Text 41] The Renunciation of Kardama Muni 993
daksini-krtya tam prito
vanam eva jagama ha

maitreyah uvaca—the great sage Maitreya said; evam—thus; samuditah—
addressed; tena—by Him; kapilena—by Kapila; praja-patih—the progenitor
of human society; daksini-krtya—having circumambulated; tam—Him;
pritah—being pacified; vanam—to the forest; eva—indeed; jagdama—he left;
ha—then.

TRANSLATION

Sti Maitreya said: Thus when Kardama Muni, the progenitor of human
society, was spoken to in fullness by his son, Kapila, he circumambulated
Him, and with a good, pacified mind he at once left for the forest.

PURPORT

Going to the forest is compulsory for everyone. It is not a mental excur-
sion upon which one person goes and another does not. Everyone should go
to the forest at least as a vanaprastha. Forest-going means to take one hun-
dred percent shelter of the Supreme Lord, as explained by Prahlada Maharaja
in his talks with his father (Bhdg. 7.5.5). Sadd samudvigna-dhiyam. People
who have accepted a temporary material body are always full of anxieties.
One should not, therefore, be very much affected by this material body, but
should try to be freed. The preliminary process to become freed is to go to
the forest or give up family relationships and exclusively engage in Krsna
consciousness. That is the purpose of going to the forest. Otherwise, the
forest is only a place of monkeys and wild animals. To go to the forest
does not mean to become a monkey or a ferocious animal. It means to
accept exclusively the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and
engage oneself in full service. One does not actually have to go to the forest.
At the present moment this is not at all advisable for a man who has spent
his life all along in big cities. As explained by Prahlada Maharaja (hitvdtma-
patam grham andha-kiipam), one should not remain always engaged in the
responsibilities of family life because family life without Krsna conscious-
ness is just like a blind well. Alone in a field, if one falls into a blind well
and no one is there to save him, he may cry for years, and no one will see
or hear where the crying is coming from. Death is sure. Similarly, those
who are forgetful of their eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord are
in the blind well of family life; their position is very ominous. Prahlada
Maharaja advised that one should give up this well somehow or other and
take to Krsna consciousness and thus be freed from material entanglement,
which is full of anxieties.
