990
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 19]
Parīkṣit could have gone to the  muni  to beg his pardon, but the news of imminent death was conveyed to the King with so much regret by the  muni  that the King did not want to shame the  muni  further by his presence there. He decided to prepare himself for his imminent death and find out the way to go back to Godhead.
The life of a human being is a chance to prepare himself to go back to Godhead, or to get rid of the material existence, the repetition of birth and death. Thus in the system of  varṇāśrama-dharma  every man and woman is trained up for this purpose. In other words, the system of  varṇāśrama-dharma  is known also as  sanātana-dharma , or eternal occupation. The system of  varṇāśrama-dharma  prepares a man for going back to Godhead, and thus a householder is ordered to go to the forest as  vānaprastha  to acquire complete knowledge and then to take  sannyāsa  prior to his inevitable death. Parīkṣit Mahārāja was fortunate to get a seven-day notice to meet his inevitable death. But for the common man there is no definite notice, although death is inevitable for all. Foolish men forget this sure fact of death and neglect the duty of preparing themselves for going back to Godhead. They spoil their lives in animal propensities to eat, drink, be merry and enjoy. Such an irresponsible life is adopted by the people in the age of Kali because of a sinful desire to condemn brahminical culture, God consciousness and cow protection, for which the state is responsible. The state must employ revenue to advance these three items and thus educate the populace to prepare for death. The state which does so is the real welfare state. The state of India should better follow the examples of Mahārāja Parīkṣit, the ideal executive head, than to imitate other materialistic states which have no idea of the kingdom of Godhead, the ultimate goal of human life. Deterioration of the ideals of Indian civilization has brought about the deterioration of civic life, not only in India but also abroad.
TEXT 5
अथो विहायेममप्तुं च लोकं
विमर्शितौ हेयतया पुरस्तात् ।
कृष्णाङ्घ्रिसेवामधिमन्यमान
उपाविशत् प्रायममर्त्यनद्याम् ॥ ५ ॥
atho vihāyemam amum ca lokam
vimarśitau heyatayā purastāt
kṛṣṇāṅghri-sevām adhimanyamāna
upāviśat prāyam amartya-nadyām