Great liberated devotees

Expressions researched:
"great liberated devotees" |"great, liberated devotee"

SB Canto 5

When Priyavrata's father, Svāyambhuva Manu, requested him to accept the responsibility of ruling over the world, he did not welcome the suggestion. This is the symptom of a great, liberated devotee. Even though engaged in worldly affairs, he does not take pleasure in them, but remains always absorbed in the Lord's service.

SB 5.1.6, Translation and Purport:

Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: My dear King, Prince Priyavrata was a great devotee because he sought the lotus feet of Nārada, his spiritual master, and thus achieved the highest perfection in transcendental knowledge. With advanced knowledge, he always engaged in discussing spiritual subjects and did not divert his attention to anything else. The Prince's father then asked him to take charge of ruling the world. He tried to convince Priyavrata that this was his duty as indicated in the revealed scriptures. Prince Priyavrata, however, was continuously practicing bhakti-yoga by constantly remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead, thus engaging all his senses in the service of the Lord. Therefore, although the order of his father could not be rejected, the Prince did not welcome it. Thus he very conscientiously raised the question of whether he might be diverted from devotional service by accepting the responsibility of ruling over the world.

Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has sung, chāḍiyā vaiṣṇava-sevā nistāra pāyeche kebā: "Without serving the lotus feet of a pure Vaiṣṇava or spiritual master, no one has ever attained perfect liberation from material bondage." prince Priyavrata regularly served the lotus feet of Nārada, and thus the Prince perfectly understood transcendental subjects in truth (sa-tattvaḥ). The word sa-tattvaḥ means that Priyavrata knew all the facts about the spirit soul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and the relationship between the spirit soul and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he also knew all about this material world and the relationship of the spirit soul and the Supreme Lord within the material world. Thus the Prince decided to engage himself only in rendering service to the Lord.

When Priyavrata's father, Svāyambhuva Manu, requested him to accept the responsibility of ruling over the world, he did not welcome the suggestion. This is the symptom of a great, liberated devotee. Even though engaged in worldly affairs, he does not take pleasure in them, but remains always absorbed in the Lord's service. While thus serving the Lord, he deals externally with worldly affairs without being affected. For example, although he has no attraction for his children, he cares for them and educates them to become devotees. Similarly, he speaks to his wife with affectionate words, but he is not attached to her. By rendering devotional service, a devotee acquires all the good qualities of the Supreme Lord. Lord Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand wives, all of them very beautiful, and although He dealt with each of them as a beloved husband, He was not attracted or attached to any of them. In the same way, although a devotee may enter family life and act very affectionately toward his wife and children, he is never attached to these activities.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Those vimānas, aeroplanes, belong to the mahātmanām, great liberated devotees. So devotees are not going to be zero. They will have also aeroplane there, but not this third class aeroplane. As soon as the machine goes wrong, it immediately crashes. There is no crashing; neither there is any necessity of machine because they are spiritual.

Lecture on SB 2.9.13 -- Melbourne, April 12, 1972:

The same example, the mirage. It appears exactly like water, but it is not water. It is false. But there is real water. We should not think that because it is false water, therefore there is no water. Water is illu... That is Māyāvādī theory. Because here... Brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā: Śaṅkarācārya, that "Only Brahman, impersonal Brahman, is fact, and everything, all varieties, they are mithyā." No. They have no full information of Brahman. When we get full information of Brahman, the Supreme Brahman, Kṛṣṇa He is ānanda-cinmaya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ (Bs. 5.37). He is always engaged in celestial Not celestial. Spiritual bliss. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. His līlā, His rasa-līlā, He is playing with the cowherds boy, but there is no defects or the, what is called, inebrieties. There is no such thing. Everything is fact, and everything is real. Therefore ānandamāyā. Ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. There is rasa. Here is also rasa. Here rasa is not ānanda-cinmaya. This is material. There everything is real. So bhrājiṣṇubhir yaḥ parito virājate lasad-vimānāvalibhir mahātmanām. Those vimānas, aeroplanes, belong to the mahātmanām, great liberated devotees. So devotees are not going to be zero. They will have also aeroplane there, but not this third class aeroplane. As soon as the machine goes wrong, it immediately crashes. There is no crashing; neither there is any necessity of machine because they are spiritual. Just like motor car, a machine, it requires oil, it requires petrol to run on. But as we are spirit, we don't require anything. We can run without any arrangement of mechanical. We can experience that. A man is running, not that you have to put some petrol. Of course, we are putting petrol, this foodstuff. That is meant for the body. But if the whole thing is spiritual, there is no more necessity of these things, material ingredient. There is no necessity. That they cannot. There the aeroplane is also spirit. It is living. It has taken the shape of aeroplane, but it is living. It is not false. Therefore there is no necessity of this petrol, simply beautiful aeroplane, and wherever you like, you can go. They are moving in the sky. And the beautiful women. They are women just like lightning. their beauty is so brilliant, glowing, that the women, they are, themselves, are lightning. As we find lightning in the cloud, very beautiful, similarly, when these aeroplanes fly in the outer space or Vaikuṇṭha sky, it looks like lightning in the cloud. Pramada uttamādyubhiḥ. Uttamādyubhiḥ.