Texts 3-4]
The Process of Creation
173
death;  vijñāya —being informed;  sannyasya —renouncing;  karma —fruitive activities;  trai-vargikam —three principles of religion, economic development and sense gratification;  ca —also;  yat —what it may be;  vāsudeve —unto Lord Kṛṣṇa;  bhagavati —the Personality of Godhead;  ātma-bhāvam —attraction of love;  dṛḍham —firmly fixed;  gataḥ —achieved.
TRANSLATION
O great sages, the great soul Mahārāja Parīkṣit, constantly rapt in the thought of Lord Kṛṣṇa, knowing well of his imminent death, renounced all sorts of fruitive activities, namely acts of religion, economic development and sense gratification, and thus fixed himself firmly in his natural love for Kṛṣṇa and asked exactly all these questions, as you are asking me.
PURPORT
The three activities of religion, economic development and sense gratification are generally attractive for conditioned souls struggling for existence in the material world. Such regulated activities prescribed in the  Vedas  are called the  karma-kāṇḍīya  conception of life, and householders are generally recommended to follow the rules just to enjoy material prosperity both in this life and in the next. Most people are attracted by such activities. Even in the activities of their modern godless civilization, people are more concerned with economic development and sense gratification without any religious sentiments. As a great emperor of the world, Mahārāja Parīkṣit had to observe such regulations of the Vedic  karma-kāṇḍīya  section, but by the slight association with Śukadeva Gosvāmī he could perfectly understand that Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Personality of Godhead (Vāsudeva), for whom he had a natural love since his birth, is everything, and thus he fixed his mind firmly upon Him, renouncing all modes of Vedic  karma-kāṇḍīya  activities. This perfectional stage is attained by a  jñānī  after many, many births. The  jñānīs , or the empiric philosophers endeavoring for liberation, are thousands of times better than the fruitive workers, and out of hundreds of thousands of such  jñānīs  one is liberated factually. And out of hundreds of thousands of such liberated persons, even one person is rarely found who can firmly fix his mind unto the lotus feet of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, as it is declared by the Lord Himself in the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 7.19). Mahārāja Parīkṣit is specially qualified with the