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Teachings of Lord Chaitanya
perfection. There must be activities in liberation. Sanatan clearly asks: "You have saved me from the entanglement of material existence. Now, after liberation,  what is my duty ? Kindly explain it to me." Sanatan further inquired, "Who am I? Why are the three-fold miseries always giving me trouble? And, finally, tell me how I will be relieved from this material entanglement? I do not know how to question You about the advancement of spiritual life, but I beg that You kindly, mercifully, let me know everything that I should know."
This is the process of acceptance of a spiritual master by the disciple: One should approach a spiritual master and humbly submit to him, and then inquire from him about one's spiritual progress.
The Lord was pleased by Sanatan's submissive behavior, and He replied as follows: "You have already received benediction from Lord Krishna, and therefore you know everything, and you are free from all the miseries of material existence." The Lord further replied that, because Sanatan was in Krishna Consciousness, naturally, by the grace of Krishna, he was already conversant with everything, but "Because you are a humble devotee, you are asking me to confirm what is already realized by you. This is very nice." These are the characteristics of a true devotee. In the  Narada Bhakti Sutra  it is said that one who is very serious about developing his Krishna Consciousness, by the grace of the Lord, has his desire for understanding Krishna fulfilled very soon. The Lord said, "You are a suitable person for protecting the devotional service of the Lord. Therefore it is My duty to instruct you in the science of God, and I will explain to you everything step by step."
It is the duty of a disciple approaching a spiritual master to enquire about his constitutional position. In conformity to that spiritual process, Sanatan has already asked, "What am I, and why am I suffering from the three-fold miseries?" The three-fold miseries are called  adhyatmic ,  adhibhautic , and  adhidaivic .  Adhyatmic  means caused by the body and mind: sometimes the living entity suffers bodily, and sometimes he is distressed mentally—both are  adhyatmic  miseries. We experience these miseries even in the womb of our mother. There are many forms of misery that take advantage of our delicate body and give us pain.
Miseries inflicted by other living entities are called  adhibhautic . There are many living entities, such as bugs born of eggs, that cause us miseries while we are sleeping in bed. There are many living entities, like cockroaches, that sometimes give us pain, and there are other living entities born on different kinds of planets, and they also cause us miseries.