Text 5]
Ideal Family Life
147
virakto raktavat tatra nṛ-loke naratāṁ nyaset
yāvat-artham —as much endeavor for one's livelihood as necessary;  upāsīnaḥ —earning;  dehe —in the body;  gehe —in family matters;  ca —also;  paṇḍitaḥ —one who is learned;  viraktaḥ —not at all attached;  rakta-vat —as if very much attached;  tatra —in this;  nṛ-loke —human society;  naratām —the human form of life;  nyaset —one should depict.
TRANSLATION
While working to earn his livelihood as much as necessary to maintain body and soul together, one who is actually learned should live in human society unattached to family affairs, although externally appearing very much attached.
PURPORT
This is the picture of ideal family life. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked Rāmānanda Rāya about the goal of life, Rāmānanda Rāya described it in different ways, according to the recommendations of the revealed scriptures, and finally Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya explained that one may stay in his own position, whether as a  brāhmaṇa , a  śūdra , a  sannyāsī  or whatever, but one must try to inquire about life's  gaal  ( athāto brahma-jījñāsā ). This is the proper utilization of the human form of life. When one misuses the gift of the human form by unnecessarily indulging in the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending and does not try to get out of the clutches of  māyā , which subjects one to repeated birth, death, old age and disease, one is again punished by being forced to descend to the lower species and undergo evolution according to the laws of nature.  Prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ . Being completely under the grip of material nature, the living entity must evolve again from the lower species to the higher species until he at last returns to human life and gets the chance to be freed from the material clutches. A wise man, however, learns from the  śāstras  and  guru  that we living entities are all eternal but are put into troublesome conditions because of associating with different modes under the laws of material nature. He therefore concludes that in the human form of life he