The Purpose of Studying Vast Literature

Sukadeva Gosvami and the atmarama verse

0:03: **Pradyumna: Translation = "Śrī Śaunaka asked Suta Gosvāmī = Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī was already on the path of self-realization, and thus he was pleased with his own self.

0:11So why did he take the trouble to undergo the study of such a vast literature?"** SB 1.7.9शौनक उवाचस वै निवृत्तिनिरतः सर्वत्रोपेक्षको मुनिः ।कस्य वा बृहतीमेतामात्मारामः समभ्यसत् ॥९॥śaunaka uvācasa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥsarvatropekṣako muniḥkasya vā bṛhatīm etāmātmārāmaḥ samabhyasatŚrī Śaunaka asked Sūta Gosvāmī: Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī was already on the path of self-realization, and thus he was pleased with his own self. So why did he take the trouble to undergo the study of such a vast literature?

0:46Prabhupāda: So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he is ātmārāma. He...

0:51This śloka will be explained in the next verse, ātmārāmāś ca munayo. Ātmārāma, there are many varieties of meaning of ātmārāma. Caitanya Mahaprabhu has explained in sixty-four different ways in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So how Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a great scholar—He is great in everything, but to make a show at least—He showed His scholarship in explaining this ātmārāma verse.

Transition from material cessation to spiritual activity

1:58Sa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥ sarvatropekṣako muniḥ. Nivṛtti means one who has ceased all material activities.

2:05He has practically nothing to do with this material world, and still it is said, kasya vā bṛhatīm etām. And still, he went out and preached Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when Parikṣit Mahārāja was going to die.

2:34So this is the questions = how the ātmārāma becomes interested in other activities? He is ātmārāma, he is already satisfied. So these activities are not material activities.

2:55Nivṛtti-nirataḥ, we have to stop this material world, material activities. That does not mean you will have to stop your activities.

3:10The other part of the activities, they will begin after stopping these material activities.

Characteristics of the brahma bhuta stage

3:21That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā = brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati BG 18.54One who is ātmārāma, brahma-bhūtaḥ, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am not this material body.

3:41No more I have to do anything for this material body." Ātmārāma. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. People are anxious, especially the karmīs, how to maintain this body, but when one comes to the conclusion that "I am not this body," naturally his interest for maintaining the body diminishes.

4:19Practically it becomes nil. Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau. You will find from the behavior of the Gosvāmīs, they practically conquered over the necessities of this body.

4:43But that does not mean he has to cease all activities.

Refuting misconceptions regarding spiritual inactivity

4:49The Māyāvāda philosophy, they say that when one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, ātmārāma, he has nothing to do any more. No. The śāstra does not say that.

5:10Śāstra says that when you become ātmārāma, or brahma-bhūtaḥ, your material anxieties, material activities, they become stopped. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā BG 18.54Prasannātmā: he has nothing to do.

5:37Suppose if somebody is assured that now, henceforward, you haven't go to do anything, everything will come automatically, naturally one becomes prasannātmā, very jolly. I am free from the anxieties.

6:03Because this material world means full of anxieties, sadā samudvigna-dhiyām. That is material world.

6:14And when you come to the spiritual platform, there is no anxieties, no..., na śocati na kāṅkṣati. That is anxiety-free. So anxiety-free does not mean you haven't got to do anything.

Purification and beginning of devotional service

6:33Your material life is purified, sarvopādhi vinirmuktaṁ tat paratvena nirmalam CC Madhya 19.170

6:38When we become free from the designation, "I am this body," therefore "I am American," "I am Indian," "I am the father of this family, so I have got my wife, I have got my children," so many things, this is material relationship.

7:09So when we understand that I am nothing to do with all these things, certainly I become jolly, prasannātmā. But it is not that cessation of our activities. No. Mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām BG 18.54

7:29In other words, the ātmārāma, they cease their material activities, but they begin their spiritual activities.

7:41Therfore we find Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he ceased from all material activities, but when he saw that Parikṣit Mahārāja is very much anxious what to do—he is a Vaiṣṇava, perfect Vaiṣṇava, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī is perfect Vaiṣṇava—he approached him, that "Parikṣit Mahārāja is perplexed..."

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