Study a Verse

• In this verse the word ajña is very significant.
• In the material world, all living entities are ajña, ignorant, in different degrees.
• One must therefore promote himself to the stage of goodness through his character and behavior and then gradually come to the transcendental platform, or adhokṣaja platform, in which he realizes both his position and the position of others.

Śrīla Prabhupāda's own sentences, chosen from the purport as its central points. Read the full purport on Vedabase to see them in place.

Parental grief → Detachment and surrender. A flashback discloses the devotional history behind Vṛtrāsura.

Chapters 14–17 of Canto 6: Citraketu's grief, realization and curse. An editorial reading of the story's mood, not the text itself. See the emotional arc

Chapter 17: Mother Pārvatī Curses Citraketu

From the chapter summary, the lines nearest this verse:

One is controlled by the influence of material nature in the material world, yet one thinks himself the doer of everything. In this material world, which is made of the external energy of the Supreme Lord, one is sometimes cursed and sometimes favored, and thus he sometimes enjoys in the upper planetary systems and sometimes suffers in the lower planets, but all these situations are the same because they are within this material world.