Prayers By King Citraketu

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Canto 6: Prescribed Duties for Mankind

Chapter 16: King Citraketu Meets the Supreme Lord

Text 34 - 48

Text 34

citraketur uvāca

ajita jitaḥ sama-matibhiḥ

sādhubhir bhavān jitātmabhir bhavatā

vijitās te ’pi ca bhajatām

akāmātmanāṁ ya ātmado ’ti-karuṇaḥ

Citraketu said: O unconquerable Lord, although 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.

Text 35

tava vibhavaḥ khalu bhagavan

jagad-udaya-sthiti-layādīni

viśva-sṛjas te ’ṁśāṁśās

tatra mṛṣā spardhanti pṛthag abhimatyā

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 consciousness of themselves as separate Lords is therefore merely false prestige. It is not valid.

Text 36

paramāṇu-parama-mahatos

tvam ādy-antāntara-vartī traya-vidhuraḥ

ādāv ante ’pi ca sattvānāṁ

yad dhruvaṁ tad evāntarāle ’pi

You exist in the beginning, middle and end of everything, from the most minute particle of the cosmic manifestation — the atom — to the gigantic universes and total material energy. 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 potency.

Text 37

kṣity-ādibhir eṣa kilāvṛtaḥ

saptabhir daśa-guṇottarair aṇḍa-kośaḥ

yatra pataty aṇu-kalpaḥ

sahāṇḍa-koṭi-koṭibhis tad anantaḥ

Every universe is covered by seven layers — earth, water, fire, air, sky, the total energy and false ego — each ten times greater than the previous one. There are innumerable universes besides this one, and although they are unlimitedly large, they move about like atoms in You. Therefore You are called unlimited [ananta].

Text 38

viṣaya-tṛṣo nara-paśavo

ya upāsate vibhūtīr na paraṁ tvām

teṣām āśiṣa īśa

tad anu vinaśyanti yathā rāja-kulam

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 worship the insignificant demigods, who are but small sparks of Your glory. With the destruction of the entire universe, including the demigods, the benedictions received from the demigods also vanish, just like the nobility when a king is no longer in power.

Text 39

kāma-dhiyas tvayi racitā

na parama rohanti yathā karambha-bījāni

jñānātmany aguṇamaye

guṇa-gaṇato ’sya dvandva-jālāni

O Supreme Lord, if persons obsessed with material desires for sense gratification through material opulence worship You, who are the source of all knowledge and are transcendental to material qualities, they are not subject to material rebirth, just as sterilized or fried seeds do not produce 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 associate with You in transcendence escapes the conditions of material nature.

Text 40

jitam ajita tadā bhavatā

yadāha bhāgavataṁ dharmam anavadyam

niṣkiñcanā ye munaya

ātmārāmā yam upāsate ’pavargāya

O unconquerable one, when You spoke about bhāgavata-dharma, which is the uncontaminated religious system for achieving the shelter of Your lotus feet, that was Your victory. Persons who have no material desires, like the Kumāras, who are self-satisfied sages, worship You to be liberated from material contamination. In other words, they accept the process of bhāgavata-dharma to achieve shelter at Your lotus feet.

Text 41

viṣama-matir na yatra nṛṇāṁ

tvam aham iti mama taveti ca yad anyatra

viṣama-dhiyā racito yaḥ

sa hy aviśuddhaḥ kṣayiṣṇur adharma-bahulaḥ

Being full of contradictions, all forms of religion but bhāgavata-dharma work under conceptions of fruitive results and distinctions of “you and I” and “yours and mine.” The followers of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam have no such consciousness. They are all Kṛṣṇa conscious, 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 irreligion.

Text 42

kaḥ kṣemo nija-parayoḥ

kiyān vārthaḥ sva-para-druhā dharmeṇa

sva-drohāt tava kopaḥ

para-sampīḍayā ca tathādharmaḥ

How can a religious system that produces envy of one’s self and of others be beneficial for oneself and for them? What is auspicious 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.

Text 43

na vyabhicarati tavekṣā

yayā hy abhihito bhāgavato dharmaḥ

sthira-cara-sattva-kadambeṣv

apṛthag-dhiyo yam upāsate tv āryāḥ

My dear Lord, one’s occupational 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 occupational duties under Your supervision, being equal to all living entities, moving and nonmoving, and not considering high and low, are called Āryans. Such Āryans worship You, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Text 44

na hi bhagavann aghaṭitam idaṁ

tvad-darśanān nṛṇām akhila-pāpa-kṣayaḥ

yan-nāma sakṛc chravaṇāt

pukkaśo ’pi vimucyate saṁsārāt

My Lord, it is not impossible for one to be immediately freed from all material contamination by seeing You. Not to speak of seeing You personally, merely by hearing the holy name of Your Lordship only once, even caṇḍālas, men of the lowest class, are freed from all material contamination. Under the circumstances, who will not be freed from material contamination simply by seeing You?

Text 45

atha bhagavan vayam adhunā

tvad-avaloka-parimṛṣṭāśaya-malāḥ

sura-ṛṣiṇā yat kathitaṁ

tāvakena katham anyathā bhavati

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.

Text 46

viditam ananta samastaṁ

tava jagad-ātmano janair ihācaritam

vijñāpyaṁ parama-guroḥ

kiyad iva savitur iva khadyotaiḥ

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 glowworm. Similarly, because You know everything, in Your presence there is nothing for me to make known.

Text 47

namas tubhyaṁ bhagavate

sakala-jagat-sthiti-layodayeśāya

duravasitātma-gataye

kuyogināṁ bhidā paramahaṁsāya

My dear Lord, You are the creator, maintainer and annihilator of this cosmic manifestation, but persons who are too materialistic and who always see separateness do not have eyes with which to see You. They cannot understand Your real position, and therefore they conclude that the cosmic manifestation is independent of Your opulence. My Lord, You are the supreme pure, and You are full in all six opulences. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto You.

Text 48

yaṁ vai śvasantam anu viśva-sṛjaḥ śvasanti

yaṁ cekitānam anu cittaya uccakanti

bhū-maṇḍalaṁ sarṣapāyati yasya mūrdhni

tasmai namo bhagavate ’stu sahasra-mūrdhne

My dear Lord, it is after You endeavor that Lord Brahmā, Indra and the other directors of the cosmic manifestation become occupied with their activities. It is after You perceive the material energy, My Lord, that the senses begin to perceive. The Supreme Personality of Godhead holds all the universes on His heads like seeds of mustard. I offer my respectful obeisances unto You, that Supreme Personality, who has thousands of hoods.