Text 9]
Description of Adverse Fruitive Activities
1289
living is to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One is therefore advised to become a  gṛhastha  and not a  gṛhamedhī . The  gṛhastha 's concern is to get out of the family life created by illusion and enter into real family life with Kṛṣṇa, whereas the  gṛhamedhī 's business is to repeatedly chain himself to so-called family life, in one life after another, and perpetually remain in the darkness of  māyā .
TEXT 9
गृहेषु कूटभर्मेषु दुःखतन्त्रेष्वतन्द्रितः । कुर्वन्दुःखप्रतीकारं सुखवन्मन्यते गृही ॥ ९ ॥
gṛheṣu kūṭa-dharmeṣu   duḥkha-tantreṣu atandritaḥ   kurvan duḥkha-pratīkāram   sukhavan manyate gṛhī
gṛheṣu —in family life;  kūṭa-dharmeṣu —involving the practice of falsehood;  duḥkha-tantreṣu —spreading miseries;  atandritaḥ —attentive;  kurvan —doing;  duḥkha-pratīkāram —counteraction of miseries;  sukha-vat —as happiness;  manyate —thinks;  gṛhī —the householder.
TRANSLATION
The attached householder remains in his family life, which is full of diplomacy and politics. Always spreading miseries and controlled by acts of sense gratification, he acts just to counteract the reactions of all his miseries, and if he can successfully counteract such miseries, he thinks that he is happy.
PURPORT
In  Bhagavad-gītā  the Personality of Godhead Himself certifies the material world as an impermanent place that is full of miseries. There is no question of happiness in this material world, either individually or in terms of family, society or country. If something is going on in the name of happiness, that is also illusion. Here in this material world, happiness means successful counteraction to the effects of distress. The material world is so made that unless one becomes a clever diplomat, his life will be a failure. Not to speak of human society, even the society of lower animals, the birds and bees, cleverly manages its bodily demands of eating, sleeping