Cessation of material life marks the beginning of spiritual activities, not the end of all action.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
XaaENak- ovac Sa vE iNav*itaiNarTa" SavR}aaePae+ak-ae MauiNa" ) k-SYa va b*hTaqMaeTaaMaaTMaaraMa" SaMa>YaSaTa( )) 9 )) Pradyumna: Translation: "Śrī Śaunaka asked Suta Gosvāmī: Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī was already on the path of self-realization, and thus he was pleased with his own self. So why did he take the trouble to undergo the study of such a vast literature?" Prabhupāda: śaunaka uvāca sa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥ sarvatropekṣako muniḥ kasya vā bṛhatīm etām ātmārāmaḥ samabhyasat [SB 1.7.9] So Śukadeva Gosvāmī, he is ātmārāma. He... This śloka will be explained in the next verse, ātmārāmāś ca munayo. Ātmārāma, there are many varieties of meaning of ātmārāma.
Caitanya Mahaprabhu has explained in sixty-four different ways in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So how Caitanya Mahāprabhu was a great scholar—He is great in everything, but to make a show at least—He showed His scholarship in explaining this ātmārāma verse. Sa vai nivṛtti-nirataḥ sarvatropekṣako muniḥ. Nivṛtti means one who has ceased all material activities.
He has practically nothing to do with this material world, and still it is said, kasya vā bṛhatīm etām. And still, he went out and preached Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam when Parikṣit Mahārāja was going to die. So this is the questions: how the ātmārāma becomes interested in other activities? He is ātmārāma, he is already satisfied. So these activities are not material activities.
Nivṛtti-nirataḥ, we have to stop this material world, material activities. That does not mean you will have to stop your activities. The other part of the activities, they will begin after stopping these material activities. That is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā: brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati [Bg 18.54]. One who is ātmārāma, brahma-bhūtaḥ, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, "I am not this material body.
No more I have to do anything for this material body." Ātmārāma. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā. People are anxious, especially the karmīs, how to maintain this body, but when one comes to the conclusion that "I am not this body," naturally his interest for maintaining the body diminishes. Practically it becomes nil.
Nidrāhāra-vihārakādi-vijitau.(1) You will find from the behavior of the Gosvāmīs, they practically conquered over the necessities of this body. But that does not mean he has to cease all activities. The Māyāvāda philosophy, they say that when one becomes brahma-bhūtaḥ, ātmārāma, he has nothing to do any more. No.
The śāstra does not say that. Śāstra says that when you become ātmārāma, or brahma-bhūtaḥ, your material anxieties, material activities, they become stopped. Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā [Bg 18.54]. Prasannātmā: he has nothing to do. Suppose if somebody is assured that now, henceforward, you haven't go to do anything, everything will come automatically, naturally one becomes prasannātmā, very jolly. I am free from the anxieties.