PLATE FIVE
Prahlāda Mahārāja, the most dear servitor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, once went out touring the universe with some of his confidential associates just to study the nature of saintly persons. Thus he arrived at the bank of the Kāverī, where there was a mountain known as Sahya. There he found a great saintly person who was lying on the ground, covered with dirt and dust, but who was deeply spiritually advanced. Neither by that saintly person's activities, by his bodily features, by his words, nor by the symptoms of his cultural status could people understand whether he was the same person they had known. The great devotee Prahlāda Mahārāja, in order to understand him, inquired why he had ceased taking part in all materialistic activities. The sage explained that material existence is illusory and that real happiness can be achieved by retiring from materialistic activities and absorbing oneself in self-realization. ( pp. 98-137 )