Text 9] Prahlāda Instructs His Demoniac Schoolmates
13
TRANSLATION
What person too attached to household life due to being unable to control his senses can liberate himself? An attached householder is bound very strongly by ropes of affection for his family [wife, children and other relatives].
PURPORT
Prahlāda Mahārāja's first proposal was  kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatān iha : "One who is sufficiently intelligent should use the human form of body from the very beginning of life—in other words, from the tender age of childhood—to practice the activities of devotional service, giving up all other engagements."  Dharmān bhāgavatān  means the religious principle of reviving our relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. For this purpose Kṛṣṇa personally advises,  sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja : "Give up all other duties and surrender unto Me." While in the material world we manufacture so many duties in the name of so many isms, but our actual duty is to free ourselves from the cycle of birth, death, old age and disease. For this purpose, one must first be liberated from material bondage, and especially from household life. Household life is actually a kind of license for a materially attached person by which to enjoy sense gratification under regulative principles. Otherwise there is no need of entering household life.
Before entering household life, one should be trained as a  brahmacārī , living under the care of the  guru , whose place is known as the  guru-kula .  Brahmacārī guru-kule vasan dānto guror hitam  ( Bhāg.  7.12.1). From the very beginning, a  brahmacārī  is trained to sacrifice everything for the benefit of the  guru . A  brahmacārī  is advised to go begging alms door to door, addressing all women as mother, and whatever he collects goes to the benefit of the  guru . In this way he learns how to control his senses and sacrifice everything for the  guru . When he is fully trained, if he likes he is allowed to marry. Thus he is not an ordinary  gṛhastha  who has learned only how to satisfy his senses. A trained  gṛhastha  can gradually give up household life and go to the forest to become increasingly enlightened in spiritual life and at last take  sannyāsa . Prahlāda Mahārāja explained to his father that to be freed from all material anxieties one