Text 55]
Talks Between Nārada and King Prācīnabarhi
1437
People are generally enamored of the fruitive results of worldly activity and mental speculation. They generally desire to be promoted to heavenly planets, merge into the existence of Brahman, or keep themselves in the midst of family life, enchanted by the pleasures of the tongue and genitals. The great sage Nārada clearly instructs King Barhiṣmān not to remain his entire life in the  grhastha-āśrama . Being in the  grhastha-āśrama  means being under the control of one's wife. One has to give up all this and put himself into the  āśrama  of the  paramahaṁsa , that is, put himself under the control of the spiritual master. The  paramahaṁsa-āśrama  is the  āśrama  of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, under whom the spiritual master has taken shelter. The symptoms of the bona fide spiritual master are stated in  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam :
tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta jijñāsuḥ śreya uttamam śābde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam
“Any person who is seriously desirous of achieving real happiness must seek out a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of a spiritual master is that he must have realized the conclusion of the scriptures by deliberation and arguments and thus be able to convince others of these conclusions. Such great personalities who have taken complete shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, are to be understood as bona fide spiritual masters.” ( Bhāg.  11.3.21)
A  paramahaṁsa  is one who has taken shelter of the Parabrahman, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If one takes shelter of the  paramahaṁsa  spiritual master, gradually, through training and instruction, he will become detached from worldly life and ultimately return home, back to Godhead. The particular mention of  aṅganāśramam asattama-yūtha-gātham  is very interesting. The whole world is in the clutches of  māyā , being controlled by woman. Not only is one controlled by the woman who is one's wife, but one is also controlled by so many sex literatures. That is the cause of one's being entangled in the material world. One cannot give up this abominable association through one's own effort, but if one takes shelter of a bona fide spiritual master who is a  paramahaṁsa , he will gradually be elevated to the platform of spiritual life.
The pleasing words of the  Vedas  that inspire one to elevate oneself to the heavenly planets or merge into the existence of the Supreme are for the