Text 25] The History of the Life of Ajamila 39

tasya—of him (Ajamila); pravayasah—who was very old; putrah—
sons; dasa—ten; tesam—of all of them; tu—but; yah—the one who;
avamah—the youngest; bdlah—child; ndaérdéyanah—Narayana;
namnd—by name; pitroh—of the father and mother; ca—and;
dayitah—dear; bhrsam—very.

TRANSLATION

That old man Ajamila had ten sons, of whom the youngest was a
baby named Narayana. Since Narayana was the youngest of all the
sons, he was naturally very dear to both his father and his mother.

PURPORT

The word pravayasah indicates Ajamila’s sinfulness because although
he was eighty-eight years old, he had a very young child. According to
Vedic culture, one should leave home as soon as he has reached fifty
years of age; one should not live at home and go on producing children.
Sex life is allowed for twenty-five years, between the ages of twenty-five
and forty-five or, at the most, fifty. After that one should give up the
habit of sex life and leave home as a vdnaprastha and then properly take
sannydsa. Ajamila, however, because of his association with a prostitute,
lost all brahminical culture and became most sinful, even in his so-called

household life.

TEXT 25

a ages  aefitir |
framagiat gas At PAT Rl

sa baddha-hrdayas tasminn
arbhake kala-bhasini

niriksamanas tal-lilam
mumude jaratho bhrsam

sah—he; baddha-hrdayah—being very attached; tasmin—to that;
arbhake—small child; kala-bhdsini—who could not talk clearly but

talked in broken language; niriksamanah—seeing; tat—his; lilam—
