Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: Vṛtrāsura was Citraketu Mahārāja in his previous birth. He was a big king with thousands upon thousands of wives but no children, no son, and he was worried for this. Aṅgirā Ṛṣi came and asked him, “Why are you so worried?” He replied, “I have no child. Please give me one child.” Aṅgirā Ṛṣi tried to make him understand that no one can be happy by having a child. One can be happy only by chanting and remembering and worshiping God. But Citraketu said, “Anyway, please give me a son. Can you give me one?” Angira Ṛṣi said “Yes.” He gave the king some fruit and told him, “Give this to your queen.” A very beautiful son soon came, who was beautiful like the moon, and gradually that son became five years old.
Now the king was always with his queen and son. He was ignoring all the other thousands of queens, and they became worried. They thought, “He does not speak with us, he does not give us oil, cloth, or anything, and the reason is that son.” So, they poisoned that boy and he died. When the king and queen saw what happened, they wept and fainted. All were weeping, and those who gave poison were also weeping to make a show.
At that time, Aṅgirā Ṛṣi arrived with Nārada Ṛṣi and asked, “Why is everyone weeping?” Someone replied, “They are weeping for their son.”
So they told the king, “Oh, he is there; he is sleeping.”
The king replied, “No, he has gone.”
“Where has he gone? I see he is here lying down.”
“Oh, his soul is gone.”
“What harm is there if the soul is gone? Your son is there – he whom you used to call son. If there is no soul present now, then how is he your son? Have you seen the soul?”
“No.”
“Then why are you weeping?”
Aṅgirā Ṛṣi and Nārada Ṛṣi then gave the king a mantra, and by this he became free from all material attachments and obtained spiritual realizations.
Vrajanātha dāsa: Gurudeva, Nārada made the son come back to life?
Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: Yes, but the son said, “I cannot come back to you, I am better where I am now. Who is my father? In a previous life, my father may have been my son.*
I don’t want to be here. Where I am now, I have chance to do bhajana.”
Madhuvrata dāsa: Was the son actually Aṅgirā Ṛṣi himself?
(Aṅgirā Ṛṣi is one of the seven Ṛṣis (great sages) and he has all mystic powers; thus he can do anything he desires, even keeping his body somewhere else and adopting the body of the son of Queen and King Citraketu)
Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja: Because he had no son to give to the king, he came himself. He kept his body somewhere and his soul manufactured a body and became that son.**

* “By the mystic power of Nārada Muni, the living entity re-entered his dead body for a short time and spoke in reply to Nārada Muni’s request. He said: According to the results of my fruitive activities, I, the living being, transmigrate from one body to another, sometimes going to the species of the demigods, sometimes to the species of lower animals, sometimes among the vegetables, and sometimes to the human 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?” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.16.4)

** Aṅgirā Ṛṣi is one of the seven Ṛṣis (great sages) and he has all mystic powers; thus he can do anything he desires, even keeping his body somewhere else and adopting the body of the son of Queen and King Citraketu. (Śrīpāda Mādhava Mahārāja)

Morning Walks and Conversations with Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja 2007

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