990 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 1, Ch. 19

Pariksit could have gone to the muni to beg his pardon, but the news of
imminent death was conveyed to the King with so much regret by the
muni that the King did not want to shame the muni further by his presence
there. He decided to prepare himself for his imminent death and find out
the way to go back to Godhead.

The life of a human being is a chance to prepare himself to go back to
Godhead, or to get rid of the material existence, the repetition of birth
and death. Thus in the system of varndsrama-dharma every man and woman
is trained up for this purpose. In other words, the system of varpasrama-
dharma is known also as sandtana-dharma, or eternal occupation. The
system of varnasrama-dharma prepares a man for going back to Godhead,
and thus a householder is ordered to go to the forest as vanaprastha to
acquire complete knowledge and then to take sannydsa prior to his
inevitable death. Pariksit Maharaja was fortunate to get a seven-day notice
to meet his inevitable death. But for the common man there is no definite
notice, although death is inevitable for all. Foolish men forget this sure
fact of death and neglect the duty of preparing themselves for going back
to Godhead. They spoil their lives in animal propensities to eat, drink, be
merry and enjoy. Such an irresponsible life is adopted by the people in the
age of Kali because of a sinful desire to condemn brahminical culture, God
consciousness and cow protection, for which the state is responsible. The
state must employ revenue to advance these three items and thus educate
the populace to prepare for death. The state which does so is the real wel-
fare state. The state of India should better follow the examples of Maharaja
Pariksit, the ideal executive head, than to imitate other materialistic states
which have no idea of the kingdom of Godhead, the ultimate goal of human
life. Deterioration of the ideals of Indian civilization has brought about the
deterioration of civic life, not only in India but also abroad.

TEXT 5

aa fed a oe
frafiat Far gen |
HUTS AAT TATA
TUT Way 4 I

atho vihayemam amum ca lokam
vimarsitau heyataya purastat

krsnanghri-sevam adhimanyamana
upavisat prayam amartya-nadyam
