Lord Anantadeva Exposes the Futility of Material Life and Fruitive Activities

This article presents a thematic survey of the Supreme Lord's profound philosophical instructions regarding the dreamlike nature of material existence and the absolute necessity of devotional service. It organizes the enlightening verses found in the Vaniquotes category Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Verses Spoken by Lord Anantadeva.

The recorded words of Lord Anantadeva (Saṅkarṣaṇa) represent the profound philosophical climax of the history of King Citraketu in the Sixth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. After suffering the agonizing, sudden loss of his son, the King was enlightened by the great sages Nārada and Aṅgirā. By perfectly following their instructions and chanting the mantra they gave him, Citraketu achieved the ultimate perfection: a direct, face-to-face audience with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Pleased with the King, Lord Anantadeva delivers a masterful philosophical discourse. He explains the illusory nature of the material world, comparing the conditioned soul's waking life to a fleeting dream. He carefully delineates the science of the soul and the Supersoul, explaining that while both are qualitatively one, it is the Supersoul who is the ultimate witness of all states of consciousness. Anantadeva brutally exposes the futility of fruitive activities—especially the vain attempts of husband and wife to achieve happiness and diminish distress in the material world—and concludes by urging the King to give up all material desires, become His pure devotee, and return to the spiritual world.

Lord Anantadeva is the 87th top speaker of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam with 15 verses at Vanisource. He speaks only in the 6th canto (15 verses).

The Supreme Absolute Truth and His Energies

When King Citraketu successfully executed the instructions of his spiritual masters, he was immediately granted the audience of Lord Anantadeva. The Lord confirms the King's perfection and begins His discourse by explaining the exact nature of His spiritual forms and material energies.

The Pervading Source of All Expansions

Anantadeva explains that everything—moving and nonmoving—is an expansion of His energy. While the conditioned soul falsely thinks he is the enjoyer of the material world, both the living entity and the material resources are actually pervaded and maintained by the Supreme Lord.

"The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Anantadeva, replied as follows: O King, as a result of your having accepted the instructions spoken about Me by the great sages Nārada and Aṅgirā, you have become completely aware of transcendental knowledge. Because you are now educated in the spiritual science, you have seen Me face to face. Therefore you are now completely perfect."
"All living entities, moving and nonmoving, are My expansions and are separate from Me. I am the Supersoul of all living beings, who exist because I manifest them. I am the form of the transcendental vibrations like oṁkāra and Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma, and I am the Supreme Absolute Truth. These two forms of Mine—namely, the transcendental sound and the eternally blissful spiritual form of the Deity, are My eternal forms; they are not material."
"In this world of matter, which the conditioned soul accepts as consisting of enjoyable resources, the conditioned soul expands, thinking that he is the enjoyer of the material world. Similarly, the material world expands in the living entity as a source of enjoyment. In this way they both expand, but because they are My energies, they are both pervaded by Me. As the Supreme Lord, I am the cause of these effects, and one should know that both of them rest in Me."

The Dream of Material Existence

To help Citraketu fully detach from his previous life and the grief of losing his son, Lord Anantadeva compares the entirety of material existence to a dream. The conditions of wakefulness, dreaming, and deep sleep are merely temporary states of the mind.

The Unchanging Witness

When a person sleeps, he may dream of being a different nationality, having a different family, or traveling to distant mountains. Upon waking, all those identities vanish. The Lord explains that the individual soul and the Supersoul are the constant, unchanging witnesses behind these shifting material conditions.

"When a person is in deep sleep, he dreams and sees in himself many other objects, such as great mountains and rivers or perhaps even the entire universe, although they are far away. Sometimes when one awakens from a dream he sees that he is in a human form, lying in his bed in one place. Then he sees himself, in terms of various conditions, as belonging to a particular nationality, family and so on. All the conditions of deep sleep, dreaming and wakefulness are but energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should always remember the original creator of these conditions, the Supreme Lord, who is unaffected by them."
"Know Me to be the Supreme Brahman, the all-pervading Supersoul through whom the sleeping living entity can understand his dreaming condition and his happiness beyond the activities of the material senses. That is to say, I am the cause of the activities of the sleeping living being."
"If one's dreams during sleep are merely subject matters witnessed by the Supersoul, how can the living entity, who is different from the Supersoul, remember the activities of dreams? The experiences of one person cannot be understood by another. Therefore the knower of the facts, the living entity who inquires into the incidents manifested in dreams and wakefulness, is different from the circumstantial activities. That knowing factor is Brahman. In other words, the quality of knowing belongs to the living entities and to the Supreme Soul. Thus the living entity can also experience the activities of dreams and wakefulness. In both stages the knower is unchanged, but is qualitatively one with the Supreme Brahman."

The Cause of Conditional Life

The original constitutional position of the living entity is qualitative oneness with the Supreme Lord in eternity, knowledge, and bliss. However, the moment the soul desires to act independently and forgets this spiritual identity, his conditional life begins.

Entanglement in Bodily Expansions

Forgetting his eternal relationship with the Lord, the soul begins to falsely identify with the temporary material body. This false ego causes him to expand his interests into acquiring a wife, children, and material possessions, fueling the endless cycle of repeated birth and death.

"When a living entity, thinking himself different from Me, forgets his spiritual identity of qualitative oneness with Me in eternity, knowledge and bliss, his material, conditional life begins. In other words, instead of identifying his interest with Mine, he becomes interested in his bodily expansions like his wife, children and material possessions. In this way, by the influence of his actions, one body comes from another, and after one death, another death takes place."
"A human being can attain perfection in life by self-realization through the Vedic literature and its practical application. This is possible especially for a human being born in India, the land of piety. A man who obtains birth in such a convenient position but does not understand his self is unable to achieve the highest perfection, even if he is exalted to life in the higher planetary systems."

The Futility of Fruitive Activities

Lord Anantadeva brings His philosophical instructions to a practical conclusion by completely shattering the illusions of material family life. He explains that any endeavor performed with the desire for material enjoyment will always backfire.

The Ultimate Goal of Life

Husbands and wives constantly plan and work jointly to secure happiness and ward off distress. However, because their actions are rooted in material desire, they only produce greater suffering. The Lord urges Citraketu to completely cease from fruitive desires and instead accept the path of pure devotional service.

"Remembering the great trouble found in the field of activities performed for fruitive results, and remembering how one receives the reverse of the results one desires—whether from material actions or from the fruitive activities recommended in the Vedic literatures—an intelligent man should cease from the desire for fruitive actions, for by such endeavors one cannot achieve the ultimate goal of life. On the other hand, if one acts without desires for fruitive results—in other words, if one engages in devotional activities—he can achieve the highest goal of life with freedom from miserable conditions. Considering this, one should cease from material desires."
"As husband and wife, a man and woman plan together to attain happiness and decrease unhappiness, working jointly in many ways, but because their activities are full of desires, these activities are never a source of happiness, and they never diminish distress. On the contrary, they are a cause of great unhappiness."
"One should understand that the activities of persons who are proud of their material experience bring only results contradictory to those such persons conceive while awake, sleeping and deeply sleeping. One should further understand that the spirit soul, although very difficult for the materialist to perceive, is above all these conditions, and by the strength of one's discrimination, one should give up the desire for fruitive results in the present life and in the next. Thus becoming experienced in transcendental knowledge, one should become My devotee."
"Persons who try to reach the ultimate goal of life must expertly observe the Supreme Absolute Person and the living entity, who are one in quality in their relationship as part and whole. This is the ultimate understanding of life. There is no better truth than this."
"O King, if you accept this conclusion of Mine, being unattached to material enjoyment, adhering to Me with great faith and thus becoming proficient and fully aware of knowledge and its practical application in life, you will achieve the highest perfection by attaining Me."

Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani

This article is a thematic compilation of the teachings presented in the Vaniquotes category Bhagavatam Verses Spoken by Lord Anantadeva. We invite you to visit the link to read the complete collection of verses presented in alphabetical order.