Text 20] Pregnancy of Diti in the Evening 545
TEXT 20
TMIBRARTIRA ETT: |
wt saa Ranfticegeetafetan nol!
yam asrityendriyaratin
durjayan itarasramaih
vayam jayema helabhir
dasyun durga-patir yatha
yam— whom; asritya—taking shelter of; indriya—senses; aratin—enemies;
durjayan—difficult to conquer; itara—other than the householders; asra-
maih—by orders of society; vayam—we; jayema—can conquer; helabhih—
easily; dasyiin—invading plunderers; durga-patih—a fort commander;
yatha—as.
TRANSLATION
As a fort commander very easily conquers invading plunderers, by taking
shelter of a wife, one can conquer the senses, which are unconquerable in
the other social orders.
PURPORT
Of the four orders of human society—the student or brahmacari order,
the householder or grhastha order, the retired or vanaprastha order, and
the renounced or sannyasi order—the householder is on the safe side. The
bodily senses are considered plunderers of the fort of the body. The wife
is supposed to be the commander of the fort, and therefore whenever there
is an attack on the body by the senses, it is the wife who protects the body
from being smashed. The sex demand is inevitable for everyone, but one
who has a fixed wife is saved from the onslaught of the sense enemies. A
man who possesses a good wife does not create disturbance in society by
corrupting virgin girls. Without a fixed wife a man becomes a debauchee of
the first order and is a nuisance in society—unless he is a trained brahma-
cari, vanaprastha or sannydsi. Unless there is rigid and systematic training
of the brahmacari by the expert spiritual master and unless the student is
obedient, it is sure that the so-called brahmacari will fall prey to the
attack of sex. There are so many instances of falldown, even for great
yogis like Visvamitra. A grhastha is saved, however, because of his faithful
wife. Sex life is the cause of material bondage, and therefore it is prohibited
in three aframas and is allowed only in the grhastha-asrama. The grhastha
is responsible for producing first-quality brahmacaris, vanaprasthas and
sannyasis.
