48 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 de-
votional 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 adhi-
daivic. 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.
