अपश्यतामात्मतत्त्वं गृहेषु गृहमेधिनाम् ॥२॥
Å›rotavya-ÄdÄ«ni - subject matters for hearing; rÄjendra - O Emperor; nṛṇÄm - of human society; santi - there are; sahasraÅ›aḥ - hundreds and thousands; apaÅ›yatÄm - of the blind; Ätma-tattvam - knowledge of self, the ultimate truth; gá¹›heá¹£u - at home; gá¹›ha-medhinÄm - of persons too materially engrossed.
Those persons who are materially engrossed, being blind to the knowledge of ultimate truth, have many subject matters for hearing in human society, O Emperor.
In the revealed scriptures there are two nomenclatures for the householder’s life. One is gá¹›hastha, and the other is gá¹›hamedhÄ«. The gá¹›hasthas are those who live together with wife and children but live transcendentally for realizing the ultimate truth. The gá¹›hamedhÄ«s, however, are those who live only for the benefit of the family members, extended or centralized, and thus are envious of others. The word medhÄ« indicates jealousy of others. The gá¹›hamedhÄ«s, being interested in family affairs only, are certainly envious of others. Therefore, one gá¹›hamedhÄ« is not on good terms with another gá¹›hamedhÄ«, and in the extended form, one community, society or nation is not on good terms with another counterpart of selfish interest. In the Age of Kali, all the householders are jealous of one another because they are blind to the knowledge of ultimate truth. They have many subject matters for hearing — political, scientific, social, economic and so on — but due to a poor fund of knowledge, they set aside the question of the ultimate miseries of life, namely miseries of birth, death, old age and disease. Factually, the human life is meant for making an ultimate solution to birth, death, old age and disease, but the gá¹›hamedhÄ«s, being illusioned by the material nature, forget everything about self-realization. The ultimate solution to the problems of life is to go back home, back to Godhead, and thus, as stated in the Bhagavad-gÄ«tÄ (8.16), the miseries of material existence — birth, death, old age and disease — are removed.
The process of going back home, back to Godhead, is to hear about the Supreme Lord and His name, form, attributes, pastimes, paraphernalia and variegatedness. Foolish people do not know this. They want to hear something about the name, form, etc., of everything temporary, and they do not know how to utilize this propensity of hearing for the ultimate good. Misguided as they are, they also create some false literatures about the name, form, attributes, etc., of the ultimate truth. One should not, therefore, become a gṛhamedhī simply to exist for envying others; one should become a real householder in terms of the scriptural injunctions.
