Live the Bhāgavatam · SB 6.15.18-19
Mukti· LiberationSeek Devotee Association Beyond Material Lamentation
“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.”
What the purport teaches
- Aṅgirā Ṛṣi and Nārada came by their causeless mercy to relieve Mahārāja Citraketu's ignorance and lamentation. Absorption in material loss was unsuitable for an advanced devotee.
- A devotee should aspire to associate with and serve advanced devotees. Through the paramparā system, one engages in the service of the Supreme Lord.
- An advanced, self-realized devotee does not aspire for material profit or lament for material loss. Such a devotee is transcendental to conditional life.
Try this today
Offer one small act of help to a devotee today, with the intention of supporting service to the Lord.
Ask yourself
How could association with advanced devotees help me respond to loss with spiritual understanding?
Carry the question through the day, then answer it in your own words before sleep.
The study points, practice and question are short summaries drawn from Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport. Read the full purport to go deeper.