Texts 3-4] The Process of Creation 175

Srila Madhavendra Puri said further:

mugdham mam nigadantu niti-nipund bhrantam muhur vaidikah
mandam bandhava-saiicaya jada-dhiyam muktadarah sodarah

unmattam dhanino viveka-caturah kamam maha-dambhikam
moktum na ksdmate manag api mano govinda-pada-sprham.

“Let the sharp moralist accuse me of being illusioned; 1 do not mind il.
Experts in Vedic activities may slander me as being misled, friends and
relatives may call me frustrated, my brothers may call me a fool, the
wealthy mammoniles may point me out as mad, and the learned philoso-
phers may assert that | am much too proud; still my mind does not budge
an inch from the determination of serving the lotus feet of Govinda,
though I be unable to do it.”
And also Prahlada Maharaja said:

dharmartha-kama iti yo’bhihitas trivarga
iksd trayi naya-damau vividhd ca varta.

manye tad etad akhilam nigamasya satyam
svatmarpanam svasuhrdah paramasya pumsah.

“Religion, economic development and sense gratification are celebrated
as three means of attaining the path of salvation. Of these, iksd trayi
especially, i.e., knowledge of the self, knowledge of fruitive acts and
logic and also politics and economics, are different means of livelihood. All
these are different subjects of Vedic education, and therefore | consider
them temporary engagements. On the other hand, surrendering unto the
Supreme Lord Visnu is a factual gain in life, and I consider it the ultimate
truth.”

The whole matter is concluded in the Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 2.41) as
vyavasdyatmika buddhih, or the absolute path of perfection. Sri Baladeva
Vidyabhiisana, a great Vaisnava scholar, defines this as bhagavad-arcana-
ripaika-niskama-karmabhir visuddha-cittah, accepting transcendentalloving
service of the Lord as the prime duty, free from fruitive reaction.

So Maharaja Pariksit was perfectly right when he accepted firmly the
lotus feet of Lord Krsna, renouncing all karma-kandiya conceptions of
life.
