तत्साधु मन्येऽसुरवर्य देहिनां
सदा समुद्विग्नधियामसद्ग्रहात् ।
हित्वात्मपातं गृहमन्धकूपं
वनं गतो यद्धरिमाश्रयेत ॥५॥
Å›rÄ«-prahlÄdaḥ uvÄca - PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja replied; tat - that; sÄdhu - very good, or the best part of life; manye - I think; asura-varya - O King of the asuras; dehinÄm - of persons who have accepted the material body; sadÄ - always; samudvigna - full of anxieties; dhiyÄm - whose intelligence; asat-grahÄt - because of accepting the temporary body or bodily relations as real (thinking 'I am this body, and everything belonging to this body is mine'); hitvÄ - giving up; Ätma-pÄtam - the place where spiritual culture or self-realization is stopped; gá¹›ham - the bodily concept of life, or household life; andha-kÅ«pam - which is nothing but a blind well (where there is no water but one nonetheless searches for water); vanam - to the forest; gataḥ - going; yat - which; harim - the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ÄÅ›rayeta - may take shelter of.
PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja replied: O best of the asuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest [vana]. More clearly, one should go to Vá¹›ndÄvana, where only Kṛṣṇa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
HiraṇyakaÅ›ipu thought that PrahlÄda, being nothing but a small boy with no actual experience, might reply with something pleasing but nothing practical. PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja, however, being an exalted devotee, had acquired all the qualities of education.
yasyÄsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanÄ
sarvair guṇais tatra samÄsate surÄḥ
harÄv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇÄ
manorathenÄsati dhÄvato bahiḥ
“One who has unflinching devotional faith in Kṛṣṇa consistently manifests all the good qualities of Kṛṣṇa and the demigods. However, he who has no devotion to the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no good qualifications because he is engaged by mental concoction in material existence, which is the external feature of the Lord.†(BhÄg. 5.18.12) So-called educated philosophers and scientists who are simply on the mental platform cannot distinguish between what is actually sat, eternal, and what is asat, temporary. The Vedic injunction is asato mÄ jyotir gama: everyone should give up the platform of temporary existence and approach the eternal platform. The soul is eternal, and topics concerning the eternal soul are actually knowledge. Elsewhere it is said, apaÅ›yatÄm Ätma-tattvaá¹ gá¹›heá¹£u gá¹›ha-medhinÄm: those who are attached to the bodily conception of life and who thus stick to life as a gá¹›hastha, or householder, on the platform of material sense enjoyment, cannot see the welfare of the eternal soul. PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja confirmed this by saying that if one wants success in life, he should immediately understand from the right sources what his self-interest is and how he should mold his life in spiritual consciousness. One should understand himself to be part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa and thus completely take shelter of His lotus feet for guaranteed spiritual success. Everyone in the material world is in the bodily conception, struggling hard for existence, life after life. PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja therefore recommended that to stop this material condition of repeated birth and death, one should go to the forest (vana).
In the varṇÄÅ›rama system, one first becomes a brahmacÄrÄ«, then a gá¹›hastha, a vÄnaprastha and finally a sannyÄsÄ«. Going to the forest means accepting vÄnaprastha life, which is between gá¹›hastha life and sannyÄsa. As confirmed in the Viṣṇu PurÄṇa (3.8.9), varṇÄÅ›ramÄcÄravatÄ puruá¹£eṇa paraḥ pumÄn viṣṇur ÄrÄdhyate: by accepting the institution of varṇa and ÄÅ›rama, one can very easily elevate himself to the platform of worshiping Viṣṇu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise, if one remains in the bodily conception, one must rot within this material world, and his life will be a failure. Society must have divisions of brÄhmaṇa, ká¹£atriya, vaiÅ›ya and śūdra, and for spiritual advancement one must gradually develop as a brahmacÄrÄ«, gá¹›hastha, vÄnaprastha and sannyÄsÄ«. PrahlÄda MahÄrÄja recommended that his father accept vÄnaprastha life because as a gá¹›hastha he was becoming increasingly demoniac due to bodily attachment. PrahlÄda recommended to his father that accepting vÄnaprastha life would be better than going deeper and deeper into gá¹›ham andha-kÅ«pam, the blind well of life as a gá¹›hastha. In our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement we therefore invite all the elderly persons of the world to come to Vá¹›ndÄvana and stay there in retired life, making advancement in spiritual consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
