causes one to madly for get the Vedic principles of knowledge and ritu alistic action. May Kalkideva, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who appeared as an in carnation to protect religious principles, protect me from the dirt of the Age of Kali.(19)

May Lord Keśava protect me with His club in the first portion of the day, and may Govinda, who is always engaged in playing His flute, protect me in the second portion of the day. May Lord Nārāyaṇa, who is equipped with all potencies, protect me in the third part of the day, and may Lord Viṣṇu, who carries a disc to kill His ene mies, protect me in the fourth part of the day.(20) May Lord Madhusūdana, who carries a bow very fearful for the demons, protect me during the fifth part of the day. In the evening, may Lord Mādhava, appearing as Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Maheśvara, protect me, and in the beginning of night may Lord Hṛṣīkeśa protect me. At the dead of night [in the second and third parts of night] may Lord Padmanābha alone protect me.(21) May the Supreme Per sonality of Godhead, who bears the Śrīvatsa on His chest, protect me after midnight until the sky becomes pinkish. May Lord Janārdana, who carries a sword in His hand, protect me at the end of night [during the last four ghaṭikās of night]. May Lord Dāmodara protect me in the early morning, and may Lord Viśveśvara protect me during the junctions of day and night.(22)

Set into motion by the Supreme Personality of Godhead and wandering in all the four direc tions, the disc of the Supreme Lord has sharp edges as destructive as the fire of devastation at the end of the millennium. As a blazing fire burns dry grass to ashes with the assistance of the breeze, may that Sudarśana cakra burn our enemies to ashes.(23) O club in the hand of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you produce sparks of fire as powerful as thunderbolts, and you are extremely dear to the Lord. I am also His servant. Therefore kindly help me pound to pieces the evil living beings known as Kuṣmāṇḍas, Vaināyakas, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, Bhūtas and Grahas. Please pulverize them.(24) O best of conchshells, O Pāñcajanya in the hands of the Lord, you are always filled with the breath of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore you create a fearful sound vibration that causes trembling in the hearts of enemies like the Rākṣasas, pra matha ghosts, Pretas, Mātās, Piśācas and brāhmaṇa ghosts with fearful eyes.(25)

O king of sharp-edged swords, you are engaged by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Please cut the soldiers of my enemies to pieces. Please cut them to pieces! O shield marked with a hundred brilliant moonlike circles, please cover the eyes of the sinful enemies. Pluck out their sinful eyes.(26) May the glorification of the transcendental name, form, qualities and paraphernalia of the Supreme Personality of Godhead protect us from the influence of bad planets, meteors, en vious human beings, serpents, scorpions, and animals like tigers and wolves. May it protect us from ghosts and the material elements like earth, water, fire and air, and may it also protect us from lightning and our past sins. We are al ways afraid of these hindrances to our auspi cious life. Therefore, may they all be com pletely destroyed by the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.(27-28)

Lord Garuḍa, the carrier of Lord Viṣṇu, is the most worshipable lord, for he is as powerful as the Supreme Lord Himself. He is the personified Vedas and is worshiped by selected verses. May he protect us from all dangerous conditions, and may Lord Viṣvaksena, the Personality of Godhead, also protect us from all dangers by His holy names.(29) May the Supreme Personality of Godhead’s holy names, His transcendental forms, His carriers and all the weapons deco rating Him as personal associates protect our intelligence, senses, mind and life air from all dangers.(30) The subtle and gross cosmic manifestation is material, but nevertheless it is nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead be cause He is ultimately the cause of all causes. Cause and effect are factually one because the cause is present in the effect. Therefore the Ab solute Truth, the Supreme Personality of God head, can destroy all our dangers by any of His potent parts.(31)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the living entities, the material en ergy, the spiritual energy and the entire creation are all individual substances. In the ultimate analysis, however, together they constitute the supreme one, the Personality of Godhead. Therefore those who are advanced in spiritual knowledge see unity in diversity. For such ad vanced persons, the Lord’s bodily decorations, His name, His fame, His attributes and forms and the weapons in His hand are manifestations of the strength of His potency. According to their elevated spiritual understanding, the om niscient Lord, who manifests various forms, is present everywhere. May He always protect us everywhere from all calamities.(32-33) Prah lāda Mahārāja loudly chanted the holy name of Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva. May Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva, roaring for His devotee Prahlāda Mahārāja, protect us from all fear of dangers created by stalwart leaders in all directions through poi son, weapons, water, fire, air and so on. May the Lord cover their influence by His own tran scendental influence. May Nṛsiṁhadeva pro tect us in all directions and in all corners, above, below, within and without.(34)

Viśvarūpa continued: O Indra, this mystic armor related to Lord Nārāyaṇa has been de scribed by me to you. By putting on this protec tive covering, you will certainly be able to con quer the leaders of the demons.(35) If one em ploys this armor, whomever he sees with his eyes or touches with his feet is immediately freed from all the above-mentioned dan gers.(36) This prayer, Nārāyaṇa-kavaca, con stitutes subtle knowledge transcendentally con nected with Nārāyaṇa. One who employs this prayer is never disturbed or put in danger by the government, by plunderers, by evil demons or by any type of disease.(37) O King of heaven, a brāhmaṇa named Kauśika formerly used this armor when he purposely gave up his body in the desert by mystic power.(38) Surrounded by many beautiful women, Citraratha, the King of Gandharvaloka, was once passing in his air plane over the brāhmaṇa’s body at the spot where the brāhmaṇa had died.(39)

Suddenly Citraratha was forced to fall from the sky head first with his airplane. Struck with wonder, he was ordered by the great sages named the Vālikhilyas to throw the brāhmaṇa’s bones in the nearby river Sarasvatī. He had to do this and bathe in the river before returning to his own abode.(40) ŚrīŚukadeva Gosvāmī said: My dear Mahārāja Parīkṣit, one who employs this armor or hears about it with faith and veneration when afraid because of any conditions in the material world is immediately freed from all dangers and is worshiped by all living entities.(41) King Indra, who performed one hundred sacrifices, received this prayer of protection from Viśvarūpa. After conquering the demons, he enjoyed all the opulences of the three worlds.(42)